Category: Prospecting & Qualifying

First, I’d like to thank you all for your Ezine topic requests. I do my best to answer them, and generally I look for multiple requests on the same subject. And there are a lot of them because let’s face it ? we?re all struggling with the same objections though in different forms.

For example, one problem I keep hearing about is how to get a prospect/customer to tell you what’s really going on. Many of you wrote that after multiple calls, messages, etc, when you do get them on the phone all you get are vague answers. If this has ever happened to you, then here’s how to deal with it:

The first thing you need to do is realize that if your prospect isn’t calling you back, or if when you do reach them all you get are vague answers or more put offs, then you probably already have your answer. They aren’t a deal. It?s time to move on!

The problem with 80% of sales reps is that they will chase and chase unqualified leads because it seems easier than cold calling and looking for real buyers. ?At least they took the information or have a need,? they say.

Yeah, but are they buying? Usually not. And all that energy and time you waste chasing them makes you a weaker closer.

The solution? Ask the tough questions! (Refer back to the earlier article on how to do this). In other words, when you do get them on the phone, ask them point-blank where they stand and if you’re still in the running. Try this:

?_________ let me ask you a question and please be honest. We’ve talked about this now for X amount of time (or — You’ve had this information for X amount of time), and I don?t want to keep bothering you if this isn’t a fit for you. But I do need to know if this looks like a solution you actually think you’re going to act on, or do you have something else in mind??

Now shut up and listen. Because you have given them an out, they will usually tell you the truth. Your job now is to listen to it and learn from it. Just because they aren?t buying doesn?t mean you can?t get stronger as a closer.

You see, whatever reason they give you for not buying — budget, not a right fit, staying with their current supplier, their accountant won?t let them do it ? whatever the reason is, you need to take this as a lesson and begin qualifying for it more thoroughly on all of your subsequent prospecting calls.

You’ve all heard the expression that people buy from people they like, know and trust, right? When selling over the phone, the way we establish this is by building rapport.

And just because you can’t see your prospect doesn’t mean this is difficult to do — if you know how.

Use these three techniques to create ease, build rapport and get the person on the other end of the phone to like, know and trust you.

1) Listen and Acknowledge. Nothing kills rapport faster than if the person you’re speaking with feels like you’re not hearing what they are saying. To avoid this, do two things ?

#1 Pause, briefly after they are done talking and before you begin, and

#2 Acknowledge what they just said.

This can be accomplished with a simple, ?Oh, I understand," or ?I know what you mean," or even repeating part of what they just said.

2) Use Self-Disclosure. When listening, see if and how you can identify with what your prospect is saying. Then, share a little bit of your experience by saying something like, ?I know what you mean. I do the same thing," or ?That’s happened to me, too."

This is a great technique, but be careful with it! You don’t want to disclose too much — this is, after all, a business transaction and you’re looking to gain in new client not a new best friend.

3) Use Empathy. This is especially important if/when dealing with an angry or upset client. If something has gone wrong, resist the temptation to defend.

Instead, acknowledge that they are feeling upset or put out. Try,

?That must be so frustrating to wait a week for your order and then have it arrive incorrect. I’m so sorry that happened."

Or,

?I had something like this happen to me, too, and I know how frustrated you must be."

People want to be heard, they want their feelings acknowledged, and to know that someone cares. Using empathy in these situations not only calms them down, but helps build rapport as well.

I hope these ideas and techniques for building rapport help you establish the kind of trust it takes to build strong relationships while selling your product or service over the phone.

In the end, people do prefer to buy from people they like, know and trust. Now you know how to create that feeling.

A few weeks ago, my neighbor put in a new driveway using beautiful paving stones that dramatically improved the look of his property.

Comparing my old asphalt driveway, I quickly went over to one of the installers and asked for an estimate. ?You have to call our office," he explained as he gave me their business card.

Later that day I called and left a message expressing interest in their paving stones, and I left my cell number as the best way to reach me.

What happened next was one of the best sales calls I?ve heard in years.

A couple of days later a woman named Brenda called and explained that she was returning my call about their driveways.

The first thing she asked was how I heard of them. I told her my neighbor had them install a new driveway, and she took down his complete address.

Next she asked me what I was interested in (she then listened very carefully and did not interrupt). I told her I wanted the same kind of paving stones my neighbor had, and I asked if she could send someone out to give me an estimate.

She said she would be glad to do that, but first she needed to explain how they worked.

She began by telling me about the process and quality of their work. She said that first they removed the existing asphalt driveway and hauled everything away. Next they prepared the driveway by digging and leveling 12 inches deep and by pouring high-grade sand. They then packed it down to where it was as strong as concrete.

Next they installed the paving stones and filled in the spaces with a premium finish sand and that my new driveway was guaranteed not to crack or fade for as long as I owned my home.

She then stopped and asked me if this was what I was looking for (great qualifying question here).

I said yes.

Next she said that the cost of their minimum job was $6000, and that would cover an area of approximately 600 feet.

She then asked if that was within my budget (very impressed by this money qualifying question ? very direct).

I said yes it was.

She then asked if weekdays or weekends were best for my appointment.

I told her weekends.

She then found two time slots for the next Saturday and asked, ?Is 10 AM good or is 1 PM better for you?"

I took the 10 AM spot (figuring it would only be about 90 degrees by then).

She then said it was important that both my wife and I were there for the appointment and asked me if we both would be.

I said yes.

She then went on to confirm all the details and gave me the name and cell phone number of the closer, er, sales rep who would be out that next Saturday.

When I hung up the phone, I marveled at how the call had gone. I already felt closed! Having the sales rep out the next week felt almost like a formality. This was one well-trained sales team. They generated the kind of leads I’d like to work if I were an outside sales rep, and as a Top 20% producer, this is how you should be qualifying as well.

Are they missing out on some appointments by being so thorough? Probably.

But are they missing out on any real buyers? Probably not.

The lesson here is that by properly qualifying your prospects you can be sure you are only going to be pitching those most likely to buy.

Remember — you don’t need practice pitching unqualified leads.

This week, analyze your own qualifying questions, and see where you can strengthen your initial call. Remember, the close always starts there.

I get a lot of Ezine topic requests each week, and the majority of them are requests for different questioning techniques to use during the qualification stage. I?m glad to see these requests because it means people understand the importance of identifying and then spending time with buyers.

I’ve written many feature articles over the years that address these kinds of questions, and if you’ve missed any of them I encourage you to pick up a copy of my best-selling book on how to double your income selling over the phone. It?s called, ?The Real Secrets of the Top 20%.?

Last week, however, I got a request for questions that could be used during the close or presentation stage. That was a good question, and today?s feature article will cover 5 of my favorites. These questions will vary from taking a prospect?s pulse to see if they are with you, to finding out if a benefit you just listed would work for them, all the way to a trial close.

All of these questions are crucial to ask during the close, and after you read them I encourage you to put these into your closing scripts and outlines. They will give you the feedback you?ll need (and don?t get because you?re not in front of your prospect) to close the sale. To get the most benefit from them, begin using them today:

#1 After giving any part of your presentation, you can ask, ?Are you with me so far?" You can vary this with, ?How does that sound?? or, ?Do you see what I mean?? and, ?Does that make sense??

Always listen carefully to not only what they say, but to how they say it. And always allow a few seconds after they respond to give them time to add something else.

#2 Anytime you give a benefit, ask, ?How would you use that?" or, ?Could you use that?" or, ?Would that work for you?? or, ?Would that be of benefit in your situation??

Again, LISTEN to what and how they respond?

#3 Another good question to ask throughout your presentation is, ?Do you have any questions so far?"

This is one of the best questions to ask, and it?s also one of the least used. You?d be amazed by the kinds of questions you?ll get, and each one reveals what your prospect is thinking. You must use this question often!

#4 Trial closes are always good ? ?Does this seem to be the kind of solution you are looking for?" or, ?How is this sounding so far?? or, with a smile in your voice, ?Am I getting close to having a new client yet??

Even though that sounds cheesy, you?d be amazed by how it will often break the ice and get your prospect to lower his/her guard!

#5 When you’re done with your presentation, always ask, ?What haven?t I covered yet that is important to you?"

Boy is this a great way to end your presentation! If they tell you they don?t have any questions, then you get to ask for the order! If they do have questions, you answer them and then ask for the order!

The bottom line is that asking questions — and then shutting up and listening — is still one of the most important things you can do either during the qualification stage or during the close.

Use the above questions during your next presentation and watch your closes get stronger and your income get bigger!

If you?re in a selling situation where you get to call back leads that have expressed an interest in your product or service, then consider yourself lucky. Whether they come from traditional advertising sources or from the internet, inbound leads save you the time, effort ? and often the terror! ? of cold calling. While these leads are great to get they also present some challenges that many sales reps aren?t prepared to handle.

If you?ve called leads like these back, then you know what I mean. In many cases sorting through the shoppers, the people looking for the best price, people who were just bored and filled out the online form, etc., can be a huge task. The problem for most reps is two-fold:

1) They immediately assume that a warm lead is more qualified than a cold call and,

2) They?ve never been taught how to really qualify these kinds of leads.

Here are three things you must do to qualify interested prospects:

#1) Find out if they are a shopper or a buyer. Most sales reps (80% or more) automatically assume that a warm lead is interested and qualified so they immediately launch into pitch mode. This is a big mistake. The best way to open your call is to ask questions to find out how close your prospect is to making a decision. Good opening questions to ask include:

?Thanks for visiting our site; what motivated you to (request info, fill out our online form, etc.) today??

?Ideally, what are you looking for today??

?When are you looking to move on something like this??

Listen carefully to their answers and respond accordingly.

#2) Find out who else they are looking at. Let?s face it ? if your prospect has taken the time to fill out your on line form or call your company, they have probably filled out others as well. One thing you absolutely must do is find out who you?re in competition with. Try:

?Thank-you again for contacting us. Who else are you getting information from??

?What did you like about that (company, website, etc.)?

?Have you spoken with someone from that company yet??

?What did you like about that??

?Who do you like best so far??

While it may seem negative to bring up your competition, you absolutely must know what your prospect is thinking and how far along in the buying decision they are. It?s much better to know up front how likely they are to go with another company, and/or what you need to say or do to get them to buy from you.

#3) Find the key buying motive. While this may sound straight forward, you?d be surprised by how many reps think the buying motive is already there because the prospect called in or submitted a form, etc. That?s why most reps go into pitch mode and literally wait for the prospect to buy. Unfortunately, as many of you know, that doesn?t happen.

What you must do is ask specific qualifying questions to find out exactly what it?s going to take to get your prospect to buy. After you?ve asked the previous questions, try:

?Why have you decided that now is the time to finally act on this (product or service)??

?If you could get everything you wanted from this, (or ? were 100% satisfied) what would that be??

?Prospect, I?d love to earn your business with this, what do you think it would take for you to choose our company??

Ultimately, understanding why your prospect will and will not buy from you is what you need to know as a sales rep. And getting this information from an ?interested lead? is just as important as from a ?cold? lead as well.

I hope you use these three ways to qualify your interested prospects ? they are sure to save you a lot of time and energy?

I was having lunch with a client last week and she was telling me about how frustrated she was with a prospect who wasn’t calling her back.

“But our first meeting went so well,” she told me.

I asked her what happened, and she told me that she visited with a prospect who currently has four other vendors and was initially resistant to using a fifth. My client persisted, however, developed good rapport, and the prospect said she could submit an RFP on their next job.

My client left feeling good about the lead and excited that she had been able to overcome the initial resistance.  She went back to her office, put together her proposal, emailed it to the prospect and began following up. Not surprising to me (and soon to her), she got no response from the prospect.

“I can’t understand it!” She repeated.

I don’t know about you, but this whole transaction had Red Flags all over it. To begin with, whenever I hear “RFP Process,” a host of questions jump out at me. Here’s what I’m thinking (and you should be, too):

1.    How many RFP’s are they getting?
2.    Is their current supplier submitting one, too?
3.    Did they review with their current supplier the last time they had an RFP?
4.    Did they go with them at that time?
5.    How likely are they to go with them again?
6.    Why are they even going through the process of accepting RFP’s?
7.    Are they required to get at least 3-5 bids?
8.    How many do they already have?
9.    Have they essentially already decided on the winner and are only going through the process?
10.    Is price (or what is??) the deciding factor?
11.    Do I honestly have a chance at this deal?
12.    Am I doing this (submitting my RFP) just to be busy hoping I might get it?

All these thoughts need to be scripted into qualifying/disqualifying questions and you need to ask them before you enter any RFP Process. If you don’t get this information, chances are you’ll end up on the outside with no return call. And I’m sure you know how that feels!

What do you think about this article?  Leave your comments and questions below.

I’ve written, tested, re-written, tweaked, copy edited, composed, marketed, reviewed, and used thousands of telemarketing scripts over the last 26 years.

I’ve written and used opening scripts, closing scripts, prospecting cold calling scripts, warm inbound scripts, closing scripts, rebuttal scripts, trial close scripts, initial resistance scripts, blow off scripts, qualifying scripts, etc….

Bottom line? Nobody writes better scripts than yours truly, Mr. Inside Sales. Heck, I wrote the book on scripts The Complete Book of Phone Scripts which you can get at almost half price today by using the coupon code: SCRIPTS But more on that later…

When companies and sales reps hire me to write or review or tweak their prospecting scripts, almost always I find they are saying or doing the same things wrong.  In today’s article, I’m going to give you The 5 Secrets to writing Killer Prospecting Scripts.

Secret #1: Stop asking, “How are you today?” Believe it or not, 80% of your competition still advertise themselves as lame sales reps making cold calls by asking this over used and insincere question.  Nothing identifies you more as a pesky telemarketer than opening your call with that question.

Instead, try: “Hi _________, how’s your (day of the week) going?”

Or, “Well hi _________, happy (day of the week) to you!”

These may not sound that impressive, but believe me, they work!  Try it and see for yourself.

Secret #2: Stop talking at your prospect and instead ask a question so you can connect early on. Again, believe it or not, 80% of your competition start pitching as soon as they get their prospect on the phone.  Compare your own script to this and ask yourself how long your first opening paragraph is.  Three sentences?  Four?  Way too long!

You must engage your prospect right away and begin a conversation.  That means asking them a question early on!  Try something like (after you’ve wished them a happy Tuesday):

“__________ the reason for the call is to let you know about the service we provide with regards to your accounting procedures.  Who’s handling that for you now?”

Or, “__________ briefly, the reason I’m calling is to show you how we could perhaps save you money and time with your widget process.  I was told that you handle that, is that correct?”

See how that goes?  It’s imperative that you connect right away, and the best way to do that is by asking a question.

Secret #3: Listen and Think B-4 You Respond Next:  Asking a question in the beginning not only allows you to connect with your prospect, but it also allows you to gauge their reaction.  The reason 80% of your competition is afraid to ask a question is they are afraid their prospect might not be interested.  That’s OK!!

The Top 20% are anxious to find out who is, who isn’t, and how much someone might be.  And they do that by carefully listening to their prospect’s response to this question, and then they Listen and Think B-4 Responding.  You need to as well.

In other words, don’t just start pitching again here, but rather, be prepared to vary your response based on what and how your prospect responds.  In other words, listen and react to what they say.

Secret #4: Make sure you have a list of questions to ask your prospect so you can gather all the information you’ll need to fully qualify or disqualify them. You need to know the six areas I’ve written on before, but basically you need to know:

•    Why they’ll buy (their hot buttons)
•    Why they won’t buy (possible deal killing objections)
•     Who makes the decision (how many people are involved)
•    What the decision process is all about – how long, etc.
•    What other companies they are looking at (who your competition is)
•    Their budget

If you don’t know all of these things before you send out your demo or information or quote, then I’ll bet you’re closing less than 3 out of 10 leads sent out.

Secret #5: Make an exact appointment time to get back with your prospect. You’d be amazed by how many sales reps are not doing this!  Instead, 80% of sales reps are chasing and chasing unqualified leads they can never reach again (and who never close).

Making an appointment gives you SO much information.  First, if they won’t commit it tells you how uncontrollable your prospect is.  And remember, “Leads never get better!”  Also, if your prospect misses your appointment, what does that say about them?  And, of course, when your prospect is there and waiting for your call, what does that tell you?

Start setting a definite time with ALL your prospects and watch your closing rate start to climb…

So there you have it – the five secrets of writing killer prospecting scripts.  You can instantly improve your prospecting script by incorporating any or all of these techniques.  And if you want to do it the easy way, then take advantage of my Special Offer today and get over 110 pages of proven and effective scripts for over 40% OFF!

Right now, save $20 on my $49 “Complete Book Of Phone Scripts” Use the coupon code, SCRIPTS and save $20 instantly!  You’ll get a ton of great scripts for just $29!!  Visit: http://www.mrinsidesales.com/scripts.htm to read about this valuable sales resource.

Did you like these tips? Do you have questions about writing your own scripts?  Leave your comment below.

I get many requests each week from readers who want to know how they should deal with incoming “warm” leads.  “These leads are more qualified because they are calling in,” I hear over and over.  But we all know this isn’t necessarily true is it?  In fact this attitude leads to the biggest mistake 80% of your competition is making when they receive warm leads —

“They go into pitch mode rather than qualification mode.”
80% of your competition mistake the “implied interest” of a call in to mean they are already qualified, and all they need to do is explain their product or service.  Wrong!

The Top 20%, on the other hand, know that warm leads can be some of the biggest time wasters of all, so they do what they always do — disqualify people who are “just looking” so that they can identify the real buyers, and they do this by asking questions rather than pitching.

Here are some great questions to ask the next time you get a warm lead:

“Thank you for contacting us today, what was it about our ad/promotion/website that caused you to call us today?” [Listen for the buying motive]

“Who else are you looking into?” [Listen for your competition]

“What do you like best so far?”

“How long have you been thinking about (buying, investing, changing) something like this?”  Then,

“What has kept you from acting on this?” [Listen for possible objections]

“When are you looking to make a decision on this?”
You see how this goes.  Just remember, to be a Top 20% producer, you have to begin finding buyers — whatever the lead source.  So stop pitching and start qualifying!  Remember, it’s still up to you to find and separate the buyers from the non-buyers.

What are your thoughts on warm leads?  Leave us a comment below.

I always tell sales reps that your client or prospect has all the answers as to why they will or why they won’t buy, and that it’s your job to find that information out. You do this by asking the right qualifying questions, by layering those questions, by qualifying any red flags you get and by actually listening to the answers you’re given.

While this may sound basic and simple enough, you’d be amazed by how many sales reps still don’t do this correctly. There are a ton of reasons why, but in order to simplify the entire process, I’m going to give you the one question that will get your prospect to tell you exactly what they are looking for (and what they’re not looking for as well). And here it is:

During the course of your qualifying, simply ask your prospect, “_________, if you could wave a magic wand right now and fix (or get) three things that would help your (sales process, bottom line, productivity – whatever is appropriate for your prospect), what would you wish for?”

Now shut up and listen. You will be amazed by what comes next. My experience is that my prospect immediately begins telling me exactly what they are looking for. As I listen carefully, I’m asking myself if my services can actually help them, or if they have issues that are outside of my range of services – like more procedural or accounting/process based.

If they are telling me something that I know I can’t help them with, then I know they are not going to be a buyer. If this is the case, I try to find them a resource and move on.

If, however, they tell me things that I know I can help them with, then, after waiting until they are completely done, I will then give them the good news:

“__________ I’m glad you shared that with me, and I’ve got some great news for you. The Top 20% customized training program we’re talking about addresses those wishes perfectly and let me tell you why.  First of all….”

I then go over, point by point, exactly how my training matches up with their expressed needs/desires, and I specifically use their exact wording back to them as much as I can (I was taking notes as they spoke!).

This technique works especially well in today’s economy because it gets your prospect to open up and start talking. And, of course, it gets them to reveal why they will or won’t be a deal for your product or service.