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7 Phone & Video Prospecting Tips for Sales Reps to Crush It

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7 Phone & Video Prospecting Tips for Sales Reps to Crush It

Plenty of sales reps love the convenience of email and LinkedIn prospecting. But poorly crafted, AI-generated messages do little to build rapport and trust with your prospects. 

That’s why, as much as some people despise it, you have to pick up the phone. 

As young reps continue to phase into the sales force, there is a growing challenge for them to get beyond the keyboard. And while the pandemic certainly didn’t help matters, fostering those face-to-face (or voice-to-voice) connections has become more critical than ever.

Suffice it to say that salespeople can’t afford to rest on their laurels. We have to fight harder to build pipeline, persuade prospects, and win deals. 

That means moving from behind the keyboard, picking up the phone, and utilizing videos in prospecting.

If you’re ready to crush it, here are seven tips that can help our reps make the most of phone and video in their prospecting efforts. 

1. Don’t rely on email alone

It’s important to connect with people on social and email, certainly. But think about it: when’s the last time you bought something over email? 

Never mind that people are wary of scammers and phishing attempts. No one buys from text on a screen. 

People buy from other people. More importantly, they buy from people they trust. 

That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t use email. But there are ways to make email more engaging and personal. 

For example, emails that use video get a 96% higher click-through rate than those that don’t. It makes sense: video shows off your face, which helps to foster that personal connection.

So if you’re relying on a “spray and pray” approach to email where you’re sending as many as you can hoping for something to stick, just stop. You’ve got way more tools at your disposal. 

2. Make your videos watchable

Just getting started using video in your prospecting efforts is a great first step. But if you really want to maximize your chance of success, then you need to make your videos as watchable as possible.

Most people drop off of videos 70-80% of the way through. So it’s important to structure your video so you get their attention and deliver necessary value as quickly and efficiently as possible—before they click away. 

Here are some tips to make your videos more watchable:

  • Start with empathy. Show the prospect that you truly understand the problem they’re facing. 
    • Lead with value. Catch the prospect’s attention by offering something to help with that problem as early in the video as possible. 
  • Use a list to structure your video. “3 things before our call tomorrow,” or “4 things I noticed on your website.” That will help make the video more scannable and increase the prospect’s likelihood of retaining that information
  • Caption your video. Adding captions to videos can increase the watch rate by up to 80 percent. Captions also help with scannability. 
  • Put your call-to-action in the middle. It logically makes sense to throw the CTA at the end. But by that point, most people have dropped off. Put it in the middle to increase the likelihood that people will actually see it. 

3. Use the prospect’s name off the bat

The first few seconds of a video are key to getting your relationship with the prospect off on the right foot. One great way to do this: use the prospect’s name.

This goes back as far as Dale Carnegie: people perk up when they hear their own name. When you use their name, you set the tone of the relationship as a familiar one, which increases their likelihood to trust you. 

What’s more, when you use a prospect’s name in a video, it’s proof that you aren’t batch-sending messages. You’re taking the time to record a personalized message, which shows that you’re putting effort into building that connection. 

WATCH: 10 Tips for Building Human-to-Human Connections on Sales Calls

4. Don’t just call prospects once

It’s no surprise that phone calls used in tandem with email help to increase the likelihood of a response. 

The problem, however, is that only 10% of sales reps make more than three attempts to reach a prospect. Calling more than three times may seem like a lot, when you consider that it takes anywhere from seven to fourteen touches to get a conversation with a prospect, then frequent follow-up is key to making that conversion. 

Also remember that while email and social media are powerful tools, they have one purpose: to get you on a call with the prospect. That’s the only way you’ll be able to sell them. 

5. Don’t waste time following up if your data is incorrect

Spray and pray is popular because it’s quick and easy. Even if half the data is incorrect, you’re spending so little time on each prospect that it nets out positive. 

But when you’re taking the time to follow up multiple times, record videos, and build relationships with prospects, investing in the wrong people can be a significant time sink. 

That’s why it’s important to do your homework. One tip we recommend at Factor 8 is if you get a voicemail, hit the 0 button to find the directory or talk to someone else in the company. 

What I tell people is: try to be James Bond for about 10 dials. You’re going to learn something critical that will help you find the right person or provide you with important information that you can then use to land the deal:

  • Who reports to who?
  • What system do they have?
  • How long has your decision maker worked there?
  • Are there any current projects that are a priority?
  • How many employers/locations are there?
  • Other key influencers that you should include in the process?

Use your personality, talk to people, and get some critical account information that can help you become more successful as you build your relationship with them over time. 

READ MORE: How to Use Sales Intelligence to Boost Profits

6. Qualify, qualify, qualify

First of all: sales qualification is not the same as lead qualification. The latter is a marketing indication that a prospect may be ready to buy due to their engagement. Sales qualification is about how much money you can make with a particular account—what’s the potential that they’ll buy from you?

There are a number of factors that go into play here:

  • Size of sales team—more reps means more revenue
  • Is the company B2B or B2C?
  • What tools or platforms does the company already have (especially important if you sell SaaS)?
  • Do salespeople have to acquire their own tools or does the company provide them? 

One great tip for this: don’t blow past the gatekeepers! In your haste to get to the decision maker, you may end up missing the opportunity to gain some vital information on the company that can help you tailor your video and phone communications. 

READ MORE: How to Build an Account and Lead Qualification Strategy

7. You were hired for your personality—use it

If marketing could source leads and close deals on their own, we wouldn’t need sales.

The reason you have a job is because salespeople can do something marketers just can’t. You weren’t hired to send canned messages. Marketing can do that more efficiently than you. 

Salespeople are there because personality makes a huge difference in how prospects feel about potential vendors. For many businesses, it’s the people that are the differentiator between themselves and their closest competitors. 

So let people get to know you. You’ve been hired to be a personality. Use it!

If your sales team struggles to use phone and video effectively, Factor 8 can provide the training and resources needed to get everyone up to speed. Learn more about our training and coaching services here. 

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Top Techniques for Closing the Sale

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Top Sales Closing Techniques

So you put in the hard work, you hooked your prospect, you got to the decision-maker, and you’re at the finish line – it’s now time to close the sale.

Time to celebrate? Not quite yet…

A shocking 64% of reps don’t actually end up closing the deal. (and unsurprisingly enough, only 10% of customers will close themselves).

So, why aren’t most reps closing? Hint: there are 5 main reasons.

Keep reading to learn our top sales closing techniques. Buckle in, folks!

READ: How to Close More Deals

You Feel Too Pushy & Lack Confidence

I get it – you don’t want to come off as the “used car” sales rep and hound someone to get your deal finalized. Or maybe you’re just nervous and don’t have the full confidence to take that last step.

Let me help you out here – take a look at the graphic below of the buying funnel. Most prospects are stuck up in the top half – they’re in research mode!

Buying Funnel

When you lack the confidence to ask for the close, you’re letting them stay in an endless loop of research and evaluation without clear next steps. The reality is you should be offering clear steps on the VERY FIRST CALL to lead them into the evaluation phase.

Think about it like this: when you go to buy coffee in the morning or stop to pick up lunch, do you walk up and order? Or do you wait for someone to ask you what you want? You probably stared at the menu figuring out what to get and then someone asked if they could take your order, right? They prompted you out of your research and evaluation mode into the bottom half of the funnel!

Helping lead them into those next phases is the core of being a sales rep! It’s not pushy, and not doing it shows a lack of confidence. This is where you decide if you are a true salesperson or not.

Remember: Closing. Helps. The Buyer.

You Don’t Know How To Ask

If you’re worried it sounds too good to be true – it’s not! You can literally just ASK them questions to inch closer to the close. Okay, so the reality is that a lot of those go-to closes rely on cheesy or crappy tactics. Here are a couple good questions and statements for closing sales to steal:

  • Ask a Question: Did we solve the problem? Did we meet your needs? Ready to move onto the next step? 
  • Make an Assumption: We’ll get this nailed down and start next week. When do you want to take delivery? (You’re acting like you’re already involved in the next step!)
  • Which pitch: Which solution is a better fit right now? Which option is a better match for budget? Do you like option A or option B? 
  • Timeline: You mentioned wanting XYZ in place by next month – working backward we’ll need to ink the contract by next week.
  • Add-On: If we can get this wrapped up by the end of the month, we can throw in an extra license and a live training. 

DOWNLOAD: How to Transition to Close

You Need More Customer Info

Don’t make the super embarrassing mistake of lacking customer insight and information by the time you get all the way to closing!

CSO Insights estimates that 26% of deals are actually LOST because sellers weren’t fully aligned to a buyer’s needs before closing. Save yourself the time and hassle by making sure you know these before you get to close:

  • What is the agreed customer goal or pain?
  • What is the “why” behind the buy/value to them?
  • What’s their budget & timeline?
  • What does their buying process look like?
  • What is their current state vs. desired state?
  • Are there other options/competition?
  • Any personal motivation here?

(Hint, if you need help coming up with a pitch that aligns with their value – check out SWIIFT℠!)

READ: SWIIFT℠ Selling Methodology 

You’re Out of the Closing Habit

Closing is a muscle just like anything else – if you aren’t exercising it, you’re not going to know what to do with it when the time comes to use it!

You can close every single call you have with something we like to call closing for commitment. 

Think about football for a second. You’ve got your first downs to lock it in – and instead of having to go all the way back, you get to start on THAT yard line. Now when you apply to this sales – even if it’s something small you’re getting a customer to make a commitment to you. That means next time you’re starting from THAT point! You’re taking up mindshare with them.

Here’s an example:

You’ll never have to ask yourself if it’s closed because you will know and you will OWN exactly what you need to do.

Always plan for the win!

READ: Increase Close Rates Fast With This Technique

You Don’t Know When to Close

Can you guess the most critical stage when it comes to closing?

Gong did a study on this, and believe it or not – the qualification stage is MOST important. Close rates decline by 71% when the next steps are not covered on that first call. Plus – deals that closed the fastest spent 1.53 times MORE talking about those next steps compared to other deals.

If you have a well-defined sales process, you’re 33% more likely to close your deals (TAS Group). And if you don’t know how to gauge when that is or how it plays out – do a trial close! Try something different!

Sometimes you have to abandon your sales script, and that’s okay.

Read: Quickly Transition to Close on Sales Calls

The more confident you get with closing, I promise the easier this gets. So don’t be afraid to get out there, practice, and remember that there’s a closing strategy for each and every one of those fears you might have. You got this – now go get those deals!

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improve buyer engagement

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How to Improve Buyer Engagement in Video Sales Meetings

There’s no denying that “something’s missing” when we move from in-person meetings to video. It’s true of team meetings, training, and especially sales calls. If video is part of your every day, how do you stand out from the crowd? 

The baseline of video acumen has risen since the early days of remote work. You’ve got to go beyond the basics and use video as a tool in your arsenal. Thanks to technology, we can actually measure the effectiveness of our video meetings with AI tools.

How would you rate on a scale of 1 to 10 if we asked your prospects how engaging your sales call is?

What is Engagement vs. Sentiment?

When measuring the effectiveness of your sales calls, you’ve got to watch two things: engagement and sentiment.

For quick reference, here’s how we break down the two:

  • Engagement = buyer’s attention or presence on the sales call 
  • Sentiment = buyer’s attitude or emotion towards the seller

According to Q for Sales, Uniphore’s AI-powered Sales Assistant, an engaged customer has an 83% higher propensity to buy than a non-engaged customer. When both engagement and sentiment are high, you’ve got an 89% greater chance of closing the sale. 

DOWNLOAD: THE IMPACT OF BUYER ENGAGEMENT AND SENTIMENT ON DEAL OUTCOMES

TL;DR – Get them leaning in quickly, make sure they like you, and you’ve got nearly double the chances of closing the deal.

(Take a peek at Uniphore’s AI tool, Q for Sales, below to see how it tracks sentiment on video meetings.)

Q for Sales by Uniphore

How Do You Engage Buyers (Faster)?

Nearly 29% of buyers admit to multitasking during video calls. That means that roughly one-third of buyers aren’t paying attention to you. It’s a lot harder to re-engage someone after they’ve already tuned out, so starting the call with a high level of engagement is key. 

Follow these 8 steps to ensure engagement is high from the beginning of your call:

  1. Stop sharing your screen. Engagement goes down when sellers share their screens. Why? Because sellers ask fewer questions when they’re screen-sharing. We tend to go into a monologue and talk AT the buyer, vs. carry a conversation and ask questions. It’s not about the screen, but rather our behavior while the screen is up.
  2. Share personal information. Create a quick bond with a buyer by sharing something personal about yourself. It helps you find commonality and build quick rapport with the buyer. 
  3. Review goals and the agenda. Start the call by outlining the goals and topics of discussion before diving in. Make sure you check in to see if the buyer wants to cover any other topics or has any other questions. This is especially important when selling to the C-suite. Give them the opportunity to drive the conversation by gauging what they want to cover on the call.
  4. Ask questions. As a general rule, the seller’s goal of the call should be to uncover as much important information as possible from the buyer. You do this by talking less and asking more questions. 
  5. Ask them to recap their challenges. Even if they’ve told you what their challenges are before, you don’t want to put words in their mouth – it’s a surefire way to disengage them. Ask them to share their current situation and challenges.
  6. Match their energy. Imagine showing up to a sales call on a Monday morning after your 5th cup of coffee. The buyer shows up yawning and barely even awake. You want to lower your energy level to match theirs. If they’re pumped up and high-energy, match it. If they’re relaxed and calm, match it. It’s a form of empathy when you’re able to connect with buyer by matching their energy level to build trust and rapport.
  7. Say it with a smile. Positivity is contagious. Smiling automatically has a positive effect on your buyer’s sentiment. If you want to be easier to connect to, watch your facial expressions. Do you find yourself scowling without realizing it (read: RBF!)? Then practice smiling on all calls. 
  8. Give them eye contact. It’s tough when you’ve got multiple screens with Slack, email, a presentation, and Zoom all open at the same time, but you’ve got to make sure you’re looking AT the camera and giving buyers eye contact. Tip: Put your notes underneath your camera so you can read from them while making eye contact.
How Do You Encourage A Buyer To Turn On Their Camera?

You ask them to turn it on. Easy, right? Yet 83% of sellers don’t do it. And, it’s so much harder to connect with someone when you can’t see them. 

Need more of an incentive to ask? Let’s break it down with stats…

  • Less than 10% of the message in a conversation is verbal
  • Between 30-35% is in the tone, speed, or pitch
  • But a whopping 50% of the conversation is visual (hello, body language)

So if you don’t ask them to turn on their camera, you’re missing more than half of the conversation.

If you need a little help asking them, try any of these out on your next sales call:

“Hey, if it’s not too forward, are you OK sharing your camera so we can talk face-to-face?”

“OK, camera bullying time! No hiding! Unless you’re literally naked, please pop it on. Thank you so so much. It’s hard talking to myself.”

“I promise I didn’t get dressed up for this meeting and there’s zero judgment! Would you mind terribly going on video so we can have some eye contact?”

How Can You Tell If A Buyer Is Engaged?

They’re showing signs of active listening and attentiveness by:

  1. Smiling
  2. Leaning forward
  3. Nodding
  4. Looking at their screen
  5. Showing their hands 
  6. Chatting, clapping, sharing emojis, etc.
How Can You Tell When A Buyer Is Disengaged?

They’re actively not paying attention and are distracted by something else. If someone is disengaged, they might be:

  1. Looking away 
  2. Leaning back 
  3. Showing a negative facial expression 
  4. Visibly reading their emails
  5. Playing on their phone
  6. Off camera
How Do You Quickly Reengage A Buyer?
  1. Notice or mention something that could be common ground – “I see that gorgeous picture in your background.”
  2. Share something first – “I am an avid sunrise photographer. Although, I don’t see them enough lately!”
  3. Ask a closed & follow-up question – “Did you take that yourself? It’s so beautiful! Where is it?”
  4. Ask an open question – “Tell me about it?”

TIP: TAKE OUR CLASS “AUTHENTIC (AND QUICK!) RAPPORT BUILDING”

You’ve got to master the art of active listening in order to effectively engage (or reengage) buyers.

Here’s how to be a great listener:

  1. Listen actively – No interrupting, look at the camera, nod your head
  2. Acknowledge – “Yes”, “Okay, got it”, “Mm-hmm”
  3. Restate (with empathy) – “OK, what I heard was that you’ve tried this many times already and it may be a little frustrating now.”
  4. Check-in – “Did I get that right?”

TIP: TAKE OUR CLASS “EXPERT AND EMPATHETIC LISTENING”

What Do You Do When A Buyer Disengages?

The first thing is to stop screen sharing. That way you can talk and pivot the conversation. Try some of these scripts to get your call back on track:

“I’ve been talking like 5 straight minutes, and I think I lost ya’ll. My bad. NAME, what’s the next most important thing we can cover for you?”

“Hey, I think I went off track. My bad. Let’s go back to the agenda. Is this still what you want to accomplish? Quick show of hands if you’d like to move on to XYZ item?”

“Let’s take a beat here to check-in. Could you please give me a thumbs up if you’re tracking with me 100% or a hand raise if you have a question? If I lost you completely, sit very still…”

TIP: TAKE OUR CLASS “DEMOS THAT DON’T SUCK”

How Do You Build Trust With Buyers?

Let’s talk about trust. According to Hubspot, only 3% of people trust salespeople. 

“Trust is not something you can ask for, you need to earn trust. It takes hours, weeks, and years to build it, but seconds to lose it.” Sylvain Tremblay, CRO, Uniphore

Since trust is earned, that means we all start at the bottom of the trust scale, at mistrust. Luckily, we don’t start at distrust, that’s when someone knows us and has actively lost trust in us.

Mistrust means that they aren’t sure of our character based on the fact that we’re a salesperson and their fear that we’re going to try to force them to purchase their product.

Our job as salespeople, through empathy, engagement, and rapport building, is to move up the trust scale as fast as possible. Folks, you’ll never make it to the top of the trust scale in a call or two. It takes time to build trust. The goal is to simply move up the scale faster.

trust scale

How Do You Build Rapport Quickly?

We’ve all heard that people buy from people they like, but the truth is that people buy from people that are LIKE them. We’re hard-wired to connect to people that are like us. That’s why small talk was invented; to help us find common ground with others. 

The key to building authentic rapport (and quickly), is to let people get to know you faster.

Here are a few tips on what you can share with buyers to build rapport:

  1. Introduce yourself at the beginning of the call
  2. Get your resume off LinkedIn & share something about your experience
  3. Connect on LinkedIn with a personal message 
  4. Send a personalized video 
  5. Share some (personal) background 
  6. Add something funny 
  7. Make fun of yourself (pratfall effect)

If you want to connect to your buyer, you’ve got to give to get. Give information about yourself and you’ll get an authentic connection to your buyer. 

Want more tips? Watch our 30-minute Sales Shot to learn how to improve buyer engagement in video sales meetings.

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Remote Selling Tips: Using Video During Sales Meetings

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Why You Should Use Video During Sales Meetings

Recently, I shared a panel with Bob Perkins, Morgan Ingram, Shay Keeler, and Dan Breault where we talked about the move to virtual selling.

It was delightful because lately, I’ve mostly been talking with traditional/field sales leaders who are transitioning their teams to virtual selling. We talk about the constraints, the challenges, and the new skills these teams need when they lose face-to-face.

The panel of long-time inside sales leaders had the opposite experience. Our teams are loving the wave of video that is sweeping all industries! We’ve literally been selling blind for 20 years and it’s a whole new Zoom world.

Whether you’re inside or field selling, we’re all virtual now. If your team is struggling to adapt and/or thrive with video selling, here are a few remote selling tips to help.

Why go video?

First, YES, you want to turn cameras on with customers. Some crazy stats were thrown around during the ExecVision Momentum panel discussion (150% increase in close rate?!). I couldn’t substantiate that one, but I did find data from Gong saying webcams are used 40% more in successful (won) vs. unsuccessful (lost) deals.

Zoom and Forbes cite that 62% of executives agree video conferencing significantly improves the quality of communication.

Not convinced? Here’s an oldie but a goodie – only about 45% of a message is content and tone while 55% is body language.

Even if your customer/prospect doesn’t turn on video, you should. 

The last stat alone has been around for decades, so I’m going to go out on a limb and say if you or your team are struggling with adoption, isn’t due to buy-in, it’s due to one of these common resistance points:

  1. I don’t want to be seen / I don’t look good on video
  2. My customers don’t use video
  3. I don’t have the right setup
  4. I’m just not confident / I have my own routine for calls, and video isn’t it!

Let’s attack these, one by one, with the lens of helping leaders coach their teams to adoption. Here are my remote-selling tips using video.

#1 – If your team doesn’t feel camera ready, share a few tips:

  • Put your webcam/laptop up six to ten inches so the camera is toward the top of your head. Everyone looks better when shot from above!
  • Put an adjustable light by your camera or a window w/ natural light behind it. Side lighting, low lighting, bright lighting – none of these help us love how we look!
  • It’s time to talk about a new ‘get ready for work’ routine! Listen, I loved the era of no video because it meant sweatpants and a hair bun all day. It’s over. Get ready for work as you used to. Do your hair, iron your shirt, and be grateful you don’t have to wear socks and shoes.

Leaders, it’s OK to go here. It’s your job to go here. Don’t let your team show up in a ballcap and torn T-shirt with backlighting and a webcam that looks up their nose. It’s on you.

#2 – If your customer doesn’t use video, it’s OK to ask them to do so. Here’s what I say:

“Hey, if you’re comfortable, I’d love to meet you face-to-face via video! Don’t worry, I’ve got on yoga pants and flip flops too – and it definitely isn’t a great hair day. No judgment!”

Video is a chance to connect face-to-face and asking for it is another opportunity to get human and connect at this level. I openly share that my kids may interrupt wearing their underoos and thereby make it OK for them to be human too.

You may also try setting it up ahead of time. When booking/sending the meeting request, let them know you’ll send it with video and you hope they’ll come on camera and meet face-to-face.

Be prepared to walk a customer through the video process – we all use different technology and they may feel unprepared and uncomfortable as well. Helping them through this further connects you.

When they do get on screen, take a moment to stay in this human space. Comment on background, pictures, window scenes – anything BUT the pile of laundry and dishes that might embarrass them.

#3  If the setup is the issue, find the budget to help. Get a good camera, upgrade to get the virtual background, buy a divider screen, and buy a $30 light. Help set up the camera so it’s a few feet away (or use the Zoom feature) so their head and shoulders are in the frame down to about chest height.

Partner with your team to make this happen, because virtual and video are NOT going away. Don’t let your customers get out in front of you because you didn’t spend $100 to help your team look good and feel confident. This action is ours, leaders!

#4 – The final objection is ours to own as well. If old habits and resistance to change prevent the cameras, help them build these muscles. Run your 1:1 and team meetings with cameras and do a few joint video customer calls. They’ll see it work, feel the connection, and use these new muscles to help the resistance fade.

In short, we need to set the expectation, partner to help us look and feel good, and work together to build new habits. If we aren’t, we’re simply leaving money on the table.

Hear more of LB’s tips on how to ask your prospects/customers to turn their video on below:

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New Account Executive Tips

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5 Critical Tips for New Account Executives

Congratulations on your promotion to AE! Transitioning from an appointment setter, qualifier or SDR/BDR to an Account Executive who carries a revenue quota and closes deals is a BFD. Here are five skills that can help you make goal faster! 

1. Slow WAY Down. As a BDR, the game was speed. A hundred calls, ten conversations, and one yes. The good calls were under 10 minutes and you were careful not to dive too deep. As an Account Executive, it’s a common mistake to try and also pack your calendar with cookie-cutter demos in the hopes 10% will close. Be better.

The Account Executive’s role is to add so much value to the prospect that they overcome their resistance to change and buy. That won’t happen in 10 minutes or 60 minutes, and it won’t happen the same way each time. So slow down and get to know the prospect. Why did they take the meeting? What’s happening in their world? Why is it a challenge? Why is it important to fix? What have they tried? What happens when it’s better?I could keep going here, but I hope you get the picture. Spend time instead discovering their situation AND their top priorities and values because these are their motivators to change. At Factor 8, we’ll give you a gold star if you don’t share your screen or your solution once in the first call. Truth: we don’t give out a lot of gold stars. 

2. Be SWIIFT℠. Heard of that before? It’s the opposite of WIIFM and it means, “So, What’s In It For Them?” We want you to take this to the extreme and make as many of your calls as possible about them instead of you. The average AE will ask 3-4 questions and then launch into their slides/demo/solution.

This hurts them in several ways:

  1. They come off like a typical self-centered salesperson
  2. They leave opportunity on the table by not digging out the whole need
  3. They haven’t found a personal connection or the prospect’s motivation 
  4. The prospect quits listening and goes dark
  5.  

So, go deeper and seek to understand. Seek to help. Make it all about them for the entire first call and as much of the second and third as possible. Even during your demo, we teach you to only cover a specific and abbreviated number of items and to stop sharing at least 50% of the call. Ditch the sales speak and value props and pitches and competitive data and do all you can to understand and add value.

3. Bridge Every Call! Unlike your old job, closing deals will take multiple calls. Always set up your next call before getting off this one. Like, always. It’s called a bridge. The best bridges have appointments booked in the calendar with invitations and agendas sent immediately. If we can’t get that, they at the very least agree on a day you will call back (and try to get them to block the time!). This simple skill takes 3 minutes to accomplish and will save 3 hours of time chasing down leads you thought were interested but who won’t return your emails. It’s sort of like “never wake a sleeping baby” – never hang up on a live prospect (without bridging to the next call).

4. Be a Calendar Ninja. Suddenly you need time in your day for more than just outbound appointment setting (but pretty please still do that too!) Get strategic and block times in your calendar for research, client meetings, follow-ups, emails, and outbound prospecting. You’ll also need time to build your custom proposals/demos/solutions for clients. It’s a lot more to juggle! You may even be used to a tool telling you who to call and when if you used a great sales cadence solution like Outreach. But now you need to be strategic about when you call, build, respond, and research. It’s easy to get buried in emails and snoozed CRM tasks, and NOT systematically and proactively review your CRM for actions to take to keep your pipe full and leads warm. It’s a common mistake and it takes serious time management skills. 

5. Master the Meeting. It can be intimidating to move from a 10-minute 1:1 call to running a pitch to a prospect team. 60 minutes, 5 people, and LOTS of pressure (and doing it virtually to boot!) To run a killer sales meeting, always start with an agenda and introductions. Think of it like you’re hosting an open house. Thank people for coming, learn something about them, find out their goals, and put them at ease. Remember, these meetings are as much about YOU as your solution, because people buy from people they like, and nobody likes being instantly pitched! 

Try dressing up a level, add some professional flair to your background, use your rapport-building techniques, and do everything you can to get cameras ON and screen sharing OFF (a Gong study showed that discovery meetings run with you sharing slides means you do most of the talking instead of the other way around). Share your agenda and ask if they have specific questions or items to add before diving into the meat of the meeting. And always be sure the meat starts with SWIIFT℠ questions instead of your pitch! Practice kicking off meetings with a few colleagues until you sound and feel confident!

There’s a lot to master in your new role, but these five skills will help you stay in front of the learning curve!

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Quick Sales Call Engagement Strategy Tips

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Quickly Improve Prospect Engagement on Sales Calls

How many of you have been on the receiving end of a sales call, bored to tears while the rep on the other end just keeps rattling away? Probably ALL of us.

So what’s the secret to keeping your customers from slowly falling asleep – whether it’s on the phone or a video call?

Here are some quick and easy tips to boost prospect and customer engagement on your next sales call!

The Best Sales Script To Get A Buyer’s Attention

Get Them Talking

The easiest way to tell if you’ve got them engaged is if THEY’RE the ones talking.

One of the best tools you have in your arsenal as a seller is asking the right questions – NOT spewing your value prop and pitch.

Make sure you know the difference between a closed and an open-ended question. A closed question is going to get you nothing but one-word answers. You can start with them, but make sure you have open-ended questions to keep them talking!

  • “Do you have a current service provider?” (closed) is going to get a yes or no.
  • “What’s your biggest struggle with your current service provider?” (open) – that’s going to get you a LOT more.

And if you get a good hook in one of their answers, don’t be too quick to just move onto your list with the next one! The more you can make it feel like a conversation and show you’re actively listening, the more engaged and natural the flow is going to be. Show them you care by connecting with them.

Here’s an easy summary:

  • Closed questions = get them warmed up.
  • Open questions = get them expanding.
  • Follow-up questions = take them to the next level of expansion.

Read Body Language

If you’re using video on your sales call (HIGHLY suggest this, folks), then you’ve got to focus on their body language. This one might seem like a no-brainer, but here are a couple things to watch for.

  • Are they muted? They’re not planning on talking.
  • Looking off to the side or down? They’re working on emails.
  • Are they propped up? They’re BORED!

If you see any of the above – stop what you’re doing, end your screen share, and get back to a conversation to re-engage them.

Don’t Be Afraid to Get Silly

I’ve been there, with a video call full of people slouched over who couldn’t give a hoot what I was going on about.

You know what I did?

I turned off the presentation, I started cracking some jokes – a little bit of razzing to the guy who came late, asked someone else a question, pinned something funny on another person – and it WORKED! People sat up, they got off mute – they wanted to participate!

It’s okay to take a step back, and it’s okay to get a little silly to get them engaged again.

READ: Quick Tips for Running an Engaging Demo

Try using one of these tips on your next sales call and I guarantee you’ll be surprised how easy it can be to get customers to open up!

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