Northbound » selling skills

How to Leave Voicemail Messages That Resonate with Prospects

Posted by: Michael Caron In: Sales Training, Salespeople 11 Jun 2014 0 comments Tags: cold calling, growing selling skills, increased sales, prospecting, sales training, selling skills

Over 90% of prospecting phone calls end in voicemail. Here’s how to use them to your advantage.

By Sian Henderson
Program Delivery Director, Northbound Learning

As frustrating as voicemail is when making chase calls to prospects, it’s the norm and unfortunately, there is an inverse relationship between the size of a company and the ability to connect in person. That is, the bigger and more attractive the prospect company, the lower the chance of your prospect picking up the phone. Like everything else in the prospecting process, you should measure your results in this area. 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 confronting you so often, how can you increase your chances of being called back? Here are 6 common mistakes to stay away from:

1) You 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 gives the prospect the purpose of my call and what’s potentially in it for him to have a conversation with me rather than just catching him 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 canvaser 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 prevent the knee jerk reaction.

2) You 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.

3) You 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—a brief conversation to see if there might be a fit between some challenges the prospect has and your company’s capabilities for instance.

4) You “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 I am! After rehearsing my lines 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.

5) You 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 I don’t hear back from you by say, end of day tomorrow, I’ll try you again at 10:15 on Thursday.” Your prospects will get the idea very quickly that you’re not going to be giving up anytime soon. Strike a reasonable balance between being persistent and pesky.

6) You act too submissive

If you act like a lesser business person begging for the prospect’s consideration, you have reduced yourself and the prospect can lose respect for you. 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 speak to another person you meet in a park while walking your dogs together. You wouldn’t be pushy or threatening. That’s how you should think of your prospect when you’re leaving a voicemail. If you sound relaxed, confident, open and honest, your prospect will be much more likely to want to speak with you.

Northbound’s “Connecting to Mr. Big Cheese” workshop teaches your team how to dramatically increase the number of meetings booked with potential new customers. To enquire about fees and details, contact Michael at 416.456.1440 or [email protected].

3 Steps to Handling Discount Requests

Posted by: Michael Caron In: Sales Executives, Sales Managers, Sales Training, Salespeople, Training 04 Jun 2014 0 comments Tags: consultative selling, growing selling skills, increased sales, negotiation, sales process, sales productivity, sales strategy, sales training, sell more in less time, selling skill improvements, selling skills

Dealing with a discount request while maintaining profit margins and closing the sales requires delicate balance.

By Michael Caron, President, Northbound Sales

Despite your best attempts to sell value and remain firm on your price, some clients will press
ahead with their request for a discount. After a solid attempt from you to reassure them that your price is fair, if your prospect is still pushing for a discount, you have a choice. Walk away from the business because you want to maintain your price or slowly start to give concessions in an attempt to win (or save) the business.

If you want to give concessions, following a simple system will ensure a profitable negotiation.

Your First Step
The first step, always, is to find something else to give up that doesn’t reduce your price. Free shipping. Extra manuals or training. A client profile on your Web site. What you choose will be specific to your business, your markets and your client base. The key is to have the list of things you’re willing to offer prepared in advance, so you can draw on it during the negotiation.

It’s hard to think creatively in the heat of a negotiation, so planning ahead can give you a ready-made solution that leaves both you and the client feeling satisfied with the transaction.
Your goal is to maintain the price integrity of your product while delivering extra value to the customer with a service that does not cost you anything (or very little). For example, if the customer asks you for a discount consider offering them following instead:
1. An unconditional money back guarantee
2. Free shipping
3. Payment terms
4. Payment with credit card
5. Free training CD’s or in house training by you on the product
6. Access to a public seminar or trade show your company is sponsoring
7. Free set up (if you are a printer/embroidery/promotional products company)
8. Future discounts based on volume: the company will pay full price today and receive a discount on a future order. You can also do this as a gift certificate for them to use later.
9. Free electronic copies or hard copies of your help /training manuals
10. Upgraded support levels
11. Participation on your client advisory board or panel

About half the time, your customer will take you up on the offer to provide a “non monetary concession.” The other half will continue pressing for a price discount because in today’s
marketplace it has become all too common for one supplier to attempt to trump all others by lowering their price. In many cases, your clients are being trained by the competition and other vendors to demand lower pricing from you. It’s a short term strategy, and it does little to benefit buyers but that doesn’t make it any easier to assure prospects they’ll get equal or better ROI by paying more.

Sometimes, a prospect just wants you to lower your price, and you (with your company’s support) will need to consider doing it.

Your Second Step
If you feel you have to give up a discount in order to close the sale, do yourself a huge favor and always ask them one of the two following questions first: “What is important to you about an x% discount?” or “Why is an x% discount important to you?”

These questions will flush out any last details that could help you find a different way to structure the terms and pricing. This allows you to keep your price while letting the customer walk away with their needs met as well. If, however, you ultimately do have to reduce your price, make sure to follow these two rules:

Never reduce your price without getting something in return. Getting something in exchange for a pricing concession is key to managing customer expectations that future discounts will not be easily dished out. As with the “no money” concessions above, what you get in return for a price reduction will be unique to your business and markets. It could include references or case studies, a bigger order, introductions to senior level executives or cash up front, etc… Again, whatever you ask for, prepare the list in advance so you can respond quickly and
smoothly.

Your Third Step

Nothing is worse than coming to an agreement on price (especially a reduced price!) only to find out that your prospect is still looking for other concessions. Be sure to get a firm verbal agreement from the customer that this discount is all they will need to get the deal done. Try asking them something like “I’m not sure if I can get you this price, but if I can, is it fair to say that we can go ahead?” or “I’m not sure I can get this discount for you. If I can, though, are you willing to ….?”

By asking them this last question, you can ensure you get
all the issues on the table first, giving you the chance to deal with them fairly once and for all. So what goes after the “willing to”…. in that question? I believe that if you must, absolutely must reduce your price to win the business NEVER let that price drop without getting something in return.

Try some of these best practice ideas for finishing the question… “I’m not sure I can get this discount for you. If I can, though, are you willing to ….?
1. place your order today?
2. provide full payment up front?
3. place a larger order?
4. provide me 3 qualified referrals / introductions?
5. give us a testimonial or case study?
6. allow us to sponsor the event you are organizing?
7. invite me to the event you are having for their clients?
8. provide me space in your newsletter for a monthly column?
9. provide my company an exclusive purchasing arrangement?
10. introduce me to additional departments or internal decision makers?
11. have us in for a “lunch and learn session” with your staff ?

This step is easy to do if you have conviction. The first step to finding better clients – ones that focus on value and not price – is making sure you are 100% confident that you are delivering such a high value to the marketplace. Confident that all buyers will want to own it at full cost. When you do believe this, you will not have any trouble asking for something valuable in return for your price discount.

Remember that what you ask for does not have too be of equal monetary value. In fact it can be free for the customer to provide as long as it has value for you. The goal is to employ reciprocity – you will gladly scratch the customers back as long as they are willing to scratch yours! Creating equality in your client relationships ensures that you will have a long lasting
trust based relationship which reduces the amount of “shopping” the customer does each time they need to order. This increases your profits, decreases your sales cycle and encourages referrals.

You and your team can learn to produce stronger relationships and more equitable and profitable business interactions with Northbound’s “Win/Win Negotiations” workshop. For more information or pricing, contact Michael Caron at [email protected], 416.456.1440

The Challenger Sale is Highly Overrated!

Posted by: Michael Caron In: Sales Executives, Sales Managers, Sales Training, Salespeople, Training, Uncategorized 24 Feb 2014 0 comments Tags: consultative selling, growing selling skills, increased sales, sales productivity, sales training, selling skills

Does the bestselling book on sales provide new insights?

Geoffrey James is one of the best sales expert bloggers and is the sales go-to guy for Inc. magazine. I’m pushing this along because he and I are in sync on the bestselling book, “The Challenger Sale” in that it’s mostly a retread of proven selling concepts combined with some original and flawed advice. It’s a good example of how attractive the marketing of “new selling ideas” can be. I know the industry very well and frankly, there aren’t any groundbreaking new methodologies that I’ve come across since Neil Rackham’s SPIN Selling research and findings which Xerox sponsored over 25 years ago.

My advice is rather than looking for the flavour of the month, get your team mastering the fundamentals — setting goals, managing their time, prospecting, presenting and closing — by engaging in great training followed by relentless practice and implementation. Check out Geoff’s article in Inc. here.

Mastering Selling Skills Requires Daily Practice

Posted by: Michael Caron In: Sales Executives, Sales Managers, Salespeople, Training 01 Aug 2013 0 comments Tags: sales training, selling skills

This is a great article from Fast Company on the importance of daily practice in mastering anything – skateboarding or sales. It emphasizes that quantity, not quality is what needs to happen. Ask yourself, when was the last time I honed my selling skills by formal practice? Most salespeople should be practicing the fundamentals weekly and any new skill, daily, as the article suggests. See the full article here.

The Fine Line Between Persistence and Stalking

Posted by: Michael Caron In: Sales Executives, Sales Managers, Salespeople, Training 09 May 2013 0 comments Tags: cold calling, prospecting, sales training, selling skills

There’s a difference between being persistent and being a pest!

“What’s a reasonable amount of follow-up?” “If I’m not getting a response, when should I give up?” “Am I jeopardizing the sale if I’m too persistent?” These are all questions that often come up in our Power Prospecting workshop. How often to contact a prospect is a complex subject and one that I hope to clear up for you. Let’s take a deeper look at this issue.

The effort required to connect with someone, especially by phone, is dramatically greater today than it was even a few years ago. In the mid-90’s, just when voicemail was becoming commonplace, a business person could expect to connect to another business person 22% of the time or just shy of 1 in 5 times. Today, that number has jumped to 1 in 7. With the daily tsunami of email, getting people to respond by phone is more difficult than ever. This adds up to salespeople getting pushed to the bottom of the priority list in the business world.

To get someone’s attention and raise the level of urgency requires more frequent contact attempts than most salespeople are initially comfortable with. I think you’ll agree that proper business etiquette is to return voicemails within a day. For this reason, if you don’t connect live and instead, have to leave a voicemail, I recommend you give your prospective customer a day or so to return it. It’s helpful to set the expectation in your voicemail by saying something like, “If you don’t have a chance to get back to me in the next couple of days, I’ll try you again at your desk on Thursday morning.” When you call them on Thursday, this does a couple of things for you. First, it separates you from some salespeople in that you kept your promise. Second, your prospect will quickly understand that you’re going to be persistent in a polite, professional way.

A popular mistake by some salespeople is the mind reading they do of their prospect. “Gee, they haven’t called me back so I guess that means they aren’t interested. I don’t want to annoy them.” This assumption is very wrong. In the vast majority of cases, your prospects are busy people, just like you are, and unfortunately, returning sales calls falls to the bottom of their to-do list. When you eventually do connect, you will find that your polite persistence will most often generate a response something like, “I got your voicemails. I’m really sorry I haven’t called you back. We’ve just been crazy busy around here.” Frankly, I’ve made over 3000 prospecting calls since founding Northbound and I’ve only had one person ever say, “If I were interested, I would have called you back.” That’s right … ONE! Just last week, I finally got through to two prospective customers who I had left several voicemails and emails with. Did they say, “Michael, you are annoying me. I’m obviously not interested.” Not at all. In fact, both of them apologized profusely for not getting back to me and I booked meetings with each of them.

Polite, professional persistence is what often separates low performers from the great ones.

Your actions this week:

Mix up your contact methods with prospects you’re trying to connect with this week. Use a combination of voicemail, email, LinkedIn messages, hand written notes, personal visits, even fax! You’ll see that it increases your response.
Keep careful track of your contact attempts along with dates. Try to get at least 2 contact attempts in per week and don’t give up until you’ve tried at least 7 times.

Northbound’s “Connecting to Mr. Big Cheese” workshop teaches you a proven system to connect with high level decision makers and motivate them to want to meet. To learn more or for pricing, contact Michael at [email protected] or 416.456.1440.

Happy prospecting!

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