My first sales job was selling photography portrait sessions for Olan Mills portrait studios when I was in my early teens. I would ride my bike over to the local strip mall, sit down in my personal cubicle, grab a sheet of names, review my scripts and then start dialing for dollars.
I wouldn’t say I was incredible at the job, but I wasn’t bad either. The thing I liked most was the flexibility and the commission structure. If I sold well, I could go home that night with a pocket full of cash.
Whether you’re calling out to new or existing customers, the art of outbound calls (despite the change in technology and selling) is still a sales fundamental needed today. Over the years, I have gathered some basic fundamentals that, when applied, can lead to even better outbound sales conversations and results; results that balance quantity and quality. Because it’s not about just putting up a bunch of high numbers, but making each contact count.
The Right Mindset
It is about bringing value to your customer. In a sales role, you will generally have more losses than wins, which can be tough on the ego and a bit demoralizing. Especially while cold or outbound calling, there can be long stretches of no action, or repeated rejection.
Don’t let the results of the previous outbound calls affect your next call. In fact, don’t think too much about your results at all. This makes it all too easy to focus even more on you and less on your customer and bringing them results.
Block Off Specific Time
Time management is a struggle for everyone, except for those people that don’t think that they need to manage their time (fools). It’s simply too easy to allow small tasks to interrupt us and take our attention away from the task at hand.
With outbound calling, people are always more effective when they get into a groove, rhythm, cadence, and pattern. Set time and productivity goals and stick to them.
Give Before You Get
I am sure that when you get a phone call, the first thing you do is look to see who it’s from, right? The second question your mind asks is “what do they want?” It’s almost a defensive response and (not surprisingly) salespeople have a tendency to reinforce that behavior.
We call and want a person’s time, information and eventually their money, so it is only natural that resistance is high and receptivity is low. Try a different approach:
- Proactively give your name
- If you have a connection, share that information
- Explain why your calling in a customer-centric way
- “I’m calling to share how…”
Ask Questions
Studies have shown that the more engagement we have in the initial call, the more likely we are to have a more productive relationship later. The best way to generate that interaction and conversation is through asking questions.
There are so many obvious benefits to asking questions in a sales conversation. A not so obvious but beneficial result is that asking questions adds control and direction to a call. Be sure to have a couple ready go.
Be Prepared
There is no making it up on the fly here. Before you start to dial that number, you better know exactly what outcome you are going for. Don’t get to the end of a call and then fumble around in your calendar looking for a date or time that works.
All too often we lose momentum and credibility when we get to this part of the conversation and it just doesn’t go as smoothly as we want it too. This last part is really the sale. Know what you are going to ask for, how you are going to ask and what you’re going to say if you get an objection.
Track Your Progress
There will be peaks and valleys. One of the biggest challenges that we face with outbound calling is ourselves. It’s too easy to judge success based on one call, one hour or one week. When we’re not generating results, it’s too easy to only think about that–not generating results. That can have a dramatic impact on so many things like attitude, tone, and technique.
Give yourself perspective by tracking your daily, weekly, monthly and even quarterly results. You have been in valleys before, they are only natural, and you’ve had peaks. The numbers have shown that. Relax. Celebrate the peaks when your peaking, and when you are in the valleys, remember that there is always another peak coming along.
Practice
I believe there is always room to get even better. Without that challenge and excitement of improvement, I lose motivation, and that makes me unhappy. Not a good thing when it comes to doing anything really. So how do you continue to improve if you are not performing the way you want to be?
- Do not make excuses
- Ask for help
- Listen to your own calls
- What are you specifically doing well?
- What could be even better?
- Listen to other top performing examples
- Be deliberate and write out your thoughts, ideas, questions, answers, etc.
- Practice
- If you’re reading this blog, you’re obviously looking for some ideas to improve your performance, and ideas are great, but they do not mean much without execution. The biggest hurdle to execution is comfort and the best way to increase your comfort is through deliberate, safe, rigorous practice.
Thanks again my trusted reader, until then. Good luck and good practice.
