Chapter 14

Recommending the Next Step

If you’ve made it this far with your prospects—and things have progressed according to plan—you now have them thinking about their needs, pains, problems, or desires. This is precisely where we want them so that we can present—in the most favorable light—how we would be able to help them.

But how do you know when you have arrived at that magic moment when it is finally time to talk about what you would do for them and recommend the next steps?

I can’t tell you exactly what that is—for you, at least. Every situation differs and depends on lots of variables—including what you sell, your objectives, and your prospect’s mind-set when your call arrived. Sometimes we get lucky and contact them when they are actively looking for what we sell and it happens quickly. Other times, we might never reach that point—since there is not a fit. However, I can describe the ideal time generally; it’s when you feel that you have sufficiently moved your prospects to the point where they will be receptive to hearing how you may be able to help.

In my own experience, I’ve faced both kinds of situations. There have been times when I’ve gone just a few short questions before recommending, while in other cases, an entire hour went by before I told the prospect what I could do for them.

Regardless of when that point arrives for you, there is a suggested process for delivering your recommendation effectively. I also have a number of other tips to help you make it more persuasive.

Pitching Is for Sports Only: Recommend Instead

First, let’s talk about a term that is commonly associated with prospecting and sales: pitching.

I know a little bit about pitching. I’ve coached boys’ baseball and competitive girls’ softball, called thousands of pitches, and worked with pitchers at a variety of levels. My own daughter was one of the top softball pitchers in the region, and I caught well over 30,000 of her practice pitches over eight years. When I watch a baseball game, I’m one of the geeks who studies how the pitchers throw to hitters in different situations. And while it’s been a few years since I hung up the glove from competitive ball in an over-30 senior baseball league, I pitched some there as well. In fact, I even pitched against former major-leaguers in a Kansas City Royals fantasy camp.

I also know about pitching in professional prospecting and sales. It has no place.

Pitching is for sports, not sales. Just hearing the word pitch in a sales context makes me cringe, because pitching describes what amateurs and hard-sell, cheesy, pushy salespeople do. Pitching is one-way communication; it’s the seller telling his story.

Remember the telemarketers who read something to you, went on for two minutes without getting any feedback from you, and then told you they would charge your credit card? That was a pitch.

From like-minded sales types, I’ve heard pitches referred to as “puking out a presentation” or “spraying and praying.” It gives me visions of a listener rolling her eyes in boredom, looking at her watch, perhaps getting ready to slit her wrists with a letter opener.

A pitch focuses on the salesperson, not the prospect or customer. And they are the only ones that matter. If you put it back on the sports field for a moment, a pitcher is trying to defeat the ones to whom he or she is pitching. He’s attempting to get them out, trying to make them look bad.

So what’s the big deal? Why the rant about the simple word pitch?

Because words follow thoughts, and actions follow both. If people refer to what they do as pitching, they are talking, not prospecting or Smart Calling according to the process we are covering here. They are presenting what they want to say, which rarely matches the listener’s interest. And that is why objections occur. In fact, objections are created by pitches.

Instead, here’s a much better word: recommendation. I use that in place of presentation, since a presentation can be viewed as similar to a pitch.

Ahhh, but what has to come before a recommendation? That’s right: information. And to get information, we must question. After questioning, then we make a recommendation. The recommendation should be on-target and meet needs, since the prospects just told us what they need, want, or are otherwise interested in.

And that, my friend, is professional, collaborative Smart Calling.

People usually know when they’re subjected to a pitch, and they often perceive it negatively. When people are about to hear a recommendation, they don’t feel they are being sold. That’s because they’re wrapped up in answering questions and telling the salesperson what they’re interested in.

Keep the pitching where it belongs: exclusively on the sports field. For the Smart Calling process, we’ll cover how to make an effective recommendation.

The Smart Call Recommendation Process

It’s not until late in the program during my seminars and workshops that I cover the part of the call that is usually the main section of lots of training: the presentation of benefits.

That’s because the best salespeople present only what the listener cares about—information that’s based on everything else in the call process to this point: preparation, information gathering, working with screeners, interest-creating openers, and questioning. The next phase is the sales recommendation. Here’s the next step in the process—to make when you feel you know exactly what it will take to fill your prospects’ needs, solve their problems, ease their pain, or give them something they desire.

Make absolutely certain that you are presenting the results of your product or service, commonly known as benefits. Use phrases such as “What that means to you” and “Which means.” These phrases ensure that you’re covering topics that will cause them to take action. And since you are probably presenting several aspects of what you sell, get feedback after each one. This is commonly known as the trial close, where you get agreement on what you just said. For example:

Use the Words of Others to Be More Persuasive

I probably have more books on sales, communication, self-motivation, and marketing than 99.9 percent of the population. I’ve got them on shelves, in boxes, and now, filling up my iPad. I admit, I’m a compulsive book and information buyer, and I always realize there is so much more to learn. Anytime I read or hear about a book that will help me or my clients and customers, I immediately go to Amazon.com. They have been able to sell me a lot more than I had originally intended to buy by employing that cool technique of suggesting other choices of books based on the one I look at or purchase. I always impulse-buy a few other titles because of this headline screaming at me: “Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought . . .”

This is brilliant from a sales and psychological perspective for two reasons, reasons that you, too, can use to make more sales.

Social Proof

Dr. Robert Cialdini—author of Influence: Science and Practice, whom I’ve referenced several times in this book—discusses the principle of social proof. He says that “95 percent of people are imitators and only 5 percent initiators; so people are persuaded more by the actions of others than by any proof we can offer.”

This essentially means that if someone else has done it or said it, it carries more credibility than if we say it. For example, if I’m told that there are others who also bought the book I’m buying when I’m looking on Amazon.com, they are probably like me and felt these other books are worthwhile, so I guess I should as well.

You use this concept when you want to make a claim about the value of your product or service by giving examples of others’ experiences or, better yet, others’ exact words, which carry tremendous weight.

The People Are Interested in Other People Principle

I don’t have any psychological studies or scientific textbooks to prove this principle of persuasion, just my own observations and experience. You could also call it the People Magazine theory or the reality TV rule.

Bottom line: People become obsessed with the lives of others. Why, otherwise, is there a long-running TV show where the premise is watching a bunch of people live in a house together? Why are there TV shows and magazines devoted to what celebrities do and wear and where they go?

I’ll tweak this a bit for our sales purposes and say that in business, we are interested in what those who are similar to us say and do.

So how do we use these two principles in sales? You can utilize these techniques during the recommendation phase of the call by simply saying something like:

Using the Principle of Consistency

I never met the late Tim Russert, but after spending many hours watching him on Meet the Press and other news and interview shows, I certainly felt as though I knew him well.

Part of Tim’s popularity stemmed from the fact that lots of regular people identified with him. He grew up in a blue-collar, Catholic, hardworking family and neighborhood, holding down several jobs throughout high school and college and then competing for real-world jobs with the more privileged people. I experienced the exact same things.

From a professional perspective, I always marveled at how Russert could take something seemingly complex and bring it to an understandable level. He’d get guests to answer a tough question, then pause and spring a video on them, where they were shown maybe a few years prior, contradicting the answer they just had given. The senators or candidates would then squirm and have to defend why the things they claimed were not consistent.

But of course, he never did it in an adversarial way. You always just wondered why thesepeople said what they did.

The science of persuasion calls this phenomenon the principle of consistency. Dr. Robert Cialdini also says that most people desire to remain consistent to beliefs and commitments they have previously stated. You can use this as well on your Smart Calls.

We already worked on crafting and asking questions to prompt prospects and customers to tell you what they value, want, and need—all the things you provide, of course. For example, I might ask in my own case, “What is the main factor preventing your salespeople from selling at full price?”

If they answer, “A lack of confidence in asking for full price in a competitive environment because they do not know the right questions to ask to build value,” I would then ask how much money they felt they were leaving on the table.

After establishing a figure to dollarize the problem or pain, I would employ the principle of consistency in the following ways.

In the Sales Recommendation

I preface my explanation of benefits with what they had said, therefore framing my comments with their own words and putting them in a more receptive frame of mind to hear and agree with my recommendation.

“. . . and as you had mentioned earlier, you feel your reps need to be asking better questions to establish value, which in turn will give them more confidence to ask for and get full price. Here’s exactly how we would do that.”

After the recommendation, we want to move toward the ultimate commitment: the sale, appointment, or next step. Again, using their words makes them more likely to agree.

“Do you feel that would help your reps ask the right questions to build value? Would that help you to keep more of the profits you’re leaving on the table?”

You Are Absolutely Going to Love This

While listening to some recorded calls, I noticed a pattern with a sales rep. She tended to preface many of her statements with negatives such as “I have some bad news for you” and “Are you sitting down?” before she gave the price of an item. “You’re not going to like this” and “I hope you’re prepared for what I’m about to tell you” were a few others.

And not surprisingly, she continually got negative responses and results.

When listeners hear comments like these, they brace themselves for negative news. Regardless of how you’re feeling and what you’re thinking prior to the comment, you are now prepared to hear something negative. People evaluate information based on the state of mind they’re in at the moment they receive it. While this particular sales rep’s approach provides a negative example of the principle of preconditioning, you can use it to your advantage.

First, be certain you’re not currently in the habit of negatively preconditioning your listeners. This is a habit with many people. Listen to your calls from the perspective of the prospect or customer. Thoroughly analyze your language to determine if you use conditioning phrases that frost listeners. If you do, catch yourself before you use them again. Then, get in the habit of establishing an atmosphere in which your listeners will positively view your information. And it’s not that difficult; in fact, you probably encounter it regularly when you see and hear an infomercial on television. How often have you heard something like:

You can do the same. For example:

There’s an old cliché that states, “It’s not what you say, but how you say it.” True, but let’s add to that. It’s also what you say before you say it!

Smart Calling Action Steps

What else will you commit to do as a result of this chapter?