The following is a true story. For starters, I like to answer my own phone for the purpose of studying the phone and sales skills of the person who is calling me. About three weeks ago, I received two calls from the same, large financial newspaper and both people were trying to sell me subscriptions over the phone. We'll call this paper the DUM Daily Paper.
The first rep, calls in and I pickup the phone and I say, "This is Ron La Vine with Accelerated Sales Results Sales Training, how may I help you?" Without even listening to what I said he starts out with is "Mr. Levine there?" After mispronouncing my name by not listening to what I said, I immediately know I'm in for the old smile and dial boiler room call.
After I corrected him by explaining it is pronounced La Vine, the telemarketer launched right into what he had to say. He began explaining to me that he was calling on behalf of DUM Daily and he had a beauty of his offer and I should buy it right now without delay.
I didn't get a chance to mention I was in the middle of writing up an Agreement. Without any thought or respect of my time, he shot himself in the foot (a.k.a. burned the bridge) and earned the phrase telemarketers want to avoid the most, those magic five words "Take Me Off Your List."
In theory, when calling business to consumer, the business calling you is supposed to remove your name from their calling list and move it onto their Do Not Call List or they can be sued in small claims court. In practice, this doesn't happen often. Ron, what's the point? Hang on, I'm getting there, it's a story remember.
Okay, onward and upwards. The second guy who calls form the same company (so much for do not call lists) is a little smarter and manages to catch at a time when I'm feeling a little more generous with my time. He used a different tactic.
The phone rings and I answer, "This is Ron La Vine with Accelerated Sales Results Sales Training, how may I help you?" I said. He listens and replies "Hello. Mr La Vine, this is Fred Smith and I'm with the DUM Daily Paper. Mr. La Vine, with your permission I'd like to send you a two week free trial subscription to our financial newspaper." Would that be okay with you?" That's all he said. No laundry list of features and no other details including price.
So far he is doing okay. He still did not ask if I was busy, however I let him continue since he sounded more professional than the first guy did. Hmmm, I'm thinking, free, okay what's it really going to cost me so I ask. He replies nothing at all except that he would like my permission to call me back in two weeks to find out what I thought of the free trial subscription. He's using that "free" word again only this time he has already explained that he means it. Two weeks free with no strings attached. Oh boy, nothing to buy. "Go ahead and send it." I said. He verifies my address and we are off the phone in about two minutes. Very efficient. However he forgot to set up a time and date specific action step at the end of the call.
Two weeks go by and he calls me during a very hectic day. "Hi Mr. La Vine, its Fred Smith again with the DUM Daily Paper, what did you think about your free trial subscription?" This time I have no patience however I did enjoy reading the paper and was thinking about replacing my current newspaper with a more business oriented paper. So I suggested we set up an appointment for the following Thursday at 10:30am PST and I put it into my e-calendar. Even though I was really busy, before I got off the phone I quickly asked him how much was a subscription. Now at this point he had two choices (well three actually, he could have hung up on me).
Door number one, start getting excited because I was asking about price (a sure buying sign) and start telling me about the different options. He immediately rattled off..."two years for only $364, one year for $219 or six months for $121. The second he said only $364, I missed the rest of what he said and my mind went straight to "$364 that's a lot of money for a newspaper considering I'm paying about $70 a year for my current paper". He forgot to break it down to "that comes down to just under 82 cents an issue which means you'll save over 52 percent. Also there was no mention of benefits of receiving my regular newspaper. He jumped too soon at the bait. Oops.
Door number two and the lesson of this article may have gone something like this. "You know Mr. La Vine, you did say you were quite busy, and we have an appointment set up for next Thursday at 10:30. Why don't we discuss it then when I'll be able to go through each option with you to determine what best fits your budget?"
In the past, I've found one of two events occur. Either the person stops and takes the time to speak with you since you have piqued their curiosity or two they opt for the details during the phone appointment. I was once on the phone with a prospect preparing to qualify him for some software I was teaching people how to sell. Right off the bat I asked him, "Is this a good time to speak?" He replied "I'm rather busy, what do you want?"
"If it is okay with you, why don't I call you back at a better time when you have a few minutes" I replied. "No, tell me what you need." he said. I came back with, "You know you said you were rather busy and I know your time is valuable. I would need at least the next five minutes of your attention, so maybe it would be better if I called at another time. Is there a better time to reach you?" I asked. Low and behold, he stopped and took the time to really listen and we spoke for about twenty minutes.
The moral, don't speak to people who don't want to speak with you, they will not be paying attention to what you have to say. You will have wasted both their time and yours. And, you may burn a bridge you need to cross later to make a sale. Always remember that a professional salesperson knows the value of the other person's time as well as their own and has a great deal of respect for that time especially when speaking with a C-level executive.
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Ron La Vine, MBA is president and founder of Accelerated Sales Results, Inc., a sales training firm located in Oak Park, CA. You can get a special report “41 sales Tips You Can Use Right Now” AND the free bimonthly Sales Tips for Selling Success eZine all by signing up at http://www.Accelerated-sales-results.com. If you would like information on Live Cold Calling Sales Training please call Ron at 818-991-6487 PST. © 2005 by Accelerated Sales Results, Inc.
