Dookies in Many Salespeople’s Pools
I received yet another “How are you doing today?” phone call this morning. The Good News? I know that this guy has never attended a sales training course or seminar at SKAE Learning so my reputation is safe. The terrible news? This poor guy has never attended a sales training course or seminar at SKAE Learning.
As I’m sure almost every non-salesperson knows and most decent salespeople know (with the exception of the salespeople who continue to use the line) “How are you doing today” screams “Salesperson” or “Telemarketer” to one and all with the possible exception of hermits and shut-ins. It is insincere and puts most prospects on the defensive immediately.
Why do people insist on using this old worn-out line?
Two reasons:
- They’ve been taught to use it
- They haven’t been taught not to use it
Having led, trained, coached and managed hundreds of salespeople, it has become abundantly clear that most salespeople build more barriers to prevent sales than their prospects do. The missing link is usually training or lack thereof.
The first eight to ten seconds of a cold call are crucial. In this brief time span, five very important objectives must be accomplished:
- Identify your prospect
- Identify yourself
- Identify your company
- Identify the reason for your call
- Grab your prospect’s attention
Seems like a lot doesn’t it? It isn’t really; here’s a simple example with the appropriate objective number listed:
(1)*Good morning Mr. Jones? (2) This is Bob Blowhard with (3) JKL Co. (4)The reason/purpose for my call is… (5) Insert attention getter here.
*You can skip this part if your prospect answers the phone “Bob Jones”
Versus this:
May I speak with Mr. Jones?
This is him.
“Good morning Mr. Jones, How are you today?”
“I’m okay” or “I’m terrible” or “What do you want?” or “Who is this?”
The prospect usually doesn’t recognize the voice and has already been put on alert. Worse yet, the prospect mistakes the salesperson for someone else and things get really akward when they realize their error.
On many occasions I have actually answered this insincere question with “Terrible, my wife just left me and my dog bit me.” Believe it or not, I’ve heard “That’s Great!” or “That’s too bad, let me tell you about our great new whizziegig!”
Occasionally the salesperson will actually let me off the hook–this shows that they actually listened to me but the end result is still the same.
The salesperson built up a barrier and didn’t have a chance at getting my interest.
Remember the three S’s: Short, Sweet, Sincere. It beats Insincere every time.