I have an upcoming webinar in which I am presenting “telephone skills” to the Gold Coast regional association’s membership this summer. Its origin is from a PPAI seminar I have done for years on telephone prospecting. That’s prospecting ... however, I am adding “Keep in Touch” to the presentation as it has always been important to sales relationships and is more difficult today than a few years ago. Over time, I have tweaked the seminar, but I have not had to rewrite it as some communication fundamentals don’t change.
The gist of the session focuses on the “overture”. We know the overture is the musical beginning of a performance. The telephone overture is the introduction of the caller and the subject matter to the prospect. It sets the table for a continued conversation and the receptivity the prospect has to the caller’s overall conversation. I am sure you agree that the prospects are guarded, negative, and skeptical of sales calls. This is where the “overture” must reset the prospect’s attitude and do it in a hurry. I’ll give you 15 seconds, at best. After those 15 seconds, you need to get a buy-in from the prospect to move forward and for you to “relax”. If you fail, you need to hit the reset button and move on with another effort to open a dialog with the prospect. It’s a one, two, three punch and it is so condensed you may have little time to take a breath.
Every prospect/buyer wants you to answer the primary question … what’s in it for me? This is the key ingredient in your overture. You need to clearly state what is in it for the buyer. In sales and marketing the prospect wants to increase sales volume, profitability, gain the competitive advantage. In HR, the director wants to facilitate hiring, increase employee tenure, loyalty, and maintain the best of the best. In every department of corporate, academic, association, and service businesses that we touch, the prospect has needs/goals you need to focus upon to get them actively into your call.
“Good Morning, Mrs. James, I am Tom Hansen, Executive VP of the Hansen Agency, specialists in employee retention and I am sure one of your objectives and needs is to increase employee retention!”
There it is, say it slowly and look at a clock. It is less than 15 seconds and you set the table with one short sentence to add … “Am I correct?” The ending question is phrased to get buy-in, agreement, to get on the page. From there, you can enter their world. Generally, you don’t ask yes or no questions, but the prospect, unless a bit sarcastic, has little choice but to answer “yes”.
“Good afternoon Mr. Miller, I am Toni Scott, VP of Sales & Marketing Strategies for ABC Company and I am sure you, like all of our corporate clients, want to increase sales, profitability and move further ahead of your competition, am I correct?” The same approach with a different departmental emphasis.
In both those scenarios above, I assigned a title to the caller. In simple terms, people like to do business with executive level personnel. Perhaps they think them more experienced, perhaps they feel more important being contacted by a higher up. I believe that every reader should be awarded the title of “Director”, “Vice President”, “Manager”, etc. It’s only a title but, it is important.
I also used the word “agency”. Here, too, an agency connotes something more than a vendor. There is a trend toward names with “swag” etc., but I can buy swag from Amazon, not agency creativity. Positioning yourself as an agency lends more intrigue and respect.
Once you have buy-in, you need to move to a dialog, not a monologue. You need to continue the pattern of baiting the prospect with your services that can help he or she achieve their objectives. At the same time, you need to establish you and your company as potential partners in their efforts.
"We have 35 years of experience creating and delivering creative programs to help move product for our clients. I’m sure you have an objective to move more goods and services this year? We have a unique business model doing our creative at no charge. I’d like to get a few minutes of your time on Tuesday or Wednesday to show you what we have done for our clients. But, most important, see if you can benefit from our company. I’ll bring the donuts. How is your schedule on either morning?"
Only a few years ago, rarely was there a robotic call. Today, it is obnoxiously overwhelming. This is the spoiler. Too many businesses hunt for prospects through third party services, scripted dialog, and robotic calls. It sets a table for all sales calls and hinders prospecting. That means you need to sharpen your game.
Caller ID is used in VOIP as well as traditional telecommunications. Calls are blocked and screened electronically. Carefully consider how you identify yourself and company within the caller ID of your outbound calls. When an ID is blocked, it can hinder the chance of a call being taken. When the ID looks threatening in terms of “danger, Will Robinson, salesman on the line”, the call may be screened. Your name on the caller ID has a greater chance of the call being taken.
Above all, continue to hone and practice your overture. It is a gateway to new business.
Joel D. Schaffer, MAS is CEO and Founder of Soundline, LLC, the pioneering supplier to the promotional products industry of audio products. Joel has 48 years of promotional product industry experience and proudly heralds “I was a distributor.” He has been on the advisory panel of the business and marketing department of St. John’s University in New York and is frequent speaker at Rutgers Graduate School of Business. He is an industry Advocate and has appeared before the American Bankers Association, American Marketing Association, National Premium Sales Executives, American Booksellers Association and several other major groups. He has been a management consultant to organizations such as The College Board and helped many suppliers enter this industry. He is a frequent contributor to PPB and Counselor magazines. He has facilitated over 200 classes sharing his industry knowledge nationwide. He is known for his cutting humor and enthusiasm in presenting provocative and motivating programs. He is the only person to have received both the Marvin Spike Industry Lifetime Achievement Award (2002) and PPAI’s Distinguished Service Award (2011). He is a past director of PPAI and has chaired several PPAI committees and task forces. He is a past Chair of the SAAGNY Foundation, Past President of SAAGNY and a SAAGNY Hall of Fame member. He was cited by ASI as one of the 50 most influential people in the industry.