My friend Steve Rae makes some good points in his post about voice mail. His post details how to leave a proper voice mail with someone that you have had some previous contact.

But what about how to leave a voice mail with a prospect that you have never spoken with? That’s a horse of a different color.

If, as Steve says and I believe, most voice mails are deleted in 20 seconds or less, what do you say to get people, who don’t know you, to call you back?

First let’s look at the typical message left by a sales rep:

What is the problem with this approach?

It gives the listener too much information. The second the listener hears the name of your company and what you do they form a premature opinion about whether they need what you are selling and they hit the delete button.

RULE: The chances of getting a return call are directly proportional to how much information you leave.

If you want to increase your odds of a prospect calling you back leave this message:

This works for several reasons:

• It is hard to ignore because it doesn’t provide the listener with excess information.
• It also piques their curiosity
• It gets the listener‘s attention because they don’t know if you are a prospect, vendor, referral or customer and there is a bit of fear about not returning that type of call.

When leaving this message tonality is the key. You will want to slow down your rate of speech, lower your voice and project a confident business like tone.

Will this approach work every time? Absolutely not.

Will it work most of the time? Absolutely not?

Will it work a lot better than what you now do? You bet your sweet bippy.

Good Selling

Steve Clark

PS Read More of Steve’s posts at American Small Business

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Even if you think you’re well versed in the selling basics, it’s important to keep your skills razor sharp. Sales fundamentals like listening and asking questions may make the difference between winning and losing, so don’t assume that a refresher course in the basics is beneath your level of expertise. These 10 reminders will keep your skills polished and form a strong selling foundation for career-long success.

1. Listen intently. The 80/20 rule bears repeating: Spend 80 percent of your time listening, and only 20 percent talking. You’re there to serve your customer’s needs, but you won’t be able to if you don’t stop talking long enough to uncover them. Ask a lot of questions, and take notes on the answers to force you to listen carefully and help ensure that you remember important points of the conversation. Sit on the edge of your seat, and be fascinated by what your prospects have to say – a big sale may be riding on every word.

2. Ask questions first, present later. Make sure you understand their needs, wants, expectations and feelings 100 percent so that your presentation hits all of their hot buttons. Ask questions first to ensure that you don’t share all your good news on page one – it may help build your prospect’s trust by showing them that their needs come before your desire to sell to them.

3. Uncover needs – don’t presume them. Just as no competent doctor prescribes treatment before thoroughly examining a patient, you should let your prospects tell you what they need instead of assuming that you already know. Should you make product or service recommendations without consulting them, they may question your competence and intentions. Remember – your prospects know themselves and their businesses best. Give them a chance to share that knowledge with you to benefit you both.

4. Uncover the budget . Once you and your prospects know how much they can spend, both of you can consider a buying decision more seriously. Assure prospects that you’ll do your best for them regardless of the size of their budget. When you’ve proven your honesty and reliability with a small order, your customers may reward you with more and bigger ones. If your prospect seems uncomfortable discussing money, ask for a ballpark figure, and work from there.

5. Uncover the decision making process.Presentations demand a lot of work and time, so make sure you present to those who can reward your effort with a sale. It may take longer to reach all of the decision makers, but trying to sell to non deciison makers simply wastes time – yours and theirs. Instead of presenting to the wrong people, spend your time building trust with gatekeepers who hold the key to the decision maker’s office and your next sale.

6. Build rapport without going overboard. Salespeople who try too hard to make friends of their prospects may be doing more harm than good. Most prospects want a salesperson who will be an informative industry resource, problem solver and reliable business partner – not a golfing buddy. Stick to impressing prospects with your honesty and expertise instead of your winning personality.

7. Don’t answer unspoken objections. When customers voice concerns, uncover the real issue by asking them why they raised that point. You never know just how much your prospects know about your product, so don’t volunteer information they may perceive as being negative.

8. Customize the sale. We all like to be treated like the special, unique individuals that we are, so tailor your selling style to suit each of your prospects. To keep them happy and comfortable, observe their personality and character closely, then conduct yourself accordingly. The more your customers feel like the center of your attention, the more likely they are to return for more of the VIP treatment.

9. Go with the flow. Few people really like to be sold, and fewer still enjoy being manipulated. Your desire to close a sale is secondary to your customers’ needs – make sure you can really help the prospects you target. When your product or service truly solves a problem, you shouldn’t have to manipulate the buyer into a purchase. The hard sell usually only raises the prospect’s defenses. Instead, take greater control of the sale by turning some of it over to the customer.

10. Have a selling system. Make sure you have a proven system that helps you generate prospects, set appointments, close sales and provide quality, consistent follow-up service. When problems arise, your system will simplify diagnosing and treating them.

Good Selling

Steve Clark

PS Want to know “How to Hire a Sales Super Star”

When you first meet with a buyer /prospect, it is important that both of you are on the same page about what will happen during the meeting. In order to have an effective meeting, both you and the buyer/prospect must agree to what will happen, when it will happen and in what order it will happen. To this end, it is important that you use an agenda to eliminate any potential misunderstandings.

Creating agendas with our buyers happen at the beginning and end of each contact or conversation.  Failure to do this results in the sales person making a lot of assumptions, most of which will be false.

Below is a meeting agenda that we teach our clients to use in their first face to face meeting. We suggest that you spend two minutes going over this agenda and gaining agreement with your buyer before you begin any substantive discussions. If you will use this you will shorten your sales cycle and avoid a lot of misunderstandings.

Meeting Agenda

1. Meeting Objective: 

     Is there a fit between your company and ours?

2. Two Ground Rules:

     Total Honesty and Openness with each other.
     It is OK for either of us to terminate the conversation at any time.

3. Your Issues:

     Current Situation < ------ > Desired Situation
   
4. Overview of our company’s products and services

     What we do, how we do it, how much does it cost?

5. Decision Process

      How do you make decisions and what do you need from me to help you do that?
6. Next Step:

     Clearly decide what our next step should be

Good Selling

Steve Clark

PS Check out the free “How to Hire Sales Superstars” TeleClass

Recent research and field data from Princeton University support the premise that Emotional Intelligence is a major contributing factor to sales success. Daniel Goleman and Cary Cherniss in their book The Emotionally Intelligent Workplace evaluated three predictors of job success; Relevant Experience, Emotional Intelligence, and Outstanding IQ. They found that job success could be predicted:

> 71% of the time by the candidate’s Relevant Experience
> 74% of the time by the candidate’s Emotional Intelligence
> 48% of the time by the candidate’s IQ

Goleman and Cherniss go on to say that the higher and more significant the position, the greater the role Emotional Intelligence plays. In fact, at the Top Sales and Senior Executive level, EI factors are as much as 80% responsible for long-term success.

According to Stephen Blakesley, President of Management Systems, Inc., numerous studies specific to sales and Emotional Intelligence found:

In one organization, sales reps with high EI were 127 times more productive than sales reps that had average EI.
 
In another large, multinational organization sales people selected on the basis of Emotional Intelligence sold, on average $91,370 more annually than other sales people in the organization.
 
Additionally, those selected on the basis of Emotional Intelligence had 63% less turnover during the first year than those selected based on experience.
 
No doubt about it. Emotional Intelligence is more important than experience when it comes to success in sales.
 
Want to find out how to Hire Sales Superstars?

Good Selling

Steve Clark
 

According to hiring expert Dave Kurlan, only 15% of sales candidates that are tested by his company pass the pre-hire screening test, and are recommended for hire. These numbers are in line with Herb Greenberg’s numbers that state that only 20% of the people now selling has the emotional and psychological talents to be top performers. Both of these numbers are in line with the Pareto Principle.

In my study of sales, I have found that the normal bell shaped curve applies to sales organizations. This normal distribution can be understood by identifying the four kinds of performers within an organization. These four can be labeled A’s, B’s, C’s and D’s.

For training purposes these groups can be divided into two groups: The Trainables and The Non-Trainables.

The Trainables are: A’s who are highly productive, motivated to grow and trainable and C’s who are non-productive, but motivated and trainable.

The Non-Trainables are: B’s who are highly productive, but are comfortable with their current level of income, have no motivation to grow, and are not receptive to training, and D’s who are not productive, not motivated, and have no potential for growth.

If we apply the normal bell shaped curve to a sales organization, we will find about 20% of the sales organization are A’s, 60% are B’s and C’s and 20% are D’s.

From a training standpoint, the only salepeople it makes sense to train are the A’s and the C’s who want to become A’s – usually about half of this C group. The B’s are not candidates for training unless and until they become uncomfortable with their current level of success. The D’s are not trainable and should be replaced.

Using these numbers, on average, only about half of any sales organization, the A’s and half of the C’s will benefit from training.

When we work with companies to improve the sales process we usually find that improving the sales process involves a two pronged approach of identifying and training the trainables and implementing a more effective recruiting and hiring process to replace the non productive, non-trainables.

Good Selling

Steve Clark

PS Check out the free “Prospecting to Fill the Pipeline” TeleClass on Oct. 23rd.