Inside Sales Lead Management Featured Article

Inside sales efforts come with their own special challenges, but those in the know always have a few tricks up their sleeve that can turn a ‘no’ into a ‘yes.’ It’s not Rocket Science; it has more to do with people skills and fulfilling a need on the part of the recipient, whether they even knew they had that need or not.

That’s basically the thought behind a recent piece on Business2Community, which looked at Cold Calling and offered some insights into making prospective buyers more receptive. Contributing Writer Wolfram van Wezel listed a number of ways that callers can help swing prospects over to their point of view, and maybe even make a sale. They are:

Research Each Customer: “With company websites and social media, it’s easy to research and discover vital information about a company,” van Wezel notes. Important information you should learn before even picking up the phone includes: How many employees do they have? What are the backgrounds of key employees? Have any recent changes, such as mergers or acquisitions, affected the organization? What is the role of the person you’re calling? By learning such details first, you can better tailor the conversation to points that are important to them. Forewarned is forearmed.

Pinpoint Your Customer Profile:  “You need to ensure you understand clearly your targeted customers’ profile—who they are, the markets they participate in and the issues they are likely to be facing,” van Wezel asserts. Doing so “enables you to laser-target the people with whom you’re most likely to be successful and, thus, boost win rates and shorten sales cycles.”

Crystallize Your Call Objectives: What information do you want to gather? What is the ideal outcome of the call? Van Wezel says, “If you’re trying to set appointments for your salespeople, you need to gather enough information to ensure the customer meets your minimum requirements as a buyer for your product.”

Polish Your Product Knowledge: “A memory bank of stories enables you to paint a picture of how your prospect can be successful using your product or service by comparing it to a real-life situation,” he writes. “While it’s fairly simple to put together product stories, doing so will set you apart from the majority of cold callers.”

Build Your Confidence: This one is the most simple, and the most-often overlooked. Van Wezel states it clearly: “Make sure you have full confidence you’re offering something that can help the person you’re calling.”