The official blog of AG Salesworks, Sales Prospecting Perspectives will give readers an insight to the challenges of managing a targeted outbound Sales Prospecting effort and team.
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In college, I took a series of leadership classes. The focus of the series was about how to be a leader, how to manage yourself, and the people around you. I remember how much the professors stressed that how you can not take back a first impression. Of course, this was my last semester, so the professors were preparing their students to spread our wings and enter the real world's trials and tribulations -the interview process.
While the classes were relevant when I was job searching, I have been fortunate enough to bring what I learned to my teleprospecting profession. I believe this to be the foundation to a successful conversation.
When I think of the interview process, it reminds me of the teleprospecting process and the steps it takes to successfully qualify an opportunity. We have seconds to make a first impression, so you are automatically put into a position of judgment before the prospect hangs up the phone - "judge or be judged!" Remember to control this conversation by using what prospects do not know about what we can do to help. As it is important to be brief, set the expectation that you are not taking up their time, as you see yourself as a valued partner to develop their process. This can be conveyed over the phone by the way you present yourself. Our job is to manage the conversation by asking the correct questions to lead the prospect in the right direction, while managing the conversation to the defined objective. Remember to keep this clear and concise!
You only have a couple seconds to guide the conversation- don't lose out on your first impression!
In recent blogs, you have probably noticed people writing about the art of how we peak prospects interests. I think it's pretty clear how important the first couple of seconds of the conversation are. Knowing how to sit back and drive it home through your teleprospecting efforts is a different story. For example: In Craig's recent blog, he talks about when you get someone live and 30 seconds into their lengthy elevator pitch your opportunity is dead because you have wasted their time by talking too much. Blah! blah! blah! So... how the heck do we keep this conversation alive if we only have a couple of seconds to speak (and we can't stand in front of them and make them listen to what you have to say!)?
My colleague, Nicole and I have been debating about what makes a great teleprospector and one of the attributes we came to agree upon is how they handle their conversation. In previous blogs we have stressed the importance of a clear purpose of your call; more importantly, how this needs to be followed by a compelling transition question.
Two benefits of having a clean and concise transition question?
Asking a clear transition question will open up the doors of communication and to get the prospect talking about what pains they are experiencing on a daily basis and how they feel about the XYZ solution they are using right now.
We do this to eliminate two things - awkward moments and simple yes or no answers. This will allow the teleprospector to think beyond the simple premise of needing an active project to be considered a qualified lead. This will allow us to collect more detailed information around their environment. What do you think?