A friend of mine was having a hard time closing inside sales calls the other day. He had been doing well for months and all of a sudden the magic was gone. His manager said “Stop pitching!” “You sound like you’re pitching!” After he sat there for a while trying to figure out what he was doing differently, I walked over and told him he needs to smoke a cigarette at his desk. Yes, this created a little shock and awe. I followed up with the comment that he is a different person on the phone than when he is on break smoking a cigarette. I asked him to try sitting on his desk and talk to the prospect like he was smoking a cigarette. Two minutes later he secured a meeting on the phone.
Now I’m not saying that you should go out and start smoking and drinking, but we all have habits about how we talk with our friends. We need to bring those habits to the phone skills. Prospects are buying your voice and manners as much has they are buying your product.
The best salespeople have the same habits whether they are talking with a friend or talking with a prospect. Most of it starts with listening. When you are at a cookout with your friends you spend a lot of time listening to your friends’ stories. We listen to a story and then either make a comment or tell a related story. For some reason we don’t transfer that ability to listening on the phone. We get the 30/300/3000 rule stuck in our head and feel like we have to close to a meeting in 300 seconds. Sometimes it goes longer. We keep cutting the prospect to the quick instead of letting them talk out what they need talk about. We would never be so rude as to cut our friend off.
So when you gather with friends over the up coming weekend holidays find your style. Are you better at standing or sitting? Are you better with a cup in your hand? Do you play with your glasses?
