Be Yourself, Not Some "Salesman"
Cold Sweats
A client came to me last year lamenting and frustrated that she was making lots of cold and warm phone calls and everyone responded to her negatively, as if she sounded like some "telesales" person. Worse yet she was angry that despite her agonizing on the phone, she wasn't booking any appointments, the prospects she got through to tended to "blow her off" even before she had a chance for them to figure out she wasn't a telesales person. And on the rare occasions when she booked an appointment, they'd "no show" half the time. All of this brought her to the point where she would breakout in cold sweats before making the calls, and the whole time she was on the phone she felt a knot in her stomach that was hard to shake.My client had made the mistake of thinking she had to be ìsomeone elseî for a prospect to want to make an appointment with her. She assumed that being confident, enthusiastic and assertive would project the kind of professionalism it takes to win favor with a stranger on the phone. Surprisingly, being just the opposite can be more effective.
Donít Know-it-all
Sounding like a know-it-all to a prospect feels like pressure on the other end of the line, and can trigger the prospectís natural defenses against a ìsales assaultî. This is because when you tell them all of the wonderful things about your product or service without stopping to take a breath or let a word in edge-wise, theyíre more likely to ìtune you outî and compose the line they are going to use to ìblow you offî with. How can we presume to know what they could possibly need, weíve never spoken to them before!
Negativity to Disarm
Being ìunpolishedî and even a little negative can get them talking about themselves and keep them on the line longer, and might sound something like: ìwhen I call people in your business they often tell me either they are already doing what I do ìin-houseî or theyíre already working with someone else-- were you going to say something like this to me?î Even if they say yes to both, you can still say, ìÖwould it make sense to take 2-3 minutes for me to ask a few questions, so we can figure out if I really donít have anything for you, and then you can tell me no with confidenceÖyouíll be ok telling me ìnoî wonít you?î If you take this mildly negative approach with a stranger, theyíre more likely to feel relaxed and familiar with youófamiliar with someone that has just come out of nowhere.
To understand why this happens, consider how you would approach your brother or sister, or someone you have a close and familiar relationship with, to sell your product or service to them? Would you get all ìprofessionalî and dazzle them with your knowledge of the features and benefits? Or would you likely hit them with mild negativity like ìSis, I donít sípose youíd ever look into buying one of my widgets or widget services, would you?î Most people donít sound like a ìsalesman ì when they are selling to someone they know, they ìcome down to earthî and talk to them in a ìrealî way.
Stop Being ìFakeyî
Now back to the client that came to me in a cold sweat, with a knot in her gut.
I was able to help her out of this tough spot through showing her some confident and crafty ways to get through to real prospects on the phone. We also worked with her to practice the way she presented herself to make it sound more "real" and less like some telesales person reading from some script. She found that this led to prospects becoming interested enough to stay on the phone long enough for her to determine if they really are prospects. And all the while she felt better about herself because she could be herself, and not some "fakey" salesperson trying to "trick" someone into meeting her. She learned these things at a "No Pressure Prospecting" workshops held at our Sandler Sales Institute of Ann Arbor. These workshops provide a safe place to practice counterintuitive tactics, before trying them on ìlive prospectsî.
©Copyright 2003. Marr Professional Development Corp.