Sales Question:

"Should I Email My Prospects Before Calling?"

Answer:

I get this question a lot. I understand it. Most sales reps are tired of getting rejected when selling over the phone. It’s natural to look for a solution that minimizes our own pain. Unfortunately, emailing a prospect before calling them only lessens the pain of rejection but it does nothing to lessen the pain of missing quota.

So here’s my take:

Rule #1: I don’t blind email someone I have never had any interaction with.

Interaction includes:

• They contacted my company
• They attended one of my free webinars
• We connected via LinkedIn
• They were referred to me

Rule #2: When tempted to email a prospect instead of calling first, remember rule number #1.

CASE IN POINT

Below is an unsolicited sales email I received. After a few seconds of reading it, I was about to hit the delete button when I realized that I myself have sent emails like this in the past (and probably much worse) before I learned the error of my ways and so I thought I'd break this down for you, and show you why these types of emails get low results and what changes could be made in order to improve results.

FAILED EMAIL EXAMPLE

Paragraph 1: Hi Michael… Are you looking to target a specific market for your products or services?

This is a dumb question. Why? Because the answer is obviously: "yes". Every business owner / marketing director etc wants to target their message to the appropriate audience. Asking this type of question marks you as a "typical" salesperson using old tactics that prospects see right through; and that creates distrust from the word "go".

Paragraph 2: If yes, our (company name hidden) can provide the best (what they were offering) which will definitely yield positive leads for you.

Really? You're the best? And it will definitely yield positive leads for me? You know this without asking me any questions about my business, or what I'm using now or how I'm using it and why?

Making guaranteed statements like this to your prospect before having a conversation (read: diagnosing a problem / qualifying) with them tends to invoke skepticism.

You're creating doubt on their part before ever speaking with them. It’s hard to make a living selling that way.

Paragraph 3: We provide ___________ (and they gave a laundry list of things they provided and in what verticals etc - and I mean a laundry list!)

In the sales world, this is called "spraying and praying". It rarely works.

Besides, each business will have their own decision making and purchasing process… you don't even know yet if the person you are sending this to is involved in the decision making process or to what degree.

Some CEO's are heavily involved with the decision making and others pay someone else to handle certain type of decisions… so which one are you emailing? The fact is, you won't know until you speak with them. And if you try calling them after they've read this email, they most likely will avoid you at all costs. Why? Because you gave them enough information to make an ill-informed decision and it’s usually; “No, thanks!”.

Most prospects won’t know they have a problem until you engage with them and ask the right questions!

Paragraph 4: Our Key Variables are ______________ (and they went on and on again about their offerings)

By now I had already reached for the delete button because they failed to do what they needed to do in the first 5 seconds: Pique my interest and spark a positive reaction.

Paragraph 5: Maximize your direct mail and telemarketing efforts by using our quality email lists. All emails addresses are ______________ (and one more time, a laundry list about them and why they are the best)

It was a long email. One most prospects wouldn't take the time to read.

So, what could have been done instead that would produce a more positive response?

Here are a couple key factors to remember when creating your email message:

1) It's too early to present / pitch your solutions… you haven't even confirmed a problem yet.

2) Just because their title says they are the CEO (or whomever you normally speak with) doesn't mean that they all have the same decision-making and purchasing process. You'll want to discover that before offering a solution… and we can't do that through email.

3) Create an email that will do two things very quickly: Pique Interest and Spark a Reaction (either a call back, or an email reply)

What could have been sent with a more positive outcome?

How about something like this:

"Hi Prospects Name:

This is (Your Name) with (Your Company) and I just left you a voicemail regarding how we help (name the vertical of your prospect) generate pre-qualified prospect lists that typically produce about a 20% increase in sales for our clients.

One our last clients gave us a testimonial saying how we help them generate an additional 22% in revenue in less than 90-days and wanted to see if it would make sense for us to have a quick conversation in order to determine if what we have to offer may make some sense for you to consider as well.

Please reply to this email with a date / time that works best for you and I’ll set it up for us. We should only need about 15 minutes to determine if this is something we should discuss further."

Now, you don’t have to use this word for word and I’m not saying this is the only way to go. But my experience shows that this last example gets far better results.

So in short, I would call first, and if I got voicemail, I'd leave a message and then follow it up with the email above.

Hope this was helpful.

Michael Pedone
CSS: Chief Sales Scientist
SalesBuzz.com (A 2011 Sales Training Company Watch List Award Winner!)

8-Week B2B Sales Improvement Program

Learn How To:

1. Eliminate "No, Thanks", "Not Interested" & "We're All Set" Responses from Cold and Warm Calls
2. Neutralize Gatekeepers & Get Voicemails Returned
3. Ask Engaging Questions Instead of Probing
4. How to Really Qualify (I'll show you a better way)
5. Give Stellar Presentations & Handle Objections
6. Close Follow-up Calls and Get Targeted Referrals
7. How to Set & Achieve Your Toughest Sales Goals
8. Improve Your Time Management Skills

Duration: 1 hour per week for 8 weeks
Where: Online @ your desk, conference room or home
Presenters: Michael Pedone

Get Next Available Workshop Dates / Times / Registration Information Now!

Sales Question:

"I frequently get stumped by prospects responses to my sales questions - What should I do?"

Short Answer: Ask Better Questions!

Long answer:

This weekend I had the privilege to witness several high schools compete in a mock trial competition in Tampa, Florida as students taking law electives battled it out in an actual court room with real judges at the helm, with each team having to take turns being the prosecution and the defense.

During one of the mock trials, a student in the "prosecution role" became visibly frustrated when he wasn't getting the answer he needed out of a defense witness, no matter how many times he re-asked the question.

When the trial was over, the judge addressed each student (in front of the entire audience) and gave them constructive criticism.

His advice to the prosecution attorney / student:

"If you don't like the answer, maybe your question was the problem!"

How true is that!?! Not only for attorney's but for salespeople as well!

As I watched this situation play out in the court room, I could easily see how this same scenario happens everyday with salespeople and their prospects:

• Salesperson makes call;
• Gets prospect on the phone;
• Asks a few questions;
• Doesn't get the response they were hoping for;
• Salesperson tries again - get's same response;
• Both parties get frustrated and then the call ends.

Think Like a High-Powered Attorney to Close More Sales

Attorney's and salespeople have a lot in common.

Namely, they are paid based on their performance. The better each performs, the more cash they earn.

Before ever picking up the phone, be prepared well in advance of what questions you are going to ask, why you are going to ask them, who you are going to ask them to and be ready for the responses you'll get.

The days of being "Captain Wing It" are over.

Asking better, smarter engagement questions are essential to becoming a high powered sales earner.

Michael Pedone
CSS: Chief Sales Scientist
SalesBuzz.com (A 2011 Sales Training Company Watch List Award Winner!)

8-Week B2B Sales Improvement Program

Learn How To:

1. Eliminate "No, Thanks", "Not Interested" & "We're All Set" Responses from Cold and Warm Calls
2. Neutralize Gatekeepers & Get Voicemails Returned
3. Ask Engaging Questions Instead of Probing
4. How to Really Qualify (I'll show you a better way)
5. Give Stellar Presentations & Handle Objections
6. Close Follow-up Calls and Get Targeted Referrals
7. How to Set & Achieve Your Toughest Sales Goals
8. Improve Your Time Management Skills

Duration: 1 hour per week for 8 weeks
Where: Online @ your desk, conference room or home
Presenters: Michael Pedone

Get Next Available Workshop Dates / Times / Registration Information Now!

Sales Question:

"I'm doing my best to take advantage of "social selling" with LinkedIn but I'm having a hard time getting prospects to accept my connection requests. Any suggestions?"

Answer:

LinkedIn is a powerful social selling tool that can help you increase sales - if used correctly.

What makes social selling work for salespeople is it gives us the ability to quickly & easily get on our prospects radar. It’s the ultimate channel for branding yourself as an SME (Subject Matter Expert) at the cost of virtually "free" other than the time you need to put into it.

Now when it comes to reaching out to connect with potential prospects on LinkedIn there is a default message that most salespeople use when sending their request.

It looks like this:

“I'd like to add you to my professional network on LinkedIn. – (Your Name Here)”

Now some salespeople will add something like:

“You visited our both at last weeks trade show and I'd like to add you to my professional network on LinkedIn. – (Your Name Here)”

The problem with the templates above is that there is nothing beneficial that would make a prospect want to accept an invite, let alone check out the requesters profile. (And you want them to check out your profile - provided you have it set up right – as it may generate an inbound lead for you… I’ll write more about how to do that in the future)

Using the "What's In It For Me" Rule

So instead of using the standard boring request form that everyone else uses, try using the WIIFM (What's In It For Me - with "ME" being your prospect) version…

You’ll have to create your own but here’s a word-for-word connection request that I use after someone registers to view our free on-demand B2B sales skills webinar:

“Hi (prospects name)… Thanks for viewing our Voicemail Strategies webinar and hope you found it useful. I'd like to add you to my professional network on LinkedIn in case you decide I may be of some help to you in the future. - Michael Pedone"

By making it more personal and having the WIIFM message, your prospects will be more inclined to accept your request – which will help increase inbound warm leads and make you less dependent on cold ones.

Michael Pedone
CSS: Chief Sales Scientist
SalesBuzz.com (A 2011 Sales Training Company Watch List Award Winner!)

8-Week B2B Sales Improvement Program

Learn How To:

1. Eliminate "No, Thanks", "Not Interested" & "We're All Set" Responses from Cold and Warm Calls
2. Neutralize Gatekeepers & Get Voicemails Returned
3. Ask Engaging Questions Instead of Probing
4. How to Really Qualify (I'll show you a better way)
5. Give Stellar Presentations & Handle Objections
6. Close Follow-up Calls and Get Targeted Referrals
7. How to Set & Achieve Your Toughest Sales Goals
8. Improve Your Time Management Skills

Duration: 1 hour per week for 8 weeks
Where: Online @ your desk, conference room or home
Presenters: Michael Pedone

Get Next Available Workshop Dates / Times / Registration Information Now!

How to Hold Yourself Accountable (And Make Bank Doing It)

Top salespeople are self-starters. But even self-motivated sales reps run into times where it’s hard to kick-start their own engines.

If you know what you want but are having a hard time staying committed to the game plan for achieving your goal, the answer is simple: You need to implement a system that will hold yourself accountable. I know, it doesn't sound fun but read on. It's not as bad as you think.

ac·count·a·ble

Required or expected to justify actions or decisions; responsible.

The keyword here is “justify”. That means you have to explain yourself to someone.

So how does this work in a sales environment?

Simple. Let’s say it’s your sales quota that’s the issue. You want to increase your odds of reaching it on a more consistent basis but you’re having a hard time staying motivated to do everything that’s necessary to achieve that goal.

Here’s what you do…

Step 1: Break up all the “selling activities” that you must do in order to hit your goal into specific categories such as:

• Prospecting
• Qualifying
• Presentation
• Objection Handling / Closing etc

And then be specific on what you must do / what your goals are on a daily / weekly basis for each category.

Example:

Prospecting

• Minimum of X amount of new prospects per day
• Minimum of X amount of first time calls per day
• Minimum of X amount of follow-up calls per day

Step 2: Pick an authority figure above you that you will have to answer to (Think Sales Manager, VP of Sales or a Business Mentor)

Step 3: Meet once a week, preferable early Monday to go over each category.

The first time you meet you will want to go over what your goals are for each category for that week.

The second time you meet (and every time there after) you will first go over your previous week’s goals before moving on to what you hope to accomplish in the current week.

This is where the “justify” comes in. When you know you’re going to have a meeting to explain why or why you didn’t achieve your clearly defined goals & tasks, you will find that extra motivation to make sure you hit the mark. Plus having clearly defined objectives on a daily & weekly basis will act as a motivator in and of itself. We tend to do better when we see a clear step-by-step action plan laid out before us.

Extra Bonus:

Having clearly defined goals and tasks for each category that are key elements to you achieving your goals will also help you spot any weak areas that you will need to improve upon in order to increase your odds of winning.

One last thing…

In the prospecting example I gave above, it’s not just about “doing more” as in calls per day… that’s just a small piece of it.

But let’s say through these weekly accountability meetings we discover a problem in the objection-handling category… we can now put in a resolution to solving that problem. Think of it has fine tuning your engine in order to run at top performance.

Hope you found this helpful.

Michael Pedone
CSS: Chief Sales Scientist
SalesBuzz.com (A 2011 Sales Training Company Watch List Award Winner!)

8-Week B2B Sales Improvement Program

Learn How To:

1. Eliminate "No, Thanks", "Not Interested" & "We're All Set" Responses from Cold and Warm Calls
2. Neutralize Gatekeepers & Get Voicemails Returned
3. Ask Engaging Questions Instead of Probing
4. How to Really Qualify (I'll show you a better way)
5. Give Stellar Presentations & Handle Objections
6. Close Follow-up Calls and Get Targeted Referrals
7. How to Set & Achieve Your Toughest Sales Goals
8. Improve Your Time Management Skills

Duration: 1 hour per week for 8 weeks
Where: Online @ your desk, conference room or home
Presenters: Michael Pedone

Get Next Available Workshop Dates / Times / Registration Information Now!

What separates top B2B sales performers from the rest of the crowd?

Answer: A lot. But one of the strengths top inside sales performers posses is the ability to turn a weakness of theirs into an asset whereas average salespeople tend to ignore that they even have any weakness in their sales game at all.

Every one of us, no matter how successful, no matter how long we’ve been in the game, have areas that if improved upon, would boost our revenue stream.

The problem is most salespeople fail to recognize the opportunity that comes with improving a problem area.

The better we are in every category that constitutes “sales” allows for the increased likelihood of us reaching that next level.

And there’s always “another level up”!

But in order to do that, one must not be afraid to admit they have weak spots and then they need to pinpoint what those areas are.

To help you with that, here’s where to start…

Identify all the sales categories that are important.

Example:

• Prospecting (cold calling etc)
• Qualifying
• Presenting
• Objection Handling / Closing
• Time Management
• Goal Setting
• Social Selling

Each one of these categories requires a special skill set. And there's always room for improvement. Top salespeople know this.

Three keys for reaching that next level:

1. View weakness as an opportunity;
2. Identify a specific area in need of improvement;
3. Attack it.

Make it a regular habit of identifying areas that need attention and develop a game plan for improving it and watch your income start to rise.

It's that simple.

Michael Pedone
CSS: Chief Sales Scientist
SalesBuzz.com (A 2011 Sales Training Company Watch List Award Winner!)

8-Week B2B Sales Improvement Program

Learn How To:

1. Eliminate "No, Thanks", "Not Interested" & "We're All Set" Responses from Cold and Warm Calls
2. Neutralize Gatekeepers & Get Voicemails Returned
3. Ask Engaging Questions Instead of Probing
4. How to Really Qualify (I'll show you a better way)
5. Give Stellar Presentations & Handle Objections
6. Close Follow-up Calls and Get Targeted Referrals
7. How to Set & Achieve Your Toughest Sales Goals
8. Improve Your Time Management Skills

Duration: 1 hour per week for 8 weeks
Where: Online @ your desk, conference room or home
Presenters: Michael Pedone

Get Next Available Workshop Dates / Times / Registration Information Now!