As the world’s worst salesperson, I take great delight in posting on how to do a better job at selling. As I’ve said before, we’re all selling all the time, so it makes sense to pick up a few tips from the pros.
Erica Stritch, who writes for Rain Today has three helpful tips for what to say when you manage to connect with that most elusive of all beings—the prospect you’ve reached on a cold call.
- Be relevant ‒ Don’t babble on about your capabilities. Your prospect has heard quite enough of those pitches. Do your research first. Ms. Stritch provides a terrific example about fielding a call from a young woman who promised to boost her online sales. (Ms. Stritch doesn’t sell online.)
- Offer value ‒ Yup, give something away—a best practice, perhaps, or how companies in the same space are overcoming challenges. You can talk about your capabilities when actually get to meet your prospect.
- Reach out in different ways ‒ Studies say that it takes an average of seven touches to get someone to agree to meet you. You can try phone calls, emails, direct mail, and the social media. The point is not to give up after a few tries.
All this makes sense to me, and you can use these ideas in ordinary, everyday life, where, as I’ve mentioned, we’re all selling—some of us better than others.
Now, for a bit of sales dish:
This past weekend, a friend and I toured a new apartment complex in our neighborhood. Granted, this was not a cold call, but the management company representative could have put a couple of Ms. Stritch’s ideas into action to good effect. First, she should have asked a couple of basic questions to establish our needs. Then, she could have offered a few value tidbits, such as the building’s streamlined utility billing system or the noise-reducing qualities of its double-pane windows. She was young, and I’m guessing she was nervous, which translated into rudeness and a condescending attitude. Too bad, though. In a seller’s market, she probably didn’t lose any sales, but she didn’t create any goodwill.
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