CHAPTER 9

Your Friend the Phone

The dreaded cold call. I won’t even refer to it as a cold call anymore. The term causes such an immediate negative and visceral reaction in most salespeople that I made the executive decision to rename it “the proactive telephone call.”

This is the most requested coaching topic in my practice. And it’s probably safe to bet that a good number of you reading this book scanned the table of contents and turned directly to this chapter. For whatever reason, the phone creates all kinds of weird emotions and mental blocks for salespeople, yet everyone wants coaching on making better phone calls. Studies suggest that public speaking is one of the most feared activities, but I meet reps all the time who would choose to make a speech in front of a giant crowd over having to call a prospect on the phone.

Let me start by admitting right up front that I don’t love making proactive telephone calls to new prospects. I do it, and I’ve done it for a long time. I’m very good at it. But it’s far from my favorite sales activity. Nonetheless, it’s a necessity for salespeople charged with developing new business. That’s why I spend a ton of time helping clients with their proactive calls, and why I still do it myself.

In Chapter 1, I touched on the dangers of the false teaching coming out of the Sales 2.0 camp. But I don’t want to throw the baby out with the bathwater. There are plenty of quality ideas and sales methodologies emanating from this movement. However, I feel obligated to warn that the worst myth being perpetrated by the 2.0 crowd is that we no longer need to make proactive telephone calls to prospects. What makes it so dangerous is that it’s exactly what so many reluctant prospectors want to hear. It’s a readily accepted false teaching because it provides a wonderful excuse not to do one of the most important yet incredibly unpopular sales tasks.

Trust me. If inbound marketing was a magic bullet and perfect panacea for creating demand, then we could stop proactively pursuing target accounts. But it isn’t. Anyone who is intellectually honest and not employed by an inbound marketing company will admit: It’s a fantasy that search engine optimization (SEO), Facebook, and tweeting about our community-building, value-creating blog are sufficient to produce the volume of face-to-face sales meetings required to hit our new business objectives. Fantasy, plain and simple. Inbound marketing is a magnificent supplement to, but not a replacement for, one of our most potent sales weapons—the outbound proactive telephone call.

Now that we’re all in agreement that making proactive calls is an essential component of our new business attack, let’s dig into what I like to call “the keys to calling.” Since we need to make calls, it would be nice if we didn’t freeze up, freak out, and flail away every time we start to dial.

Erase the Tapes in Your Mind and Let’s Start Over

Before getting into the technique for making calls, I’ve found it truly helps salespeople to start over from the beginning. I want you to erase the tapes already playing in your mind about calling prospects. You know exactly what I’m getting at. You come to this material already predisposed against making this type of call. Many of you envision yourselves as telemarketers when it comes to sitting down for a call session. You picture the phone ringing at home just as the family sits down for dinner. You cringe seeing yourself as the scripted, droning, headset-wearing telemarketer disturbing someone with an unwanted and irrelevant intrusion. Admit it. You hate the idea of calling your target accounts because you don’t want to be that person. Right? It makes you kind of queasy and, all things being equal, you’d rather take a pass.

Your Mindset Matters

What we believe makes a big difference in how we feel and how we behave. Making proactive calls to strategically selected target accounts that very likely have business issues we can address is not akin to telemarketing. You’re not sitting in a call center with hundreds of other telemarketing reps being fed random calls from an automated dialer. You, my friend, are an important business person representing a company whose product or service potentially delivers great value to the prospect you are targeting.

When we come to the understanding that our motivation for making the call is rooted in the fact that we can probably help the prospect, everything changes. And that should certainly help change our mindset toward proactive calling. Once we view ourselves as professional problem solvers, this perspective should make us want to call target customers, particularly if we believe the customer will be better off working with us than someone else.

Your Voice Tone and Approach Matters, Too

It’s much easier to sound great on the phone when we have a proper attitude about proactive calling. In fact, it’s impossible to come off in an attractive manner when we’re a bundle of nerves, tongue-tied, and clearly uncomfortable with what we’re doing. I’m continually intrigued that the very same reps who thrive when dealing with existing customers completely lock up when forced to initiate phone contact with a prospective customer.

What I’m about to write seems patently obvious and unnecessary, but based on personal observation of hundreds of salespeople, it cannot be assumed: How you sound is really important during a phone call! I probably won’t win an award for that thought, but it’s easy to forget that buyers instantly form opinions about you and your company based on the sound of your voice. Whether that’s fair or not is irrelevant. It’s reality. The person you’re calling cannot see your facial expressions, body language, expensive shirt, shined shoes, fancy car, or family pictures on your desk. All the other person processes is the way you sound and what your first few words communicate.

The problem with most salespeople on the phone is simple: They sound like salespeople. For some inexplicable reason, a whole lot of perfectly capable reps create a “sales voice” when speaking with potential customers. I know you’ve experienced this phenomenon. You’re very likable, easy-to-be-around colleague who’s a great conversationalist turns on this bizarre sales voice and sounds like a complete dork the moment he picks up the phone. Who taught people this trick? Where’s the evidence that altering your voice to sound “salesy” is effective? Frankly, it’s ridiculous, and it’s hurting, not helping, us.

Do yourself a favor. Have a few trusted friends or peers listen to your calls when you’re not aware they’re doing it. Ask them to be blunt and tell you if you speak and sound differently making calls than you do when you’re talking to peers. If that’s the case, lose the sales voice. Your effectiveness will immediately increase.

I ask salespeople to use a casual, comfortable tone and to attempt to sound as normal and genuine as possible when phoning prospects. It’s even helpful to be slightly informal. Remember, you’re the important business person reaching out to someone who might truly benefit from visiting with you. If that’s true, then you must believe it and sound like it.

It’s common to hear sales reps come off as overly respectful and formal when proactively calling new prospects. I don’t believe it’s helpful and, frankly, believe that posture is part of what contributes to the contrived sales voice. When we’re too formal and too respectful, it isn’t natural. And worse, it positions us as subservient to the prospect or even conveys that we may be intimidated. I want salespeople to see themselves as equals to the buyer, and one of the best ways to accomplish that is to speak as naturally as possible.

Some of my clients are troubled by my suggestion, misinterpreting my counsel as permission to be unprofessional or disrespectful. In no way am I suggesting that. Be respectful and professional, but do it in such a way that you sound like yourself. Keep in mind that we’re trying to earn a next conversation with our prospects. Do you think they will view you as someone who can bring value if you speak to them as if they’re on a pedestal? I think not.

Script or No Script?

This is a biggie and generally one of the first questions I get asked. Should you use a script? No and yes.

Similar to why I don’t use the term “cold call” because of the negative feelings it conjures up, I don’t like the message sent by the word “script.” When I hear script, I think theater and memorization. Or I mentally hear someone reading to me. And what they’re reading is usually long, canned, manipulative, and obviously something they didn’t write themselves. So I’m not a fan of call scripts. Most reps cannot carry off a script well, and reading to a prospect defeats all of what I just shared (in the previous sections) about mindset and voice tone.

However, I am a big proponent of call outlines and scripted talking points. Our calls should be logically structured, and we absolutely should have several key talking points scripted verbatim. Consistency matters. How can we judge what’s working and what’s not if we change the flow or make up new lines with every call? Especially because we worked so hard in the last chapter to craft a compelling sales story, it’s imperative that we nail certain phrases dead on during introductory calls to a prospect.

Why Are We Calling? Laser Focus on the Objective

Before getting into the flow of the call and outlining techniques to be more successful, it’s necessary to answer a defining question: Why are we making this call?

It sounds rudimentary, but a lot of salespeople pick up the phone without clarity on their objective. To properly conduct the call we must know exactly why we’re calling this prospect. It’s imperative to remain laser focused on the objective, because the prospect will likely put up defenses that we must circumvent. If we’re unsure of where we’d like to end up, there’s a good chance we’ll get lost along the way. When locked-in firmly on the goal of the call, we’re able to maneuver around the defense to redirect the conversation toward the objective.

So what’s the goal of your call? I hear quite a variety of answers, but I personally believe there are only two legitimate objectives. For the inside salesperson, the goal of the proactive call is to have the full sales conversation. Inside reps are looking to set the stage for the “sales call,” where they structure a dialogue with the prospect. That may happen right there on that initial phone call or it could be scheduled for a later time. I cover the flow and steps of the sales call in Chapter 11.

For the outside rep, there’s simply one true objective: Get the face-to-face meeting with your target account. I tend to get a fair amount of push-back from this blanket declaration. “Aren’t we supposed to qualify? If we set up too many appointments with unqualified prospects we will be wasting precious selling time. Shouldn’t I try to have as thorough a conversation as possible while I have them on the phone?”

Stop Overqualifying

My resolute answer to each of those questions is no. Get the meeting. Stop overqualifying! That may sound heretical, but hear me out. There are plenty of sales experts preaching the merits of strictly qualifying your prospects before going to see them. Please consider this contrarian view.

One of the main reasons outside sales reps underperform at developing new business is because they’re not in front of enough prospects. The math isn’t working for them because there’s not enough activity. Show me the sales rep that’s failing because he’s having too many unqualified appointments with strategically selected target accounts and I’ll show you a thousand failing from a lack of activity.

Remember the framework: Select targets. Create and deploy weapons. Plan and execute the attack. Selecting targets is first for a reason: If we’re proactively calling target accounts, the decision has already been made that we want to see them face-to-face. We put that account on our list for good strategic reasons. Let’s not rethink that decision on the fly during a first phone call to that prospect. Therefore, the only logical objective for an outside salesperson’s call is to score the appointment.

Lately I’ve been reminding clients that good things happen when talented salespeople sit in front of properly selected prospects who look a lot like their best customers. Until someone can demonstrate conclusive evidence that sales teams are wasting tons of money and time on unqualified appointments, I’ll remain on my crusade swinging the pendulum back the other direction. Stop overqualifying. Laser focus on the objective and score that meeting.

Favorite Introductory Phrases for a Great Start

Anyone who makes proactive outbound calls will tell you the beginning of the call is by far the hardest. Those first few seconds are most critical and yet that’s when we’re most anxious. The prospect immediately forms a first impression. Once your prospects realize they’ve unknowingly answered a sales call, their automatic resistance shield gets deployed. So it’s essential that we do everything possible early in the call to prevent that resistance shield from going up, or do our best to penetrate through it.

“Let me steal a minute” is an easy phrase that I prefer to use to kick-start the call. I say the prospect’s first name, my name (first and last), and usually add my company name. “Hi, Fred. It’s Mike Weinberg with The New Sales Coach. Let me steal a minute.”

There are several reasons I recommend beginning the call this way. First, it fits my personal style. Those exact words may not fit you as well, but here’s why I suggest it. It complies with my philosophy of sounding comfortable, conversational, and casual. I also like it because it’s very far from the typical openings we hear all the time. It’s not, “How are you today?” with the accent on “you.” And it’s a long way from the commonly pathetic, “Did I catch you at a good time?” or “Can I have a minute of your time?” Those are bad phrases and I urge you not to use them. First, they provide an easy opportunity for the prospect to give you an answer you don’t want. But more than that, I advise against them because they are what every other salesperson says. You don’t want to tip your hand and have the contact lump you in with all those other reps interrupting his day or wasting his time.

There are a few other neat benefits from saying “Let me steal a minute.” I like acknowledging on the front end that I’m an unexpected intrusion. It’s human and real. In a subtle way, it lets the prospect know that I get it. I’m looking to steal a minute from him, so it’s just calling it what it is. Unlike the typical opening, this approach intrigues the person and creates an opportunity for the prospect to connect with you. The prospect’s response also opens the door for you to demonstrate respect while scoring relationship points. If we truly caught the person at a horrendous time (on the way to a meeting with her boss or rushing to finish up a project to make the FedEx cutoff), isn’t it better to let the person go? There’s no rule forcing you to have the full conversation on your first attempt. When I can tell the prospect is harried and not in a state to engage me, even for a minute, I offer to let her go.

No one’s happy to pick up the phone only to be ambushed by an uninvited salesperson. That type of reaction is typical. But there are times when you just sense the prospect is in a bad spot. Other trainers will suggest launching into your script since you have the person on the phone. I recommend letting the prospect go, telling (not asking) the person that you’ll call back another time, and scoring the points for being human. I promise you that the second call you make to that prospect will be easier. You’ll be more confident and the prospect will likely think more highly of you for being sensitive to his situation. “Hi, Fred. It’s Mike Weinberg getting back with you. I’m the guy who caught you late on Tuesday trying to run out to FedEx.” Pause. Let him thank you. Then proceed as two normal humans engaging in a dialogue. This works because it changes the entire dynamic and feel of the call.

“I head up…” is the next phrase out of my mouth. Before going any further, I want to position who I am in the prospect’s mind. If I handled the first part well, he likely is not viewing me as the typical salesperson and there’s a good shot at keeping his resistance shield down. I absolutely love the phrase “I head up” and you’ll love it, too.

As important as what it may communicate to your contact is what it does for your own psyche. You’re not a telemarketer or unnecessary disturbance. You’re an important business person who heads up a part of your company. I want you to sound confident and comfortable and this little phrase does wonders to help you believe it. Say it out loud a few times. “I head up the western United States for ABC Company.” “I head up our education business.” “I head up client relationships for XYZ.” “I head up our agency team.” “I head up our reseller business.” “I head up our southeast territory.”

Some salespeople struggle saying it because they see themselves as being too low on the totem pole. I don’t care what your official title may be. We can figure out a way for you to incorporate this great line into your calls. No matter your formal position, you head up something for your company. Practice saying it: “I head up…” It will make you feel good and paint you as someone the prospect should be interested in and paying attention to.

Crafting Your Telephone Mini Power Statement

So far, so good. We sat down with the right mindset, seeing ourselves as professionals who want to place that call because we can help the prospect. We used a normal conversational voice, acknowledged we were interrupting without apologizing, and have positioned ourselves as someone worthy of engaging for a brief conversation. And now we find ourselves at a moment of truth: What in the world do we say to entice the prospect to talk further and invite us in to meet face-to-face?

This is the place to surgically insert a finely tuned, miniature version of that fantastic power statement we created in the previous chapter. The goal is to serve up a killer appetizer—a delicious mouth-watering tease that creates a strong hunger for the main course, which is the face-to-face meeting we’re pursuing.

When delivered properly, this telephone version of the power statement establishes exactly how we want the prospect to see us—as someone that people like him (or companies like his) look to for guidance when faced with challenging issues.

The hard work was already done; that is, you did the heavy lifting when you wrote your full-page power statement back in Chapter 8. For the mini version to be delivered over the phone, I suggest grabbing your two favorite “client issues” bullets (from the pains removed, problems solved, opportunities captured, results achieved section). I like to pick one that’s unique and provocative, and another that’s broad and likely applicable to almost any prospect on your list. You may also want to select one differentiator from that section of the power statement. But that’s the limit: two client issues and one differentiator. Any more would take too long to say and we’d sound as if we were reading a script.

The key is using this phone power statement in a conversational manner. For instance:

Hi, Steve. It’s Rob Thompson with Allsafe Security. I’m getting back with you; I caught you right in the middle of a big tenant situation a couple days ago. [Steve laughs about his crazy tenant, thanks you for your understanding, and asks what you want.]

Steve, I head up our client service team for the downtown corridor. Right now a lot of property managers are looking to Allsafe because they’re faced with excessive liability exposure and growing life/safety fears for corporate tenants and guests. We’re also helping a good number of management companies like yours [mention Steve’s company by name] who are concerned their current security solution may no longer be adequate. [Stop.]

That is a mini power statement to deliver over the phone. It was long enough already, so I didn’t want to toss in a differentiator. From what I know about Steve’s company, I was pretty confident I picked two issues that are salient to him. At this point, the best thing to do is stop. Our natural instinct, which is wrong, is to keep talking and fill the silence. But because I want the prospect to process the issues I tossed out and to associate me as someone who helps people like him address those issues, I chose to leave it there. Steve will certainly respond with something, and then I have a choice. If I like what he says, I’ll move ahead to the next step and ask him to visit with me. If I judge that it would be helpful to fire a differentiator at him or mention another client issue we address, then I’ll do that, and then follow up by asking for the meeting. Make sense?

For the Inside Rep: Build a Bridge

This section is for the inside salesperson only. The outside rep has served the appetizer and should move on by inviting the prospect to join him for the main course (see the next section). That meal generally gets scheduled in the future at the prospect’s place of business. The inside rep, however, has more work to do on this initial call.

I spent a lot of time this past year working with inside sales teams. Anecdotal evidence suggests that the number of inside sales teams is increasing as companies look to be more efficient and also better understand how to cover the market from within their own offices. I believe technology and the desire to reduce selling expenses will continue to drive increasing numbers of inside sales roles. Hear me clearly: Inside sales is not a second-class job. I’ve learned a ton from working with some outstanding professionals. My former employee and friend Roy is the best I’ve seen. He happily shares best practices with me and has helped shape my coaching content. Roy takes it as a personal challenge to outsell the outside reps at his company. He does it quarter after quarter. I know because he forwards me the sales reports!

After delivering the telephone power statement, the inside rep needs to build a bridge to the sales conversation. Depending on the prospect’s willingness to engage, the easiest thing to do is to begin a dialogue by following the power statement with simple probing questions. It can also be highly effective to share relevant information you discovered doing precall research. You can directly ask the prospect how to go about building a meaningful relationship with the company. It’s amazing what guidance people will offer when you ask for help (assuming the person you’re speaking with is not the brother-in-law of the competitor you’re trying to supplant).

The most beneficial thing the inside rep can do is listen. Work hard to learn about the prospect’s current situation and record helpful information that will be useful as you continue working the account, seeking to uncover opportunities.

Ask for the Meeting, Ask Again, and Once More

This is, by far, my favorite part of the proactive call. It’s why we called in the first place. After delivering the mini power statement, ask the contact for the meeting. Unless you believe you have no choice because the prospect insists on vetting you further on the phone, keep your eye squarely on the prize and ask for the meeting.

Here’s the secret: Be ready to ask three times. You read that right. Three times. You’ve got to be willing to push past resistance. Even if you executed perfectly, from voice tone to articulating the client issues you solve, there’s an incredibly high likelihood that the prospect will say no to your request. In other words, it’s not your fault. It’s nothing you did or did not do. The prospect is programmed to say no. It’s automatic. Moron salespeople ruined it for us. Buyers are so busy and so fed up with salespeople wasting their time that, no matter how great you sound, their first answer is usually no. So don’t take it personally. But don’t hang up the phone, either.

This is one of the reasons highly relational people who intensely dislike conflict have a hard time with prospecting. Prospecting involves conflict and pushing past resistance. Too often salespeople will state that they don’t want to come off as pushy. I understand. But I’m telling you now, this is one of those times that we’ve got to push. If you cave at this point, thank the prospect for her time and hang up, you fail. And you’ll continue to fail.

Many client reps come back to me after coaching to brag about the success they’re having on the phone. Consistently, they credit it to their new willingness to ask three separate times for the meeting. I wish they were telling me about my brilliant call outline or power statement formula. But what they share aligns with my personal experience: It’s on the third ask, usually, that the prospect relents and invites us in. Let me provide some ideas and magic words to help you make the most of your three asks.

Three Magic Words

There are three magic words I use over and over and over when making proactive telephone calls. These words work, and I encourage you to incorporate them into every request for a meeting. The three words are visit, fit, and value.

1.  Visit. I like to ask the prospect to visit with me. “Appointment” sounds so clinical, and no one is sitting around wishing for another meeting to attend. “Visit” is a positive word. You visit with family and friends. “I’d like to visit with you…” or “Would you have thirty minutes to visit with me next Tuesday or Wednesday?”

2.  Fit. “Fit” is one of my overall favorite sales words. It demonstrates confidence and also disarms the prospect. It’s nonthreatening and shows you’re not desperate. “Let’s get together to see if we might be a fit to help you…” or “I’d like to learn more about your situation, share how we’re helping XYZ organizations like yours, and determine together if there’s enough of a fit to talk about a next step.”

3.  Value. Value is what everyone is talking about and seems to be the yardstick by which we are all measured today. I suggest using the word in a couple of ways. One way is: “We’ll review your current situation and see if we can bring some value to what you’re doing…” The other way is to promise prospects that they’ll receive value from the meeting, which is part of the enticement to invite you in. That usually happens after a prospect has predictably said “no” to the first and second requests for the meeting. Then it’s time to put together the trifecta and use all three magic words in combination: “Judy, I understand that you’re [insert her objection here]. Visit with me anyway. I promise you’ll get value and ideas from our time together, even if we end up not being a fit to help you.”

Winning with Voice Mail

Voice mail is a fact of life. If we’re making proactive telephone calls, then we’re going to get our contact’s voice mail. Based on polling I’ve done with my clients, it appears reps end up in voice mail almost three-quarters of the time. That’s a big number. Back in the day (what does that mean, anyway?), I would make several attempts before leaving a voice mail for a prospect. But when only one of four calls connects with a live contact, we need to take full advantage of the opportunity voice mail presents.

Here are six thoughts on how you can win with voice mail:

1.  Adopt a positive perspective. Most people making a living in sales complain about voice mail. They dread it. And it kills their energy, enthusiasm, and effectiveness. Stop the whining and start seeing the opportunity it provides to “touch” the prospect. We all know it takes X number of touches to break through. Be thankful for the chance to make this a positive touch.

2.  Expect and prepare for it. I’m a master at babbling like an idiot on someone’s voice mail. We’ve all done it. We’ve puked out nonsense. We’ve gone on too long. We’ve talked in circles. We’ve panicked and starting hitting the pound key or the star key hoping to kill the evidence of our pathetic effort. If we’re going to get voice mail three-quarters of time, shouldn’t we begin to expect it? Be prepared to leave a well-crafted articulate message.

3.  Use a snippet of your story. Go ahead and make it a productive message. Similar to our mini telephone power statement, leave a tiny piece of your story. Pick one or two main client issues. Don’t ramble. Think how you react to long, drawn-out, repetitive messages. We want to leave them intrigued to hear more.

4.  Take the long view; see it as a campaign. Accept that it’s going to take multiple messages to get a call back. Picture this particular voice mail message as one in a series. That will help keep it succinct and prevent you from leaving ninety-second messages. Add a touch of variety using a different snippet of your sales story with each message. The reality is that almost nobody calls back after receiving one message from a salesperson. So plan to make it a campaign.

5.  Ask for a call back; state that you will call again. Yes, leave your number at a pace that gives the prospect time to actually write it down and ask to be called back. But make sure to let them know that you’ll call again. We want to send the message that we’re serious about reaching them. When I receive e-mails or voice mails from a salesperson, I like to test them to see if they’re serious about pursuing me. I almost never respond to the first attempt. It’s shocking how few ever make a second attempt to get me. It communicates that I must not be a high priority. Don’t be a “one and done” salesperson.

6.  Be human. Use humor or guilt, not anger. One of the keys to telephone prospecting is to convert the buyer from seeing you an anonymous salesperson making robocalls to viewing you as a real-life human being. To make that happen through voice mail, we need to sound and act like real people, normal people with feelings. For whatever reason, salespeople are not viewed as real people when making proactive calls. Prospects don’t respond to robots going through the motions. They’re much more likely to respond to a fellow member of humanity who has a great story and is making a supreme effort to pique their interest. If I haven’t received a return call after a few messages it’s time to ramp up the human side. I like to do that with humor and possibly a little guilt thrown in. It’s amazing how often the return call finally comes after a third message that includes something funny or plays on the fact that “I hope by now I’ve earned a callback based on perseverance alone.” Similar to asking three times for the meeting, somehow the third voice mail tends to do the trick. Also, never get angry or show frustration in a message. We have no right to be angry at prospects who don’t know us and haven’t asked us to call. If they’re not calling back, it’s on us, not on them.

The telephone can be an effective friend and critical part of our new business development attack. But your friendship with the phone requires an investment on your part. The phone gets a bad rap because salespeople cannot use it effectively or will not use it at all. It’s up to you. My encouragement is to try the techniques I’ve outlined throughout this chapter. There’s no way to improve your proactive telephone skills without practice. Confidence will lead to success, and more success will increase your confidence. To practice, start by calling smaller or more insignificant accounts. As you get more comfortable with this methodology, you’ll find yourself opening doors you never thought possible.