This is a guest post by Paul Archer

A few readers wrote to me just before Christmas asking for help. Both were struggling to get in front of new prospects to sell their services and products. Both had excellent propositions but found call reluctance to be as problem and prospects unwillingness to speak with them preferring to “weather the storm” and batten down the hatches.

Have you experienced this as well?

I think we all have to some degree and unless you’ve had your head in the sand, you’ll recognise that we are going through a downturn. Now I don’t sign up for the “business is better that it’s ever been, I’m busier than ever, what recession?” brigade; these people seem to be just massaging their egos when they print this stuff.

The plain fact is – we have to prospect more than ever before. Working harder and smarter at getting to speak with new customers, will help us succeed in this economy.

I think we’ve all got the skills but maybe haven’t had to use them so much over the last five to six years since there’s been plenty of business to go around.

So now’s the time to smarten up our prospecting tools, or client acquisition tools as this is now known as.

Here are some quick tips to help you.

• Examine your product and service and be crystal clear as to what problem it solves. Problems in recessions are all about saving costs and increasing revenue, getting invoices paid on time, preventing suppliers going bust and such like. Try to think like your customers and be totally clear as to what problems your product solves

• What is your customer segment? Be as precise as you can as to which type of customer has the problems that your product or service solves and then focus on these customers.

• Decide on your marketing to reach these customers. There are many routes to market that you can choose but the quickest and most decisive is still telephoning them to make an appointment to see them.

• Get over any call reluctance.

• Dedicate specific blocks of time in your diary to make calls to prospects.

• Aim simply for a face to face appointment nothing else. Don’t get into conversations, send out literature etc. These never work, although we think the do at the time, are easy to do, quite gratifying but divert your attention to the job of making appointments.

• Be up front with your prospect on the phone about the problem that your product solves and ask for an appointment.

• Don’t ask “if it’s convenient to call” you’ll lose sales if you do this. Instead say “if it’s convenient to speak right now I’d like to…” Subtle difference. And if you feel brave enough, don’t even ask, just launch into your opening.

• Learn how to politely persevere on objections twice and then leave the prospect alone. Keep coming back to the objective of asking for an appointment.

• Sticky tape the phone to your wrist and don’t put it down. Use the 60 second rule. This ensures you get onto the next call within 60 seconds, no longer.

• Spend a maximum of 60 minutes making appointment calls.

• Reward yourself when you.re done as making appointments is stressful, there’s no way around it. Yes alpha male macho types will tell you they enjoy it but you look at the burnout rate of call centre direct sales people.

It’s hard, full of rejection and people saying no, occasional rudeness and extremely easy to put off to-do another job.

We all need more prospects right now and making appointments via phone is the quickest and most effective method of doing so. Dig out all those customers that have connections to your company, old names and phone numbers. Those people who you never had the time to contact. Maybe buy some lists or leads and start to make those calls with the specific intention of making an appointment.

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.

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

Commodity Buyers
These buyers know exactly what they want and how to use it. They don’t need sellers to explain the details. Commodity buyers typically value:

• Low costs. They don’t want to pay any more than necessary. To be successful with these buyers, companies need to pull as many costs as they can out of their supply chain.

• No hassles. Make it simple, simple, simple to do business with your company. Give them an 800 number, send quick quotes, or allow easy online ordering and they’re happy.

We’re all commodity buyers at times. When I order things like contact lenses and office supplies, I just want good pricing and fast service. As a seller, there’s little you can do to create value or sell “value add.” I really don’t care. It’s up to your company to make it cheaper, simpler to order, delivered to my door and with easy returns if I need to send it back.

Strategic Partners
These people are looking far beyond the scope of your products or services. They want a strategic partnership. They’re looking at how to best leverage their organization’s core competencies in combination with another company’s core competencies. These buyers value:

• Intimate and strategic relationships between multiple levels within both organizations.
• Mutual investments in joint projects.
• Merging of systems to accomplish more than either organization could do alone.

Working with Strategic Partner buyers requires a major corporate commitment and is far beyond the scope of any one seller. If your company isn’t capable or willing to do this, these buyers aren’t interested in working with you.

By yourself, you can’t create the value they need. But if your company chooses to do this, you and your firm will become absolutely invaluable.

“I Need to Make a Sound Decision” Buyer
These buyers are either spending a lot of money on a decision or they don’t know everything there is to know about what they’re buying. Typically their decision process is complex, involves multiple people and takes place over an extended period of time.
If corporate decision makers are seriously considering your product or service, they assume it meets their basic requirements and that your organization is reputable. Having a decent offering gets you in the game, but does not typically provide enough value to win the business.

In fact, with these these buyers, the seller creates the value by what they personally bring to the relationship. These buyers value sellers who:

• Help them understand their problems in greater depth.
• Add additional insights into the challenges they face.
• Share relevant information regarding “best practices.”
• Develop unique, innovative approaches to resolving their business issues.
• Keep them up-to-date on trends in the industry and how others are addressing them.
• Help them find ways around the obstacles they’re encountering, and
• Propose new ways to do more with the same investment.

Becoming an Invaluable Resource
What makes a seller invaluable? The ability to contribute so much more with each and every customer interaction – so much so that they can’t imagine doing business without you.

Let me give you an example. Say your company handles direct mailing programs, a fairly non-differentiated service offering.

Here are some ways that you, as the seller could become invaluable to your customers. You could:

• Share ideas about other company’s direct mail programs – what works, what doesn’t.
• Help them find ways to increase the results of their existing direct mail programs.
• Show them how to reduce the overall costs of the program while maintaining its effectiveness and integrity.
• Let them know what their competitors are doing.
• Develop ways to increase the quality of their database.

If you keep thinking, you can come up with even more ways to become invaluable such as:

• Working collaboratively with related vendors (i.e. agencies, telemarketing firms) to smooth out the hand-offs.
• Helping them establish important criteria for their vendor selection process that they currently may not be aware of.
• Proposing ideas for new programs to help them achieve their desired marketing results.
• Acting as an advocate within your own organization on issues impacting the customer.
• Suggesting ways to improve the work flow between all companies and internal departments working on the project.

To become invaluable, you must bring more to the relationship than just your standard product or service. What you want to create is a situation where corporate decision makers can’t live without your ideas, insights, and knowledge.

Becoming invaluable doesn’t just “happen.” You need to invest in yourself. Learn more about your customer’s business. Figure out how to help them improve it. Be an idea generator. Become an expert in your field. It takes a real commitment on your part.

Only the best make that commitment. But it truly sets them apart from everyone else and literally makes them invaluable.

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 Paul Archer

Everyone knows that in selling or coaching, it’s extremely dangerous to make assumptions about your customer or the person you’re coaching. It’s one of those principles that.s drummed into sales people on day one of their induction sales training. But we’re all guilty of making assumptions from time to time – I know I am. Read on to see how dangerous these can be.

Over Christmas I was talking to my three children about a fearful incident when I was about their age. The story shocked them at the time and they still don’t believe it was true. But I assure you it was.

My first pet was a cute golden hamster that I named Hammy – original I know. Now we didn’t live in a big house so I shared a room with Hammy and my two brothers who I hated passionately. We were constantly caught bashing the life out of each other, as brothers do.

It came to a head one evening when Hammy, being a nocturnal creature, kept us all up with his squealing exercise wheel. It was incessant. It was excruciatingly painful. Nothing we could do would stop him or fix the squeak. And the fighting with my brothers got even worse.

He had to go. The next day Hammy found his way into the garden shed. What a relief, at last we could get some sleep. We had solved the problem but only until that fateful morning.

It was freezing and pitch black at 6am. On my way to my paper-round, I popped my head around the shed door to look up on Hammy. I stared into his cage with a torch, he was motionless. I was devastated – my only true friend was dead and it was my entire fault evicting him to the bitter, murky shed.

Ignoring my paper round, I picked him up and took him indoors. This 12 year old boy was distraught and overwhelmed by it all. So I laid him on the kitchen table and went upstairs to cry my little heart out. Gradually the house woke up and I heard a banshee like shriek from the kitchen. My Mum had found a stone cold hamster on the kitchen table. Not that I could see at the time what the problem was, after all it was dead but maybe that was the point.

“Take it out immediately” screamed mum, so I grabbed Hammy and ran outside to bury him. As I took my old friend outside I laid him down on the earth next to the shovel ready to dig his grave, but then I saw his foot twitch. I thought I was seeing things so I dried my eyes and looked again. There it went again. It had moved and it wasn’t a muscle spasm. He was alive.

I rushed indoors and plopped him on the storage heater. With careful nursing and stroking, slowly and bit by bit he came back to life and I was the happiest little boy on the planet.

Hammy went on to live a normal life. I found out years later that he had merely hibernated that cold night. I still think it was a miracle. And he was within 5 feet of a living grave. So you see that making assumptions can critically damage your health – well maybe your pet hamster. Not assuming can literally save lives.

Seriously though, the next time you find yourself about to make an assumption about the needs of a customer, because you’ve heard it all before dozens of times or you think everyone wants the price to be lower or you assume the recession will gobble you up….just remember that devoted 12 year old boy bringing back to life his pet hamster, Hammy.

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 Mike Brooks.

Clients use all sorts of objections, but sometimes I think this is their favorite. I mean, how can you argue with someone who tells you they don’t need what you have to give them because they already have enough of it?

Well, let’s face it, nobody has TOO much of anything, especially business, and while 80% of your competition get blown off when they get this objection, the top 20% know what to say.

After you read and adapt the three closes below, YOU’LL know what to say, too!

Response #1:

“I know that feeling; I do too! But for some reason, my boss wants to keep it that way so he thinks it’s a good idea to continue to market and introduce others to our products and services. And it’s the same way for you as well. Momentum is great, but if you don’t keep it going, it will first slow down, then it will stop.

Here’s what I recommend: Let’s get you started with the (package/solution) as it is, since we both agree it will keep your business coming. And then after the 6 month trial period, we can reassess. All we need to do to get your started is…”

Response #2:

“And ________ I know that the reason you have so much business is because you have the foresight to invest in (your kind of solution). It’s actually a pleasure to work with clients like you because I know you already understand the need for this kind of (product or solution).

And because you already know the value of this, I’m going to recommend you start with us on the professional level that allows you to leverage your way into our top position. That’s only (X amount). How do you want to handle payment of that today?”

Response #3:

“That’s a nice position to be in. And to make sure you stay that way, I’d recommend starting with our mid-level position. That way you’ll get X amount of (leads/results) and so won’t overwhelm yourself. If you find your other (companies offering some similar solution) starting to slip, then you can simply transfer that part of your business into your account here.

What I recommend is that you start with (X amount/position) and then increase it over time as you need to. What is the best way for you to handle this start up account?”

If you found this article helpful, then you will love my, “The Complete Book of Phone Scripts” which is packed with word for word scripts just like this one that you can begin using today to make more appointments and more sales. You can read about it here:

http://www.mrinsidesales.com/scripts.htm

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 Paul Archer

The next time you have a customer who is objecting to your price for your product or service, here’s a little quotation that’ll remind you how business works.

“It is unwise to pay too much, but it is unwise to pay too little. When you pay too much you lose a little money and that is all, but when you pay too little you sometimes lose everything, because the thing that you have bought isn’t capable of doing the thing which it was bought to do.”

“The common law of business balance prohibits you from paying a little and receiving a lot – it can’t be done. If you deal with the lowest bidder it would be as well to add something for the risk you run, and if you can so that you can afford to buy something better.”

John Ruskin 1819 – 1900

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

Cold calling.

Just hearing the words causes chest-tightening, loss-of-breath anxiety for many.

And it’s dumb.  I suggest you never place another one.  In fact, never even use the term when referring to professional telephone prospecting. You can prospect by phone successfully, when you are Smart about it.

Let’s look at a prospecting call opening from a sales rep who “gets it.”

“Hi Michael, I’m Pat Stevens with Insurance Partners. Hope you enjoyed your golf vacation. In speaking with your assistant, Suzanne, I understand that you are evaluating your competitive edge in the employment market and what you can do to attract and keep the top talent in your various locations. We’ve been able to help other companies in the same situation lower their recruiting and hiring expenses, and increase their retention of managerial staff. I’d like to ask a few questions to see if I could provide you some information.”

Pat was able to do a number of positive things in this opening:

• He used Michael’s first name, since he knew that Michael was somewhat of an informal guy who no one called “Mr. Johnson,” and hated to be called Mike.
• He knew Michael is a huge golf nut, and just returned from a golf weekend
• He mentioned Michael’s assistant Suzanne, adding credibility
• He knew that the company had recently missed out on some managerial candidates who were hired by the competition because of a better benefits package, as well as some existing employees who left for that reason
• He did not talk about insurance or benefits, but instead, results– the precise results that addressed the issues that Michael now faced.

And all of that took place in the first 10 seconds or so. Later in the call Pat also:

• Asked questions to which he pretty much already knew the answers about the company’s growth plans, their position in the marketplace, and the existing benefits package and how people felt about it.
• Commented on the great article that Michael had written for Construction Executive magazine.
• Asked about Michael’s experience working with one of his company’s competitors prior to coming to work for this company two years ago.

As a result of all of this, Michael of course viewed Pat not as the typical sales rep, but as someone who understood his business and what he was concerned about right now. Plus, he liked Pat. And Pat got an appointment.

How did Pat accomplish all of this?

The same way you can. Pat did his research. He did Smart Calling™.  There’s no excuse NOT to. He used several online resources and social media sites to get personal and professional information about Michael, his company, and industry, and very importantly, what Michael was concerned about right now. Then Pat used “social engineering,” the process of speaking with other people within Michael’s company to gain intelligence about the company’s current situation regarding their recruiting, hiring, and retention issues, and present benefits package. He also learned about Michael personally from his assistant Suzanne and a few others in the department.

Notice that Pat used a conversational, soft-sell approach in his opening to minimize resistance, and to create interest and pique curiosity. This put Michael in a state of mind where he wanted to hear more.

Can you see the difference between this and a typical “cold” call, where the sales rep knows nothing about his prospect, and is simply smilin’ and dialin’, repeating the same tired lines and closes to everyone who will listen?

There is no reason—other than laziness—to ever place a “cold” call. Use these ideas to make your calls Smart, and successful.

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 Paul Archer

I’m sure you’re making more prospecting calls at the moment, just like everyone else, so I’m guessing that you’re coming across barriers in getting to talk to your prospective customers.

If that barrier is a Personal Assistant who’s trained to stop you in your tracks, here’s a neat little tip that just might get you put through.

A UCLA survey showed that on the telephone a massive 84% of the message and meaning

is derived purely from your voice. This is a well known fact and was substantiated by Albert Mehrabian in the 1970’s.

I’m suggesting that you sound important so you can get through the gatekeeper.

Important people have deeper voices and say things in shorter sentences. Their tone of voice falls at the end of each sentence to accentuate their importance and they leave lots of pauses.

And most people when faced with someone who sounds ever so important will put you through without hesitation. Try it, it works and is also fun.

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