Another way to disarm gatekeepers is to name drop other people you have spoken to in the organization so that you don’t look like an outsider who is calling to try to work your way in. The way to do that is to say something like this: I spoke with Tom Jones in accounting, and [...]
There are times where prospects will seem very interested in what you sell. This is great, but it is important to know if the prospect’s interest is tied to more of a “need” or if it is more of a “want.” For example, if someone has a car that breaks down periodically, this person has [...]
Many of the gatekeepers you will face are executive assistants, and they usually work for the leaders (executives) of a specific department of the company. For example, the CFO will likely have an executive assistant who will help him or her personally with all sorts of tasks. However, this executive assistant will usually also support [...]
In order to qualify a prospect, you have to be able to measure or assess how good or bad the lead is. To get a more accurate assessment, you can measure prospects in four different areas: Need to purchase Ability to purchase Authority to purchase Intent to purchase For prospects to be completely qualified, they [...]
If it does not look like the gatekeeper is going to let you through, simply shift gears and start treating the gatekeeper like the target prospect. There are two different ways to do this. First, if the gatekeeper does not understand who you are, who you should talk to, or why the target prospect will [...]
The third step in the sales process is the Presentation, and this is where you will go into more detail on what you have to offer the prospect. For many situations, this may be an actual presentation of slides and possibly a demonstration of the product. But there are also many products where there is [...]
The second step in the sales process is the Meeting. This is simply progressing from the very short exchange during the Initial Contact to having a longer and more established conversation. The Meeting step can be in the form of any of the following: Appointment: You schedule an appointment with a prospect, and that could [...]
The first sales process step is the Initial Contact. This is basically the first time that you interact with the prospect, and this can take place in any of the following formats: Cold call: You are talking to the prospect on a cold call. Inbound call: The prospect calls you or your company by either [...]
Here are some tips and tactics that can improve the interactions you have with gatekeepers. UNDERSTAND THE GATEKEEPER One of the reasons that gatekeepers can sometimes be difficult and unpleasant is that they are sometimes instructed to keep salespeople out. Gatekeepers are often trained on how to identify when calls are from salespeople who are [...]
We often discuss three sales process steps: Initial Contact, Meeting, and Presentation. In order to align this qualifying process with those sales process steps, we break the qualifying process into two steps: pre-qualifying and qualifying. The pre-qualifying step is where you try to determine if there is even the slightest fit between what you sell [...]
There are only so many hours in the day and in the week. There is nothing you can do to get or buy more, and this makes time one of your most valuable resources. You can protect this resource by minimizing the amount of time that you spend with prospects who have a low probability [...]
You can respond to this sales objection by deflecting with your pain questions, pain points, or current environment questions. Option 1: Pain Questions I understand. Do you mind if I ask real quick: Pain Question 1 Pain Question 2 Pain Question 3 Option 2: Current Environment Questions I understand. Who are you currently using today? [...]