Sales Question:

"How should I handle the "Now is not a good time" response? One of my colleagues suggested I reply with "What will be different in a week/month from now?" But is that the best rebuttal to use?"

Answer:

The number one reason a prospect will say "Now is not a good time" is because the salesperson's opener (what they said after "Hello, my name is...") invoked this type of response. In short, the salespersons opening value statement was anything but and failed to accomplish it’s first objective, which is to pique interest in those precious first few seconds of a sales call.

Hot or Cold

And this response isn't just a product of cold calling either.

I've seen plenty of salespeople get the same blow-off / stall on warm calls as well (Warm calls = when a prospect raises their hand)

An example of a warm call would be when a salesperson is calling a lead that was generated via their website after a prospect requested information or a proposal and the salesperson calls and says something like:

"I'm calling to see if you had any questions"

or

"I'm following up on your proposal request" and they still hear "now is not a good time"

No matter the type of sales call, the “Now is not a good time” blow-off / stall has EVERYTHING to do with how the sales person approached the prospect and very LITTLE to do with the temperature of the sales lead.

The Solution

The "What will be different in a week/month?" rebuttal is argumentative in my book and all though its better than saying "ok" and hanging up, its a flawed solution because it doesn't address / fix the real problem that caused the "now’s not a good time" response.

If you want to eliminate or at the very least drastically reduce the amount of times your prospects use this stall tactic on you, you’ll need to re-word the opening value statement so that they will want to actually hear what it is that you have to offer by piquing their interest in the first few seconds of the call.

Do that and watch how the "now’s not a good time" stall becomes a thing of the past.

Example:

Which call would pique your interest more:

Option 1: "I'm following up on your request for pricing..."

Or...

Option 2: "I understand you're curious about what type of results you could expect from our online B2B phone skills improvement workshops as well as what the initial investment might be and if any incentives are currently available…"

If you want to get better results, you have to stop using old, flawed sales tactics and start using new ones that make logical sense. Hope this helps.

Michael Pedone
CSS: Chief Sales Scientist
SalesBuzz.com (A 2011 B2B Phone Sales Training Company Watch List Award Winner!)

Tired of Sales Call Rejection?

8-Week B2B Sales Improvement Program

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. Improve your Qualifying Skills
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 Dates / Times & Pricing Now

Sales Question:

"Will I Always Need to Make Cold Calls? Isn’t There a Better Way?"

Answer:

To answer this question properly, we must first agree on what is and what isn’t a cold call. To me, a cold call is when you contact a suspect, prospect or previous client who isn’t currently “raising their hand”.

Simply put, if a prospect isn’t making some sort of inquiry to you, and you contact them to see if an opportunity exists, this is a cold call. And there’s nothing wrong with that. In fact, you can help a lot of people solve problems they didn’t even know they had, saving them a lot of money and making a 6-figure living for yourself in the process if you’re really good at cold-calling.

Nonetheless, if given the choice, we all would prefer to have conversations with “warm leads” instead of making traditional cold calls.

Word of Caution...

In a moment I’m going to share just one of the many effective ways I’ve found to turn cold calls into warm leads but there’s a potential commission killing pit fall I want to warn you about…

Back in the day when warm leads (in bound calls, web inquiries etc) were flooding the switchboard and ringing up your email inbox count, many salespeople unknowingly would use flawed sales strategies that they understood to be true and were still making quota in the process, due to the amount of opportunities that existed.

As the economy starts to recover, I don’t get the sense of that same philosophy being successful like it once was. True, many a cold-calls fail because of simple mistakes being made in the opening value statement. When you have a warm lead, your opener doesn’t have to be as solid because the lead is already warm. There’s already a slight interest (and yes, in some cases a strong interest).

What I’m willing to bet however is that if you learn how to start generating warm leads (getting prospects with a mild to strong interest to raise their hand) in today’s market but continue to use the old ways of selling, a number of sales that should end up in the Closed / Won column of your CRM will end up in the Closed / Lost column instead.

You will want to avoid investing your time and energy into generating warm leads just to get the same results that poorly executed cold calls produce. At least with a cold call, you find out right away if that sale isn’t going anywhere. Something to think about.

One Way to Make Cold Calls Warm

So now the moment you’ve been waiting for. How to generate warm leads in order to reduce the number of cold calls while still making quota.

Answer: You need to start BRANDING YOURSELF as an SME.

Instead of using social media tools to research your prospect (I’m not saying you shouldn’t do any pre-call research – follow me here…) start using social media to brand yourself as an SME (Subject Matter Expert) in your field.

Think about it… do you want to speak with a salesperson or do you want to speak with the person that has the knowledge and know how to help you solve your biggest issues?

It doesn’t matter if you sell water filters, transportation services or multi-million dollar software solutions.

Become an expert in helping your targeted audience to solve their problems and use social media tools to spread the word.

Here’s what will happen when you do this successfully:

1. When you start to do it right, you’ll get more prospects seeking you out, wanting to set appointment times with you to see how you might be able to help them (after all, you are the expert)
2. When you start making your outbound calls to people whom you’ve never spoken with yet they know who you are, as soon as you introduce yourself to them they will be glad you called and will want to hear what you have to say.

The Other Shoe Dropping

Now some of you may feel like the bottom just fell out on you… After all, branding yourself as an industry expert in your field can take time. And you need to be consistent and meticulous at it to boot.

No one ever said making 6-figures in sales was going to be neither quick nor easy. But if you truly want to reduce the number of cold calls – forget about the “who do you know?” referral strategy… Instead, learn to brand yourself as an industry-leading expert so that when you do make that cold call, they’ll want to talk to you. And with good reason.

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 have over 15 years of sales experience, with over 5 years at a Fortune 500 company handling million dollar accounts in a sales/maintenance role with about 20% new business development. After leaving that position due to a family issue I have been struggling in my last couple of jobs as a 'new business development' salesperson. Long story short, three jobs later I realize I am terrible at cold calling and don't like it either.

After 90 days my current employer eliminated my base salary and put me on a commission only plan. I have a pipeline that could potentially allow me to match my salary but I am feeling as if I've been slapped in the face and my motivation to work with my CEO is seriously diminished.

What would you suggest that I do?

ANSWER:

Well, for starters, no one “likes” cold calling. What you need to like is cold hard cash. So if you’re in sales, and you like cash, there’s hope for you because you can learn how to become successful at cold calling. It’s teachable. I might even know someone who could help.

But before we dig a little deeper into that, let’s discuss what most likely happened with your employer…

Does This Sound Familiar?

Your stellar resume landed on the desk of your current employer who was seeking someone that could help take his or her company to the next level. You interviewed well and were full of confidence. Shortly thereafter, the job and the "higher than they had budgeted" salary plus bonus structure was yours, and the boss couldn’t wait to see you make it rain.

Only it didn’t rain. In fact, it did the exact opposite of rain. You hit the longest drought of your sales career and your employer can no longer afford to pay you on promises. They need cash to run a company and have decided to put you on straight commission.

What you need to understand is that selling by phone / cold calling / business development etc requires a different skill set than "managing" accounts. Kind of like how it’s one thing to be the running back, and it’s another to be the field goal kicker. Same game. You can even be on the same team. But it requires a different skill set in order to be successful.

So with the economy the way it is, high paying base salary jobs are hard to come by let alone keep and I get why your current employer realized that your impressive resume was no longer enough to justify what they were paying and you would be wise to see it from their view point as well, otherwise you will never grow as a business professional.

However… What I don’t get is how your employer expects you to generate what they need most – revenue - without giving you the tools you need to be successful.

Now don’t get me wrong, I wholeheartedly believe salespeople are responsible for their own success and that includes investing in themselves.

But if they believe in you, yet need to take away your base, I would think they would want to at least look into helping you get the skills you need in order for everyone to win.

Unless they think it’s a “motivational” issue and that you needed to be motivated to sell… But here’s the thing, no one stays motivated when they keep getting rejected on the phone. And the only reason salespeople get rejected a lot is because they haven’t learned what to do and what not to do.

If they’ve offered to provide you with the sales training needed in order to improve your cold call skills, my advice is take it and stick it out. Straight commissioned sales are where all the money is.

But if they’ve offered no help you have 3 choices:

1. Get help on your own
2. Go work for a company that is willing to help their inside sales team succeed
3. Find a job / position that is in need of the skills you already posses

Here’s what I love about all three of these options:

You control all of them. Your success (or failure) is up to you.

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

Sales Question:

"How Many Sales Calls Should I Make Per Day?"

ANSWER:

Depends on what your goals are…

If you want to do just enough to keep your job, make as a little as you can get away with.

If you want to make or even break your sales goals, 60 sales calls per day (including callbacks from prospects) and or 3 hours of talk time (to prospects, not your mom) has been the best winning formula I've found to help me outsell my co-workers and outwork my competition.

WHY 100 DIALS PER DAY IS BAD

If you are making 100 dials a day, that's too many because it means you aren't having any meaningful conversations with prospects. If you were having meaningful conversations, you wouldn't have time for 100 dials a day.

And if you aren't having meaningful conversations, that tells me your entire sales strategy is off. And it's costing you commissions and your organization revenue.

Sure, 100 dials a day may have worked when there was enough low-hanging fruit, but that isn't the way it is now nor is it predicted to be that way again anytime in the near future. "Pitching" is out - "Engagement" is in.

WHY LOW CALL VOLUME ISN'T THE ANSWER EITHER

20-30 calls per day is too little (unless you're breaking the 3 hour talk time mark) because it means you are probably spending more time "researching" then you are selling - which means your sales process and time management skills are in need of an upgrade from what you've been taught. Remember, times are different.

Doing something over and over again that no longer works just because it "used to work" isn't a smart growth (nor survival) strategy.

It's time for some fresh ideas / approach that will help you be more productive (ie. make more sales)

WHAT'S MORE IMPROTANT THEN "DIALS"

What's really most important is the time on the phone, not the dials.

If we aren't having meaningful conversations with prospects we aren't going to be making our numbers.

And if we aren't making our numbers, we can only blame the economy, leads and our competitors "better product / marketing / pricing" for so long.

Make the necessary adjustments and get back on track.

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