He conquers who endures.
Persius
Selling, developing and delivering a service such as consulting differs considerably from selling a product like an automobile. These differences pose a special challenge to consultants. How do you make relatively invisible services seem real and useful to prospective clients? This is achieved by making sure the services are understood, and by somehow making them more tangible by talking to and meeting with suspects and prospects.
General guidelines for selling on the telephone
Foul!
Remember, selling by telephone is not the same as‘cold calling’. It involves calling people from your network, suspect and prospect list to obtain ideas and information. If you are e¡ective with contacting people you know, you will never need to make a‘cold call’.
Telephone marketing
Advantages Disadvantages
X Saves time: you can cover many people X No face-to-face contact: you are not able in a short time. It is an incredibly time- to see body language cues and therefore effective tool, particularly in the early it can be harder to build rapport. stages of business development. X Difficulty in contact: it is becoming X Saves money: costs less than travelling increasingly difficult to talk to ‘live’ to face-to-face meetings. people, instead of message machines. Telephone marketing requires a concentrated, focused environment, plus rapid evaluation and decision-making. But the benefits can be considerable in terms of increased business.
T|me out!
General guidelines on telephone marketing
X ‘Chunk’ your time: plan for at least two hours of telephone calls three times aweek in the set-up stages of your business and at least two one-hour sessions per week when your business is established.
X Make sure you utilize your body clock e¡ectively. Telephone marketing is hard work, so make sure if you are a‘lark’ (best in the morning) that you make your phone calls then. If you are an ‘owl’ (best in the afternoon and evening), make your phone calls then. X If you are organized, you can make 30-45 calls in a two-to-three hour time frame. X Most of the time (approximately 80 %) you will be leaving messages on voicemails for the
other person. Make sure you leave a speci¢c message including your name and number, the reason you called and a good time to call back.
X If you are leaving a message on a voicemail, state your name and number at the beginning of the call, and then repeat it again at the end.
X Don’t rush when you repeat your phone number! 122/ Be a Successful Consultant
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X Even if you have known the person for a long time, always leave your number. You never know if they have lost their organizer, or if their system has crashed!
X Make at least three to ¢ve phone calls without giving up. Research was conducted with a sales force.Women were more successful than the men in this study because they made more calls than the men, and many of the decisions to buy took place on the ¢fth call. Often we take it personally when people do not call us back. Realistically, they are busy, not ignoring us!
X If the person still does not return your call, you could send them an email with some information and wait for them to contact you.
X Call back every three to ¢ve days. On average people return the call, if they are going to, within two to three days.
X The ideal use of the telephone in marketing your business would be to make the initial call, send information, and then call again after the information has been received and enough time has passed for the recipient to have read it.
Preparing for a telephone call
As with most work, time spent in preparing and planning can save time when we are actually making calls. Following is a pre-call planning exercise to help you prepare for making contact on the phone.
Exercise 6.6 Preparing for a telephone call
X Create a mental picture of the person you are contacting and what you both want to accomplish as a result of this phone call.
X What do you know about this contact, his/her company and background? X What is your objective in calling?
X What questions are you going to ask?
X How did you obtain the name of this contact?
X Do you understand every conceivable aspect of your background that might be relevant?
X What specific questions may this contact ask you, based on your knowledge of him/ her?
X How can you make sure your voice is pleasant and upbeat?
X What were your insights from thinking about the call in this way? X As a result, how will you approach the call differently?
Coaching point
The more you plan, the more prepared and professional you will appear, and the greater the chance of building your business.
Case study: Julia
Julia created her 30-second commercial and tried it out by calling friends and leaving messages with them to obtain feedback on her voice tone, how sincere she sounded and how clear her message was. She initially sent out an email targeted towards start-up companies and then she followed this up by making her first 40 telephone calls. She has been allocating two mornings a week for her telephone marketing efforts. She is using her Palm Pilot to track whom she calls and the responses she is obtaining. She managed to speak to five people directly from those calls, the rest she left a comprehensive message with. Of those five people she managed to talk to directly, every call had a positive outcome. She received four more names of people who might be interested in her services, and she scheduled two meetings. One meeting was with a venture capitalist, who might be able to sub-contract work to her. The other was with a small start-up that might require an HR assessment. Even with the messages she left, she received call-backs from over 40% of the individuals she had called. She sent the two people who gave her names a thank you email. 124/ Be a Successful Consultant
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Managing the telephone interaction
Let’s look at the steps in the telephone interaction in a variety of situations for the people from our case studies: when the person is there and it is a good time, when it is not a good time and when there is a voicemail.
Foul!
It can be tempting when you get the person you actually want to talk to on the phone, to jump in immediately with your pitch. Don’t!
Always ask ‘Is this a good time?’ You buy yourself ‘Brownie points’and create credibility by so doing. There is nothing worse than picking up a phone and being on the receiving end of a data dump!
As you can see, the first step involves being clear about your expectation for the call, plus being prepared will help you sound confident and organized, which in turn will help to make your contacts feel comfortable helping you.
Person is there and it is a good time: Frank
Step in the call Person is there: good time 1. Identify purpose for call: To generate a meeting
2. Short introduction Hello: This is . . .We met at the recent Help Desk Institute meeting and you suggested I call you about process reengineering (personal information). 3. Ask for permission Is this a good time?
4. Introduce purpose and story I have a Masters Degree in Quality Engineering (30 seconds, two minutes (Educational).
maximum!) I have spent the last 20 years both in the field and at corporate headquarters managing and directing technical support operations, working for such
organizations as Amdahl, Oracle and IBM. The specific expertise that I bring is that I combine both strategy and process improvement experience, with a practical implementation focus (business background).
The reason I am calling today is because we discussed the process-reengineering project you are undertaking and thought I might be able to help (bridge/transition).
5. Transition into questions What was the driving force behind your process engineering?
How far are you into the process?
What are the results so far? What is working? Etc.
6. Listen to answers Make notes as required to act as the basis for more questions. When there is a two-way discussion lasting approximately three to four minutes, transition. 7. Transition It seems like we might have a fit, in terms of your needs
and the services I could provide.
8. Date for a meeting I will be in your area on . . . . Is there any time that day that would work for you?
If Frank were calling to try to build his network and/or find advice his bridge would be: ‘If you were in my situation, who would you talk to? What would you do? Who else might have ideas?’
Person is there and it is not a good time: Joe
Step in the call Person is there: not a good time 1. Identify purpose for call: To ask for advice/information
2. Short introduction with Hello. This is . . . We worked together at Sun, when you
purpose were the VP Marketing and I was the Product Manager
for . . . product. I was calling to see if you could give me any advice as I am setting up my consulting business (personal information).
3. Ask for permission Is this a good time?
4. Not a good time When would you like me to try again? 5. Confirm time So I will call you back at. . .
6. Finish call Thank you and I will look forward to catching up personally then.
7. Call back when promised If there: continue with purpose, story, questions and summary.
If the person is not there, they now have an informal obligation to call you back because you made an appointment and they broke it.
8. Call back three days later if don’t hear and start again. 126/ Be a Successful Consultant
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Person is not there and you get voicemail: Marie
Step in the call Person is not there: voicemail 1. Identify purpose for call: to obtain names
2. Short introduction Hello. This is . . . Linda suggested I call you regarding sales training for your organization.
3. Introduce purpose and story I have a Masters Degree in Organizational (30 seconds – two minutes Development (educational).
maximum!) I recently left . . . organization where I was responsible for rolling out sales training to over 5,000 associates in a three month period resulting in a 17% increase in comparative store sales (business background).
The reason I am calling today is because Linda suggested that you might need help in training associates at your stores (bridge/transition).
4. Transition into call back I would be very interested in talking to you about your current sales training process, to discover in what areas I might be able to help you.
5. Give availability I will be available tomorrow and Friday.
6. Restate contact information Again, my name is . . . And my phone number is . . . I look forward to talking personally to you soon.
Coaching point
Be sure to send athank you note if the person has given you good, useful advice or if he/she has given you a lead. You want to be comfortable calling again if necessary.
Exercise 6.7 Evaluating your telephone e¡ectiveness
Complete ten to 20 calls to your network and then answer the following questions to assess your effectiveness on the phone.
Yes No
& &
Were you talking less than 50% of the time in any discussions?& &
Were you 100% focused on the other person during the conversations?& &
Were you trying to put yourself in the customer’s shoes?& &
Did you let the customer finish what they were saying without interrupting?& &
Did you react to the ideas they provided? By repeating or verifying?& &
Did you take notes?& &
Did you review the notes after the discussion?& &
Did you send any follow-up notes/emails?& &
Did you make sure the exchange was two-way?X If you answered ‘yes’ to more than six questions, you are well on the way to building your business by using the telephone effectively. If you answered more than six questions with ‘no’ you may want to brainstorm ideas to improve the flow of conversation.
X What can you do to improve your telephone effectiveness?
Coaching point
The average pause on the phone is between two and ten seconds. Managing the silence on the phone is often the greatest challenge. We may tend to talk and ¢ll the gap when we would gather more information and build better rapport if we were to allow pausing. So, if in doubt, be quiet!
As you can see, managing the telephone interaction is critical to optimizing your business success. However many people feel uncomfortable about contacting others for information or for ideas. By being clear about your purpose and examining reasons for your reluctance, you can overcome this obstacle.
Just do it!!
Courtesy of Nike
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