Steve Richard, co-founder for sales training organization Vorsight, wrote a guest blog article yesterday for sales strategist Chad Levitt’s New Sales Economy Blog. The article, entitled “11 Sales Tips for Cold Calling and Prospecting,” offered some good insight into making the most out of each and every attempt to get in touch with your potential buyers. One of the questions that Steve suggests asking yourself is this:
“Do you revisit your talking points periodically to more effectively tell your story and stand out from the vendor noise and static?”
This is a great question! It makes me wonder how many times prospects hang up on teleprospectors because they do nothing to make themselves unique in terms of their messaging. There is some interesting discussion going on over at that post, and I think you should take a look at it and join in the conversation.
*Picture credit: Linda Cronin via Flickr
I’m not too young that I can’t remember Lee Majors as Steve Austin, The Six Million Dollar Man. Sure, it came out in 1974 and ran until 1978, when I turned five years old, but I know I watched it on reruns. I even had the really cool Bionic Man action figure; you know, the one where you look through his eye for bionic vision? That show (and action figure) was awesome! Here’s this astronaut who is badly injured during a crash and the government comes along and gives him cybernetic parts, and basically turns him into a superhero. The opening to the show was so cool, too. “We can make him better than he was before. Better, stronger, faster.” How can you do that with your teleprospecting campaigns? How can you take a sales prospecting effort that’s crashed and burned and rebuild it? Read more… »
If you’re somewhere close to my age (35) you may remember a brand of toy cars called Micro Machines. Micro Machines were pretty much what you’d expect, they were smaller versions of what was considered a normal toy car in the 1980’s. Micro Machines were basically mini-Matchbox or Hot Wheels cars and they were pretty popular at the time. The one thing that I remember most about Micro Machines was their commercial’s spokesman, John Moschitta, Jr. Now, by name alone you probably don’t know who this guy is, but if I told you he was the speed talking voice-over announcer for stuff in the ‘80s, you’re probably nodding your head saying, “Oh yeah – that guy!” John Moschitta, Jr., according to his Wikipedia entry, held the Guinness World Record for speed talking at 586 words per minute. That is crazy! I think it’s great that Moschitta, Jr. was able to find his niche in life in terms of using his talent to do commercials and voice-overs, but I’ll tell you this – he wouldn’t have made a good teleprospector talking that fast! Read more… »
My colleague Lindsay wrote about shifting teleprospecting strategies this week, and it got me thinking…
I realize I may be alienating any readers who are not fans of the Boston Red Sox with the following analogy, but what can I say? I’m a Masshole! Seriously, though, maybe this happens to your favorite baseball team, so just try to substitute the Sox for your team, and David Ortiz for the player on your team this happens to. If you notice, when David Ortiz is up to bat, the opposing team typically “puts the shift on.” The entire infield shifts over to right, because that is, more often than not (when its not a home run) the location of where Ortiz tends to hit the ball. Other teams in baseball have realized this, and in turn, when Ortiz is up to bat, the players shift position. In the same light, your teleprospecting team (or manager for that matter) needs to know when to “put the shift on” when your sales prospecting efforts may not be as effective as they should be. Read more… »
I bet most of you are probably like me – you’ve made countless numbers of cold calls, warm calls, and “Good-God-please-pick-up-the-phone” calls. And probably just like me, at some point in your teleprospecting career, you’ve used tips and tricks to get a prospect talking with you. Some work, some don’t. Regardless of what was successful for getting your prospect talking, getting them to understand why they should be talking with you is paramount. How do you go about doing this? How do you take those few precious seconds after saying, “Hi, this is _____” and actually get a prospect to talk with you? For me, I think it’s all in having a prospect understand why they need to talk with you. Read more… »
So, if you’ve been reading The CRAP Report now, you know that I’m typically writing for folks that may either be looking to outsource their teleprospecting efforts or that may have their own internal sales prospecting team. I’m also writing for folks that are looking to improve their Business Development Rep’s, be they a vendor or an in-house team. Oh yeah, and my Mom. Today, though, I really want to speak to those folks who’ve outsourced their sales opportunity generation efforts. There may be some take-aways for others, but if you’re working with a vendor who is finding sales qualified leads for you and your sales team, this one’s for you. Read more… »
Yesterday, Rebel Brown, Strategist for People Who Know, had a great blog entry in her blog Phoenix Rising. She makes the point that “Three adjectives and a noun are not a value proposition.” In other words, “create compelling value propositions.” I completely agree with her. I think she’s spot on and I think it speaks to teleprospecting. Read more… »
One of my favorite Brady Bunch episodes was the one were Greg was asked to become a singer named Johnny Bravo. He thought he had made it! What Greg didn’t know was that he wasn’t really wanted for his singing ability, as his first song becomes electronically enhanced (much to his chagrin). By the end of the episode, though, we find out that Greg was only wanted because “he fit the [Johnny Bravo] suit.” Greg wanted to sing his own songs, and not have them doctored. When he realized he was just wanted because he fit some mold, he was ready to move on.
When it comes to teleprospecting rep’s (TPR’s), though it would be awesome to see a bunch of people wearing Johnny Bravo suits around my office, I want TPR’s to have Greg’s attitude when it comes to making calls. I want them to be their own person.
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I once worked with a customer who told me that the easiest way to describe his offering was to tell me that they provided 90% of the functionality that a competitor (who’s name rhymes with “Bicrosoft”!) offers at twice the price, and then asked me to find him quality sales opportunities.
Let that sink in for a minute.
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