Can’t it be hard to get appointments with prospects? We’ve all had the experience of leaving phone messages, or networking at events, for prospects we are fairly sure are good ones. I can’t give you the magic tool that will make every prospect call back – or accept your next call - but I can make a suggestion that will improve your odds significantly.

When you call a prospect, what goes through his or her mind?

• Who are you?
• What do you represent?
• What’s in it for me?

To answer these questions effectively – and quickly – use a Direct Value Statement. What’s a Direct Value Statement? It’s a fast summary of what value you bring to customers who are like the prospect you’re hoping to sell to. It can be used in a voice mail, face-to-face, or over the phone.

Here’s an example: “My name is Will Brooks, with The Brooks Group. We assist our customers in the long-term healthcare industry to build their sales cultures and grow census. We do this by providing customized sales and sales management training reinforced with practical, real-world coaching.”

See how it works?

My name is ____________________________, with __________________________.

We assist our customers in the _________________________ industry

to __________________________________________________________________.

We do this by _________________________________________________________.

You should practice and practice your Direct Value Statement in your own words so that it flows easily and naturally for you when you need it – whether you’re telephone prospecting, networking at an event, or just meeting a stranger at a party.

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In order to be a truly qualified prospect, a company or individual must meet all five of the following criteria. They:

1. Have a need and are aware of it.
2. Have the legitimate authority and ability to buy or commit.
3. Have a sense of urgency about making a buying decision.
4. Trust you and your organization.
5. Will listen to what you have to say.

Especially in tough times, we all have fallen prey to trying to sell to people/organizations who only meet #5. Remember: lots of people will listen to you, but if they can’t buy, or don’t want to buy, you’ll never get a sale from them.

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Whether you’re just getting started or you’ve been selling for years, it’s important to remember sales don’t just happen – they are the result of pursuing the right activities at the right time. Keep your selling career on track with this handy checklist of essential sales activities.

Pre-Call Planning

1. Are you talking to qualified prospects?
2. Timing: Are you in front of your prospects when they are ready to buy, not when you need to make a sale?
3. Prospecting: Do you prospect regularly and consistently?
4. Positioning (PDF): Do you define how you want your prospects to perceive you, your organization and your products or services?
5. Gather in-depth data about: your prospect’s business drivers, purchasing process, decision-makers, challenges, problems, organizational structure, and competition.
6. Have you identified key players within your prospect’s organization?
7. Time: Choose your daily activities wisely and treat time like inventory – too valuable to waste.

Meeting with Prospects and Establishing Rapport

8. Confirm your appointment (don’t assume that your prospect will remember your appointment).
9. Double-check for materials (business cards, list of satisfied customers, brochures, pens, notebook, calculator, delivery schedules, etc.).
10. Pay attention to your prospect’s personality/behavior style.
11. Pay attention to non-verbal cues.
12. Credibility: You have only seconds to convince your prospect that time spent with your will be valuable.
13. Don’t start your conversation with unsolicited small talk (PDF).
14. Trust: Do your prospects believe you and your organization are credible and you will deliver on every promise or commitment?

Presenting and Asking Questions

15. Forget about generic product demonstration
16. Choose the most appropriate product or service for each prospect
17. Tailor your presentation to your prospect’s needs and wants
18. Focus on benefits, not on features or price.
19. Clear up any misunderstandings that your prospect may have
20. Don’t confuse your prospect or overwhelm them with too many options
21. Ask the right questions
22. Then listen. Listen actively and take notes.
23. Find out: What he/she will buy, how he/she will buy it, why he/she will buy it, and under what conditions he/she will buy it.
24. Don’t focus on what you want to have happen at the end of your sales call.
25. Instead, focus on what your prospect wants to have happen.
26. Do you get feedback from your prospect and make sure that your presentation is on-target?
27. Don’t make price an issue.
28. Remember: Success in sales is driven by margin and volume.
29. Present price after you create perceived benefits that exceed price and perceived emotional cost.

Closing the Sale

30. Never make a claim you can’t back up with facts.
31. Do you provide testimonials from your customers?
32. Try to involve happy customers with your prospect
33. Convince prospects that what you say is true and that the benefits of your product/service outweigh its price.
34. Handling the details: Try to work out any objections or problems.
35. Don’t give them canned responses to objections
36. After the sale I: Do you tell the prospect they’ve made a wise decision?
37. After the sale II: Do you invite your customer to buy more?
38. After the sale III: Do you service your accounts as enthusiastically as you sell them?
39. Be responsible and accountable for your own sales results.

(3 votes, average: 4.67 out of 5)

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OK. Good job! You got the appointment with this important prospect. Now what?

You better plan carefully and intelligently. No winging it – you’re better than that. You’re a professional salesperson – a value resource, a consultant to your prospect, not a product pusher or a data dumper.

So – be PREPARED. But how?

Start with the critical questions that every prospect wants answered when you show up for a sales call:

• Who are you?
• What do you want?
• Why are you here?
• Who do you represent?
• What’s in it for me?

Here’s how you can do it:

“I’m (your name) from (your company) and the purpose of our meeting today is to meet you, get to know you better, talk with you about (whatever your product/service is) and to discuss anything you might like to discuss with me.”

NOW SHUT UP AND LISTEN TO YOUR PROSPECT’S RESPONSE

You’ll be amazed at how this simple, direct way of approaching your prospect takes the tension out of those first few seconds of your encounter. Notice that the wording of this phrase gets to the point and answers all of your prospect’s unspoken questions quickly – AND you’re putting the focus on the prospect…“Get to know you, talk with you, and discuss anything you might like to discuss…”…That last point is critical because you’re letting the prospect know that you’re interested in talking about THEIR concerns.

Next, you can use a “bonding statement” like this one:

“We work hard to make sure our customers get exactly what they want, and that’s how I’d like to work with you. In order to see if I can do that, do you mind if I ask you some questions?”

NOW SHUT UP AND LISTEN TO YOUR PROSPECT’S RESPONSE

Usually you’ll hear, “OK, go ahead.”

So let your prospect do the talking (if they choose to). The best way to encourage talking is to ask reflective, open-ended, easy-to-answer questions in a conversational way.

But sometimes you might hear, “I don’t have time to answer questions.”

In that case, you can ask, “When would be a good time to continue?” After all, the reality is simple: If a prospect won’t talk to you, they probably won’t buy from you either!

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Tick tock goes the clock. How are you using your time? Bill explains in this audio time management with prospecting tips.

Click the green play button above to play the audio

This and other podcasts are available to download at itunes to help your selling career. If you have never used itunes and need help to download and install it click here for a tutorial.

You can click the “itunes” icon on the sidebar to take you directly to our podcast site.

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