If your team needs to have better initial appointments, they must adopt best practices for prospecting for new leads. They’re going to have to improve the quality of their initial phone call. It takes about 16 attempts to reach a prospect to get them engaged. Most people give up after four attempts. First, your producers and relationship managers and lenders have got to be more persistent and consistent in their outreach and second, they must get better. That first phone call is so critical.

Here are some keys to remember to upgrade your team’s prospecting effectiveness. What is the purpose of the first call? Simply, to get the prospect engaged. Not to talk product and definitely, not to sell anything. The first call is to gain their attention, find out what is on their minds and secure a meeting. So here are four rules to help your team improve in that area. Remind them that:

1. How they say what they say is more important than what they say
2. Nobody wants to talk to them, really
3. The first 10 seconds are critical
4. They must sound like someone the prospect would choose to speak with

All of those can be improved if you require your people to prepare themselves with pre-call planning. They must know what they are going to ask, what the prospect might ask them and be prepared so they can pivot if they need to. If they cannot connect with the prospect in the first 10 seconds, everything from there is uphill. All of this requires practice, practice, practice. That’s where real leadership emerges.  Are you inspecting these behaviors?  Does your company have a consistent sales approach that you or your managers are following and coaching around? All salespeople, including yours, will fall back on what is comfortable, what they learned at a prior company. To implement best practices in prospecting for new leads, you will have to take them out of that comfort zone.

How can leaders get better at improving the sales techniques of their people without processes proven to work? We help many companies with a better first call approach, improving their team’s ability to prospect for new leads. We call this the 8-Step phone approach but that is not important. What IS important is that your people craft this, practice this, refine it and tailor it to who they are calling. First calls that are effective are no whimsical in nature, not off the cuff, they are pre-planned and precise. However, the prospect is not scripted, so your lenders and producers must be flexible and tenacious. Here is a simplified approach for the 8-Step call:

1. Introduce Yourself then…
2. STOP​ (let them talk, ask etc.)
3. Ask Permission​ to continue
4. Provide short Positioning Statement​ about what other clients in their industry are dealing with (Sample: Bob, in talking with executives like yourself, some of the common challenges that I've been hearing are hiring top talent, and an uncertainty that the people they have can overcome some of the challenges facing them in the coming year. Bob, I'm curious, are either of those having an impact on you and your business?)
5. Let them answer then ask permission to continue
6. Give two examples of how you have helped others in similar situations
7. Discussion & Drill Down ​– ask questions to find out how these issues are affecting them, their company, their success
8. Close for Appointment​ – no selling, no product talk (Sample: Bob, can I make a suggestion? Why don't you invite me out? Let's find some time to sit down. We can ask each other some questions, and at the end of that, we'll both know if it makes sense to talk further.)

Have your people script this for upcoming calls, then practice over and over. It should not be or sound like a canned approach. They must become familiar with it; they must own it and it must be unique. Have them do that for the next 30 days. Have them record their opening dialogue to their phone call. Listen to it. Have other people listen to it. Coach it. Would you want to talk to them if they called you?

It's important to warn your people about getting happy ears, as we like to call it. They hear one kind of buying comment, such as yes, we really could use a better approach, and bam, they are introducing their product benefits and how they can make it better. Instead, your salespeople will be unique and stand out if they ask questions, better questions and lots of questions to fully understand the prospect’s problem. See how long your salespeople can go without talking about their product or company or solution. At the end of the conversation, their prospect should be thinking: That was different or I can see myself doing business with him or her down the road. I might not have a problem right now, but when I do, I'm going to be thinking of them. They asked good questions, they challenged me, they don’t want to sell me, they want to know me.

So, I will ask you again: How good is your team at prospecting for new leads? And what are you going to do about it?

Has thou been answering the un-asked question? Find out why you should never, ever answer the un-asked question in the final commandment of the 10 Commandments of Sales Success. 

Transcript:

Hi, this is Mark Trinkle, Chief Growth Officer for Anthony Cole Training Group. And believe it or not, we have made it all the way to the final commandment in our series that we've titled "The 10 Commandments for Sales Success."

Commandment number 10 is Thou Shalt Never, Ever Answer the Un-Asked Question. It's fascinating to me that so many salespeople have a tendency to do that sometimes, to the point where they even sell past the yes. Never, ever answer the unasked question. If your prospect isn't asking you about scheduling, don't answer or ask a question about it. If your prospect isn't asking you about the rest of the team, and I'm not saying they're not important, then don't answer or ask a question about it. It's as simple as that. See, we believe at Anthony Cole Training Group that questions well, there's an art part to it, there's an artistic part to it, a little bit of artistic flair, and there's a science part.

By science part we mean that open-ended questions are better than close-ended questions. Think about this. How good are you as a salesperson at getting your prospects to the point where they can't stop thinking about the conversations or the discussions that you're having with them? And the reason that's important, is because people can ignore you, right? They can ignore your email, they can ignore your voicemail, they can ignore you. But the one thing, prospects can't ignore their own thoughts. They cannot escape their own thoughts, hopefully, about the meeting that you've just had with them.

You need to ask the right question, the right way, at the right time. You certainly should be asking questions that you can reasonably predict or know the answers to. And lastly, don't answer questions that your prospect isn't asking. Remember, don't sell past the yes. Thanks for listening. Have a great day.

Are thou always remembering to follow the Rules of Engagement? Learn why it's important by watching our new series with Chief Growth Officer Mark Trinkle. Today, Mark will discuss Commandment #9 of the 10 Commandments of Sales Success. 

Watch all of the Commandments Here

Transcript:

Hello, this is Mark Trinkle, and believe it or not, we have made our way to commandment number nine, the 9th in our 10th installment of our series that we have called The 10 Commandments for Sales Success. Commandment number nine for today is Thou Shalt Always Remember to Follow the Rules of Engagement.

I don't know whether you have seen Top Gun, the original or the sequel that came out, Top Gun Maverick. It captivated the nation. Seemingly, it captivated me. It was a great story. That was actually a movie you could invite your whole family to watch. And if you watched that movie, whether it was the original or the second one, particularly the original, you know the trouble that that Maverick, Lieutenant Mitchell got into when he, when he flew below the hard deck, that altitude level at which it was no longer safe to carry on the competition.

And the problem was he violated Top Gun's Rules of Engagement. Salespeople do the same thing. Actually, they don't violate rules of engagement, quite frankly. Most of the time they don't even have rules of engagement. They just chase prospects. They don't have a standard of what they're looking for. They don't need a prospect to qualify for them. What's interesting is that those salespeople spend a lot of their time trying to argue that they would be a great fit for their prospect. They spend very little, if any time, trying to investigate whether or not that prospect would be a good fit for them. There are three qualifying questions that as a salesperson, you need to ask of yourself when you're deciding whether or not to chase a deal. Number one is, do I wanna win this business? Well, I get to decide. That's one of the great parts about being in sales.

You and I get to decide who we do business with. Do you want to do business with them? The second question you should ask is, can you win the business? If there's a budget, can you meet the budget for the deal? If there is an incumbent provider, can you dislodge that incumbent provider? It's a question of whether or not their current relationship is breakable. Number three, the third question you should ask is, well, how do I win this business? And that's a matter of sales strategy. You know, our coaches and training group receive a lot of calls during the week from salespeople that are frustrated about a variety of things. But the number one thing that prompts them to call in is that they're working on a deal and it's stuck. It's not moving. It's been in the pipeline for a while. Maybe the prospect has gone radio silent.

And here is my concluding thought for you. You know what? Those deals that are stuck in the pipeline, they were always destined to get stuck. They were never qualified. And who's to blame?

The salesperson who worked it, who either didn't follow or didn't have any rules of engagement? Thou shall always remember to follow rules of engagement. Have a great day.

Are you following the Ten Commandments of Sales Success? Find out by watching our new series with Chief Growth Officer Mark Trinkle. Today, Mark will discuss Commandment #8: Thou Shalt Always Remember to Add Value.

Watch all of the Commandments Here

Transcript:

Good day everyone. This is Mark Trinkle, Chief Growth Officer with Anthony Cole Training Group. We’re going to continue to march forward in our series, the 10 Commandments for Sales Success. Commandment #8 is Thou Shalt Always Remember to Add Value. Now, remember this right from the get-go. If you don’t add value at the beginning of your sales process or your sales cycle, it’s going to be really hard to defend that at the end. So let’s get that straight. You’ve gotta add it at the beginning to defend it or sell based upon it at the end. Maybe this screen is summarizing some things that you’ve heard recently about price or about rate?

Maybe you’ve heard, “Hey, your rate or your price is too high.” Maybe you heard a prospect say, “Well, you know what, I’ve got better terms from you.” Fill in the blank. Maybe you’ve heard your prospects say, “Hey, I’m gonna look around at some other options.” Maybe they’ve come back to you. Your prospect has come back to you and they said, “Hey, what would it look like if you took your proposal and you did X, Y, or Z?”

Now, look, there are three immutable truths about a prospect and their mentality and their strategy for asking you for a rate or a price reduction. Number one, the first immutable truth. It doesn’t cost him anything to ask, right? I mean, what’s the worst thing that could happen? They might hear no. Number two, your attitude and how you respond to your prospect when they do make that ask is going to set the tone for all future negotiations. And number three, if you don’t move the conversation with your prospect away from rate and towards value, then you are always going to be negotiating on rate or on price.

Now, if you want to be strong at this, if you want to get it right and you want your response to be as effective as it can be for things, you gotta be assertive. You gotta be able to assert your value. You have to know what that value is. You cannot be scared. Number two, you better be really good at asking questions and listening. That was one of the other commandments in this series, by the way. Number three, I alluded to it at the top of this video. You’ve got to be introducing value all throughout the sales process. There must be something unique. You have to stand out from the competition. You better be teaching your prospect not what to think, but how to think. And number four, you had best be really good at negotiating. That’s it for this commandment, Thou Shalt Always Remember to Add Value. Have a great day.

SMA stands for Severe Mental Anguish. Is this something that your salespeople are uncovering in their prospects? This video is a part of our new series with Mark Trinkle: The 10 Commandments of Sales Success. Watch Commandment #4 now! 

Watch all of the Commandments Here

Today we will discuss the fourth commandment of the 10 Commandments for Sales Success. Today's commandment is, thou shalt always remember that a prospect without severe mental anguish is actually not a prospect at all. Now, we use the acronym SMA for Severe Mental Anguish. If you don't have pain, then you don't have a prospect. I'm not saying you don't have somebody that might not eventually be a prospect, but you don't have a prospect today. Maybe you've got someone that you should build a relationship with. You should continue to drip on and nurture that relationship. But let me tell you for the last time what you don't have. You don't have somebody that you ought to be presenting to without a doubt. 

Listen, at some point in your conversations with your prospect (and while we are huge fans of you asking open-ended questions, because those facilitate conversation) there is one close-ended question that you should feel comfortable asking, and that is simply, "Hey, Mr./Mrs. Prospect, do you have to solve this problem? Is your problem just a problem? Or is it a priority that you have to fix? Not one you'd kind of like to fix. Do you have to fix that problem? Is it a top-of-the-pile kind of problem? Is it something maybe you can just wait on while you deal with other priorities?" You need to know that. And of course, it's not that easy. In our track record as a company of over 30 years of working with salespeople and sales organizations, we know that there's always something that gets in the way of salespeople asking that question.

And the answer is, typically, they're either afraid, or they have a really low pipeline, and they're just thankful that they've even got the chance to deliver a presentation. Now, I'm going to guess that in your organization, you don't make much money, if any, delivering presentations to prospects who aren't qualified or even deemed worthy of receiving them. Remember, at the end of the sales process, just like at the end of this road in the beautiful countryside here, your prospect has a decision to make. They can either make a change and deal with the problem, or they can decide, you know what? I'm gonna turn my car to the right. No change from me. We're gonna continue to deal with the status quo.

Here's my last question as I close, when do you want to know their answer to that question? Have a great day, everybody. Take good care.