Are you the type of person that walks into a restaurant, listens to the specials, browses the menu and makes a great decision on what to order in less than 5 minutes? Or are you the person that stresses out over the 20 options and ends up with the soup and salad disappointed?
Being indecisive, having a difficult time making decisions and not being assertive are things that leave us feeling lost and generally crappy. You know you love pasta and this place is known for its great sauces, so why not try the special with a nice glass of red? Because you second guess yourself and play it safe.
This behavior can be the plague in business, especially sales. Having a business conversation with someone without control over that conversation leaves the prospect in-charge of when that call ends, if and when you get to call back, and what you even discuss. We teach a qualification process here at AG that trains our Inside Sales reps when and how to be assertive. The purpose of my call is to discuss what you are using for XYZ. How is that working for you? What would you like to change about that process? We take that prospect through a series of questions with the intention of qualifying them in or out as quickly as possible. If we don’t connect with them, we put them on a call plan and set the expectation that we will call back within a certain period of time. All of the Inside Sales reps at AG exercise this plan in some fashion, but the more assertive reps are the ones that have the most success teleprospecting. I feel so strongly about this. Just from listening to chatter in the cubes, the successful inside reps on the phone at AG have confidence. They sound assertive on the phone, are putting out the volume they need to be successful, and they aren’t using words like “maybe and possibly, and could I”. They are asking for referrals, about active projects, about pains and needs that keep the prospect up at night. They are actively listening, and asking open ended questions about the answers they are getting. These are the conversation points you need to capture in order to successful while teleprospecting. Don’t second guess yourself… if you’re in this business you probably have the skill set and the drive to succeed as an inside sales professional. So challenge yourself to put the menu down, you know what you want.
