Raise your hand if you’ve ever called an exciting new prospect and couldn’t get past their assistant.
This is a reality for any sales person making cold calls and it’s frustrating — you’re so close to getting in the door, yet so far. This struggle between salespeople and gatekeepers has occurred for decades.
Entrepreneur and corporate strategist Greg Woodward, whose expertise in outbound is favored by many of the fastest growing companies and largest private equity firms, has a solution.
It’s 2020. A new year, a new decade.
Sales people everywhere (myself included) are wondering: with more communication methods, product research efforts, and purchases moving online each year, is the sales call going the way of the dinosaur?
Actually, no. Not even close.
In fact, Hubspot found that “sellers who prospect agree the phone is [still] essential, including cold calls.”
And there is a lot of data to back that up.
If you’re cold calling a lot of leads there’s just so much preparation you can do for each call.
Sure, you should invest time and money into generating targeted and qualified leads, but it may not be feasible to prepare for every call until you’re further down the funnel.
Once you get there, preparation is key.
The value of your prospect is now higher. You’ve already invested effort to get where you are today. So, what can you do to put your best foot forward?
Did you know it takes just four seconds of silence before most people start squirming?
Count it out: 1, 2, 3, 4.
Silence may be golden in some circumstances, but it’s downright uncomfortable in others. And that’s precisely why it can be such an effective asset when cultivating a sale.
If you want to have deeper conversations, extract more information, and boost your close rate, it’s time to get close and personal with that awkward silence. It just might hold the key to your sales success.
Sometimes it happens right at the beginning of a call.
Other times it happens after you’re 10 minutes into your pitch.
Sometimes it means the prospect isn’t interested and wants off the call.
Other times it means they are interested and genuinely want more info.
So how does one respond to such a vague, and multi-intentioned request?
How you play it can be the difference between a dead deal and a hot prospect. So today, we’ll give you some tips on how to best respond.
