Dust Off Those Sales Resolutions

Sales resolutions, like fitness and diet self-promises, are already starting to lose their grip. Selling professionals have fallen back into the same old rut of not prospecting, not filling pipelines and doing anything to avoid paper work or worse, making a cold call. And when it comes to organization and time management, most good sales people lack the skills.

Don’t despair, the year is young and you can get in touch with your resolutions once again and make this a great sales year.

Here are 8 steps to get your well-intentioned sales resolutions back on track:

Get out of the comfort zone, really! Tackle the tasks you hate without much thought. Pick up the phone, prospect and handle paperwork efficiently and timely.

Quit talking. Quit talking about you. A prospect wants to buy from you if you’ll only let them tell you why and they will, if you just start listening.

Forget the close. If you’ve been selling for anytime at all, you remember the ill-taught closing techniques. Forget them. Closing is a natural part of the sales conversation. Don’t push it.

Take time to research your prospect. Find out what it is that you may be able to help with. Far too many sales reps fall down here. You are not too busy to skip this.

Get in the Game. Many a sales rep rearranges drawers, handles personal errands and does anything but work a sales system. Quit putting it off and get to work.

Enough with the dumb questions. Ban the following questions to prospects: How are you? What’s new? Ban the following statements: I was just calling to check in (substitute touch base). Have a nice day.

Deliver the right message to the right person at the right time. How many of you spend far too much time dueling with gatekeepers while the decision maker remains elusive.

Track, track, track your efforts and results. If you don’t have a CRM or sales planning system like Goldmine or ACT, get one now. You’ll learn a lot about what efforts pay off most and you’ll be more organized than you ever thought.

If your sales are suffering, look in the mirror. Better yet, look at your 2009 selling resolutions and commit to them. You made them for a reason. Remember?

The Two R's Of Appointment Setting

You have to get two basic steps right to successfully set a sales appointment. You have to call the right prospect and deliver the right message.

Brilliant, huh?

You might be surprised how difficult it is.

Most business owners, big and small, Fortune 500 and entrepreneur, spend the majority of their energy calling the wrong prospects. People who will never do anything but waste the sales reps’ time. This isn’t an intentional strategy, but one born of poor planning and sometimes outdated management thinking.

Any given company has prospects that fall into a scant few SIC codes or categories. A superior sales organization takes the time necessary to identify the prospect most likely to buy from them. Not the prospect whose need can be filled or want sated, but the prospect that does buy the service or product the company sells.

Want to drive more sales? Work on your list of prospects. Throw out those that have been in your database too long. Be liberal in tossing to the curb those that don’t fit your narrow profile.

Once you’ve identified a list of prospects that deserve to be called, you need to craft a smart introduction script. That script will keep you from deviating from the main points you need to make and with very little practice will sound as natural as if you are talking to a friend.

Cover the basics. Begin with your name and company name.

This is Brian Grinonneau with the appointment setting firm MaSM.

State the purpose of your call and develop some interest.

We’ve set high-level, qualified sales appointments for ABC and DEF companies with the accounts they wanted most resulting in a good deal of new business being closed.

Ask for an appointment.

If you are considering any new options in your sales strategies I would like the chance to introduce myself and my company to you and if there is anything you hear that you like maybe you would think of us in the future.

Would you have time in the next week?

Schedule the appointment.

Your script is used to set an appointment, period. You are generating enough interest in your offer for the prospect to take some of his most valuable commodity, time, to meet with you. Take your time and develop the script with precision. Make sure that every word is right and conveys the meaning you want. The results will be worth the time invested.

If your prospecting is off kilter and your sales pipeline isn’t full make sure that you are calling the right prospects with the right message. Build the list. Develop the words. Work a system. Smile and dial. Set more sales appointments and close more deals.

You've Got to Be Kidding Me

By Brian Grinonneau





Here's an idea hatched in the minds of short-sighted corporate cost cutters: "Let's hire an overseas call center to handle outbound sales appointment setting and inbound service issues". In the immortal words of Johnny Mac, you've got to be kidding me.

Want an example? Try doing business with Spirit Airlines. That's the company with cheap fares but lousy customer service. A recent problem with a boarding pass resulted in on the phone hold times of up to an hour, only to be greeted by a representative named "Roger" who sounded a hell of a lot like Rameesh. Listen to this guy pronounce Seattle.

Let's get smart here. People in the U.S. (your customers and prospects) want to talk with someone who speaks pretty flawless English. Long Island nasal and southern twang is ok but a "no trace of an accent" midwestern dialect is preferable. Put an overseas caller on the job and blow this deal and all future deals once and for all.

Why do businesses with good street cred use call centers from India, Pakistan and other far away places? Think. It's in the bottom line. Man, you can have that job done for pennies on the dollar. Problem is: the job is so poorly done that you have killed a sale and taken customer care to new lows.

Next time you get a come on email or sales call from an overseas call center, ignore it. Or if you prefer, hire the company and put them to work. It makes it so much easier for smart companies to use professional U.S. telemarketers and show you what ROI really means.

Sales Appointment Setting: A Matter of Geometry?

by Brian Grinonneau


Amazing isn't it, the number of smart business types trying to fit a square peg into a round hole with their approach to sales management. It doesn't fit! It never will. Open up to some new options.

A sharp sales rep wants to sell. That's all. No cold calls. No prospecting. No scheduling meetings. No paperwork. He wants to get in front of the client and perform. (see: close the deal) Problem is: overwrought sales management thinks that you need to push the cocky sales staff to build a skill set that focuses more on the mundane tasks of sales planning. Ridiculous! Delegate the job to someone else.

Before you say it costs too much to bring on new staff to work for the sales reps, you need to really consider the ROI. MaSM studies in late 2007 show that sales productivity can more than double and cash flow is akin to ocean waves when using appointment setters.

A sales appointment setter is an introvert who prefers making a connection by phone and setting the stage for the performer. The sales star is an extrovert focused on the gratification of the sale and the money and bragging rights it brings. Two distinct halves of the sales equation that make for one hell of a result.

Sales appointment setting brings real meaning to the most overused word in business today: synergy. Pair up sales appointment setters and even the most average sales reps and you've got a team that will blow away quotas and projections. ROI will finally mean something.

Doing what you've always done and expecting different results just doesn't work. You know that. It really is the square peg, round hole theory.

The Reality of Telemarketing

Forget what you think telemarketing is and embrace the reality that it is used by the largest companies in the world to introduce new products, gauge customer satisfaction and schedule qualified sales appointments.

Today’s telemarketing is the purest form of direct marketing and direct marketing is the shortest distance between two points for business success. With the overload of messages crashing into consumers, a clear voice that rises above the din must be found. Telemarketing is that voice.

To be sure, there are a few firms that still practice boiler room telemarketing tactics of days gone by. The majority, however, are professional organizations committed to your complete success.

When hiring a telemarketing firm, look for very specific attributes:

• Knowledgeable, well-spoken company representatives

• Expertise in telling your story

• Excellence in building the right list of qualified prospects to call

• No long-term contract

• A non-disclosure, confidentiality agreement

• Clear and understandable campaign reporting

• Open, meaningful communication

• Establishment of goals and measurement tools

• Interaction between your sales and management team and the professional telemarketers

• Pricing that is clear and fair

• The ability to analyze, test and refocus campaigns for your maximum result

If you sell any product or service, and want to put it in the hands of your best prospects, you should use telemarketing professionals. If you have a customer base and want to build loyalty and repeat business you should use telemarketing professionals. The investment will pay for itself many times over and become the centerpiece of your direct marketing strategy.