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Use Voicemail to Your Advantage in Prospecting
Posted by: In: Sales Coaching, Sales Executives, Sales Managers, Sales Training, Salespeople, Uncategorized 26 Oct 2023 0 comments Tags: , , , , , , , ,
VoicemailWhen prospecting, don’t miss an opportunity to use voicemail to deliver your value message.

Are you frustrated constantly by trying to connect to buyers when prospecting and getting their voicemail? I hear this complaint from many of our clients.

Times have changed. In the early 90’s before voicemail was ubiquitous, studies showed that one business person attempting to contact another business person would get through 22% of the time. Sounds low doesn’t it? But it gets worse. Spurred on by the pandemic, the work-from-home trend makes getting people at their desk next to impossible and today’s stats are more like 10% or even less. That means that 9 out of 10 times, you’re going to get voicemail when doing cold prospecting.

What I find crazy is how many salespeople don’t leave a voicemail when they’re calling a buyer.  By not leaving a message, they are missing a great opportunity!

Instead of looking at this marvel of communication engineering as being your enemy, it can be your friend – at least in the short term. Before you say I’ve lost my selling marbles, let me explain. How many of you can convey a compelling description of your product’s benefits and features in 30 words or less?  Some of you may be able but wouldn’t it be nice if you had a full minute? Of course it would.  A good prospecting voicemail can do just that for you.

There’s a big difference between getting a prospect on the phone right off the bat and being able to leave a voicemail message first.   I far prefer to leave a carefully crafted, practiced, voicemail message as my first voice contact with a prospective customer. You can’t get cut off, you can build some “personality” and trust and with many systems, you also have the added benefit of erasing it and doing it again if you screw up. Be careful to leave the message as best you possibly can and finish before trying to erase it though in case you can’t!

Just like in advertising, multiple impressions are often required before a message registers with someone.  Each time your buyer hears what’s possibly “in it for him” to have a conversation with you, it helps strengthen your case.

Obviously you eventually want to connect in real time with the prospect and there are specific techniques to drastically increase your chances when the time is right but that will have to wait for a future post.

Using voicemail to your advantage is part of Northbound’s “Connecting to the Big Cheese” workshop.  To arrange a complimentary condensed version of the workshop for your team, contact Michael Caron @ [email protected] or 416.456.1440.

Goal Aligned™ Selling Winter Program Starts November 15!
Posted by: In: Sales Coaching, Sales Executives, Sales Managers, Sales Training, Salespeople, Training 04 Oct 2023 0 comments Tags: , , , , , , ,

Our live instructor-led online program, Goal Aligned™ Selling, will give you the skills & strategies to close more sales. 

Last fall, we launched our Goal Aligned™ Selling program for individual salespeople and the feedback was fantastic!

If you’re a sales manager, this is a perfect way to develop solid foundational selling skills for a select few members of your team!

B2B selling is evolving and is more challenging than ever and you’ll need to equip yourself with sharper selling skills to capitalize on every sales opportunity. Our 8 module Goal Aligned™ Selling program equips you with the essential skills, strategies & tools that will not only help you exceed your target this year, but also set you up for greater sales success for years down the road.  

You will be part of a small cohort of like-minded sales professionals and be taken through a carefully honed module each week.

When? 8 weekly 2-hour Zoom sessions lead by our Founder & President, Michael Caron

What’s included? Includes PDF workbooks, field exercises & customizable templates, 90-day email reinforcement, networking with fellow participants

What’s the cost? $1,395

200% Guarantee Your fee is totally refundable if you’re not completely convinced that Northbound’s program has given you skills and strategies to at least double your investment in the first year!

Recordings All sessions will be recorded for exclusive access for 60 days after

Nov 15 – Bulls Eye!: How to set and reach your goals
Nov 22 – Goal Aligned™ Time:Manage your most precious resource
Nov 29 – Selling to Different Buyer Types:Learn how to adjust your selling style for all types of buyers
Dec 6 – Connecting to the Big Cheese:Connect to high level prospects and book meetings with them
Dec 13 – Questions Are the Answer:Learn how to create and deliver the most powerful tool in your toolbox
Jan 3 – Goal Aligned™ Sales Interviews:Uncover your buyer’s needs in face-to-face or virtual selling situations
Jan 10 – Goal Aligned™ Sales Presentations:Deliverpowerful presentations that will close the sale
Jan 17 – Handling Objections:Learn how to deal with price and many other common objections that get in the way of making the sale.

To reserve a spot or for more information, contact Michael at [email protected].

The Kids Are Back At School. Are You Ready to Learn Too?
Posted by: In: Sales Coaching, Sales Executives, Sales Managers, Sales Training, Salespeople, Training 07 Sep 2023 0 comments Tags: , , , , , , ,

We’ve all spent a big chunk of our life in formal learning environments, most commonly called schools! Over the course of a decade or two, we acquired a tremendous amount of knowledge — some of it useful, most of it not. Unfortunately, once we enter the working era of our life, our rate of knowledge acquisition falls off. This makes sense in that we are now expected to use this knowledge. But the really successful people in all walks of life never stop learning.

In training thousands of salespeople over the years, I’ve clearly seen that top performers are actually more open to learning new skills than average performers. How ironic!

There are 5 phases to learning. Take a look at the list and ask yourself, “What can I do to apply all 5 phases to a new selling skill?”

The Five Phases of Learning

Phase 1 — Commit to learn

  • The learner must be motivated to learn and to change his or her

behaviour. During the central training experience, learning activities and media illustrate

how new skills, knowledge, and attitudes help learners address job-related issues and

achieve job-related goals. This phase succeeds when learners open themselves to new

possibilities and resolve to master and apply essential interpersonal skills.

Phase 2 — Assess current performance.

  • A carefully crafted survey helps learners measure current

levels of knowledge and application of a key interpersonal skill. Recognizing their

own performance gaps further motivates learners and helps them focus effort in areas

for improvement. Post-training assessments measure recollection of training content

and skill use in the workplace.

Phase 3 — Acquire knowledge. 

  • Learners encounter the cognitive details of a distinct interpersonal

skill through presentation, reading, discussion, observation and analysis of realistic

examples, simulations, and other activities. Typical content includes environmental

cues that prompt skill use; a sequence of behavioural steps; relevant terms; examples of

use and absence of use; and tips, tactics, and pitfalls for each step.

Phase 4 — Develop competence through practice. 

  • The training of interpersonal skills requires

rehearsing with humans—the intended audience for the new skills—in order to achieve

competency. This real-time practice with another human being, whether face-to-face,

voice-to-voice or online, is essential to soft-skill mastery. In a safe setting, learners

rehearse the skill, receive constructive feedback, observe others using the skill and

offer constructive feedback. The goal of this is to develop baseline competence and

build confidence.

Phase 5 — Apply new learning. 

  • Integrating new skills into job interactions requires commitment.

A range of activities—discussions, testimonials, printable online planners, and others—

give learners the clarity and resolve to apply their knowledge and skills. Managers

of trainees can also reinforce and sustain skill application through coaching, recognition

of skill use and modelling the skills. 

When Should You Give Up When Prospecting?
Posted by: In: Sales Coaching, Sales Executives, Sales Managers, Sales Training, Salespeople, Uncategorized 14 Jun 2023 0 comments Tags: , , , ,

originalIs there a magic number of attempts before calling it quits?

I’m bombarded with this question when I’m delivering a prospecting workshop.  I usually pass it back to the group to sound in before I give my explanation.  “Never” is often tossed out as is any number between 1 and 10!  Like many sales methodologies, the correct answer, although it seems evasive, is “it depends.”

Recent research reveals some statistics that can help us.  A study by M.I.T. found that it takes on average 7 telephone contact attempts for a salesperson to get through to a prospective customer.  This has shot up from 4 in the 90’s.  Of course pre-internet, the phone was the primary method of reaching out with your message when prospecting.  With remote work, email, texting and people putting their phones on voicemail virtually all the time, it’s much harder to get through to a live person these days.

So how many voicemails and/or emails should you leave before moving on to greener pastures?  Some of the factors to consider when deciding on a reasonable number are:

1) How potentially lucrative is this prospect?  Is it a whale or a minnow?  Whales are worth a lot more effort.

2) What types of prospecting touches have you used in addition to phone?  Regular mail, email, LinkedIn InMail and even faxes are often very effective when used in conjunction with phone calls.  I don’t recommend using text when prospecting.  Most people find it very intrusive coming from strangers.

3) Has the prospect given you any clues as to their level of interest?  If you have something that shows interest, it makes sense to keep going.

4) How high up in the organization is the prospect?  Generally, the higher the position the more tenacity will be required to connect with them.

In general, I suggest you leave a minimum of 5 voicemails over a period 3 weeks and combine this with at least 2 other types of contact attempts before you give up on the prospect . . . for now.  Park it for 3 to 6 months and then go back to it.

Don’t make the mistake of many salespeople who wrongly assume that if the prospect doesn’t get back to them after a couple of attempts that “I guess their not interested.”  It doesn’t mean that at all.  People are busy and returning a sales call is a B-52 priority for most people.  It doesn’t mean that they have no interest at all.  It most often just means that they aren’t going to put it at the top of their to-do list.  Case in point – since starting Northbound, the company has made approximately 15,000 prospecting calls, 10,000 emails and delivered 1,500 regular mail packages.  We have actually spoken to approximately 2,500 of these prospects.  How many have told us something to the effect of “If I were interested, I would have called you back?”  A grand total of TWO!

Invariably, what we hear is something like this: “I’m so sorry I haven’t called you back.  We’ve just been crazy around here.”  They apologize most of the time!

While it’s crazy to never give up, I bet you’re stopping far too early when prospecting.  Don’t be scared to crank that number up and you’ll be rewarded by much higher contact ratios.

For more strategies on prospecting, check out our workshop, Connecting to the Big Cheese.

Looking for a high R.O.I.? How about 400% from time management?
Posted by: In: Sales Coaching, Sales Executives, Sales Managers, Sales Training, Salespeople, Uncategorized 18 May 2023 0 comments Tags: , , , ,
how-to-time-managementThese days, anything with a big positive return on investment sounds too good to be true. We’re not talking about financial investments per se here but rather something just as valuable—your time management.  And more accurately, we should say R.O.T.I. which means Return On Time Invested.
Specifically, the investment is the fifteen minutes that you can use at the end of your day to plan your next day. Simply by taking those few minutes and following a few simple steps, you will very likely experience a minimum of one hour of increased productivity the very next day!
Here are some basics to follow:
  • Review your list of tasks and mark which ones got done and which are still outstanding.
  • Note your accomplishments—important for motivation. List your outstanding tasks and any new ones you’d like to get done in your next day’s to-do list.  In CRM’s or calendar apps, these are often called “task lists.”  If you don’t know where the task list is or how to use it, take a few minutes to learn.  A calendar for your appointments is not enough.
  • Prioritize the tasks as As (need to get done tomorrow) or Bs (important but don’t absolutely have to be done by the end of the day tomorrow).
  • Put appointments/meetings in the time slots.
  • Work on one task at a time until you’re done (easier said than done we know) before moving onto the next. Multitasking seems to be a good idea but the lack of focus that comes with it causes ineffectiveness.  Recent research shows that it can actually lower your I.Q. too!
  • Mark off your tasks as you get them done, allowing time for interruptions and unplanned activities.

An added benefit is reducing your stress.  Often, as sales professionals, we feel overwhelmed by the tsunami of things we need (or want!) to get done.  Let’s face it, a salesperson’s job is never “done.”  We could always make more calls or engage in something that will help us grow revenue.  That’s a big reason why getting stuff out of your head and onto the plan for the next day makes so much sense.  Not only will you feel more in control, but it’ll prevent you from waking up in the middle of the night going through your checklist of things to be done.

Does “Like-Ability” Lead to More Sales?
Posted by: In: Sales Coaching, Sales Executives, Sales Managers, Sales Training, Salespeople, Training 11 May 2023 0 comments Tags: , , , , ,

attraction-marketingIf your customer likes you, will it lead to more sales?

 

The link between “Like-Ability” — being liked by your customer — and increases in sales, is a hotly debated topic at live workshops that I lead.  Some of the comments that I typically hear are:

 

“Selling is all about relationships.  My customer has to like me to buy from me!”

 

“I’m in a competitive business.  The fact that a customer likes me more than the competitor’s rep is what sets us apart.”

 

Applying Economics 101 to the issue, the question becomes, “What is the correlation between the amount the customer likes the sales rep and their inclination to buy from that rep?”

 

I try to base the strategies at Northbound Sales on research and not just anecdotal evidence but the research on this topic is pretty light.  Some experts claim that being liked by your customer is akin to gaining admission to a club.  That is, if the customer likes you, you’ll gain the privilege of being considered but if they don’t like you, you won’t even be considered.  This makes sense to me.

 

Neil Rackham, the father of the consultative selling approach, found in his research that led to the SPIN Selling revolution that the relationship between being liked and increased sales was weak.  Although there was a very slight correlation in general, it was limited to rural areas.  Just as most people would guess, it is true that customers in smaller communities will choose to buy more often from a salesperson they like.  In dense urban areas, his immense research found that although customers might “like” one company’s rep more, they were more likely to buy from the rep who provided the most compelling solution to their problems.

 

Bottom line is that if you can’t find your customer’s problems and link them to your unique solutions, they can like you more than any salesperson they’ve ever met, but it won’t close the sale for you.  What I find in working with people in the field is that they spend too much time on pleasantries and small talk at the expense of solving the customer’s problems.

 

I’m reminded of my ride-alongs with Jim, a rep for a national supplier to furniture manufacturers.  When I do ride-alongs, I track how much time is spent on the different steps of the sales call.  In Jim’s case, when he learned that his customer built cabinetry for 2 large national chicken specialty restaurants, the conversation shifted to an open discussion on which restaurant had the best chicken!  Out of a 43 minute sales call, how much time was spent on sharing how the new product might help the customer?  6 minutes.  How much time was spent debating chicken? 22 minutes!  When we got back into Jim’s car, I couldn’t help but question him.  “Jim, where were you going with all the talk about chicken?” to which he replied, “Mike, my customers buy from our company because they like me.  If they want to talk chicken, I talk chicken.”  I’d be very interested to ask the customer if they agree!

 

My biggest advice for you is this:  Yes, try to ensure the customer likes you but don’t think for a New York minute that this is a substitute for deep skills in finding your customer’s problems and helping them fix them.  Work on your “Goal Aligned Selling™” selling skills rather than talking about chicken.

 

To learn more about our “Goal Aligned Selling™” program or to arrange a complimentary workshop for your sales team, contact me at [email protected].

 

Happy Selling,

 

Michael

 

Why Trial Closes Are Overrated
Posted by: In: Sales Executives, Sales Managers, Sales Training, Salespeople, Uncategorized 04 May 2023 0 comments Tags: , , , , , ,

trial_closesTrial closes are important, but not as much as you might think.

Trial closes get a lot of coverage in sales literature as do closing techniques in general.  I believe they get far too much exposure.  The way many so called sales experts drone on about them, you’d think they were one of the biggest secrets to selling.  They aren’t.  The oft quoted acronym “The ABC’s of sales – Always Be Closing” is just plain wrong.

Let’s start with a couple of definitions.

Closing question = Any question that when answered in the affirmative, means that the customer has bought.  

An example of a closing question is, “Well, it sounds like there’s a good fit with what you’re looking for.  Shall we place the order?”

A trial close differs from a closing question in that there is a condition attached to it.

Trial close = A question that confirms the buyer’s interest in purchasing if certain conditions are met.

An example of a trial close would be, “If we could solve the problems we spoke of in a cost effective way, do you think we could do some business together?”  A trial close is like testing the water before you jump in.  It’s a way to gauge interest without asking the buyer for a full commitment.

How they help:

Trial closes are very powerful in helping understand where a buyer is in the decision making process.  You can more easily determine their level of seriousness in solving their problems with either your solution or your competitor’s.

They are also very helpful in fleshing out what obstacles might stand in the way of making the sale.  Often, the buyer will share what concerns they have or what things are most important to them.

What they won’t do:

A trial close will not save bad selling skill up to that point in the sale!  Too many times, salespeople fail to uncover problems with the buyer, fail to help the buyer understand the full negative implications of these problems and finally fail to convey in a compelling & ironclad manner how their solution will help.  And after failing on all fronts, these salespeople, because they’ve read to “ask for the order at least 3 times” go ahead and do a series of trial closes followed by repeated asking for the order.

If the customer isn’t convinced that a) they have a problem that urgently needs to be solved and b) you’re the best way to solve it, you can ask for the order until you’re blue in the face but it’s not going to help.  In fact, research shows that in large transactions, asking for the order more than once actually reduces your chances of closing.  This is when customers may openly show signs of frustration.

On the other hand, if you are skilled and have helped the customer understand why their problem is big enough to warrant solving now and have proved to them that you are going to solve it, a trial close will be low pressure, reasonable and natural.

I’m going to share a story of poor selling technique and how it can lead to disaster.  After dinner tonight, I got a call from the major bank that has the mortgage on our vacation property.  Naturally, when I saw the name pop up on call display, I answered it thinking that it must be important.

Here’s what I heard,

Salesperson: “Hi Mr. Caron.  It’s Keith calling from ABC Bank (name changed to protect the guilty) and I wanted to let you know about a special offer for selected mortgage customers.  Do you have a few minutes?”

Me: “I’ve got 2 minutes Keith.  Can you explain it to me in that time?”

Salesperson: “Sure.  Your mortgage is up for renewal at the end of July and I was wondering if you’d like to get a lower interest rate by choosing a longer term than you have now.” (trial close)

Me:  “Keith.  I’m looking at my calendar and it says March 3rd.  Why would I want to decide on that right now if it’s not due until the middle of the summer?” This objection came up because Keith failed to find the problem with leaving the decision until later.

Salesperson: “Well, nobody can predict where interest rates are going to go and it would give you greater certainty.”

Me: “Possibly but why would I want to make that decision now instead of leaving it until the summer.  Is that the only benefit?”  (I had to repeat my question)

Salesperson: “No.  It could also save you point one five percent interest.”

Me: “That doesn’t sound like much.” I’m getting frustrated at this point because I don’t see any meaningful problem that is being solved for me.

Salesperson: “It might not sound like much to you or I but a lot of people would disagree with us.”

Me: “Can you work out how much that would save me in dollars?”

Salesperson: “Sure.  Just give me a moment.”  I hear clicking sounds.  “Eight dollars per month.”

Me (chuckling): “Keith, for thirty two dollars, I don’t think it’s worth the time and hassle.” My frustration is turning to annoyance at this point.

Salesperson (chuckling along with me): “I understand Mr. Caron.  Have a good night.”

This is a beautiful example of trial closes and unconvincing objection handling being used in lieu of strong selling technique.

My advice is to worry less about closing and instead, focus on sharpening your problem finding skills through the use of well designed questions.  Follow that up with practice of connecting your product’s features and benefits to the solving of these problems.  Once you master these techniques, trial closes and full closes will be easy and natural and the best news is, they will be met with a “yes!”

Northbound’s Goal Aligned™ Selling program helps you understand your customer better and fit your solution to them.  To arrange a complimentary live workshop for your team, contact Michael Caron at [email protected] or 416.456.1440.

How to Use “I’m giving up!” in Prospecting
Posted by: In: Sales Coaching, Sales Executives, Sales Managers, Sales Training, Salespeople, Training, Uncategorized 13 Apr 2023 0 comments Tags: , ,

giving upBeing honest with your prospect that you’re giving up actually helps increase call-backs. 

 

Salespeople generally give up far too early when attempting to contact a customer in the prospecting phase.  But to make things worse, they don’t even let the prospect know that they are giving up.  This is a mistake.

 

After you’ve made several attempts to connect to a prospect through different means such as voicemail and email, sending a “final approach” message can be very effective in prompting a response.

 

 

Tell them this is your last message.

 

Your voicemail might sound something like this:

“Hi John.  As you know, I’ve left several messages for you over the last few weeks and haven’t been able to connect.  It’s hard for me to tell whether that’s because you’re just crazy busy or that you’re maybe not interested in learning how we might be able to BENEFIT and BENEFIT you.  Either way, I don’t want to become voicemail spam so I’m going to give up for now.  If you think it would make sense for us to talk, I’m at 416.555.1212.  Thanks.”

 

Sound harsh?  Yes, it is direct but it’s the absolute truth and the feedback we receive from our clients is that it has produced callbacks from prospects that salespeople were convinced they would never hear back from.  Let’s face it – you weren’t having any luck up to this point so what do you have to lose?

 

Do we know exactly why this technique works so well?  Not exactly.  We don’t know whether it creates a sense of responsibility from the prospect and makes them think, “Gee, I really should at least get back to this person.” or that it maybe forces prospects to realize that if they don’t return the message that they are going to miss an opportunity.  Maybe it’s human psychology that people often want things more when they think they might not be able to have them!  Whatever the reason, the important thing is that it works!

 

Inject some humour.
Some of our clients have had success using a little sarcastic humour in the final approach.  This message might sound something like, “I don’t know if this means that you’re not interested in how we might BENEFIT and BENEFIT you or that you’re so busy putting out fires that you can’t even get to your phone.”  This method is admittedly a bit cheeky and needs to done with a slightly defeated but cheerful tone to be effective.  Again, what have you got to lose?

 

These techniques are not a surefire way to get all prospects to call you back.  Aside from pretending that you’re calling from the lottery winnings office, nothing will guarantee this.  What this will do, however, is increase your callbacks. And incremental improvements in several areas adds up to big improvements overall.  A bigger problem is that salespeople just don’t try hard enough before they give up but that’s a topic for another post!

 

4 Biggest Time Wasters for Salespeople
Posted by: In: Sales Coaching, Sales Executives, Sales Managers, Sales Training, Salespeople, Training, Uncategorized 30 Mar 2023 0 comments Tags: , , , ,

Wasting TimeGain up to 30 minutes extra productivity per day by eliminating these.

Show me a sales professional in the top 10% of their industry and I’ll show you a person who is in the top 10% at time management.

Unfortunately, as salespeople, we are hard wired to be poor at juggling priorities and tasks. Studies show that most salespeople fall into the high “Influence” category of personality (from the D.I.S.C. profiling system), meaning that we are very good at influencing, communicating and adapting to change. Time management isn’t one of our strong points however. I’m often asked what biggest mistakes salespeople make are and poor time management ranks in the top 3. As you might expect, when working with sales teams, I have found that while they want to learn new presentation or objection handling techniques, growing their goal and time management capabilities provides the biggest & quickest performance gains.
In my experience, here is where most of us lose massive amounts of selling capacity:

Time Waster Number One—No Plan
We start the month with no specifics on what we want to accomplish. “If you don’t know where you want to go, any road will take you there.” You should take the 30 minutes at the end of one month to review and plan for the next in all important areas. Similarly you will greatly benefit from planning your week before you set out. Sunday evening is a great time to take 20 minutes and map out your goals/priorities for the week. Time management is largely a result of good priority management.  Planning allows you to get the “big picture” and prioritize by comparing the urgency and importance of your goals for the week.  Monday morning is OK but is more risky in that you might get distracted and caught up in “doing” before you are finished your “planning”. It is almost impossible to plan and implement at the same time. Below is an example of what a weekly plan might look like:
Business:

B – do 50 prospecting calls Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday from 8:30–11:00

B – make follow-up calls on all outstanding proposals from last month

A – prepare for proposal presentations with HugeCo and Willbuy Inc.

B – check in with production on delivery of orders

B – practice new voicemail technique and ask Bob for feedback

A – get monthly expenses report in

Personal:

A – run 3x for 30 min each in the morning Mon, Wed, Fri.

B – do rough plan for new deck in backyard

A – get anniversary gift

B – get to bed earlier. By 10:30 at least 4 weeknights.

An “A” priority means that it’s “important and urgent” for the week while a “B” means that while important, it doesn’t necessarily have to be done this week.
Your days should start with a plan too of course, using the same A & B prioritization. Research shows that 10 minutes spent planning your day will give you approximately 60 minutes of increased productivity. That’s a 6:1 R.O.T.I. (return on time invested)!  With better time management, many graduates of our “Goal Aligned Time™” program report these results commonly.  Done for a week, that will give you the time to make about 25 more prospecting calls. Run that number through your sales funnel stats and you will be astonished by what this means in hard dollars.
Mark Twain famously said, “Eat a frog first thing in the morning and everything else you have to do in the day will seem easy.”  Eat your “frog” – do your toughest things that require the most focus – first thing.
Time Waster Number Two—The Email Black Hole
Just like a black hole, the gravitational attraction of email can suck you in just like a planet and once you’re in, there’s no turning back! Email is a very powerful communication tool but overused and often used improperly too. Don’t start your day with email. Start with a plan instead. You don’t need to respond to emails when they come in. Let them stack up and return them in batches at certain intervals in the day. Your average time/message will drop significantly! Low urgency emails can be left to clear at the end of day or even a couple of times/week. Be ruthless with deletion. I often delete messages without looking at them based on the subject and sender. The average person can speak at 120 words/minute yet only type at 30 words/minute.
Time Waster Number Three—Busy But Not Productive
You have three main tasks. Prospect, present and close. If you’re not doing one of these, then you’re not growing your sales. Do a time log for one week, noting your actual use of time in 1 hour blocks. At the end of the week note what activities were directly related to sales, admin and nonsense. You will be amazed where your time is actually going and as a bonus, your productivity will jump as you gain an awareness of this.
Time Waster Number Four—Interruptions
Whether it’s someone walking in to discuss last night’s “American Idol” or your email ringing each time you get a message, you lose much more than the time to chat or listen to the bell. Studies show that the average person, when interrupted, takes 6 minutes to get back to the same level of concentration prior to the interruption. Do the math: If you get interrupted just 5 times in an hour, you are operating at 50% effectiveness. Think about that next time you grab your smart (a misnomer in many ways) phone to check your most recent tweet!

If you or your sales team would like to get better at time management, check out Northbound’s workshop, “Goal Aligned Time™.”  For more details or pricing, contact Michael Caron at [email protected] or 416.456.1440.

6 Prospecting Voicemail Mistakes
Posted by: In: Sales Coaching, Sales Executives, Sales Managers, Sales Training, Salespeople 23 Mar 2023 0 comments

Making Great Calls GTW ImageWith most phone calls resulting in voicemail, you need to leave one that will get your prospect to sit up and listen!

Voicemail is the norm when making chase calls to prospects. There is an inverse relationship between the size of a company and the ability to connect in person. That is, the bigger the company, the lower the chance of your prospect picking up the phone. The number of contact attempts divided by the number of connections with your prospect is called “contact ratio”. Sales reps that I’ve worked with report contact ratios on the high end of 30% and a mere 2% on the low.  With voicemail being the norm, how can we increase our chances of being called back? Here are 6 common mistakes that many salespeople make.

Mistake #1 – They don’t actually leave a message — I had to get this out of the way because I still run into some salespeople who have been trained (poorly albeit) to “never leave a message”. This makes no sense. Why would you give up the opportunity to get your valuable message into your customer’s ear? I actually prefer to get voicemail on the first attempt. Why? Because it paves the way for my next call. It makes clear the purpose of my call and what’s potentially in it for the prospect to have a conversation with me rather than just catching them off guard.

Think about it. When you are interrupted from doing something by an incoming sales call, what’s the quickest and easiest way to get back to what you were doing? That’s right — by saying no. Have you ever quickly said “No thanks!” to a telemarketer or a door-to-door salesperson (pre-COVID of course) and then thought later, “Hmm. I might have been interested in looking into that actually.” Even if it may be something you might be interested in buying, the natural knee-jerk reaction is to say no. By having your prospect listen to a well crafted voicemail prior to speaking with you, it can help prevent a knee jerk reaction.

Mistake #2 – They don’t have a Compelling Business Reason (CBR) — There must be a reason and perceived benefit for the listener to take time out of their busy day to have a conversation with you. Too many salespeople position the voicemail around how great they or their company is instead of what might be in it for the prospect to call you back.

Mistake #3 – They ask for too much — Your first goal in a chase call or voicemail should be to have a two-way conversation. Salespeople shouldn’t ask for a meeting without having first established G.A.S. — that is, value that they may be able to Gain for the prospect, future issues they may help them Avoid or current problems that they might help them Solve. A voicemail should be requesting a very low commitment — something as innocent as a brief conversation to see if here might be a fit between some challenges the prospect has and your company’s capabilities for instance.

Mistake #4 – They “wing it” — Some salespeople are against using a phone script. Common reasons are, “It sounds so fake”, “You can’t predict what the prospect is going to say”, or my personal favorite, “I like to mix it up so I sound fresh”. Unfortunately, these same people have little success in booking appointments and after listening to them in the field, it’s easy to see why. Their voicemails are all over the map — convoluted, weak and generally pointless in nature.

Yes, some people sound like they are reading when they use a script but only because they haven’t put the time in to practice it until it sounds natural. I do a little bit of amateur acting and on the first read-through of our scripts, it’s terrible. I sound 100% like I’m reading and that’s because I am! After rehearsing my lines literally hundreds of times over, however, it becomes a different story on opening night. A high priced Hollywood actor would never ask to roll the cameras until they know their lines down pat and neither should you.

Mistake #5 – They leave too much time in between voicemails — If you call your prospects once every few weeks, it’s easy to become forgotten. On the other hand, if you only leave a couple of days in between your calls to a prospect, you will be forefront and they will feel more compelled to respond. At the end of each voicemail you should say something like, “If you don’t get a chance to get back to me in the next couple of days, I’ll try you again on Thursday morning.” Your prospects will get the idea very quickly that you’re not going to be giving up anytime soon. Strike a reasonable balance between professionally persistent and stalking!

Mistake #6 – They act too submissive — If you act like a lesser business person grovelling for the prospect’s consideration, you have reduced yourself and the prospect will lose respect for you.  In reality, you are one business person requesting to speak to another business person to see if there may be a mutual benefit of working together. Approach the call from an Equal Business Footing (E.B.F.) perspective. Picture how you might strike up a casual chat with another person you meet in a park while walking your dogs together. You’d be relaxed and casual – not pushy or threatening. That’s how you should think of your prospect when you’re leaving a voicemail. If you sound laid-back, confident, open and honest, your prospect will be much more likely to want to speak with you.