Sales Chump

With the untimely death of the best pitchman in history, Billy Mays, I was thinking about what made him great.  I think we can all learn from Billy Mays, and in the meantime learn about ourselves as well.

One of the reasons people bought from Mays after watching one of his infomercials was because of his passion.  If we all had passion like that for our job, our company or our product, we could sell much more.  If you find the passion, you find success.  Work doesn’t feel like work anymore.  Mays truly loved what he did and had a passion for helping people solve a need.

I would say the second reason people bought from Mays and wanted to hire him was because of his unrelenting energy.  He put the Energizer Bunny to shame.  If you watched his t.v. show Pitchmen, you would see how many takes it often took to get the right one for the infomercial.  His energy was the same each time, no matter how many it took.  He also carried that energy over to finding new products and with the people he came into contact with on a daily basis.  If we had that much energy for our jobs just think about how much more productive we could be. 

The third reason that made Mays so successful was a love of his products he sold.  He truly believed in each and every product he sold.  He would mention that he did not want to endorse it if it didn’t truly work and didn’t do what it said it did.  That is refreshing in today’s world where everyone is so eager to make a buck.  Because of this, many people would buy any product he pitched because they knew it would work and be as good as Billy Mays said it was. 

People are more likely to buy from someone that truly cares about their product or service than someone who doesn’t.  It comes through in your voice and body language.  Why should someone else care about your product or service if you don’t? 

Just think if a prospect saw you with the passion, unrelenting energy and a true love for your product as most people saw Billy Mays.  If you don’t have all of the above three, or even one component in your current job, with your company or with your product or service, leave.  Billy Mays would tell you that life is too short to do something you don’t like.

Cold calls are the heart and soul of any outbound sales effort.  Whether it be setting up face to face interviews, telemarketing or telesales; a new sale is made by picking up the phone and calling someone.  A cold call is calling someone who did not ask for your call nor are they expecting it.  This is why most people grimace when you mention the two “c” words back to back.

Many sales reps try to avoid cold calling by doing other busy activities.  Those rep’s sales generally suffer.  Sales is a numbers game.  The more cold calls = more prospects = more sales.  More experienced reps can make less calls to make one sale.  A lot of times these reps stop when they hit their quota or goal instead of making more calls and doubling their numbers. 

The number of cold calls you make a day is likely dictated on whether you have an auto dialer or any other normal job functions to handle on a daily basis.  Most people try to come up with the lowest number possible when coming up with an acceptable call volume but put it in perspective.  3 cold calls every half hour = 48 in a day.  That seems so insignificant when it is broken down.  100 cold calls a day should seem much more attainable now!

Cold calling is not fun but it can be more tolerable by following some of these tips: 

-Don’t take a no or hang up (or worse) personal.  The person at the other end of the line does not know you.  They may be a miserable person or a nice person caught at a bad time.  Whatever the case, they don’t know you from Adam so don’t let their negative attitude bring you down or bring you to their level.  Move on and forget it the second you hang up.

-Make more cold calls.  This will thicken your skin and get you more accustomed to rejection.  You will have 99 no’s but that one yes will make up for it. 

-Make goals and track your daily progress.  This will keep you motivated during the tougher times to succeed.

-Set up competitions with your co-workers and put lunch or just bragging rights on the line.  A contest for most sales in a week or most prospects or calls in a day can make cold calling a little easier to do. 

-Find out how much a cold call is worth to you.  To do this you have to figure out how many calls equals a sale and how much that sale is worth to you.  Simply take that amount and divide it by the number of cold calls you make.  For example if it takes 100 calls to make 1 sale and that sale is worth $100 to you, each call you make is worth $1.  Every time you pick up the phone and dial, it is $1 in your pocket.

Who wants to make some cold calls? 

Wikipedia defines competitive advantage as a position a firm occupies against its competitors.  This means something your company has that others don’t.  This can be the lowest price, the best materials, the best service, the highest quality manufacturing, etc.

I can’t stress the importance of using you or your companies competitive advantage(s) in your favor.  You should be well aware of all the competitive advantages you have over your competition.  This is something that no one else but you (or your company) can claim to have.  Why shouldn’t you remind your prospects and customers of this?

I recommend writing them all down so you can easily reference them.  I also like to write a “what this means to you” after the competitive advantage so it can be quickly used in a conversation when the opportunity arises.

For example:  Long term fixed rates for a product.  What this means to you: “Because we offer long term fixed rates you are able to take advantage of a low price and protect yourself and your company for 5 years without any fluctuation in price.”

If you have no competitive advantages or the most in a marketplace, you can always add one more:  YOU.  You should be the number one competitive advantages you can offer to your prospects or customers.  You should not be like your competition; you should go above and beyond the customers expectations and offer a relationship that sets yourself apart from the rest.

No matter how good you are at your sales job, you should always have a script, or a trail to the sale.  This will provide consistency and if you start getting off topic, it will guide you back on track.  This is especially important while talking on the phone but can apply face to face as well. 

This isn’t a one size fits all.  You should have multiple scripts for different scenarios and parts of the sales cycle.  For example, your introductory script won’t be the same as your follow up or closing script.  You will also need different scripts depending on the time of year, increasing or decreasing prices, state of the economy, etc.  If you are proactive with this and already have scripts in place, you will be able to adjust quickly and avoid a dip in sales. 

Practice your script so as not to sound like a robot.  You don’t want the customer to be able to identify you are reading or have memorized a script.  Try saying it in a mirror at first.  Practice with friends or family members in person and on the phone.  Once you are ready, unleash it on your prospects.  Don’t get discouraged if the first few times it doesn’t come out right.  If you have done the prep work the learning curve will be very short. 

Once you have scripts in place and have used them for a certain period of time you can start to tweak them.  You can compare the results of the original script compared to the newly tweaked script.  Simply continue the one that closes the most deals or makes you the most money.  Keep the old script handy and make write notes on the back of the script of what worked and what didn’t, what time of year it was, how long it was used for and how much money you made while using it.  It seems like a lot but this can pay high dividends in the long run.

I believe one of the main reasons sales people don’t make as many sales as they are capable of is because they are unwilling to ask for the sale.  Asking for the sale should be easy if you are confident you have filled the needs of the customer.  Still, many salespeople still will not ask for the sale in fear of the response or in fear that they will be viewed as a hard seller.  If this is your fear, set up the close with trial closing questions.   

-How does this price compare with what you are paying now?

-Do we need to discuss anything else before you make a decision?

-Now that you’ve seen the information, is there anything holding you back from this decision?

-Who else will you need to talk to before making a decision?

-What other problems or concerns do you have that need to be discussed before moving forward?

Those should pull any final objections from the customer, if they exist.  Take care of those objections and then ask an above question again.  If the customer does not have any objection, ask for the close.  This is very hard although it sounds very easy.  You should be convinced the customer will benefit by choosing what you are offering (find value in pricing, services, etc) and sound confident when asking for the sale.  This can be as simple as:

-If there are no other objections please wait while I prepare the documents.

-Can we move forward?

-Can I expect the signed contract today? 

Again, you have to make sure you have addressed their needs prior to these steps.  These steps are easy if you’ve done your job.  You will be amazed how many customers will move forward when directly asked.