10+ Tips to Build a Human Connection on Sales Calls [“Sales Shot” Workshop Recording]
10+ Tips to Build a Human Connection on Sales Calls
[“Sales Shot” Workshop Recording]
Shout out to our event sponsors!
Referrals + Relationships
How to Use Storytelling to Engage Prospects and Customers [“Sales Shot” Workshop Recording]
How to Use Storytelling to Engage Prospects and Customers
[“Sales Shot” Workshop Recording]
How to Ask Existing Customers for a Sales Referral
Did you know that 83% of customers are willing to offer a referral after a positive experience? It’s true! So, why aren’t reps getting more sales referrals? Honestly, many are too afraid to ask. It’s time to change that!
Let’s start out by covering the 3 key benefits of a referral:
- Safety: With an average of 6.8 people involved in each sale, getting additional referrals within a company should be smooth sailing. The number one benefit for the inside referral is safety. These additional contacts protect your account in the event your initial contact decides to leave. As an added bonus, they can also lead to new business from another department or division!
- Win Rate: The stats don’t lie. Customers referred by a friend are 4X more likely to purchase AND have a 69% faster closer rate. So, by asking just one little question you could be closing more business in less than ½ the time!
- Value: Referral clients stay longer and churn less! Overall, referral clients have a 16% higher chance of becoming a lifetime customer. They also have an 18% lower churn rate.
Okay, now that we understand WHY referrals are the golden goose of the sales world, let’s talk about how to prepare for the ask! There are 3 things we need to have ready before we ask for a referral…
- The Win: Think back to the client’s original specific request. What are the details? How did you help them deliver on those elements?
- Which of the 6 SWIIFT values did we deliver on?
- Time
- Money
- Ease
- Making them look good
- Freeing them from risk
- Giving them power or control
- Which of the 6 SWIIFT values did we deliver on?
- The Timing: When is the right time? This is not a one-size-fits-all answer. Instead, this is specific to you, your product, and the customer implementation. Here are a few good questions to ask yourself:
- Has the customer received the product and had time to use it? If the answer is no, then let’s wait a little while longer.
- Stay away from busy periods (end of the month, quarter, year, etc.). Would you call an accountant in April? No, so let’s be smart about when we reach out to our customers asking for favors.
- Think: Does your client operate on a Fiscal Year or a Calendar Year?
- What is the customer’s feedback cycle? Are they able to review it upon receipt or is the product offered to a 3rd party after your client receives it?
- What are the client’s usage rates? Is this something they will use often, or something they may use sparingly?
- The Ask: Before you make this call let’s understand who you are really looking for. Take the time to imagine the perfect client in your mind. Can you describe the job title, duties, or the situation the potential client might be in? We want to be specific and use descriptors to help your client think of possible referrals.
- Asking a client if they know of anyone else that is looking for training might leave you with an awkward silence. On the other hand, asking a client if there are any other SVPs in their company or network that might also be onboarding new team sales reps might provide one (or more) specific names.
Next, now that we’ve discussed the benefits and we’ve prepared for the ask… it’s time to make the call. Let’s talk about the 4 steps to a foolproof referral!
Step 1: Bring it Up
- Did you speak with this client originally? If so, let’s use that as a jumping-off point, “I remember when we first spoke, you were looking for help with _________”
- Were you not their original point of contact? Speak with their original point of contact and get all of the details. Use the client’s original specific reason for working with you to lead the conversation.
Step 2: Get a Rave
- Let’s find the thing that gets them talking. Check your CRM notes, check with their customer service rep, find the challenge that your company answered and use it. If we can get the conversation flowing, switching to the ask will be easy.
Step 3: Repeat the SWIIFT Value
- Don’t be afraid to talk about their original specific reason again if you aren’t getting some excitement. Sometimes it can help to gently remind them about the pain of their situation prior to stepping in and helping them get to the payoff.
Step 4: Ask for a Specific Referral
- Be ready with the specific title, job description, or situation that you are looking for. Being a bit specific can help guide your client to thinking of a real live name! “Are there any other Directors of Sales in your company or network that are looking to increase their closing ratios?”
- Be careful not to be too specific though, creating too narrow of a window can also leave you empty-handed.
- Pro Tip: Use the Rule of 3 to help them see
- When forming your ask, bringing three options to the ask will make it easier for your client to think on their feet. “Maybe a customer care team, inbound demand generation, or a sales development team?”
- Be ready with the specific title, job description, or situation that you are looking for. Being a bit specific can help guide your client to thinking of a real live name! “Are there any other Directors of Sales in your company or network that are looking to increase their closing ratios?”
One little bonus tip, if you ask for a name you will only get a name… so ask for more!
Once your client has offered you a name, the final step is to confirm with your client what their level of comfortability is when referencing them to the referral.
Level 1: Permission to use the contact’s name as a lever
Level 2: Would they be willing to e-introduce you, copying both you and the new contact?
Level 3: Would they be willing to call the new contact personally and tell them about you, prior to your reach out?
Level 4: An in-person meeting or live joint introductory call!
Okay, I know this is a lot of information. But once you put these rules into practice, I PROMISE you will see amazing results. Now let’s go out there and start raking in those referrals!
Want more sales referrals?
Join one of our upcoming Virtual Sales Training Masterclasses! We offer 4 different classes for BDRs, SDRs, ISRs, account executives, and account managers all focused on areas like prospecting, objection handling, gaining referrals, running virtual sales demos, closing, and more!
How to Get More Sales Referrals [“Sales Shot” Workshop Recording]
How to Get More Sales Referrals
[“Sales Shot” Workshop Recording]
Learn more about the sponsor of this event!
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Why Your Customer Care Agents Should Be Upselling
Sometimes an upsell is obvious. The kid at the movie theater register (MAN, I miss the movies) has obviously been scripted to say, “How about some Red Vines or nachos with that?”
That’s NOT what you want your customer care agent doing. To keep the analogy going, a great customer care agent might instead ask, “What are you seeing today?” and engage the moviegoer in good conversation while the kids are picking out candy or while the (always slow) popcorn machine is working.
This may lead to a conversation about whether or not they’ve seen a similar movie now playing, an upcoming special throw-back feature, or a kids’ summer movie pass. All great cross-sell upsell opportunities. She may ask the kids about their favorite type of candy and share hers – uncovering an unstated need for chocolate and now we have an add-on opportunity. You get it.
From a sales perspective, your care agent has nearly unfettered access to your buyers, your users, your influencers. They have unguarded conversations about the user experience, the chance to solve problems, the chance to CARE. If a sales rep called into the moviegoers with these questions after the movie, the buyer is wondering why the theater is calling them and they’re preparing their defenses for the pitch.
There are four major ways to add revenue to an install base:
- More buyers buying the same/similar product
- Add-on sales to the existing buyer
- Cross-sales to the existing buyer
- New buyers buying different products
Not all of us have all four opportunities in our install base, but most of us have at least one. Our job as leaders is to:
- Identify the top opportunities
- Detail how these opportunities may relate to the caller (“I buy that”, “I know someone who does”, “I have information about how we use that”, etc.)
- Create some pre-set questions and conversation starters that may uncover this relationship
- Train reps to execute the questions, follow-up questions, and identify potential opportunities and then bridge this call to your sales team or close themselves depending on the scope and skill of your team. (here is the big lift)
It might go like this in a technical care opportunity:
The customer is calling in with an issue with their internet outages/bandwidth now that they are homeschooling (this MIGHT be fresh in my mind). The customer care agent identifies they are using an outdated modem and begins to troubleshoot.
- The opportunity here may be a new modem, new wireless router, router booster pods, increased bandwidth, higher package (e.g. a business package), or even bundling better internet service with phone, cable, etc.
- The caller in this B2C model is likely a user and a buyer for their home and may be in need personally for better service as well as know the frustration of their kids glitching during video calls.
- Care agent asks questions like:
- “Tell me about how your household is using the bandwidth. Has this increased lately?”
- “How important is uninterrupted service and bandwidth? Do you see this need and priority continuing?”
- “Are there certain rooms in your home that are better or worse than others?”
- Care agent introduces a value-add service like this:
- “We are going to get your modem fixed today, but you might also benefit from some additional bandwidth and even our new router pods. Are you familiar with these?”
- Care agent begins to educate and sell or passes to sales like this:
- “Well, your current bandwidth is great for occasional work at home, but I see you now have 10 devices hitting your service, and I think you just need more juice. This should dramatically improve everyone’s experience. And the network pods help keep service in those dead corners in your home. At mine, it’s the kitchen. It’s simply too far away with too many walls between it and the router in the office.”
OR
- “For many of my customers this makes all the difference. May I suggest that we bring my team member on the line to walk you through these options before we fix your modem? You may not need or want the fix at that stage.”
Seems simple right? Be clear, I still don’t understand why my son just lost connectivity during virtual band (VIRTUAL BAND!?!), but I did buy more bandwidth, a new modem and router and these pod deals in the past month, and I was infinitely grateful that my care agent suggested them.
Does this seem like a big lift for your care agents? Try the workaround where you stop at #2 and the care agent enters a potential opportunity for sales to call back. CRM says:
“Customer has frequent outages, modem fixed, may need more bandwidth or pods.”
Now our job as sales leaders is to work with the sales team. At this stage, a call to an internet customer who just spent an hour with tech support could go either way, right? See which scenario you’d appreciate as a home internet user:
- Salesperson: “I understand you are in the market for increased bandwidth services, our premiere package is an additional $50 / month.”
- Salesperson: “I’m calling to make sure the service you got last week on your modem has fixed the problem. Any more call drops? Dead areas? Now they start back at #3.
This is how you maximize every touch. Remember, making suggestions to clients is true selling. It’s how we become that trusted adviser and consultative seller. Unfortunately, our sellers have less and less opportunity to be in front of customers to identify opportunities to do so. Read more about customer touches in my blog on the 3 questions customer care agents should be asking to help generate revenue.
Not all your care agents will get it, excel at it, or even like it. Part of the training we like to provide here is a mindset shift. Solving problems is their job, your products and services solve their problems. The “Did you know we also?” conversation goes a long way and in our experience, they’ll get a few bites a day.
How many care agents do you have that could be funneling a few leads/day to your sales team?
Bonus: The agents that DO get it are a great hiring pool for your next sales position!
Ready to train your customer service agents to sell? We’ve got you covered.
Fill out the form below to learn more.
3 Questions Customer Service Agents Should Be Asking to Generate Revenue
In the past few years, the number of touches required to make a sale has more than doubled. In 2017 the number was under 4, and in 2020 we talk about 8+ touches. This is hardly a surprise to any sales, marketing, or customer success team. It’s also why top executives strive to maximize every customer touch.
What do we mean by maximizing a touch? Simply put, it means getting as much valuable information and opportunity from the customer every time we talk AND adding as much value as possible at the same time. What if every person that interacted with your customer could help mine more information, plant seeds for more opportunity, or even (allow a girl to dream) identify sales opportunities and seamlessly pass them or (gasp!) work them to a certain level? In short, the dream is that all sales leaders could consider their customer care and customer success teams as extensions of the sales team.
Seems logical and simple in theory, until you consider that these orgs often roll up to owners outside of sales, may have different systems, leaders, goals and KPIs. They also have widely varying hiring profiles. An inbound customer care agent performs well with a reactive personality, a high ability to multitask, patience, and a core need to help. Now let’s weave in the customer experience on top of this. A customer care or customer success team is goaled with solving customer problems, answering questions, and ensuring they are engaged and thrilled with their experience with our products, people, and services. And here-in lies the rub.
In fact, I’ve spoken with many Customer Success Leaders who adamantly refuse to include any type of sales objectives or goals for their teams in fear it would negatively impact the customer experience.
I hear you. I just don’t agree. When we have a live body from our customer pool engaged on a call with us, we just saved 8 calls. Let’s maximize it. Let’s also remember the incredible value of referral business. It closes faster, has higher annual spend, and retains longer.
Fun fact: Referred customers have a 16% higher lifetime value & an 18% lower churn rate.
What if our customer care teams could help us leverage into additional referred sales?
Think I’m dreaming again? Perhaps. So let’s focus on an easy place to start:
Three questions every customer service, customer care, or customer success agent should ask on calls to help them become an extension of your sales team.
1. Tell me about how you’re using the product / service?
This question uncovers opportunities. It’s the question we all wish our actual sales account managers asked more often. When we know the problem our solution solves for the customer, we can identify what other solutions, add-ons, services, etc., can also help. The goal is to find the use-case AND any gaps. Want to take it to the next level? Conduct internal product training for customer care agents and map common answers to potential solution fits. For example: A customer uses your service to bridge a gap between two departments. We know that our new software offering does the same for different departments. You’ve just uncovered an opportunity. The final dot on the “i” includes a few follow-up questions for your agents. In this example we’d ask, what departments had the gap? How did it come to happen? What other departments experience this? Is it 100% solved? Great sales-focused product training helps map our products and services to the customer situation that needs them and then maps questions to uncover those situations. The Factor 8 course, “Mapping Solutions To Customer Needs” is an uber-popular custom course we’ve built for companies in many industries to help build these bridges.
2. Talk to me about growth or other strategic plans for this group?
Again, adding licenses and services is a common goal for any customer success agent. We won’t know about opportunities if we aren’t asking about changes in the business – especially growth. Rather than letting your rep make 8 calls to ask a sales-focused question (a “me” question”), why not get the information from your customer care or customer success team. Much easier to weave this into a conversation about product-fit and satisfaction while we already have them on the phone!
3. What is your favorite part of working with ABC company / service?
Not only does this rake in great testimonials and candidates for case studies, it leads to conversations about how we can make the experience even better. A smart question for the care goals, and even better for sales and product teams. At Factor 8, we use this information to help us build our curriculum development roadmap (I wish you had a class on “Having Difficult Conversations” helped us prioritize this webinar and e-learning content development). Learning that clients wanted to keep the “buzz” we created alive longer helped us add more consulting services and tools to help managers get more involved in coaching. This is the true “voice of the customer” for product and sales teams and when customer care agents know about add-on services and sales, at least 1 out of 10 conversations will uncover an actual opportunity nugget for something you already do.
Great feedback on clients’ favorite parts of their experience with you is also the fuel you need to “Leverage the Rave” to ask for referrals. Even if your customer care agents aren’t prepared to execute this skill yet, a great nugget is a perfect reason for an account executive to call, learn more, and ask for a referral to another internal or external buyer.
Want to learn more about training your agents to ask for referrals? We have a class for that in the Sales Bar. Just ask us about it here.
Not sure how to execute from here? A simple answer is a monthly touch point between sales and customer care where they bring answers and trends to these top 3 questions to help us pass the lead, queue up referral calls, and even brainstorm add-on products and services.
BONUS: It’s also a great way to find superstars in these organizations you’ll want to earmark for future sales openings.
Ready to train your customer service agents to sell? We’ve got you covered.
Fill out the form below to learn more.
Virtual Selling Tips [Webinar Recording]
Virtual Selling Tips
[Webinar Recording]
20 Reasons to Call Your Customers Now
Whether you’re an experienced virtual seller or just getting your “inside legs” after transitioning from face-to-face field selling, we all need more reasons to call our customers. This is because we don’t get to “bump into” customers in the hallways and because we tend to get less accomplished in sales phone calls (See this blog here on call goals).
So why do we need a reason to call? Because “touching base” is a mortal sin. Wait, too much? Nope, seriously not overstating that. Never ever, ever just call to check in. Your prospect’s time is valuable, and if you’ve nothing better to do than check in, don’t call at all. (You’ll notice I’m interchanging customer and prospect in this article. Treat them the same.)
And why do we need multiple calls? Because we’re fighting “out of sight, out of mind,” and because we have our own goals to accomplish. We may not have gotten all the information we needed in our previous calls, or we may just be trying to avoid the dreaded “gone dark” that happens more in virtual selling than face to face. Your goals for calling back are to get more information, get a status update, or just stay top of mind, but unfortunately, those aren’t great prospect-facing reasons to call. Doubt me? Try leaving a message like this and see if you get a call back:
“I’m just calling to get a status update and check in. Call me back…”
You’ll be waiting a long time.
So the goal instead is to call with a customer-value-add reason and then accomplish your goals. That brings us back to the topic at hand.