This is a guest post by Paul Archer.

On holiday in France last year we spent many an evening in the local cafes sucking up the atmosphere enjoying everything that is France. Next to us on one evening was a charming British couple and, as you do, we got chatting. The chap talked about life back at home and mentioned excitedly about coaching his local mini rugby team.

Now that’s exactly what I do on a Sunday morning so I began to tell him, with equal enthusiasm, all about my coaching. I told him all about it, never stopped, talked over him and dominated the conversation.

That’s not empathy and rapport building…I blew it.

They didn’t stay in the café very long making their excuses and disappeared into the night. Afterwards I realized what I’d done and knew that if I’d listened to him and allowed him to talk openly about his hobby…we would have got on better. Instead I just got talking about the same subject.

It’s easy to do this when the other person mentions something that you can say a lot about as well. Sometimes we all fall into this trap. I know, I did.

This is useful in sales, coaching and any communication situation where you need rapport and a trust before you can do your job.

Do people a favour and just let them talk.

Paul Archer is an international sales speaker, sales trainer, author and coach based in the UK. He specializes in rapport selling and rapport coaching and can ignite his audiences large or small. For more information on Paul and his training courses, visit www.archertraining.co.uk or his sales  blog at www.paularcher.com

This is a guest post by Paul Archer

He’d frightened me to death with his automatic weapon and ferocious look. “There’s a problem with your passport” he alleged with a fierce voice and in broken English he continued. “You must come with me”

The next 30 minutes were spent in fear, trepidation and anxiety as I awaited my fate. You see I was leaving Iran following a sales speaking engagement and little did I know there was a problem with my Visa which is not a good habit to get into.

My traveling companion, Sandro, was clear of passport control and was making his way to the departure lounge but I was being kept in a windowless room whilst police and army scrutinised my passport and kept passing it from one important looking person to another.

“You cannot leave Iran – you must stay” the very official man said to me. He had a massive smile and was covered in stripes and insignia on his uniform to indicate he was a man of an elevated position. “You are in my country illegally” And he was quiet correct as it happened and just doing his job.

By this point, I was beyond rescue. However I began thinking it might be OK to live in Iran full time as it’s such a fabulous country. But think of Claire and my three smiling children waving to me at the airport. My daughter without a Daddy. How terrible.

But living in Iran full-time did sound pleasant. I could make a honest living training and speaking, pick up Farsi, get a chic apartment in the exclusive north of Tehran after all I had made some really good friends in the last week and we could party every night…..

No, I came to my senses. No I must get home to my family. They need me. “Please Sir, can you explain the problem with my Visa?” I grovelled at the official. I.d been taught to grovel at an early age and it usually worked.

“It says on the Visa that you can be in my country for 5 days…but you have been here for 6 days.”

Talk about detail and yes, I’d goofed big time. Hugely…what a mistake to make. And I promised myself to always attend to detail in the future. Never lose your attention to detail– it could take you away from your family.

In sales and coaching, we do have to concentrate on the detail and it’s plainly not everyone’s “cup of tea”. Contracts, marketing brochures, sales plans, sales meeting preparation, stocking your brief case ready for meetings, knowing the benefits of products, checklists for training courses, planning probing questions to reveal client problems, emailing actions, quarterly objectives….the list goes on.

Some people prefer to focus on the big picture and detest detail but others enjoy wallowing in the small print. But my lesson from Iran was to check the detail more often and if you don’t want to then hire or delegate someone to do it for you.

When they finally let me go through passport control I was the most thankful man on this planet. And I won’t make the same mistake again.

Paul Archer is an international sales speaker, sales trainer, author and coach based in the UK. He specializes in rapport selling and rapport coaching and can ignite his audiences large or small. For more information on Paul and his training courses, visit www.archertraining.co.uk or his sales  blog at www.paularcher.com

This is a guest post By Art Sobczak

There is no excuse for placing a “cold” call to a prospect. With the abundance of online information available about individuals and companies, and by asking questions of others within a prospect organization, you can gather useful intelligence that can help you “smarten” your calls.  This means you can quickly relate to the prospect, his/her concerns and desires, and perhaps something that is a burning issue for them right now.

You also can warm up the prospect prior to the call. If you, a staff member or marketing person can send something in advance—something that can possibly acquaint them with you, and perhaps create some interest—then by all means, do so!  IF it is targeted and relevant, it can have a significant return on investment.

My friend and fellow sales trainer Bill Lee (www.BillLeeOnline.com) suggests a good idea: Put your prospect on your mailing list long before you make your first call. Of course, this requires some work and planning on your part; but again, if you are serious about this and make Smart Calling™ a systematic habit, then it will become a ritual for you.  Bill suggests sending things that you feel the prospect might find useful (“useful” is the key term here; don’t send purely self-promotional propaganda). Send things such as:

•  News clippings

•  Magazine articles

• Copies of web pages with interesting info

•  Helpful hints pertaining to their  business

•  Your company’s newsletter (again, the more about them, the better)

And let me add to the list:

Books. Find general, current, popular business books. Include a brief note about how you thought the prospect might find this interesting, and that you will be contacting him or her soon to discuss some ideas. Sound too expensive? Of course, you wouldn’t send these out by the thousands; but let’s say a book is $15. I bet you’d have a better chance of getting in to a high-level prospect when you say to the executive assistant, “I’m the guy that sent the book.”   When this prospect becomes a client, you’ll make that $15 many times over.

Audio CDs or video DVDs. Similar to a book; be sure it is something educational, topical, and of value that will pique their interest and curiosity.

Greeting cards. A very persistent sales pro sent me personalized greeting cards every month for 16 months (that right—16!) while I continually evaded his phone calls. I finally agreed to take some time to listen to the automated system he was using for sending out the personalized cards. I was sorry I had waited so long to discuss it with him, and now endorse and use the program. I suggest you look at it as well; See complete details on the program  at www.BusinessByPhone.com/soc.htm

The best time to send the items is after you have already asked some questions of others in the decision maker’s department, what I term “social engineering.”  This allows you to tailor what you send to the prospect’s interests, and then enlist his or her assistant in helping you get it to the buyer. And when you do call, you still want to follow all of the steps in the Smart Calling™ system. Do NOT—I plead with you— do not start out your call with, “I sent you a letter, did you get it?”

Emailing Before a Call
Emails before a Smart Call™ can warm them up, if structured well. I recently received an email that did catch my attention. It started out with,

“Art, thought you might be interested in hearing about how another sales trainer like you was able to get new customers and maintain them at a high lifetime value.”

Then he went on to share a success story, mentioned some of my services and how they were similar, and shared some testimonials. He said he would call me. That message earned my time because it was personalized, not just in name, but in content. He did his homework. He also built credibility by using a testimonial with an example of someone like me. Very nice.

This can work also with a hard copy letter. Again, the key is using Smart information, and not trying to sell in the document.

Sending Unusual Items Prior to a Call
Donnie Deutsch, host of the CNBC show, The Big Idea, tells the story of when he was building his ad agency, and he wanted the account of a regional car dealer. To get to the person who was in charge of awarding the contract, he shipped an assortment of individual car parts every half-hour for a 12-hour period to the guy’s house. Each part was accompanied with a different message, like, “We’ll Give You Bright Ideas” (a headlight); “We’ll Protect Your Rear End” (fender); “We’ll Steer You in the Right Direction”  (steering wheel).  In total, Deutsch sent 24 of these packages. He got the account.

There is no doubt that sending unconventional items to buyers can get their attention. I put these things into the “gimmick” category. Just like a trick play in football, they make for a sexy story, and they are fun when they work; but you likely won’t build a career on them. Here are just some of items I have seen and heard about.

Packages of coffee and a mug. “I’d like to have a cup of coffee with you to discuss some ideas about??

Shoes, or blow-up feet. “I’m trying to get my foot in the door.”

Lumpy mail. Direct mail marketers know that a three-dimensional envelope gets opened before standard direct mail. You are limited only by your imagination. Oriental Trading Company sells all kinds of fun things. www.OrientalTrading.com.

A sales rep with Troy XCD Inc., Angie Medina said that in order to really differentiate herself, she sends a crumpled up catalog or brochure in an envelope and attaches a note saying, “Don’t throw this away again!”

At a marketing seminar I once attended, one of the participants shared the method he has used to seize the attention of high level decision makers. I thought that I had heard most of the gimmick-related techniques of sending odd objects to decision makers; but this one beat them all. This sales person purchases cheap, $20 disposable cell phones (the kind you can get at WalMart). He then sends them to his highly-targeted top level decision makers along with a note that says, “I believe we can help you increase your profits. I will call you at 3:00 p.m. on Thursday the 16th. Please listen for my call.” Then he calls the cell number! He claims that it is so unique, that it works almost every time.

Again, if you are having a difficult time getting through to a buyer—someone you feel you must have as a customer—and have exhausted all of your other avenues, you have nothing to lose by trying an unconventional approach.

(Art Sobczak works with thousands of sales reps each year helping them get more business by phone. His new book, “Smart Calling” shows salespeople how to eliminate the fear, failure and rejection from cold calling. To learn more about the book and get the free report, “The Top 10 Dumb Cold Calling Mistakes that Ensure Rejection” go to www.SmartCalling.com.)

This is a Guest Post by Mark Hunter.

Have you ever been in a selling situation when you were not able to close the sale? Of course you have. Every salesperson has. If you are unable to close the sale, you must ensure you close on something.  This is true if you sell primarily face-to-face, and it is true if you sell primarily over the phone.

First of all, don’t skip on doing the leg work of making sure you have uncovered the customer’s true needs and wants.  Keep good records, because even if you can’t close the sale right now, you may still be able to make a connection with the customer in the future based on either new product lines you have or the customer’s ancillary needs that occur to you after the call.

If you cannot close the actual sale, one of the key areas where you can “close” is to establish yourself as an expert and trusted advisor.  When you do this, you build the customer’s confidence in you.  Make sure your voice tone conveys that even if the customer doesn’t buy from you right now, you still are available as a resource in the future.  Do not allow the customer’s rejection of your offer at that moment to impact your voice tone and enthusiasm at all.

With your words and your tone, express to the customer that you are available for any questions they may have, even questions general to your industry.  In addition, do not hesitate to alert the customer to information that will benefit them, even if such information doesn’t mean a sale for you.

Establish yourself as a trusted advisor upon whom the customer can rely, and you will be more likely to secure sales from that customer when they are ready to buy.

Mark Hunter, “The Sales Hunter,” helps individuals and companies identify better prospects, close more sales, and profitably build more long-term customer relationships. He is a consultative selling expert, specializing in custom-tailored sales programs. You can read his blog at http://thesaleshunter.com/blog.

This is a Guest Post by Mark Hunter.

I’m not talking about the dial tone. I’m talking about the tone of voice your prospect is using. More specifically, I’m talking about what to do when you hear a change in their tone of voice.  We communicate with our voice, but it goes way beyond just the words we say and the volume with which we speak.  The real telling signs are in the tone of the voice, particularly pitch.

Listen carefully to the next person with whom you talk, and you’ll detect slight variations in the tone. What you are listening for is when the tone or pitch goes up and when it goes down. When this happens – when there has been a change – the person to whom you are listening is reaching a conclusion of some type.  Typically, a customer’s tone/pitch will go up slightly when they become excited or enthused, and it will go down when they’re resigned or view something negatively. Often, this change of tone is also accompanied by a change in the speed with which they speak. An increase in the words per minute signals excitement and a slow down signals calmness.

The trick with all of this is to know how to use it to your advantage. A customer’s change in tone, pitch or rate of speech is not as important as how you respond to it.  When a customer’s pitch/tone goes up, you should immediately ask them a question that gets them to build on what is making them excited. Then, immediately follow with a question to close the sale.  If, on the other hand, the customer’s pitch goes down, you should ask them a question that pertains to the biggest need they’ve expressed to date. If they have not expressed any need to you thus far, then ask them a question that would draw out what you believe is the biggest need or pain they’re facing.   Follow that question with another question that gets them to build even more on what they just told you. The key is to draw out as much as possible the need they’re facing. In doing so, you’ll be in a better position to close the sale.

Another key way you can use the tone/pitch is to help validate what the other person has just told you.  It’s very easy for a person to say something that is not the truth from a vocabulary standpoint. However, it is incredibly difficult to mask their tone/pitch.  Again, this can be a clear sign when someone is talking to you as to whether or not what they’re telling you is factual or merely something to help end the call.

This is the reason I tell anyone who is spending any degree of time on the phone to use a headset that covers both ears. Using an ordinary phone will not give you the listening advantage you need to discern the slight differences in a person’s voice. These slight differences are exactly what can help you dramatically distinguish what the customer is really saying. Ultimately, you will be better equipped to close more sales.

Mark Hunter, “The Sales Hunter,” helps individuals and companies identify better prospects, close more sales, and profitably build more long-term customer relationships. He is a consultative selling expert, specializing in custom-tailored sales programs. You can read his blog at http://thesaleshunter.com/blog.

This is a Guest post by Jill Konrath of Selling To Big Companies.

What are the things that you can do when your potential clients disappear into “the black hole?” When you don’t know the reason why you haven’t heard from them, determining how to respond can be a problem, especially since you don’t want to be annoying.

Here are some methods that you can use in dealing with “the black hole:”

● Persevere.

Keep in mind that clients expect you to keep in touch all the time. It usually takes 8-10 contacts before you can get in contact with them again. Don’t be terrified. This is completely normal in business nowadays.

● Value each connection.

Don’t just say, “Hi, Alex. Just getting back to you as I promised about your _______ decision. If you have questions, just let me know.”

Instead, say this: “Alex, based on our meeting last week, I know how vital it is for you to shorten your sales cycle. There’s a white paper on our website that focuses on this. I’ll email you the link in a while.”

● Have a sense of humor.

Inject some humor on your communication. Leave a funny message such as, “Alex, I know you’re extremely busy. But I also know that your sales cycle is of great importance to you. That’s why I keep bugging you. I am looking forward to reconnect with you at last,” after 4-5 contacts with the prospect.

● Use different media.

Combine different approaches. Combine voice calls with voicemails, emails, mailings, invitations to events, and articles in the mail. Ensure that each contact informs and educates.

● Establish different modes of entry.

Recognize and cultivate several relationships concurrently. Don’t just let one person be your total gateway to a company. And reference others you are speaking with in your messages or emails, when appropriate.

● Re-assess your initial connection.

How can you double their urgency? How can you find out if you are just column fodder? How can you link your offering more into their business priorities? Too many a time, salespeople focus on product or service information when speaking with prospects. Instead, concentrate on significant business results and the difference that you can make.

● Prepare for your next action.

Don’t leave a meeting without a homework assignment for the salesperson and the prospect and a scheduled definite follow-up appointment. If they’re not cooperative and are reluctant to do this, it is a sign that something might be wrong. Dig deep into this and explore their need and urgency better.

● Let them off the hook.

Email them saying that you thought that they were engrossed with the offer, but maybe you got the wrong idea about the situation because you haven’t heard back from them in a couple of weeks. Believe it or not, this approach often receives a reply and an explanation from a potential client who is feeling guilty about not reconnecting.

● Lessen your contact frequency.

If you contacted them 10 times already, and still you didn’t get a respond, lessen your contact with them. A quarterly schedule might be more suitable. Or, you can reconnect at a more fitting and proper time with the client.

By using one or more of these methods, it is highly likely for you to reconnect with a prospect who has disappeared into “the black hole.” These strategies may not work all the time, but these often get the job done. And if you have repeatedly given value and concentrated on the impact your offering will bring, they will likely be prepared to apply your solution yesterday.

Jill Konrath, author of Selling to Big Companies, helps sellers crack into corporate accounts, shorten sales cycles and win big contracts. She’s a frequent speaker at annual sales meetings, kick-off events and professional conferences. For timely and provocative sales advice, visit www.SellingtoBigCompanies.com.

This is a Guest Post by Mark Hunter.

It may sound odd to mention “phone sales tips” and “body language” in the same sentence. Do the two go together? Yes! In fact, you can even say when you add the two together, you get a third phenomenon:  Increased sales motivation. Your body language comes through loud and clear with every phone call you make.

I often tell salespeople to make sure they are standing up anytime they make an important phone call. In the instances when you do have to be sitting for a phone call, make sure you have good posture. It’s amazing how much stronger your voice will be when you’re standing up and/or maintaining good posture when you make a call. It is no surprise that when your voice is stronger, your confidence is stronger too.

Another reminder I offer is this: Make sure when you are on the phone, you are free of visual distractions. What are some common visual distractions? Email would possibly be the biggest one if you are at your computer. Other distractions include television, miscellaneous papers on your desk or anything else that can take away your focus. When you’re having a conversation with someone on the phone, it’s no different than speaking to them in person. They deserve your complete and undivided attention. If you have something else that may take away your focus, you are doing your customer a disservice. Simply move it out of site.

Finally, an item I love to do when talking to clients on the phone is to have something on my desk to remind me who I am talking to, including their name and their company. There is nothing more embarrassing than to suddenly forget who you’re talking to. No matter how good you think your memory is, this will happen to you at least a couple of times.  That’s all it takes for you to realize how important it is to have the person’s name and company in writing in front of you.

Selling on the telephone is a key part of anyone’s job, whether it be using the phone to establish an initial contact or using it to stay in touch with a loyal customer. Use extraordinary phone skills each time and you will see a positive difference in your results.

Mark Hunter, “The Sales Hunter,” helps individuals and companies identify better prospects, close more sales, and profitably build more long-term customer relationships. He is a consultative selling expert, specializing in custom-tailored sales programs. You can read his blog at http://thesaleshunter.com/blog.

This is a Guest post by Alen Majer, CEO of The Science and Art of Selling.

If your prospect does not see the value in your product or service, and if the only difference between you and the competitors is in pricing, you didn’t do a good job as a sales person. The main description of your position inside the company is to create the value, not just to show your price list. Teaching and educating customers is no longer enough, giving them information about your products or services is no longer necessary. They can get them by themselves, without ever talking to you or your company, and know more about your product and positioning on the market than you.

If they know so much about you, how can you try to sell them the same product without knowing their business situation or their needs?

Remember that customers are sophisticated; they either have or believe they can get product information more reliably on their own. Information is readily available through many different sources, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Internet is full of different forums, blogs, and review or research websites where they can get information about your product easily.

Customers don’t just want a specific product; most of the times they want to solve their pain point or business issues. A customer in today’s competitive sales environment does not expect to educate the sales professional about their business.  Therefore, you must already possess a solid understanding of the customer’s industry, competitors, and business direction.

Developing such a comprehensive view of the customer is a task that requires extensive researching and education to get an overall picture of the customer’s business industry. The modern sales person needs to focus on understanding the customer’s business initiatives, strategic plans, IT environment, and key customer preferences.

If you are still seeing yourself as someone who is there to educate customers, you are living in the past. The time of product-centric sales is gone. Welcome to customer-centric approach in sales.

You need to move away from the focus on presenting your products. Instead, a customer-centric approach shows that you recognize and understand your customers’ needs, which is necessary if you want to survive in a 21st Century sales environment.

Your customers are tired of salespeople who come in and are unable to address real business needs, but talk about their company and the hottest feature, or unique one that nobody else has. There are many dimensions that you are selling, and price is only one of them.

Alen Majer consults and trains entrepreneurs and salespeople how to harness their (sex) energy and use it for the success of selling. He is the founder and CEO of The Science and Art of Selling – a sales training, coaching and consulting company in Toronto, Canada; co-founder of Sales Academy – Croatia and Sales Institute of Croatia. Visit his blog at http://www.alenmajer.com.

Attitude is EVERYTHING in telesales. Regardless of all the telemarketing tips, or business phone help books you read, if you attitude is not in the right place then you can forget about ever becoming successful. Bottom line, successful people are successful because they see themselves as successful. Plain and simple.

Training of any kind can often, and almost should, pretty much start with a shift in attitude.

Before we can begin to sell consistently and professionally, we need to rid ourselves of all the negativity and ‘anger’ of being hung up on, on a regular basis. And lets face it, it does happen a lot!

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Here’s Part 2 of a guest post by regular Telesales Magic contributor Paul Archer of Archer Training, based in the UK. Paul completes this two part look at how to effectively listen on your sales call by looking into beating distractions.

Eliminating Distractions

One of my first sales jobs was working as a financial adviser for a busy estate agent in a major city.  My desk was right by a large picture window opening up to Guildford High Street.  On a Saturday or a busy lunchtime, hundreds of people would walk by, some would stare in at me. Cars and trucks would drive by and there would always be some movement going on outside.And meanwhile I had to use the phone to speak with customers.

I also recall the very next day being told in the morning that the company I worked for was up for sale.  Suddenly the external distraction of the window didn’t matter, as my head was full of internal distractions this time to prevent me from listening to my customer. Its so difficult selling on the phone when the world is full of distractions.

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