Telemarketing

Sometimes we can all use a friendly reminder to keep us from backsliding into old ways of thinking about selling that lead us down the wrong path with potential clients. I was inspired to write this article after a few coaching sessions with a client named Michael, who sells a technology solution. Michael had been struggling with a mental block about how to detach from the traditional sales thinking he had learned from oldschool sales "gurus". You know who they are. You may even have some of their books or tapes. And you know their sales messages too: "Always be closing," "Think positive, and you'll overcome all your cold calling fears," "All you need to boost your sales is a few new sales techniques." But all these outdated sales messages fail to address the core issue of how we think about selling. And unless we get to that core, and change it once and for all, we'll go on struggling with the same counterproductive sales behaviors. We'll go on experiencing the same difficulties and frustrations. And we'll continue to believe that we're always just one new sales technique away from the breakthrough we're looking for. New Thinking = New Results Maybe it's time to take a different approach. Maybe we need to seriously analyze our sales thinking so we can identify why we're not making more sales. Take a look at the table below and thinkabout your current selling mindset. How would your selling behaviors change if you changed your sales thinking? Traditional Sales Mindset: Always deliver a strong sales pitch. New Sales Mindset: Stop the sales pitch -- and start a conversation. Traditional Sales Mindset: Your central objective is always to close the sale. New Sales Mindset: Your central goal is always to discover whether you and your potential client are a good fit. Traditional Sales Mindset: When you lose a sale, it's usually at the end of the sales process. New Sales Mindset: When you lose a sale, it's usually right at the beginning of the sales process. Traditional Sales Mindset: Rejection is a normal part of selling. New Sales Mindset: Sales pressure is the only cause of rejection. Rejection should never happen. Traditional Sales Mindset: Keep chasing every potential client until you get a yes or a no. New Sales Mindset: Never chase a potential client -- you'll only trigger more sales pressure.

Traditional Sales Mindset: When a prospect offers objections,challenge and/or counter them. New Sales Mindset: When a potential client offers objections, uncover the truth behind them. Traditional Sales Mindset: If a potential client challenges the value of your product or service, you must defend yourself and explain the value. New Sales Mindset: Never defend yourself or what you have to offer -- it only creates more sales pressure. Let's take a closer look at these central Unlock The GameT concepts so you can begin to open up your current sales thinking and become more effective in your selling activities: 

Stop the sales pitch -- and start a conversation. When you call someone, avoid making a mini-presentation about yourself, your company, and what you have to offer. Start with an opening conversational phrase that focuses on a specific problem that your product or service solves. If you don't know what this is, ask your current customers why they purchased your solution. One example of an opening phrase might be, "I'm just calling to see if you'd be open to some different ideas related to lowering the risk of any computer downtime you may be having in your company?" Notice that you are not pitching your solution with this opening phrase.

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Your central goal is always to discover whether you and your potential client are a good fit. Let go of trying to "close the sale" or "get the appointment"-- and you will discover that you don't have to take responsibility for moving the sales process forward. If you simply focus your conversation on problems that you can help potential clients solve, and if you don't jump the gun by trying to move the sales process forward, you will find that potential clients will actually bring you into their buying process.

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When you lose a sale, it's usually right at the beginning of the sales process. If you believe that you lose sales because you make a mistake at the end of the process, take a look back at how you began the relationship. Did you start with a presentation? Did you use traditional sales language like, "We have a solution that I believe you really need" or "Others in your industry have bought our solution, so you should consider it as well"? When you use traditional sales language, potential clients can't help but label you with the negative stereotype of "salesperson." This makes it almost impossible for them to relate to you from a position of trust. And if trust isn't established at the

outset, honest communication about the problems they're trying to solve, and how you might be able to help them, becomes impossible too. 

Sales pressure is the only cause of rejection. Rejection should never happen. Rejection happens for only one reason: Something you said, as subtle as it might have been, triggered a defensive reaction from your potential client. Yes, something you said. To eliminate rejection, simply shift your mindset so that you give up the hidden agenda of hoping to make a sale. Instead, everything you say and do should stem from the basic mindset that you are there to help potential clients. This makes you able to ask, "Would you be open to talking about issues you might be having affecting your business?"

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Never chase a potential client--you'll only trigger more sales pressure. "Chasing" potential clients has always been considered normal and necessary, but it's rooted in the macho selling image that, "If you don't keep chasing, it means you're giving up -- and that means you're a failure." This is dead wrong! Instead of chasing potential clients, tell them that you would like to avoid anything that resembles the old cat-and-mouse chasing game by scheduling a time for your next chat.

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When a potential client offers objections, uncover the truth behind them. Most traditional sales programs spend a lot of time focusing on "overcoming objections." These tactics only put more sales pressure on potential clients and also fail to explore or understand the truth behind what the potential client is saying. When you hear, "We don't have the budget," "Send me information," or "Call me in a few months," do you think you're hearing the truth, or do you suspect that these are polite evasions designed to end the conversation? Rather than trying to counter objections, you can uncover the truth by replying, "That's not a problem" -- no matter what clients are "objecting" to -- and then using gentle, dignified language that invites them to reveal the truth about their situation.

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Never defend yourself or what you have to offer -- it only creates more sales pressure. When a potential client says, "Why should I choose you over your competition?," your first, instinctive reaction is probably to start defending your product or service because you want to convince them to buy. But what do you think goes through your potential client's mind at that point? Something like, "This 'salesperson' is trying to sell me on why what they have to offer is better, but I hate feeling as if I'm being sold." Rather than defending

yourself, try suggesting that you aren't going to try to convince them of anything because that would only create sales pressure. Instead, ask them about the key problems that they are trying to solve, and then explore how your product or service might solve those problems --without ever trying to persuade.. Let potential clients feel that they can choose you without feeling "sold." Using outbound telemarketing to increase ROI I must admit, most people's view of telemarketing is that it's only ever outbound. However, strictly speaking, telemarketing comes in two flavours - outbound telemarketing and inbound telemarketing. Before we look at outbound telemarketing, let's quickly cover inbound since that's not what we're dealing with here. As the name suggests, inbound telemarketing describes calls being received, usually in response to another marketing activity, such as a direct mail campaign or direct response advertisement. You know, call an 0800 number to get a free catalogue, etc. Unlike outbound telemarketing, inbound is almost always dealt with by large call centres. This is simply because of the volumes of calls associated with direct response campaigns. An outbound telemarketing campaign, on the other hand, can be a much smaller direct marketing campaign. When used alongside other direct marketing tactics, it can add value in a number ways to maximise return-on-investment (ROI) for the overall campaign. One thing to always consider is whether you use outbound telemarketing as the main campaign tactic, or whether you add outbound telemarketing to support wider campaign objectives. Here's a couple of examples of how outbound telemarketing can be used effectively within direct marketing campaigns: Outbound telemarketing as the main campaign approach - a simple standalone outbound telemarketing campaign would involve sourcing a list and calling it. However, by adding additional marketing support to the campaign you can significantly increase it's ROI. For example, a classic approach is to send a direct mail piece in advance of the outbound telemarketing call. The direct mail piece isn't the the main campaign objective, it's just there to provide a reason for the call, Done correctly, this approach paves the way for a warmer outbound telemarketing call.

Equally, you could plan to send further marketing collateral, by email for example, at the end of the call. As before, this approach is designed to support the outbound telemarketing call and provide a reason to call the prospect back to further qualify their interest. This style of outbound telemarketing call is the most common approach for appointment setting. The initial letter (or email) is sent to provide a reason for the call and then the collateral sent afterwards supports the campaign objectives by providing another reason to call back. Without these additional materials, relying only on a cold outbound telemarketing call, you'll convert far fewer leads. However, used in this way, the overall ROI for the outbound telemarketing campaign can be significantly increased since the additional supporting material costs (for the letter and emails) are far lower that the costs for outbound telemarketing. Outbound telemarketing to support other marketing campaigns - an alternative approach is to use outbound telemarketing to enhance other marketing efforts, such as email marketing or seminars. For example, let's say you are running a business-to-business email marketing campaign sending an email to 5000 prospects. Email marketing works best with a call to action that involves a "click-thru" to a website. This could be to register for an event or download a white paper, for example. Metrics on email marketing campaigns vary depending on how you acquired the email addresses (for example, were they opt-in from your website or did you buy a list) and the strength of the call to action. For our purposes, let's assume you had a 10% open-rate and, from that you had 10% click-thru to download your white-paper. In this example, you send out 5000 emails, 10% open which is 500, and then a further 10% click through to download your white-paper. This means that you have 50 "leads". Now, these leads will need following up to further qualify and this is where outbound telemarketing can be an excellent addition to the campaign. Without adding outbound telemarketing, you might expect that, perhaps, 10% of the prospects who downloaded the white-paper might phone into the office - an inbound call!. However, that would leave 45 leads that don't do anything. If, by adding outbound telemarketing, you could convert another 5 out of 45 (not that high a conversion rate) then you've increased your ROI by 100%.

The key thing to note here is that it might only need 2 or 3 days of outbound telemarketing to speak with those 45 leads. It's all about using different direct marketing tactics, including outbound telemarketing, in an appropriate way to deliver the best ROI for your overall campaign. Labels: outbound telemarketing, telemarketing ROI Posted by: David Regler @ 3:24 PM | 0 comments | Links to this post

Wednesday, February 11, 2009 When is pay-per-appointment a good fee model for appointment setting? We regularly get asked whether we will work on a "pay-per-appointment", "pay-forperformance" or "pay for results" basis for our appointment setting services. Whilst we do work on a pay-per-appointment basis for some clients, it's worth exploring the subject further to explain our views on this model for appointment setting. For many, "pay-for-results" is the holy-grail of marketing. With the popularity of Google's pay-per-click and other pay-per-lead online offerings it sounds like a no-brainer, right? Well, like most things in life, it's not that straight-forward. Here are 4 things we consider when deciding whether a pay-per-appointment or pay-forperformance appointment setting campaign is appropriate: 1) Risk - pay-for-results appointment setting is all about a transfer of risk. With most telemarketing companies you simply pay them to make the calls with no guarantees of results. With a pay-per-appointment campaign, we take all the risk since you don't pay us until we deliver results. We typically evaluate the risk in running pay-for-appointment campaigns based on our understanding of the market and how compelling we believe your proposition is. If we have good market knowledge, previous experience of campaign metrics and believe you have compelling value proposition, we are likely to back a pay-for-performance appointment setting campaign. Other aspects we consider include supporting collateral and client credibility in the market-place. For example, if a client has a compelling offer in a sector we understand clearly then running a pay-for-results appointment setting campaign is an attractive proposition for us.

However, if you're a start-up with no track record selling into an unclear space then payper-appointment becomes more of a punt. 2) Qualification - another aspect that determines the suitability of pay-for-performance appointment setting is the qualification criteria. I've written previously about this (see my post Just what is a qualified appointment?) but it's worth stating again. A "qualified" appointment means that the person booking the meeting has to apply their skill and judgement to evaluate the quality of the appointment before agreeing to book it. This involves asking qualifying questions and deciding whether the meeting is worthwhile. Inevitably, it means that your appointment setter needs to actually decide to not book some appointments. So, in the context of deciding whether an pay-for-results appointment setting campaign is appropriate, the tighter the qualification criteria, the less appropriate this model is. If we're asked to book appointments with specific decisions makers or key influencers in targeted companies then pay-per-appointment works well. We refer to these as "creds meetings", ie: it's a meeting to introduce your company, present your credentials or provide an overview of your proposition. This type of meeting is ideal for a pay-per-appointment model. We guarantee the quality of the contact, but there's no guarantee whether these meetings will progress to a firm proposal. Essentially, our clients have to sell at these meetings. However, if the qualification criteria requires us to establish budgets and time-scales, and only book appointments when specific criteria is met, then a pay-per-appointment deal doesn't make sense. Why? Because in this instance you're asking us to follow a process that runs counter to the deliverables we are paid for. Delivering highly qualified sales appointments with prospects that are "in the window" takes time and requires a significant investment in lead nurturing over a extensive period of time. I'm talking about real prospecting - sifting out the poor quality opportunities until you find that rare golden nugget. [Btw, we actually have a better model for this type of appointment setting which combines low monthly fees with a % commission on new business won] Pay-for-results appointment setting works best where we delivering against clearly defined authority & interest criteria (ie: they’re the right person and are interested in a meeting). 3) Commitment - another thing we consider about pay-per-appointment or pay-forperformance appointment setting is the commitment from clients.

As I've blogged about many times before (see Is telemarketing a short or long-term investment??) much of the value in a telemarketing campaign comes from developing relationships over a number of touches. Whilst pay-per-appointment setting campaigns can be used to find those "low hanging fruit" we also uncover medium- and long-term leads which can be converted to sales appointments at a later date. If a client simply wants us to set up a few appointments and then turn off the campaign all that additional work we've done has been wasted. Just because it's a pay-for-results appointment setting campaign it doesn't mean that the dynamics of building a prospect pipeline are any different; we invest heavily at the start of any campaign and expect to capture the value we have created at a later date. So, after a pilot period has been completed, we would expect a client commitment to continue taking appointments from us over an extended contract period, typically a rolling 6 months. Pay-for-results appointment setting works best where clients have established sales processes and require a telemarketing partner to deliver a steady flow of sales appointments over time. 4) Cost - finally, on any pay-per-appointment setting campaign we consider the cost for each appointment. To a degree this is dependant on a number of variables, including the perceived risk, qualification criteria and contract duration as outlined in the above three points. However, there's a simple principal here; if we're picking up the risk of a pay-for-results appointment setting campaign then we expect a superior return for our time. What that premium is, again, depends on all the factors already outlined above. Where we clearly understand the market, proposition and can estimate performance metrics from past campaigns we are able to more accurately assess an appropriate price per appointment. It's worth pointing out here that no two appointment setting campaigns are the same; even a campaign for the same client and same proposition at a different time (and different market conditions) will pull different results. Also, while we're on the subject of campaign metrics - here's a common problem we encounter: When we first start speaking with clients about pay-per-appointment campaigns they often start with "oh, we made a few calls the other day and got four appointments" or "it's

really easy, we had a guy in the office and he got an appointment every hour". Now, it's not that I'm saying these people are lying, but it's just that when it comes to estimating metrics I think many people put on very thick rose-tinted glasses :-) Occasionally you do get an appointment setting gig that's like shooting fish in a barrel. But it's very occasionally. So, the above 4 points are the key considerations we make when deciding whether to accept a "pay-per-appointment" or "pay-for-results" appointment setting campaign. If we turn down a pay-per-appointment campaign it's because one or more of these criteria is missing. More often than not, we encounter companies that are looking for pay-for-performance appointment setting simply because they don't have any budget to invest in marketing. The problem is that they're usually hoping to get lucky and close a deal quick enough to keep paying for more appointments. In my experience, it seldom works out that way. From our perspective, pay-per-appointment doesn't make sense for these clients because they lack commitment (as in point 3) and often have unrealistic expectations of the costper-appointment. Over the years we've found that a pay-per-appointment model works best with clients who are looking for a long-term partner to deliver a steady flow of qualified appointments on a pay-per-results model. These clients usually have established sales teams & processes and understand their key performance metrics. They know that they can convert X % of sales appointments and so a pay-perappointment model enables them to accurately forecast a cost-per-acquisition for new business. Labels: appointment setting, appointment setting services, b2b telemarketing, pay-perappointment Posted by: David Regler @ 10:38 AM | 0 comments | Links to this post

Tuesday, February 10, 2009 Just what is a qualified appointment? Back in 2006 I posted a blog on Ecademy called "The Meetings Game": Some truths about B2B Appointment Setting.

I was talking about many of the appointment setting agencies, mainly operating on a payper-appointment basis, who are simply "meeting machines". You know, the kind of boiler room operation that squeezes out a supposedly high-level 15 minute meeting just to hit their targets. If you've ever been sent half-way across the country to find yourself sitting across the desk from someone who's equally confused why you're there - you know what I mean. My post struck a chord back then and is just as relevant today. So, the question to ask is - just what is a "qualified" appointment? Of course, it means something different for each client. When we start an appointment setting campaign we invest time understanding exactly what "qualified" means to our clients. To answer that question we really need to understand their sales process. What's that? Sales process? Surely our job is to book the appointments and let them worry about the rest, isn't it? The reality is that unless your marketing and sales processes are clearly linked (and the initial sales appointment is pretty much the interface) then you are asking for trouble. Think of it like this: There are plenty of acronyms used for qualification; in the sales old-school everyone is taught MAN (Money Authority Need) - "you need to find the MAN". We prefer to use AIM-T, which stands for Authority, Interest, Money, Timescale (think of Aiming at the Target). We use this because it actually follows the appointment qualification process. That is, before we call someone we've usually pre-qualified (by targeted data sourcing) the authority level; when we engage with the prospect by phone we start the process of developing and qualifying their interest and, particularly in B2B sales, Money and Timescale can be partly qualified by phone but is usually best qualified as part of the sales process. On this latter point, whilst it is possible to qualify some aspects surrounding Money, usually by asking questions that uncover whether the prospect is likely to be able to build a business case for your product or service (again this can often be filtered through datasourcing) we believe that gauging budget and timescales is best kept within the sales process.

So, when is comes to qualified appointments, we need to understand (and sometimes educate our clients) about how they are going to qualify opportunities in the sales process to inform our level of qualification when setting appointments. Let's look at an example: Say you're selling a high-end B2B product or service, such as a consulting offering or software proposition, with a typical long sales cycle. Whilst, it's true, we will occasionally call a hot prospect who's ready "right now", it's usually the case that they have some lower level of interest. More often their level of interest will be very early stage and this is one of the great things about telemarketing. At that early stage they are aware of a need but they usually haven't acted on it (which means they haven't called in the competition yet). The question is, at what point is their interest level high enough for us to set an appointment with them? If our clients have a solid sales process in place then we may book an appointment with a prospect with the right level of authority and is willing to "take the meeting". Taking a prospect from this mild level of interest to closing a deal takes effort and skill but the rewards are that you're often not competing with other vendors (or at least you have the opportunity to influence a RFP and develop a relationship with the prospect). Alternatively, if a client has less of a established sales process (or perhaps they are just extremely busy) then we take on the process of further qualifying and nurturing the lead until it's ready to book. To do this we have to invest in clearly understanding our clients' business and proposition. It can be a fine line and quite subjective, but that's why our people are so experienced at booking qualified appointments. Labels: appointment setting, lead qualification Posted by: David Regler @ 7:44 AM | 0 comments | Links to this post

Friday, February 06, 2009 Is telemarketing a short or long-term investment? I always advocate considering telemarketing as a long-term marketing tactic. Of course, it's true that telemarketing can deliver immediate results; if you've targeted well and have a killer proposition then you can land a whale on the first day. We all get lucky!

However, the reality is that it takes some time to get a campaign up-and-running and delivering results consistently. And here's a fact that very few people consider: Once you've built a qualified database of prospects that have been called, sent info and further qualified (which could be 2 or 3 months into a campaign) your strike-rate improves by at least 100% when compared with the start of your campaign. That's right, the longer you keep a telemarketing campaign running the more effective it is. Now, whilst this may be an overlooked aspect of telemarketing campaigns it's hardly rocket-science. Here's why it works this way: At the start of a campaign you're calling everyone on a list. As you progress you filter the list based on the level of interest each prospect has. At the same time, you remove the bad data (contacts who have moved away, etc) and the people who are just not interested at all. So, after a while, you end up with a much more targeted list of people with at least some level of qualified interest. Now, one thing that will remain pretty constant is what we call the "pitch rate", also referred to as the # of DMC's (Decision Maker Contacts). That's the number of decision makers you speak to in a given length of time (we measure it per day). Each industry sector, type of business and level of authority will have it's own pitch-rate. It remains constant because you're still calling the same people. But, if the pitch-rate is constant but you're now calling a more qualified list, your strike rate will go up. If your list initially has 50% "interested" prospects (ranging from mildly interested to hotto-meet-you-now interested) and you pitch 20 decision makers a day then only 10 are going to be interested, right? (50% of 20 pitches, stay with me). Once you've qualified your list, you're still pitching 20 a day but now 100% are interested, making you twice as effective as before. We advise clients to think of two distinct phases of a campaign. The initial phase is what we call the "build" phase. This is where we're least efficient as we're filtering and qualifying as we go. It's often best to have a higher level of resourcing (subject to budget) at this stage to get traction faster. Once we've qualified much of the list, and determined the most appropriate contact frequency for each classification of lead, we're left with a much tighter database of

prospects. This is when we move onto our "maintenance" phase. The resourcing level for this phase can be half or even a third of the build phase. Some of the leads with lower levels of interest may only require a call every 90 days, backed up with regular email marketing. However, because we're now more effective at this stage, we can produce the same results as we did in the build phase. In the maintenance phase the ROI is at least double that of the build phase. To me, when a company stops a telemarketing campaign at the end of the build phase it's a criminal waste of money. All that hard work in qualifying the database is just thrown away and, without nurturing those lower level leads, they'll just go cold (or go to your competitors). As I said at the start, telemarketing can deliver short-term results but that really is the tip of the iceberg. If you invest in telemarketing over the long-term you'll start to build a process that delivers a steady flow of new business opportunities with an outstanding ROI.

This is the first of a batch of guest posts from Julian Blee, a 20 year telesales pro from the UK, who will, over the coming weeks and months, bring us his ‘Telesales Myth Busters’ series of articles. Here’s what Julian has to say on the subject of the word ‘No”… I would like to take a look at the urban myth concerning the word ‘no’. I wrote this article because it is a very common misconception that it is OK to put off dealing with a ‘no’ until the end of a pitch or presentation. This is crazy and hopefully at the end of this article you to will agree with me. The word ‘no’ is there to be loved, enjoyed and embraced. I know that is going to sit uncomfortably with many people reading this newsletter because it is the bête noire of many sales people. No’s seem to send the fear of God running through the veins of many new and also experienced sales people. One of the biggest and most regular issues that I come across on a daily basis as a sales trainer is the fear of NO. I understand completely how this particular word can wreck havoc with sales presentations, destroy commission targets and just generally ruin your day. I used to hate No’s. I used to do what most people do when they hear a NO and that was to ignore it, speed up, or even worse become defensive. All of these reactions are wrong and let me explain why.

*I would like to point out that hitting you head with a spanner is actually not more fun that getting a no from a potential prospect. The easiest way for me to do this is to look at why we are so scared of hearing a No. I suppose that the obvious one for me to take into account is that if we get a No from our prospects it means that they won’t buy from us. If that happens we get a little bit more deflated, and if that happens our jobs get harder and then we end up blowing so many deals because we get progressively worse with each call. This hits us mentally and fiscally and it hurts. The above diagram is based on the renowned theory of ‘Hitting Your Head With a Spanner.’ (I know that you know that I made that up.) Joking aside it shows that if we get a No, our immediate response is to get defensive. This is a very common reaction from someone who is new into sales. (It also happens with so called experienced individuals too.) Greeting a No with negativity will not assist in turning that No into a Yes. This will result in frustration. If you sell with a frustrated head on your shoulders you will receive more No’s. This will drag you to Negativity. Once that happens, you have to stop and re-calibrate your outlook to positivity or just forget it for the day. Don’t mis-quote me here, because I am not advocating going home every time you get a No. But I do know that if you fire into your lead box with a negative pitch, you may as well just throw them all in the bin; it will save you time, effort and your employer a phone bill. I will talk about re-calibrating back to a positive outlook in a later newsletter. Right now I want to stop you getting negative by showing you how to deal with No’s.

Before I show you a simple way to work with No’s you must change your mind set. You have to learn to like No’s. In fact you have to actually learn to love them, really love them. Once you learn to love No’s you will be pleased when you hear one. Trust me on this one, I haven’t taken leave of my senses. A No means one of two things: 1. I really don’t want your service/product/wingwang. 2. You have not told me enough in order for me to give you a yes. You need to give me more benefits, or fact find more to ascertain exactly what I need from you. Either one of these are good news. If it is 1, then this is good news because the last thing you want in your pipeline is a ton of prospects that really have no interest in your product. This is called a false economy. If it’s a two, and 9 times out of 10, (depending on your fact finding skills) it is a two, then you need to deal with the No in a positive and upbeat fashion. And this is where loving your No’s comes into play. The flowchart below describes a simplistic and structured way to deal with a no. There are lots of different methods and styles to help you work a no into a yes. However, this method is like a well tailored dark blue suit. It will work in almost every situation. It goes a little like this: 1. When you receive a No, embrace it. Don’t get negative. This is an opportunity showing its self to you. This wonderful No is telling you that he’s there and that he’s the hurdle between you and the deal. So don’t get scared or frustrated, give him a hug. 2. Ask what it is exactly that is stopping the client from buying your product today. 3. When your prospect tells you what the problem is repeat it back to them. This will show the client that you have heard what they have said and are simply confirming that the information you have is correct. It will also give you time to think. 4. If the client says yes, then you now have your objection; the barrier between you and the sale. 5. You MUST now isolate the objection; “Is this the only thing stopping you from buying from me today.” 6. If the client says Yes, you need to effectively overcome the objection and move smoothly into the close.

There are of course lots of other things that your prospect could say in order to throw you off course. But I cannot cover those in a 1,000 word article. The crux of the above is that you have to learn to love the No, and deal with it as soon as it arrives. It is an objection that is in the clients mind, stopping him from listening to your presentation. Put yourself in your prospect shoes, would you listen to a sales pitch that you have already said No to? The No is the thing stopping you from closing the deal. And because of this reason alone you need to be friendly with it in order to understand it. Once you understand it, you then have a shooting chance of overcoming it. You need to be able to establish if the No means that your prospect doesn’t know enough about your product, or in fact they really do not want it. Practice the basics and you will learn to be able to distinguish between the two. I have sold to people that really didn’t want my product, but I sold it to them anyway. That’s not ethical way to sell and it doesn’t leave you with a great conscience. (That was a long time ago on part of my learning curve; I certainly don’t do that anymore.) It also destroys any chance of longevity or relationship that you may have been able to build up. I have also lost lots of deals because I didn’t realise that my prospect did in fact want or need my product, but I was just selling badly. Good sales skills take time to develop. You will fall over along the way, but just dust yourself down and get back on with the job in hanYou're close, really close, to making a sale. Your potential client is in the market for your product or service and you've had a couple of good meetings. Based on his most recent e-mail, "Everything looks good -- I'll get back to you so we can move this forward"--everything points to a probable sale. You feel so relaxed, happy, and hopeful. Then a couple of days go by with no phone call or e-mail. You tell yourself,

"He's probably busy. I know he'll get in touch tomorrow." But tomorrow comes and goes with no word. You start to panic. Your self-talk turns negative: "I can't believe this...This is really starting to hurt...He let me believe it was a sure thing...I trusted him...now he's disappeared on me, and I was counting on this sale..." The relaxed, happy feeling is gone. You've fallen victim to "hopeium " again. Have you been in this situation before? Of course you have--we all have, and it's painful. So, can you keep from getting dropped? Yes--With the new mindset, you can abandon the salesperson role and come from a place of integrity that stems directly from your personal brand that doesn't compromise your authentic self. This opens communication with your potential clients so you can learn the truth about their situation--and that's what you always want. These suggestions will help: 

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Don't assume the sale. Potential clients are used to the traditional buyer-seller relationship, so they may decide not to tell you things that might make them vulnerable to you. Until you're sure you know the complete truth, you can never assume the sale. Keep making it easy for potential clients to tell you their truth. Toward the end of your conversation, ask, "Do you have any more questions?" If potential clients say no, follow up with the 100-percent-final truth-gathering question: "Now, are you 100 percent sure that there's nothing else that I can do on my end to make you feel more comfortable with this situation?" You'll be amazed how often people then say, "Well, actually, there is one more issue..." And it's at that point that you really start to hear their truth. Call back to get the truth, not close the sale. Most potential clients who suddenly "disappear" will be expecting you chase them down by calling them and saying, "Hi, I was just wondering where things are at?" Instead, eliminate all sales pressure by telling them that you're okay with their decision not to move forward, based on their not having called you back. In other words, take a step backward. Most of the time, it'll open the door to a new level of open, trusting communication. Reassure potential clients that you can handle a "no." Of course we'd rather not hear a "no." But the only way to free yourself and your clients from subtle sales pressures is to let them know that it's not about the sale but about the best choice for them--and if that means no sale, it's okay, because it's ultimately not about you but about them. Ask for feedback. Whenever potential clients "disappear," call them back (e-mail them if you have to, but only as a last resort because dialogue is always better) and simply ask, "Would you please share your feedback with me as to how I can improve for next time? Now that our sales process is over, I'm committed to

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understanding where I went wrong." This is not being feeble or weak -- it's being humble, which often triggers the truth. Don't try to "close" a sale. If your intuition tells you that the sales process isn't going in the direction it should be going - which is always toward greater trust and truth--trust those feeling. Then, make it safe for potential clients to tell you where they stand. It's simple--all you have to say is, "Where do you think we should go from here?" (But be prepared: you might not want to hear the truth of how they're feeling. You can cope with this by keeping your larger goal in mind, which is always to establish that the two of you have a "fit.") Give yourself the last word. Eliminate the anxiety of waiting for the final calls that will tell you whether the sale is going to happen--instead, schedule a time for getting back to each other. This eliminates chasing. Simply suggest, "Can we plan to get back to each other on a day and at a time that works for you--not to close the sale, but to simply bring closure regardless of what you decide. I'm okay either way, and that'll save us from having to chase each other."

You'll find that these suggestions make selling much less painful because you learn to focus on the truth instead of the sale. d. Stay focused, sell ethically, be professional and you can reach your wildest dreams. Our thoughts are always at the basis of our behaviors. If our thoughts are fixed on the goal of making a sale, then we’re not really being forthright. We’re not focused on the conversation or the truth of a situation. We’re chasing people -- or at least chasing the sale. Here are 4 important steps to help end the “chasing game” in our cold calling efforts. 1. Avoid reading from a script Life is not a script, nor are normal conversations. When we read from a script, we’re not being natural. We’re playing a role. And that means we’re chasing a sale rather than enjoying an opportunity to meet someone new and find out if we can help them. Allowing a conversation to naturally flow helps you enter into a dialogue based on trust, which lets your potential client’s real issues emerge. Formal scripts, on the other hand, don’t give you the freedom to take conversations in the direction they may naturally want to go. And this feels stilted and awkward. If you begin to view your cold calls as conversations or dialogues, you’ll find it easy to let go of the idea of scripts. And you’ll sense the shift of the energy in your conversation when the emphasis of the call is about the person you’re talking with and not about your making a sale. So generate a spontaneous conversation, based on the problems you can help the other person solve. This will diffuse your feelings of being awkward and artificial, and allow you to enjoy the journey. 2. Address a Core Problem People connect with you when they feel you understand their issues before you focus on yourself and your solutions. Come up with two or three specific

problems that your product or service solves. And talk about it with the potential client first, before offering your sales pitch. When you offer your presentation or solution without first involving the other person by talking about a core problem they might be having, you are focused on the sale rather than the conversation. And your whole energy tends to drive the interaction into a sales mode. Remember, whenever someone feels “chased,” they usually run. So stop for a moment. Convey that you’re a problem solver. Invite a mutual exchange of information that explores whether there’s a possibility that the two of you might work together. Help them understand that your thoughts and goals are not focused on selling them anything at all. Most people will welcome your interest in their problem as long as you’re not operating out of the hidden agenda of making a sale. So overcome the temptation to discuss what you have to offer and move into focusing on your caller’s world. Invite discussion, express interest, and stop chasing the sale. 3. Uncover the Truth of the Situation Make your objective to uncover the truth of the potential client’s situation and to be okay with the outcome, whether it’s a yes or a no. We can do this by checking in at various times in the conversation to make sure it makes sense to continue the dialogue. If we just move ahead without doing this, we’re in “chase mode.” And in this case, we may be chasing something very unrealistic for this particular potential client. So we ask important questions such as, “Is this a top priority for you to solve right now?” We may find that the potential client is very interested in working with us, but the budget or staffing may simply be too thin at this time. We stop at various checkpoints in our conversation to make sure we’re moving ahead together. If our thoughts are fixed only on our own goal of eventually securing the sale, we can miss very important signals that the other person may actually have no intention of following through. 4. Where do We Go From Here? Here’s something very surprising. Allow the conversation to end without chasing other person into an sales appointment or commitment, and the other person will often be the one who initiates further contact. So when you feel as if the conversation is coming to a natural conclusion, you can simply say, “Well, where do you think we should go from here?” This question reassures potential clients that you’re not using the conversation to fulfill your own hidden agenda. It invites the other person to take charge of where things are going, and all you need do is follow along. When you stop chasing the sale, you’ll be truly surprised at how often the sale gently awaits you within a friendly conversation focusing on the needs of others.

Seal the Deal in Seven Seconds

Can you close a sale in just seven seconds? You can do it faster if you use a sales technique to make a great first impression. Seven seconds is the average length of time you have to make a first impression. If your first impression is not good you won' t get another chance with that potential client. Make a great first impression and the client is likely to take your small business seriously. Whether your initial meeting is face-to-face, over the phone or via the Internet, you do not have time to waste. It pays for you to understand the sales technique of how people make their first judgment and what you can do to control the results. 

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Learn the Non-verbal Sales Technique: When you meet someone face-to-face, 93% of how you are judged is based on non-verbal data - your appearance and your body language. Only 7% is influenced by the words that you speak. A good sales technique is to remember people do judge a book by its cover. When your initial encounter is over the phone, 70% of how you are perceived is based on your tone of voice and 30% on your words. It's not what you say - it's the way that you say it. Choose Your First 12 Words: Although research shows words make up a mere 7% of what people think of you in a one-on-one encounter, don't leave them to chance. Express some form of thank you when you meet the client. Perhaps, it is "Thank you for taking your time to see me today" or "Thank you for joining me for lunch." Clients appreciate you when you appreciate them. Use Their Name Immediately: Another forgotten sales technique is to remember there is no sweeter sound than that of our own name. When you use the client 's name in conversation within your first twelve words and the first seven seconds, you are sending a message that you value that person and are focused on him. Nothing gets other people's attention as effectively as calling them by name. Pay Attention to Your Hair: Your clients will. In fact, they will notice your hair and face first. Putting off that much-needed haircut or color job might cost you the deal. Don't let a bad hair day cost you the connection. Shiny Shoes Sales Technique: People will look from your face to your feet. If your shoes aren't well maintained, the client will question whether you pay attention to other details. Shoes should be polished as your sales technique. They may be the last thing you put on before you walk out the door, but they are often the first thing your client notices. Walk Fast: A faster walker can be perceived as important and energetic - just the kind of person your clients want to do business with. Pick up the pace and walk with purpose if you want to impress.

A Good Business Handshake: The business handshake is an essential selling technique to make a lasting impression. The first move you make when meeting your prospective client is to put out your hand. There isn't a businessperson anywhere who can't tell you that the good business handshake should be a firm one. Yet time and again people offer a limp hand to the client.

To have a good business handshake, position your hand to make complete contact with the other person's hand. Once you've connected, close your thumb over the back of the other person's hand and give a slight squeeze. You'll have the beginning of a strong business relationship. 

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Make Stylish Introductions: The proper introduction is a selling technique used by all sales masters. It does matter whose name you say first and what words you use when making introductions in business. Business etiquette is based on rank and hierarchy. Honor the senior or highest ranking person by saying his name first. When the client is present, he is always the most important person. Say the client's name first and introduce other people to the client. The correct words are "I'd like to introduce..." or "I'd like to introduce to you..." followed by the name of the other person. Always Have Business Cards: Your business cards and how you handle them contribute to your total image. Have a good supply of them with you at all times since you never know when and where you will encounter a potential client. How unimpressive is it to ask for a person's card and have them say, " Oh, I'm sorry. I think I just gave my last one away." You get the feeling that this person has already met everyone he wants to know. Keep your business cards in a card case, protected from wear and tear. You will be able to find them without a lot of fumbling around, and they will always be in pristine condition.

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Use Proper Body Language: The best selling technique is a smile. It tells your clients you are glad to be with them. Eye contact says you are paying attention and are interested in what is being said. Leaning in toward the client makes you appear engaged and involved in the conversation. Use as many signals as you can to look interested and interesting.

In the business environment, you plan your every move with potential clients. You arrange for the appointment, you prepare for the meeting, you rehearse for the presentation, but in spite of your best efforts, potential clients pop up in the most unexpected places. Leave nothing to chance. Every time you walk out of your office, be ready to make a powerful first impression...it is the best selling technique.