Do you know what WMD stands for? That’s right. Weapons of Mass Destruction. It is those almost mythical weapons that are supposed to be used only in cases of extreme peril. Only when absolutely needed. Like the A-Bomb, like Biological weapons, like Laser beams from satellites. Their power is so immense that everyday use in military operations would ensure the total destruction of the enemy, but also of a lot of innocent life and property. We use them sparingly if at all.
But what if there was a way to use one every single time we need something done? Without any collateral damage? Is that even possible? If so, what, how and when do we use it? Ok, enough military references here, let me get to the point.
You might be interested to know that I own one of the most powerful WMD in the cold call sales world and not only is there no collateral to using it, but it sky-rocketed my close rate by 500%. No, I don’t threaten my prospects with total annihilation over the phone unless they buy from me, although I have to admit that I’ve had such disturbing emotions every once in a while, but then who doesn’t. It is nothing more than a simple phrase, said in a very specific way that opens the doors of curiosity. You might not be surprised to find out that the legendary copywriter Joe Sugarman wrote in his book “The Adweek Copywriting Handbook” that curiosity is one of the strongest psychological triggers that send people into an emotional state called “impulse buying”. I know you have heard of that. Curiosity gets people on the ’slippery slide’ of your sales pitch. They want to hear more, they want to find out how the story ends so to speak. It is unpredictable and interesting and often a mental challenge to them. Everyone loves a challenge. When we, as humans, get things too easily or things are just thrown at us, we lose interest. That’s what happens with almost all forms of advertising that is bombarding us everyday and it surely happens a lot with cold (or warm) sales calls. So many “sales” people give away the store and expect that the person on the other line to be interested. You can’t do that. I will say something that will sound absolutely counter-intuitive, but trust me for a second. I will explain why it is not counter-intuitive at all. Ok, are you ready?
YOU HAVE TO MAKE YOUR PROSPECT BREAK A MENTAL SWEAT OVER IT!!!
What the heck you might say. Aren’t you the sales person? Aren’t you the one who is supposed to sweat over the phone or in person to earn the trust of your prospect and get them to separate themselves from their hard earned cash in exchange for whatever you are selling? Sure. You still have to work. Just don’t offer to do all of the work. I promised that I will explain. When we get on the phone or into that meeting with our important prospect our first reaction is to usually state our case, so to speak, and let the prospect make their decision. This is weak. We are forcing someone to weight in their options, make decisions and the answer is usually ‘NO’. Why? When presented with an offer and then left to decide for themselves, a prospect usually feels that something was just thrown at their feet and someone begged them to take it. It is desperate, try-hard and totally unproductive. You have not engaged your prospect. The best way to engage your prospect is, you guessed it, curiosity. Making them curious about something is a challenge and human beings, whether they admit it or not, love challenges. They are engaging to them. They trigger an important psychological phenomenon where work=value. I.e. the more work we put into something the more value we assign to it.
I can go into depth about how to create that trigger on all of the levels of a sales pitch. But this is not the aim of this post.
And I get it. You are (I hope) dying of curiosity to find out just what my magic opener is after all. Well, are you ready! Here it is:
I AM GOING TO MAKE YOU AN OFFER YOU CAN’T REFUSE, MR. JONES. ARE YOU READY!
Then go on and list all the benefits of your product or service, carefully covering all of the major objections before they even arise in the mind of the customer. That is it. This is the greatest opener of all time. It creates curiosity right off the bat. ‘What is that offer, that I can’t refuse’, the prospect is thinking. They will usually laugh too since the line is a straight rip off from The Godfather, but that’s another story. Another important thing that will happen, is that they will play up the offer in their minds before you have even started (that’s why I like to create a little suspense right after I say this opener, usually by telling the prospect they might want to sit down, because the offer is so good they might jump from joy). The value of what you haven’t even said increases few fold. The prospect is breaking mental sweat. And you have them exactly where you want to have them in the beginning of your pitch – so curious about what you are going to say that they are literally salivating just to hear your offer.
And just as a side note – my new eBook phone sales training program is coming soon.
“Cold Call Warrior – Mastery Program”
Feel free to leave your comments and tell me what you think.
Happy calling.
Now, go and try that today. Until next time, it is your coach and mentor Anton Borissov.
Good luck.
