Tip #4 – Voice mail

For most of us in sales, leaving messages on voice mail is a way of life. If you are trying to reach decision makers, (their time is valuable) you need to leave a message which gives them a REASON to call you back. A lot of the work that you put into creating a great opening statement (see page 1) can really help here. Here are a few tips for leaving an effective voicemail.

Make sure that you leave your phone number at the beginning and end of the message, you cannot be sure that your prospect will go back to the start to listen again to your pitch. Also, think of what you can say that will make them want to call you back as soon as they hear the message.

You have to make sure your tone is confident, well paced and has authority. The easiest way to do this is to start recording yourself. I have not met many executives who liked the way they sound, but that’s the reality of how you sound to prospects. Having done that, you can begin to start changing and controlling your tone for the better.

One more thing, try this; if you are leaving a voice mail message, flip the phone over and speak into the mouthpiece as if it were a microphone in your hand, you will be surprised at how much better you will sound.

Tip #3 – Trial closes

What is the difference between a trial close and an actual close? There is a lot of literature available on the ‘Net’ and in the local bookshop. The easiest and most useful definition I know is this; a trial close asks for an opinion, whereas an actual close asks for a decision.

Now, in my opinion, a lot of sales people make a fundamental mistake and believe that in order to be successful in sales they need to be hard closers. They equate this with asking for decisions and then push too early in the sales process. For the prospect the easiest answer is NO. Some of the best sales people I have ever worked with almost NEVER make the close themselves, they let the CLIENT close the deal.

They achieve this by using trial closes in the same way a chef uses seasoning, a lot sprinkled around. One of the best and most successful trial closing scripts is the following:

“…makes sense to me, what do you think?”

You can use this after running through the benefits of your product or service. Based on the answer from the prospect, you can move forward or go back and address their concern. Of course, after you deliver your trial close you need to use one of the best techniques of all:  SHUT UP and wait for their response.

Ciaran’s book can be bought from our website at www.strikeforcesales.com.au.

Don’t forget Ciaran is running a Sales Seminar on Thursday the 29th of September entitled “Fix Your Sales & Profit”.  Call us on +612 8080 3621 to reserve your seat.

Tip #2 – Explode Your Opportunities

When I use the term ‘Explode Your Opportunities’ I want you to do just that, not go out and use a couple of sticks of dynamite, but create a map to show your existing relationships with your existing customers and THEIR customers. Here’s how to do it:

Identify a client who is delighted with your product or service. Now get hold of a whiteboard or a clean sheet of paper and put your client’s name in the center of one page in a circle. Spend a couple of minutes and identify six businesses / individuals who also sell products and services to your client. I like to draw each one of them in a ‘circle’ centred around, and connected to, the key relationship. In this way you can ‘drill down’ into each subset to explore the relationships.

Make sure you ask your current client for permission to contact this network and that you have some illustration, demonstration or proof of how your service helped them through a challenge.

The key to using this is twofold. Even if you only have a small client base of six, by using this system, you immediately have at least 36 new businesses to contact AND you will be in a position to leverage your existing relationship! As each new relationship develops you can continually expand this model and in a very short period of time ‘Explode’ your potential for business growth.

Ciaran’s book can be bought from our website at www.strikeforcesales.com.au.

Don’t forget Ciaran is running a Sales Seminar on Thursday the 29th of September entitled “Fix Your Sales & Profit”.  Call us on +612 8080 3621 to reserve your seat.

Tip #1 – Have an opening statement which creates interest

Let’s look at the prospective phone call from the client’s point of view. It is Monday morning about 10.00 a.m. They are getting stuck into their to-do list, schedule of appointments and various projects. They have a busy schedule and like a lot of other decision makers in their company, their time is important. In fact it is their most critical finite resource, so they guard it jealously.

Now their PA is good at balancing their diary and keeping unsolicited calls from getting through although, occasionally, the odd one does make it. However, they can recognize a pitch in a nanosecond and can politely (sometimes not so) get rid of them. This is a typical environment that your prospecting call is going into. What do you say to make your chances of securing a sale or an appointment as high as possible?

Let’s look at what the ‘average’ sales rep says:

“Good morning, my name is John Doe from Superior Services, the reason I am calling you today is I just wanted to let you know…touch base…was wondering…was in the area…”

There is a science to creating great opening statements and this is THE most critical stage of the prospecting process. Fundamentally, you must sound pleasant and confident and quickly offer proof of how you helped someone just like them by reducing their PAIN (what they want less of) and increase their GAIN (what they want more of) all in less than 20 seconds! As a first step, write yourself a script and review it, do you sound interesting? If not, dump it and try again.

Tape yourself and keep going until you get it right. What are the critical issues for their industry, market and business? Make sure you identify and offer proof of two things; how you can reduce what they want less of and how you can help them get more of what they want.

Below, is an opening statement that I have highlighted and broken down the five elements which make it work. I encourage you to take your own statements and break them down in this way:

“Is that David DeCision?

Hi David, my name is Peter Sells of World’s Best Widgets.

David, the reason I wanted to speak with you today is that my company and I have recently been working with several other major businesses in your industry; ABC and XYZ industries.

We’ve been helping them not only cut (slash / halve / shrink etc) the amount of labour, administrative time and management required for most widget installations, but at the same time doubling the effective life and profitability of each component used in the process. I would love to come by some time and show you how we did that.”

 

Element ONE: The Greeting / Introduction

This confirms you are speaking to the right person and also tells them who you are and where you are calling from:

“Is that David DeCision? (YES) Hi David, my name is Peter Sells of World’s Best Widgets.”

Element TWO: Proof you have helped others like them

This builds a genuine reason for your call based on the good work you have done for others:

“David, the reason I wanted to speak with you today is that my company and I have recently been working with several other major businesses in your industry (use people and company names if possible) helping them not only”

Element THREE: Reduce their PAIN

This focuses on what drives most decisions; what is it your prospects want less of and where are the areas of their business giving them most pain:

“cut (slash / halve / shrink etc) the amount of labour, administrative time and management required for most widget installations, but at the same time”

Element FOUR: Increase their GAIN

This focuses on the other major driver in decision making: what is it they want more of:

“doubling the effective life and profitability of each component used in the process.”

Element FIVE: TRIAL CLOSE Appointment

This phrase invites them to agree to an appointment, or more likely respond to you with a question / objection:

“I would love to come by some time and show you how we did that.”

What next?

An objection or a question is the most likely initial response from your prospect. Stay focused on the reason why they should meet with you and keep the results you have achieved for others the key topic.

Ciaran’s book can be bought from our website at www.strikeforcesales.com.au.

Don’t forget Ciaran is running a Sales Seminar on Thursday the 29th of September entitled “Fix Your Sales & Profit”.  Call us on +612 8080 3621 to reserve your seat.

The World’s Best Sales Tips – Ciaran McGuigan

How many times have you bought a book on selling, sifted through hundreds of pages only to find just one or two ideas that you can use straight away?

In Ciaran McGuigan’s book, “The World’s Best Sales Tips” you can’t turn one page without finding a new idea or practical selling tip. It has been written for those sales people hungry for ideas, tips and techniques that they can use instantly. Open at any page and read any tip in five minutes or less. Use it like a ’drop in’ resource, available any time day or night when you need it.

Over the course of the next few weeks, I’ll be providing tips from Ciaran McGuigan’s Best Selling book, “The Worlds Best Sales Tips”.  The best comment over the course of September will receive a free copy of the book.

September Workshop – Fix Your Sales & Profit

JOIN SALES EXPERT CIARAN MCGUIGAN FOR AN ACTION PACKED 3 HOURS OF WINNING SALES TIPS AND TECHNIQUES.
Ciaran is an expert in fixing the number one problem facing ALL businesses: Lack of
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transformed tired sales teams and underperforming executives into enthusiastic market
leaders and rainmakers!

He is a recognized expert in sales and selling techniques and the founder and owner of
Strike Force Sales [Australia’s leading new business development agency]. He regularly
appears in the media and is the sales expert on Channel Seven’s popular ‘Kochie’s
Business Builders’ program. He is also the author of the internationally acclaimed sales
book ‘The World’s Best Sales Tips’ and holds a Masters Degree in marketing. A quick
video search on Google or YouTube will show you why this workshop will empower and
motivate your sales team to succeed. In addition, Ciaran personally GUARANTEES you
will be delighted with the content and relevance and outcomes of the program.

Click Here for a PDF and Information on Ciaran McGuigan’s September Workshop – Fix Your Sales & Profit

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The New Market

By Chris Moriarty
Joint Managing Director

It is said that after every recession the market comes back changed; the rules are slightly different than those that existed prior to the downturn.

So what is different about the new market now starting to emerge?

This week’s The Economist (March 5) talks about the economic shift from West to East.

A year ago I was having a coffee in Sydney with the Asia Pacific Vice President of a global corporation who is based in Singapore. An Indian national who does business all over Asia, he is acutely aware of what is going on. He said that in the previous week there were days where no jobs at all were advertised in The Straits Times. The Financial Review meanwhile had lots of jobs.

He loves coming to Australia because it was an escape from the real world. In his view, Australia was an island, removed from the rest of the world, where a very ordinary, not particularly well educated worker can enjoy a great life style and work only 35 hours a week.

His view was that sooner or later something had to give, and living standards had to come into some sort of balance.

The contact centre industry is one industry where this is happening. Jobs are being sent offshore – some are outsourced and in some cases Australian businesses are opening branch offices in foreign cities and employing staff directly.

Under pressure to remain competitive, more and more businesses are looking to drive the productivity of their dollars. At the same time, many Asian economies and businesses are much more confident.

The Economist printed a graph showing GDP over the past 1000 years. For 800 years, Greater Asia (including India, China, Japan and the rest) generated up to 80% of the world’s GDP. It has only been since the early 1800s that the West has boomed. Now Asia is coming back to what is really more normal levels.

Therefore, it seems reasonable to consider that the big change in the ‘new’ economy is the increased role of globalisation and in particular the increased role of the competitive pressure being put on Western businesses and lifestyles by the Asian economies.

So the race is on to stay above the crush. To survive, businesses are going to have to become a lot smarter. They are going to have to leverage their access to the rich Australian marketplace while transitioning their processes to the point where they are competitive against global benchmarks.

Even smaller businesses are going to have to do this.

Strike Force Sales is already fully exposed to this market. We compete on a deal-by-deal basis against competitors who operate in lower cost economies. Recently we won a deal in India where we now dial into India from Sydney. So we know we are globally competitive. To stay competitive, we have had to focus intently on value as we can’t compete on raw price.

It is a huge challenge, but it is one we are winning. We are happy to talk to any of you about how to achieve the same outcomes for your businesses.

Tele-prospecting Is Tough

By Richard Lee

Client Services

 

At Strike Force Sales we often describe being an operator in an outbound contact centre as taking part in a “contact sport”. This is because some of the responses you receive over the phone from both gatekeepers and decision makers can be brutal and at the end of a long day it sometimes feels like you have gone 12 rounds with Mike Tyson. If you’re not tough enough to keep getting up after you receive verbal punches again and again day after day then it will be an early retirement for you from this sport.

 

So how can we stay in shape and make sure we have what it takes to dodge the punches and throw a few of our own?

 

The best way to do this is to avoid the common mistakes we hear everyday when we answer the phone and it’s yet another telemarketer from overseas on the other end of the line.

 

- Talking Too Much

 

One of the most common mistakes is to talk at your prospect rather than with them and engage them in conversation and actually listen what they have to say. If the prospect isn’t speaking much, chances are they could be bored and stopped listening a while ago.

 

- Failing To Close

 

Lots of telemarketers are scared of rejection which leads them to not even ask their prospect if they want to buy the product. Don’t be scared of rejection, it’s not personal and the no’s are just as important as the yes’s.

 

- Following The Script

 

Reading a script can be (and usually is) disastrous. When your whole knowledge of a certain product comes from this one page of badly written spiel in front of you, you will always fail if someone asks you question that’s not covered in the script.

 

- Stopping At The First no

 

Don’t stop at the first no you are given. The chances are that it will probably be a knee jerk reaction from the prospect to get you off the phone. Dig a little deeper, find out if they have a genuine reason to turn you down.

 

- Are You Interested?

 

This is probably the worst question you can ask as it gives the prospect the opportunity to say no. Knowing when to use open and closed ended questions is vital in keeping the prospect engaged and giving them less opportunity to say no.

 

- Boredom

 

Depending on your target market the decision makers can be difficult to get a hold of. Keep yourself active whilst waiting to make contact, nobody wants to listen to someone who sounds bored as it reflects badly on the product you are pitching.

 

These are just a few of the many common mistakes that you need to avoid to be successful in this sport. Remember tele-prospecting is tough and if you’re not tough enough to get back up after you have been knocked down then maybe you should consider another career.