European lessons

Recently I was dispatched to a beautiful countryside hotel in the UK by my company for a weeklong global sales meeting. Hence the lack of new posts. Following that I spent a week in my home country of Bulgaria, which is a recent addition to the European Union. Boy did I learn some lessons from these two vastly different worlds (not only different from the US but different from each other as well).

First things first. I must say that I have never received better service than when I stayed at the Welcombe Menzies Hotel in Stratford-Upon-Avon, UK. So refreshing. Everything from the hotel staff to the restaurant waiters were superb. One thing that caught my attention was particularly the older staff. These guys, many of whom could easily be my father, frequently went out of their way to make my stay easier. One of them was able to arrange a bike delivered to one of my colleagues who enjoyed riding a bike anywhere he went. He didn’t have to do that, but he did it anyway and was promptly and generously tipped. On another note, in the service business in UK most people are not expected to receive tips. I spend about 50 pounds in tips, although all my expenses were covered by the company.

My point here is that as someone who works in any kind of service industry, you are basically a sales person. I think, especially in the US, lots of workers deem it below them to go out of their way and do something for their clients which will eventually pay them dividends in the long run. It is easily done. Something as simple as a follow up call after a successful sales call can be enough to sway your customer to come back again. Another tactic I use is to make my prospects feel special by telling them I am doing something special just for them. It can be a benefit that comes with the product or service you are selling but if you make it seem special, you will make your prospect feel special too. This appeals to the basic human need to feel important and will take you a long way to a successful sales career.

Go and incorporate this in your sales pitch today. Go above and beyond what you are paid for and you will get paid plenty in the long run.

On the second leg of my trip to Europe, I visited my home country of Bulgaria for a week too. Boy what a difference. I’m not even going to go into the lousy service I received while I was there. Suffice to say I didn’t even receive ketchup with my fries even after explicitly asking for it. But I will talk about someone, who is very close to me and who happened to be a heavy construction machinery salesman. If you don’t know, Bulgaria is a developing country in Eastern Europe. While it is still one of the poorest in Europe, it also has one of the highest rates of new construction in the region. The market is basically begging for solid and reliable equipment and while some of the business practices can be dodgy, it is certainly a good market for what my friend is selling.

The problem is that he has been there for over 8 months and hasn’t sold a single machine. The answer to this problem was not too difficult for me to figure out. First of all he looked more like a construction worker on his break than someone who peddles equipment worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. He sported an extremely short haircut that while not bad in itself, made him look too threatening. He had a huge earring on his left year and generally dressed in street clothes. You get the image. This is not someone who you would like to buy anything from. Fair enough. But it didn’t stop there. This so called salesman sported the worse attitude that I have seen in years. He was so cynical and negative that talking to him for more than 10 minutes was completely, excruciatingly painful. You couldn’t hold a normal conversation with him without feeling put down, desperate and negative about just about everything around you. Not the best sales person attitude if you ask me.

This leads me to my point that attitude and physical presentation are so essential. As sales people we need to gain trust from our prospects and that means dressing well and being presentable if meeting in person, and having a pleasant and positive voice when on the phone. There are other things that go into it as well. Like honesty, enthusiasm and going beyond your duty to help the prospect. Be giving. Don’t hoard your sales talents. Prospects want to be sold. They want really hard to be convinced that what they are considering buying is actually worth buying.

Well, that is it for me this time. Happy calling and don’t forget to check my eBook “Cold Call Warrior” for an extensive and effective sales training regimen. Until next time.

Anton B.

Overcoming Objections to Sales Calls

Oh yeah, objections. Some might say they are the biggest obstacle to making a successful sale. I say objections are the biggest opportunity to sell your product even more. What the heck do I mean, you might ask. Well, come closer and listen up. What you will learn here is not taught in textbooks or anywhere on the internet or real life.

First I want you to do the following exercise before you continue reading. Call a few of your hardest prospects, especially ones that have declined you before and give them your best pitch. Do not get off the phone until they have exhausted every objection and excuse they have in their arsenal. Don’t just ask for the sale willy-nilly, really go after it to the point that the prospect is ready to hang up or scream at you. Don’t be afraid if they do hang up. Your time was well spent.

Next, write down all of the objections that you heard through out these few calls. All of them. For now leave that list as is.

Then, identify the top 3 objections that you hear time and time again, and that are the biggest obstacles to your prospects purchasing from you. write these 3 down on a separate sheet of paper and do the following. Write down a pitch that incorporates a statement and resolution of the objections all in one. For example, if you sell earthquake insurance and one of the biggest objections is “I just don’t think it will ever happen to me”, write down the following pitch “Mr Jones, my name is X and I am calling from Earthquake Insurance Co. The policy I am offering is blah blah blah. I know you are probably thinking that an earthquake is an unlikely event and will probably never happen to you, but you might think differently if you knew that that there are over 45 earthquakes happening over the continental USA every month, with magnitude from 1-4 and about 2 with magnitude of over 6 every 5 years. These 2 earthquakes collectively destroy property of over $50,000,000 blah blah blah. It is a very real threat to anyone living in your area.” Ok, what you just did was take what I call “The Preemptive Strike”. Instead of waiting for a prospect to bring up objections, you take the top 3 objections, state them and resolve them in your pitch before they are even brought up.

Depending on the type of presentation, you can do that with a few objections or all of them if time permits. You have to answer every possible objection eventually in order for your prospect to trust you enough to buy from you. The more objections you state and resolve in your “Preemptive Strike” early on, the smoother the sale will be. You put your prospect’s mind at ease and show that you are attuned to their concerns.

Now the trick to resolving objections is simply to take it as an opportunity to promote even more benefits of your product or service. When a prospect objects, simply hear them out, ne sympathetic and then answer their objection in a way that furthers the value of your offer. It is as simple as that. Use objections to sell even further.

Now if you are ready to take your training further and your sales even higher, I strongly suggest you head over to my website at and give my “Cold Call Warrior” – Mastery Program a try. It will skyrocket your sales and will leave you with invaluable skills for life. Don’t take my word for it, go ahead and try it out risk free with my 90 Day Iron-Clad Guarantee. For more visit www.coldcallwarrior.weebly.com

What is the best Time to make Phone Sales

As with anything in sales, the well calculated timing of your sales call is absolutely crucial. It can often make or break your pitch and a successful sale. Lets look at the different factors here:

1. If you get someone while they are in the middle of a project or a chore, or an enjoyable TV show, they are less likely to focus and want to pay attention. I know, I know, you are such a good salesperson that you can get anyone’s attention even in the middle of the Sopranos finale (or whatever show is hot right now). The reality however, is that there is something I call Reflex Response and if you don’t know how to overcome it, you are TOAST. More on this later in the post.

2. Wrong timing = lot’s of wasted time. If you try and contact prospects when they are generally not available, you can spend your whole day reaching just a few people and having a real bad contact ratio. In phone sales reaching people is hard. It is what you do when you reach them that matters. Of course, the more prospects you reach on a given day, the better your odds for a sale are. Pay attention, and I will show you how to improve your contact ratio by 5x at least.

So what is the best time to make phone sales? Well, it depends. If you are selling B2B you have to look at the all the possibilities. Most businesses operate from the standard 9-5. So you pick up the phone and call from 9-5? Sure you can do that, but there is an easier way. See, when people get in the office, they generally start they will generally waste the first 30 min in getting ready, getting coffee and doing a few meaningless tasks before getting to their work. Most will get in 15-30 min early. What you want to do is call at 8:30-9:30. This is when your prospects are the least busy and distracted with their work. Getting a call so early also means that it is usually not a work related call.  People will be more prone to pick up. Expect to make your presentation in 15 min tops depending on when you get the person. If you get them more towards the 9:30 mark, expect that they will be pressured to start working and being productive. The earlier you get them the better.

Another caveat of contacting prospects early is the that you avoid the gate keepers. Secretaries and receptionists are usually low paid and they will religiously stick to getting to work right on the mark or even late. No one wants to be at work early, when they are paid $9/hr and have a whole day of playing Solitaire and answering pestering calls. However, the execs that you want to get in touch are usually hard working and successful people, who pride themselves in getting in early and leaving late. Make your calls early on. If you are engaging enough, sales will pour from the sky for you. Remember, you need to have high energy when it is so early. Most people feel sluggish in the mornings and if you contribute to putting them to sleep, you can bet that they will lose interest.

The other best time for B2B sales is after lunch time (1-2PM) and then right before and after 5PM. Since 5PM is the end of most business days, mostly everyone will be winding down, they will be more receptive to taking a phone call that can make the last 30 min of their day go faster. With your hard working exec, contacting them after 5 will also avoid the gatekeepers, as they would be heading home at that time.

If you decide to call right before 5, expect that some prospects will rush you off the phone as they eagerly await to get out of the office. You have to play it by ear. Take notes if that happens and contact them an hour before you know they are getting out of the office. The 30 min after lunch are also a good time, since most people will be in a more relaxed mood and talkative and anything that keeps them away from work for another 15 to 30 min is more than welcome.

Now, if you sell primarily to private citizen, the best times to call are undoubtedly between 5-9. Most people will be heading home at around 5 and the rest of the evening is usually spend winding down, having dinner and watching something boring on TV. As a matter of fact one of the most productive times to make sales is actually from 8-9 and later if your state allows such late sales calls. In this time frame you can expect mostly everyone to have finished dinner and a glass of wine, to be in a better mood after fuming at their spouse about their lousy day at work earlier in the evening and receptive to phone calls about things that interest them. I usually recommend that you start calling around 5 so you can warm up and catch the few prospects that might have earlier hours, housewives or people who are retired and generally feel bored most of the time. Good note taking is crucial here in order to optimize your phone making time.

Now on to the really interesting stuff. The REFLEX RESPONSE. I mentioned this earlier. The reflex response is nothing more than the first thing that comes to mind to a prospect when they get a sales call. Usually it is to say they are busy and hang up, or start finding excuses as to why they can’t be on the phone with you. We have all been there. Now here are some suggestions as to how to over come this. Mind you, this is an extensive topic and I will cover more of it in a later post, especially if you write me COMMENT and are INTERESTED to hear more.

1. Put a time limit on your call right off the bat. That’s right. Most people will say that they are busy, they have to get started on something, etc, etc. Put a specific time limit on your call such as “Mr Jones, I’m glad I got you on the phone. Let me tell you in 30 seconds or less about the offer I am calling with, blah blah blah”. Wow, do you think that you can make a solid presentation in 30 seconds or less? Usually not. But that doesn’t matter. What matters is that you have put your prospect’s mind at ease. “Ok, that pestering salesman is not going to keep me on the phone for half an hour with meaningless blabber” is what goes on in the prospect’s mind. Now, what you do is absolutely crucial. In the 30 seconds that you have given yourself (don’t ask for permission by the way, give permission to yourself), make a sales pitch that will intrigue your prospect and most importantly it will pique their interest and curiosity. That’s right. All you need to do is pique their interest and curiosity with a straight to the point pitch. Don’t expect to sell within 30 seconds. However, do expect the 30 seconds to become 30 minutes if you pull this off. Again, the whole point of giving a verbalized a time limit on the phone call is to put your prospect’s mind at ease that this won’t be a long winded boring telemarketing presentation.

2. Acknowledge your prospect’s concerns. These can be various, such as I have to start working soon, or I have been looking at the clock for past half an hour and can;t wait to get out of here, I am about to start cooking or eating dinner, I am about to crash on the couch and watch my favorite show, etc, etc. This can be as simple as saying “Mr Jones, I know you are eager to start your day at work, but I want to to make you an offer you can’t refuse in 30 seconds or less. Are you ready!”. That is it. Acknowledging your prospect’s concerns plays the same role as giving a time limit. It makes them feel easier about taking the phone call, they know they won’t have their time wasted and they see that you are actually sensitive about what their concerns are. After all, the prospect is doing you a favor by picking up the phone and giving you their precious time. Appreciate that and acknowledge it and most importantly RESPECT it.

Until next time, Happy calling.