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 getting around the gatekeeper when cold calling. UNDERSTAND THE GATEKEEPER One of the reasons that getting around the gatekeeper 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 [...]
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? [...]
You have three main ways for how to respond to sales objections: 1) comply, 2) overcome, or 3) deflect. OPTION 1: COMPLY WITH THE OBJECTION To comply with an objection is to accept it, and here is an example: Prospect: I am not interested. Salesperson: OK, I understand. Have a nice day. There are [...]
"What is this in regards to" is the most popular objection for gatekeepers and prospects because it is very effective at identifying if the person calling is a salesperson who is trying to sell something. Since you are a salesperson who is trying to sell something, if you comply with this objection, you might say [...]
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 [...]
Since prospects are busy and get sold to a lot, they will likely delete a lot of messages without reading them or reading very little of them, and I call this the “instant delete.” While it can be difficult to figure out how to get prospects to respond to your emails, there are some very [...]
If you are cold calling and trying to get your foot in the door of an account and the target prospect never answers his or her phone, this will seem like a significant barrier preventing you from selling to that account. The simple workaround for this is to find other contacts at the account that [...]