When I review opening statements for seminar attendees, clients at in-house training sessions, attendees of at the Opening Statement Teleseminar (or the CD purchasers), I see lots of openings that need assistance. Even more so with the openings that I hear when sales reps call me to sell. Many of these openings are destined to create resistance.
I get pretty anal about openings. That's because we have so little time to create interest. Yet, most openings flat out elicit resistance, or don't move towards interest fast enough, therefore giving the listener time to let the resistance build. And the little things can do it. A couple of words here or there. Perhaps a question that doesn't belong...too many unnecessary words that ramble like a congressman on C-SPAN late at night.
Sad part is, some of the things I hear are actually taught by sales "gurus" in seminars, books, tapes, e-books ...whatever. I have to wonder if some of these experts have ever actually been on the phone.
I've decided to not be shy about dispelling some of the myths and bad suggestions being perpetuated out there--things that are causing salespeople to run into brick walls. I've been a bit hesitant to focus on this stuff too much, since occasionally I'll get an email saying, "Don't write about negative things. Don't tell us about what to avoid. Tell us what to do." (Hmm, upon close scrutiny, those notes do exactly what they don't want me to do!)
Well, I feel that one of the best ways to improve is to first cut out the mistakes. That's why I'll cover more of these in the future.
Let's start with this one: Finally getting a decision maker on the phone and then starting a prospecting call with,
"Hi, I'm Pat Seller with ABC Company. Are you the person there who would handle the decisions regarding your____?"
I can hear the reactions now from some readers: "So what's wrong with that?"
Here's what's wrong: You might as well start off the call with, "I'm selling something. Are you the person I should be selling it to?"
And again, I know that most of you see the problem with that, but yet someone might still be asking,
"OK, we ARE trying to sell something and we want to be sure that this is the person we should be talking to, right?"
Right. But that IS NOT the way to do it. Here's why: people would rather not talk to salespeople they don't know. It's natural, like the way we typically avoid the salespeople in retail stores who stalk after us and ask,
"May I help you?" People like to buy, but don't want to be sold. This announces your sales intentions, triggering the defensive posture. You have about seven seconds to move a person into a positive, receptive frame of mind on a prospecting call.
If you're not doing that, they're creeping into a negative frame of mind, moving into a, "How do I get rid of this salesperson?" frame of mind. Again the question about "Are you the person...?" solidifies that before you have even begun to create interest.
You should already KNOW that they are the decision maker for what you sell, BEFORE you ever hear their voice. That comes with good preparation and asking questions of other people within the organization. Even if you don't know for sure, after delivering your opening--without this question--if you're not in the right spot, they'll let you know. And if you are in the right place, you haven't jeopardized the success of what you want to accomplish: getting them into a positive frame of mind, and moving them to the questions.
OK, so what should you do? When the decision maker answers, go directly into your opening:
"Hi Pat, I'm _____ with ________. We work with ______, helping them ______. I understand that you're now in the process of _______, and there's a possibility we may have an option that could help you to ______. I'd like to ask a few questions to see if we should talk further."
That's very generic, and I always suggest that you tailor and customize your opening with information you collect before the call, and on the phone by speaking with others in their company so that you touch on results they would have interest in. And you can see that after that opening example, if you indeed were not in the right spot, they'd let you know.
