Why Phone Sales Reps Sell Half of What They Could

... And What To Do About It...

There are two main reasons why most inside sales people only make half the sales they are capable of...

Listen to the sales podcast in its entirety.

Sales Buzz Workshop Training Schedule

SalesBuzz.com's new online training and workshop schedule is now available.

All current SalesBuzz members are allowed to attend any and all workshops.

If you are currently not a member but are interested in obtaining membership info, please contact us.

Do you have a system in place that maximizes your time on the phone?

Time management skills are crucial for commissioned based phone sales professionals. Do you have a system in place that has helped you reach a higher level of success? If so, what specific techniques are you able to share? If you don't have a system, what is preventing you from developing one?

How to Increase Sales without Increasing Your Ad Budget

Want to sell more without spending more? Start with better follow-up.

By Michael Pedone
SalesBuzz.com

In the current economy, most company’s sales numbers are down. Salespeople blame this on lower quality leads and poor results from cold calling. Fair enough.

But with marketing budgets unlikely to increase anytime soon, sales teams today have to be more relentless in their follow-up process. In short, they need a follow-up plan and the skills to carry it out – something they may have slid by without during fat times.

Leads follow-up: How NOT to do it

Here’s an example of what I’d call weak follow up. These are actual time stamps from a new SalesBuzz.com client – printed here with permission.

New Inbound Internet Lead: 7/2/2009 12:37 PM

First Contact Attempt: 7/2/2009 2:30 PM
Type: Call
Result: Left Voice Mail

Second Contact Attempt: 7/2/2009 5:08 PM
Type: Email
Result: None

Third Contact Attempt: 7/8/2009 3:21 PM
Type: Email (Same content as previous email sent a week earlier)
Result: None

Fourth Contact Attempt: NONE

In case it isn’t obvious, salespeople who make mediocre, half-hearted attempts to land new business are likely to be severely disappointed.

The best way to get the most out of sales reps is to give them a proven game plan that’s easy to follow and yields immediate positive results. And this is true when teaching them follow-up or any other skills. You wouldn’t have a rep start a sales call without a process to follow. Well, they need the same structure and guidance for follow-ups too.

Leads follow-up: A better approach

Starting with the example above, here’s what an effective follow-up process might look like:

New Inbound Internet Lead: 7/2/2009 12:37 PM

First Contact Attempt: 7/2/2009 2:30 PM
Type: Call
Result:

• Got voicemail. Left voice message and hit 0 for operator.
• Spoke with Gatekeeper. Got some background info on (Lead Name), what they do there and why they may need our service.
• Asked Gatekeeper to page (Lead Name). No answer. Asked Gatekeeper if she would be kind enough to give (Lead Name) a hand written note regarding (message that creates interest and not resistance).
• Also fired off an email with an enticing reason to email/call me back.
  

Second Contact Attempt: 7/2/2009 3:38 PM
Type: Call
Result:

• Got voicemail again. Did not leave message. Hit 0 for operator.
• Let Gatekeeper know I know she is super busy and was really grateful for her time and asked her to try and hand (Lead Name) a note.
• She wasn’t successful as she had not seen (lead name) yet but promised she would keep an eye out.
  

Third Contact Attempt: 7/2/2009 5:28 PM
Type: Call
Result:

• (Lead Name) answered phone.
• She had received email and note from Gatekeeper.
• Was able to qualify and convert to an opportunity and is now in the pipeline.
  

Having a process in place – one that’s easy to follow and known to work – makes a huge difference. The reality of today’s market is that salespeople are going to have to work smarter just to make what they used to earn back on easy street.

But the good news is, for those sales teams that learn and develop better sales habits now, when the economy improves, their sales will skyrocket!

Michael Pedone is the president and CEO of SalesBuzz.com, an online telesales training service that develops customized sales training programs for sales teams. For more information contact info@SalesBuzz.com.

How to "Make something of yourself" advice from Ari Gold.

What are you willing to do to "make something of yourself"?

What's your game plan for becoming a top sales person?

Are you surrounding yourself with self-help books, tapes, seminars and webinars?

Do you have mentors to pull from?

Are you constantly working to become better or are you one of the 99% Captain Wing Its in the field

Check out this video.

I hope it fires you up as much as it did me.

Appointment Setting Killers

I've had one too many incoming sales calls recently where sales people would try and set an appointment with using a line similar to this: "....I'd like to set up an appointment with you so I can learn a little bit about you and your company to see if there is anything we do that might be of benefit to you..."

OMG! If you are using a similar opening line when you are making your prospecting calls, STOP!

There's this thing called the Internet - and on the Internet there are "websites" that will tell you about me, my company and from there, you should predetermine what it is that you MAY be able to do for me before ever calling me.

Why on earth would I set an appointment with someone I've never met, don't know just so they can drill me with probing questions in hope that they might find something that they can sell me?

A far better way is to do your pre-call planning and then create an opening statement that creates interest, and not resistance. Your appointment setting success rate would double easily. Ok. I'm done ranting now.

Do your prospects say "Not Interested" more often than you'd like?

Do your prospects say "Not Interested" more often than you'd like?

Then you may want to take a look at a great thread running over on SalesBlogCast LinkedIn Group about what to do when your prospects give you the brush off.