The Art of the B2B Sales Call
July 24th, 2009 by Paul_PlvanSELLING LIKE A CHAMP IN TODAY’S ECONOMY
World renowned telemarketing guru Jeff Gitomer once said, “You don’t get great selling in a day. You get gre
at selling day by day.” This statement really personifies what it takes to be a great telemarketer. Sales is not a once and done process. In today’s business world, information is everywhere and is easily accessible. Companies looking to buy, now have options for them that were once unavailable. However, that doesn’t mean that C-Level executives won’t entertain a phone call from a professional b2b sales lead generation company. Even an expert telemarketer must now play by a new set of sales rules. I’ve outlined 10 steps to making an effective telemarketing call in today’s economy.
1. Attitude – Before you pick up that phone your thoughts and emotional state have already determined if you will be successful or not. If you, the telemarketer, don’t have a good attitude, followed by expert knowledge and a true sense of passion the prospect is going to bail at the first opportunity. Be exceptionally well prepared with your product, script and b2b sales offer. Prior to making that telemarketing call do something that puts you in the right frame of mind. Think of this time as warming up. Even Michael Jordan took practice shots before a game.
2. The Opener – Once you have identified that you are communicating to the right person, present your value proposition in the first 30 seconds of the b2b sales call. Before the telemarketing call, craft an attention getter, typically referred to as the Value Proposition (Value Prop) or Unique Selling Proposition (USP). This is the #1 reason that your prospect should remain on the telemarketing call with you.
3. Find the Pain, Sell the Opportunity – In today’s business environment managers are increasingly being held accountable for costs and/or generating a profit. As a b2b sales lead generation expert your job is to identify the unpublished point of pain and explain how your solution fills the void. Conversely, if your solution can increase unrealized sales or profitability, you, the telemarketer, are smart to present these opportunities quickly and succinctly.
4. Interact – There’s nothing worse than a one-way conversation. Your prospect will soon exit the call. An expert in teleprospecting lead generation is prepared prior to the call and probes the prospect for an opening to present their solution. They do their homework and know the prospect, the company, and have a solid profile in hand prior to making the call. They also have anticipated objections and can counter these with meaningful expert dialog enabling them to achieve their objectives for the call.
5. People Buy From Experts – There is really only one reason b2b sales people thrive, they have more knowledge than the buyer. The professional telemarketer brings experience via their solutions that the buyer needs and doesn’t have. Telemarketing is the easiest and most efficient way to present these solutions to the decision maker and open the door to the demonstration.
6. Focus on Maintaining – Your power questions should help guide the prospect to share what dissatisfies them most about their corporate situation. One tactic during a telemarketing call is to tell the prospect how you’ll stabilize their profits, safeguard against industry trends, overcome fear and abolish their worries. Prospects are just as motivated to maintain what they have as they are to buy something new.
7. Practice Makes Perfect – Role Play. Rehearse in the mirror if you have to. Take the time to come up with a good script designed for teleprospecting lead generation and rehearse it until you don’t need the script. Then take it to the next level, pitch it without benefit of the telemarketing script. If you’re the expert your product knowledge should allow you to succeed with the prospect pitch.
8. Close – You’re saying this a no-brainer, but you’d be surprised at the number of telemarketing professionals that don’t have a defined path. You’re in charge of the call and need to stay in that position. Lead the prospect to where you envision and you will realize the predefined goals and objectives of your teleprospecting call.
9. Cultivate the other 95% – In B2B sales it is may take to 5, 6, 7 or more telemarketing phone calls, webinars or face-to-face conferences to close the deal. During that time you need to build trust and credibility. Position yourself and your organization as industry and thought leaders with articles, whitepapers, graphs, webinars, podcasts, testimonials and client case examples. Learn to read your prospect and present solutions to their objections. When the time is right don’t be afraid to ask for the sale. In telemarketing, persistence pays off. Each teleprospecting lead generation professional has their own style, learn which style works best for you then learn to refine it.
10. Review – Take the time after each telemarketing call to review what you could have done better and then learn from those mistakes.
It takes a lot of time to become a great b2b sales lead generation expert. Remember, you will be rejected. You only fail when you quit. Don’t ever doubt yourself; with practice anyone can be a darn good telemarketer. To quote legendary teleprospecting connoisseur Red Motley, “Nothing happens until a sale is made.”
Good Selling,
Paul J. Plvan
Mercury Leads, Inc.
Tags: B2b Sales, Sales Lead Generation, Telemarketing, Telemarketing Call, Teleprospecting, Teleprospecting Lead Generation
Great blog. Do you know of any relevant forums or discussion groups?
This is a pertinent post. A very interesting and well written article! Valuable thoughts and advices. I read your topic with great interest! Leads without qualification have little value to salespersons whose standard of living depends on the volume of their sales. In many instances the most experienced salespersons will not follow through on unqualified leads because it doesn’t pay them. In that event the total cost of the cheap leads would be wasted. And your actual cost per qualified lead and sale will skyrocket.
- Jaime
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Thank you for your comments. Let me know if you have any questions.
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Like you most of my ideas come from my own learnings over a career in direct marketing, direct response and internet marketing. All of these are a never ending education process which i apply from our client applications as well through testing, measurement, and process improvement.
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