Here are 8 very easy steps for how to make a sales call. The steps we will go through are

  1. Opening the Call
  2. Share Your Value Proposition
  3. Use a Sales Takeaway
  4. Transition to a Few Questions
  5. Look for Problems and Challenges
  6. Introduce Your Product and Company
  7. Share an Example of a Happy Customer
  8. Close the Prospect on Talking More

These steps will not only make it extremely clear for how to make a sales call, but they will also greatly improve how you perform and the sales results you produce.

 

Step 1 – Opening the Call

The first thing you need to do is open the call. Most salespeople do not need help with this because they just say the name of the company they work for and then ask the prospect how they are doing.

As someone who gets a lot of sales calls, I can tell you that as soon as I get a call from someone I do not know and they ask, “How are you doing today?”, I know they are a salesperson about to try to sell me something. This immediately triggers my guardedness and makes me want to use a sales objection to get rid of them.

With that, you can avoid this by skipping the step of asking the prospect how they are doing. Replace that question with a question to ask if they are available by saying something like:

Hi Tom, this is Michael Halper. I am calling from SalesScripter.

Did I catch you in the middle of anything?

 

Step 2 – Share Your Value Proposition

The next step in our process for how to make a sales call is to share your value proposition. This will separate you from other salespeople because what most salespeople do at this point is tell the prospect what they sell by saying something like:

The reason for the call is that we provide IT consulting services.

Instead of saying something like that, share the value your product offers and save the product introduction for later in the sales call. This is what that might look like:

We help businesses to increase sales results by optimizing how their sales teams communicate.

 

Step 3 – Use a Sales Takeaway

After you share your value proposition, use a sales takeaway. This is to share a little doubt regarding the fit between the prospect and what you sell. Here is what that might look like:

But I am not sure if you are a fit or not. That is why I was calling with a couple of questions.

This is extremely powerful because it lets the prospect know you won’t push anything on them. This will not only decrease their guardedness but might also make them curious about what you offer.

 

Step 4 – Transition to a Few Questions

After the sales takeaway, transition to asking a few questions. This not only makes the sales call more about the prospect, but also helps you learn more about what is going on on their side.

There are two types of questions you can ask with this process for how to make a sales call: 1) pain questions and 2) current state questions.

 

Pain Questions

These questions probe to see if the prospect has any problems, pain, or areas for improvement where your product or service fits. Here are some examples of what these questions might look like:

  • How do you feel about how your reps are doing with knowing what to say and ask?
  • How do you feel about the time it takes to get sales reps ramped up and producing?
  • Do you feel like you are getting the most out of your reps?

 

Current State Questions

These questions gather details about what the prospect is doing in the area where your product or service fits. Here are some examples of what those might look like:

  • Do you provide sales training to your sales staff?
  • Do you use any type of sales methodology?
  • Do you provide any type of sales script or sales playbook to your reps?
  • Do you have a new hire onboarding training program? How many sales reps do you have?

 

Step 5 – Discuss Problems and Challenges

One of the main goals of our questions is to identify areas with challenges or room for improvement. If all of the prospect’s answers are that things are OK or good, you can shift to just sharing with them some of the problems you help to fix. This is what that might look like:

Well, it sounds like you all are doing well. But a lot of businesses we work with have:

  • Sales reps are not generating enough leads
  • Difficult to get reps saying the right things
  • Takes time to get reps trained and performing
  • Too many underperforming reps
  • Sales staff turnover is expensive=

Are you concerned about any of those areas?

 

Step 6 – Introduce Your Product and Company

Through all of that, hopefully, you talk about some areas on the prospect’s side where things aren’t perfect. After that, you can introduce your product and company as a solution to the prospect’s needs. This is what that might look like:

Well, it might make sense to talk more because that is the type of thing we help with. As I mentioned, I am with SalesScripter, and we provide a sales system that includes a software platform that helps salespeople to always know the best thing to say and ask.

It includes sales training, sales coaching, a software platform, an AI-powered sales role-play tool, and more.

We are different from other options out there in that we focus more on making it clear for reps what best to say and ask.

 

Step 7 – Share an Example of a Happy Customer

A nice way to put a bow around your product and company introduction is to share an example of a customer you helped. This can not only help explain what your product does, but also increase your credibility by demonstrating that you can deliver on what you say you do. Here is an example of this:

  • An example of how this has helped is that we worked with TigerTech, and their sales reps were not generating enough leads.
  • We solved that with our SMART Sales System, and this helped to improve how the reps were communicating.
  • This ultimately increased lead generation by 20% and total revenue by 10%.

 

Step 8 – Close the Prospect on Talking More

The last step in our process for how to make a sales call is to close the prospect. And we are not closing for the purchase, and trying to get the prospect to buy or sign up. All we are doing is closing the prospect on talking more, and that can be in the form of setting an appointment, scheduling a call or meeting. Here is what that might look like:

But I have called you out of the blue, and I don’t know if this is the best time to discuss this.

Are you available for a brief call where we can learn more about what you are doing today and share some examples of how we have helped other businesses like yours to improve how their reps are performing?

 

We hope this process helps you with how to make a sales call!