Sales Chump

Validation of your company can be a big objection to overcome, especially if you are selling for a new company or a company a prospect has never heard of.  A prospect wants to feel comfortable with the company they are going to do business with even if they feel comfortable with you.

First, be compassionate about this and don’t vilify the prospect for this.  Think how you would feel if someone tried to sell you a car you had never heard of.  Chances are you wouldn’t buy that car even if it was cheaper or offered more options than others.

Here’s a few things I have used that have helped tremendously.  A recommendation letter(s) from a fellow peer outlining how the company helped the peer save money, get extra options, add value, etc. could be all it takes to ease their concerns.  I am a fan of recommendation letters because most of the time you can write it yourself and have your customer tweak it as necessary and sign it.  I also like it more than human contact because you don’t know how your customer will act every time they are called by a prospect of yours.  What if your current customer is in the middle of being audited or they just had a fight with their significant other?  They won’t be in the mood and may not say the nicest things just because they are frustrated with external factors.  Get it in writing when they are in a good mood and when they feel good about your company.  Another tip is to not put a date on the recommendation letter.  You only want to use it as long as they are a customer but recommendation letters with dates expire after 6 months to a year depending on the industry. 

A professional presentation and marketing materials are also necessary to validate your company.  A prospect is not going to feel comfortable working with a company that has black and white stapled handouts.  Go to Kinko’s or Office Depot and get colored copies that are bounded.  Other color lasered handouts with a slick layout and folder are bonuses. 

Another way to validate your company is by getting your website linked on other companies/peoples websites.  Write an article in your field on a popular blog about the same industry, be an exclusive provider to an association and get a link on their website, maybe you have to be approved by a commissioin and they post the approved vendors on their set, or be creative to think of another way. 

These are great third party validations to overcome any fears a prospect may have to do business with you and the company you work with.

Most sales positions require cold calls.  Whether it is to set up appointments where the sales rep visits prospects or where the sales rep tries to get more prospects to visit them; it is a necessary practice to stay successful. 

Most sales managers and sales reps focus on the total amount of cold calls per day.  This is generally because they know how many calls it will take to make X amount of sales.  This can get very tiring and a lot of reps get defeated when starting each day with such a big number of calls to make.

Instead of looking at total cold calls, try focusing on total prospects each day.  A prospect is someone that can be closed (whether it be via call, visit to prospect or visit by prospect) in the next 30-60 days depending on your industry.  This varies on each industry but typically it will take 100 calls to get 3-5 prospects.

So instead of 100 cold calls a day, a rep can focus on 4 prospects a day instead.  This not only has a positive effect psychologically on the sales rep it also puts an emphasis on quality over quantity.  Most likely a rep will make him or herself get better at each call so they don’t have to make 100.  After using this practice for a few weeks, the reps ratio will probably get better and be 75 cold calls to get 4 prospects.  After a few more weeks it may further reduce to 50 cold calls to get 4 prospects.  It will level off at some point but the ratio of cold calls to prospects almost always gets better.  This will either relieve the sales rep of stress or allow the rep to make more calls to be more successful.

Try focusing on prospects instead of gross number of cold calls daily and watch your sanity and success improve.