Prospecting
What do these words have in common?
- Dating
- Cold Calling
- Interview
The success of all three is directly tied to the message you deliver in the first 30 seconds of your conversation. You could be the best looking, have the superior product and be the most qualified, but if your message is weak none of those things will matter.
When it comes to a sales professional, fear or lack of confidence in what to say results in cold call reluctance at worse or very poor results at best. In a world full of information getting someone’s attention, creating interest and moving them to action has never been more difficult.
Imagine this all too familiar scenario. A new sales representative for a sales training company has just been given a list of prospects to call. The challenge is to call and get the VP of Sales to agree to meet to talk about all the wonderful things sales training will do for the prospect. Does this conversation sound familiar?
“Hello, this is Richard Seller calling from Top Sales Training Inc. I’m the new sales rep in the area and was wondering if we could meet for 30 minutes to allow me to introduce myself and tell you all the wonderful reasons why we should do business together.”
Granted, it may not be that bad, but the mistakes made usually fall into these three areas.
- The message is not about the prospect, it’s all about the sales rep or company.
- The message sounds just like what everyone else is saying, nothing unique or interesting.
- The message contains no compelling reason to take action.
So imagine if the above conversation sounded more like this,
“Hello, this is Richard Seller calling from Top Sales Training Inc. These numbers tell a challenging story for sales professionals. 9, 19, 53. A recent survey of over 1000 executives showed that when it came to making a buying decision for their company 9% based their decision primarily on price, 19% on product or brand and 53% on field interaction or the words coming out of the sales professionals mouth. What this means is that you can have the best price and product but still lose over 50% to competition if the message coming out of your reps mouth is weak. So what if you could have every one of your reps deliver sales messages and conversations that were simple, unique and memorable? That’s why companies like yours are working with Top Sales Training Inc. As a matter of fact, we recently finished an engagement with XYZ HR Services company where they were able to close 119 deals that had been previously marked dead or no decision within 90 days of implementing our training. When would be a good time for us to meet next week?”
A successful message uses third party information to introduce a threat to their business, positions the value of Top Sales Training Inc in a way that is clear on how they can overcome that threat and provides proof by giving a quick testimonial. What would that message sound like for you or your team?
Email or give me a call and I’ll walk you through the creation of a simple, unique and memorable cold calling message that can be delivered with confidence and drive new business.