Saturday Sales Tip: Call In Reinforcements

by Scott Howard | Jan 17, 2015 | ScLoHo Sales Tips

This sales tip originally posted in a RAB.com newsletter is old school. However like many things that people used to do, like send hand written thank you notes, they are even more effective now than 30 years ago because they are more unique.

This is about building credibility and using the phone:

The higher authority close
Sales consultant/trainer Tom Hopkins
A higher authority is a respected person known by your client who is willing to give third-party testimony. The higher authority will most often be a satisfied client — possibly the one who referred you to the prospective future client.

To set this close up, choose your higher authority and discuss the situation with them. Tell him or her that you’ll be meeting with “Jim Johnson” at 2:00 p.m. on Thursday, and ask if they might be available around 2:30 p.m. to take your telephone call in case you need his or her input. Always offer to refer other business back to your higher authority in exchange for their involvement or to return the favor.

When you make the call, simply make the connection, do a brief introduction, and then let your higher authority tell your prospective client how great your and your product/service are.

If your higher authority is unavailable to take your call, ask for a testimonial letter and permission to use his or her name.

Saturday Sales Tip: How to Ask

by Scott Howard | Jan 10, 2015 | ScLoHo Sales Tips

As I kick off a few changes this week for 2015, one of those is a weekly sales tip that will show up on Saturdays. Today’s sales tip from RAB.com is one of my strengths, learn how to make it yours:

Questions are the answer
Sales author/trainer Paul McCord
We’ve all been taught the difference between closed-end and open-ended questions. We’ve been given instructions on when to use which type question. Some trainers have given us formulas; others have given us specific questions to ask.

It’s these detailed guidelines that seem to get many sellers in trouble — that gets their questions to resemble Gestapo tactics rather than a discussion with a prospect.

So how do you use questions without intimidating or badgering?

The answer is actually quite simple — don’t interrogate your prospects. Instead of trying to figure out whether to ask an open-end or closed-end question here or which specific question to ask now, just ask the natural questions you’d ask your friends if you were trying to understand their problems.

Certainly there are different uses for different types of questions. Certainly there are times when an open-ended question will be more productive than asking a close-ended question. But ultimately, the goal isn’t to ask the correct question type but to communicate with your prospect.

Communication is an art. We all can and need to improve our communication skills.

That being said, I’ve found that if I am sincerely interested in understanding my prospect’s needs, my questions come naturally. They’re the same questions — delivered in the same tone of voice — I’d ask a friend or my spouse if I were trying to understand their situation, and those questions and that tone of voice is hardly that of an interrogator.

Rather than being perceived as an unwanted interrogation, my questions are viewed as a sincere desire to understand, to communicate, to help. Rather than putting my prospect on the defensive, my questions usually cause the prospect to willingly open up more.

If you find you’re uncomfortable with using questions for fear that you’re putting your prospect on the defensive or you’re coming across as a prosecutor cross-examining an unwilling witness, don’t give up on using questions because questions are the answer to understanding your prospect’s needs and how you can help.

Instead, give up on trying to use formulas or control the conversation and simply approach your prospect as a friend who has a problem you want to understand. Ask the natural questions that come to mind and you’ll find your prospect will not only open up more easily, they will be more open to listening when it’s your turn to offer a solution.

Don’t Be Generic

by Scott Howard | Nov 13, 2014 | ScLoHo Sales Tips

So you want to be successful in sales and you’ve been told that you have to come up with creative ways to get to the decision maker.

Since you are in the website sales business, you start looking online and to be different, you make your initial contact via the contact page.

You write your email and hit the send button and wait for the doors to open and the money to start flowing.

Why would this work?

Because sales is a numbers game right?  You don’t just one email this way, you send several. Dozens, maybe hundreds every month, every week or perhaps every day.

Yet, no one responds.

This crap doesn’t work, you  say to yourself.  Your boss says you just need to do more and by more, she means send out more of the same generic emails to more and more people.

This is a lousy way to try and make a living.

Here’s an email I received via the comment section on this website of mine:

My name is Jerry and I’m a website designer.  I’m reaching out to see if you’re satisfied with your current website.  Are there any changes or improvements that you’d like to make?  We’re always looking to help quality businesses such as yourself.  I look forward to hearing back from you!

Best Regards,

Jerry Bailey
Top Spot Designs

There are so many things wrong with this.  I can tell that this is a cut and paste template that Jerry sends trying to find a fish to bite.

• Jerry provided no contact info.  My contact form asks for an email address and he registered using a Gmail account.
• There is no link to the “Top Spot Designs” company.  Sounds like a scam.
• There is a Top Spot Designs company in New York City that I found because I Googled them.  Their website is just as generic as the email.  Lot’s of fluffy geek-speak, but  nothing of substance.
• He is a website designer? If I was looking for someone to build a website for my “quality business” I would look for a team, not an individual guy working out of his mom’s basement.  I have no idea where Jerry works but the mystery is off-putting.
• I am not a “quality business”.  That is such an overused generic term that it is worthless.  If you take the time to go to my website and contact me via the contact page, take a few seconds to personalize your message based on what you discover about me or my business when you are at my website.

Jerry is either a salesperson who will struggle due to his approach, or a website designer who has no idea who to effectively find new business.

Don’t be generic and don’t be a Jerry.