Does this happen to you?
You are trying to reach a prospect on the phone. When the phone is answered, the message begins with “I’m not in the office right now, but if you leave your name and number, I’ll be sure to get back to you… “
And you respond to yourself, “Darn!” (or something similar).
According to sales strategist Jill Konrath, 97 percent of all business calls now go to voicemail. I yearn for the days in sales when I can talk on the phone with a person rather than with a machine!
I was going through my database and making cold calls. But, for the most part, I left voicemail messages that ended with “Call me back to set up a 30-minute appointment so that I can show you how we can help you improve your business.”
As you might expect, nobody called me back.
Time for a Radically Different Approach
I developed a new program, not to get into new companies and give sales pitches but to provide lunch and valuable information to their employees. While the employees were enjoying their food, I would present a session on “Time Refuses to be Managed: How to Manage Yourself Instead.”
Something marvelous began to happen!
For my first presentation, the CEO of a $54 million defense contractor attended the session. (When do you get the audience of the CEO for an hour on a first sales call?)
At the end of the session, she came up to me and said, “We need help!”
Wow!
She felt she was in a safe, relaxed environment (rather than a high-pressure sales pitch). We then had a follow-up one-on-one meeting with her that resulted in a contract of nearly $50,000, all for the price of a few pizzas!
Next, at the next presentation, the vice presidents attended for whom I had left those same cold call voicemail messages (that were, of course, not returned). At the end of that presentation, they brainstormed ideas on how we could establish a partnership. Finally, the vice presidents asked us to submit two proposals.
I had a follow-up call after a third presentation. It was the lowest pressure and most productive initial sales call I have been on in my 25 years of sales!
It’s human nature – if somebody feels you have already done something for them, they want to reciprocate. In this case, the potential client (who works for a Fortune 500 company with “General” in its name) was falling all over himself, writing a testimonial, and giving me the regional manager and national manager contact names. “But let me call them first for you,” he said. Simply amazing! I used his testimonial on the subsequent oversized postcards I mailed to secure additional lunch and learn presentations.
“99% Information and 1% Promotion”
The original Macintosh evangelist Guy Kawasaki says that to be effective in this current economy, you need to provide “99% information and 1% promotion.” Once customers feel you have provided content, they will listen to a small sales pitch. But certainly not the other way around.
Salespeople would feel less stress and be more effective if they used a method like this: Initially provide value to the prospect. Get them to trust you first. Show that you’re not just another “Slick Willie” watching out for yourself and your commission.
It’s amazing how many sales seminars and conferences still teach the same old manipulative tricks (e.g., ABC – Always Be Closing, The Seven Keys to Overcoming Objectives, The Thirteen Ways to Seal the Deal). Customers need to be more sophisticated to fall for the devious tactics of the past, especially astute members of Generation X and Generation Y.
Seth Godin, author of the marketing best-seller Purple Cow, says the key to selling success is cheating. “Find somebody who has done something remarkable in an industry even more dull than yours,” Godin advises. “It won’t take long, and then just do what they do.”
What topic could you offer to benefit employees of a local organization? Give them something of interest from their perspective, not yours.
Let’s say you sell insurance. You could give a presentation to college students who will soon be entering the workforce (and looking to buy insurance on their own). You could deliver a session on “How to Become a Millionaire by the Age of 30.” Then include in the presentation all the steps necessary to secure a financial future. Rather than delivering an insurance “sales pitch” to just one person, you can reach dozens or even hundreds of potential clients simultaneously.
Once you’ve built trust and a relationship with them, they’ll want to buy from you. You won’t need to sell them.
Sales can be fun again!
