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Sample Appointment Setting Script was Super Successful

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Here is a sample appointment setting script that helped a salesperson go from 2/3 appointments a month to 10-15 a week….. more B2B prospects found by calling while increasing the size of the average sale and closing conversion rate.

Learn sales script structuring techniques that will help you craft your best ever phone script for appointment setting with top decision-makers.

Here is a sample sales script template that will help you do it.

Brief background: Salesperson calls me starting new job, starving for qualified leads and wants some sales script techniques and examples for b2b appointment setting. Wants to get off to a fast start but has no calling script examples for setting appointments. Within 2 weeks he is on fire with appointment setting, setting 10-15 appointments a week with his new favorite appointment setting scripts that work. Company owner is inviting him to baseball games in the corporate box. He starts to set appointments with companies he thought were beyond him.

Caution: This is only the first 30-second or so front end of a total appointment setting script path. It doesn’t give you insight into how he organized himself to have the conversations with the right people, and enough of them, to be successful with his new appointment setting scripts that work. It also doesn’t give you the script structures used to respond to sales objections that were used to turn “send me info,” “we are all set” and “call me back” into scheduled appointments. You need to have those ready along with your phone script for setting appointments.

Below is an example of an effective appointment setting script … then a brief analysis.

” Hi, this is ________ from Better Benefits Corporation.

We specialize in helping companies select and manage employee benefit plans.

Over 500 companies in the East Wazoo area work with us to control their health insurance costs without reducing core benefits.

Our proprietary data analytics and predictive modeling tools have proven to reduce overall benefit costs.

We would like to introduce ourselves and relate the methods and strategies that others have found effective in controlling their benefit costs. I know you will learn some things and if you think of us in the future that would be great.

Would you have some time in the next week or two?”

Your first mistake…. Thinking that the above b2b appointment setting script structure wouldn’t work in your industry, with your prospects.

Wrong. This is a great sample of a cold calling appointment-setting script that works and a structure that gets consistent results across all industries over many years.

Notice….

1. This appointment setting script format is initially very direct. Don’t confuse direct with pushy. If a prospect has a need you can fill, you must tell them what you do, that you are credible and the benefits you deliver. Don’t let anything… anything… get in the way of your telemarketing script delivering that message.

How is a top-level person supposed to decide you are worth some time if your appointment setting script doesn’t give them some reasons?

The #1 reason why a conversation with a solid prospect doesn’t turn into a solid lead is that you did not communicate sufficient reason to meet. That is what excellent telemarketing scripts do. Turn a prospect into a lead by providing enough reason to meet.

2. There is clarity. No confusion. What they do, the benefits delivered and what they want is crystal clear… up front. Setting sales appointments scripts that work are crystal clear and value can be immediately grasped by your decision-maker. Appointment setting scripts that work will not let them ponder , question or think about what you mean for even a moment.

3. For an cold call appointment setting script to have a chance at success, you must promise them something AT THE MEETING that is worth their time. Remember, you are not selling your product or service at this point, you are selling a meeting. That’s it. Sell more meetings, you have a chance to make money. Sell no meetings or fewer meetings, you have NO CHANCE to make money. That business will go to a competitor.

Even if a prospect doesn’t think they will do business with you (and let’s face it, at this point, they are not) they should be thinking it would be worth it to meet with you, as they will learn something. Scripts for sales appointments that work don’t promise or allude to benefits way in the future (and they certainly don’t mention price or pricing.) Remember, your cold call appointment setting script must promise to deliver benefits AT THE SALES MEETING.

4. Tell them exactly what you want with your sales script… to meet, to introduce yourself, to share some valuable information.

5. Take the immediate pressure off. Tell them “if you think of us in the future, that would be great.”

6. Ask. Do you have any time in the next week or two?
You have a number of options when crafting an effective cold call appointment setting script…

…as to how you phrase your credibility and benefit statements. There are a number of ways to ask for the sales meeting at the end and to manage your phone script transitions.

Remember that your telemarketing script is only one part of a total b2b lead generation system.

Appointment setting scripts that work don’t help you if you are not talking to enough of the right people. Your script paths must also provide you a model response for repetitive scenarios, forms of resistance and objections. You also must have a good Plan B follow-up system and know how/when to integrate other marketing tools into your process for even greater cost-effective results.

Best wishes for crafting sales scripts that work.
Check out my book “7 Steps to Sales Scripts” on Amazon and the additional articles on this site,
Scott Channell

If Your Appointment Setting System Is Not Working, What Do You Do? 3 Core Reasons For Poor Results.

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What if you or your team are smiling, dialing, emailing, leaving messages, working hard and yet, too few sales appointments and discovery calls are being set. What do you do.

Let me share with you my 3 step process for getting an appointment setting program on track.

Three Core Reasons For Poor Results

1. The List:

You are not interacting with enough high-value/high-probability targets. Too much of your activity is directed toward low-value no-value lower-probability targets.

If you were shooting fish in a barrel, you would not only want that barrel to have plenty of fish but for the barrel to be drained and the fish lying on the bottom. Those are good odds.

If you are working hard and not getting results, one reason could be that you have stacked the odds against yourself by allocating too much time, often way too much time, to targets that are not as valuable to you as others.

You need to do two things. Tighten the profile of your bullseye targets so that your time is invested with records that provide you with the highest probability of success. Also, be ruthless about discarding or pushing records aside that are lower value or probability or that with which you have reached the point of diminishing returns for your efforts.

Top producers are best at allocating their time where it will do the most good. Do not be like the knuckleheads who work hard with little to show for it with thoughts such as “you never know,” “there are some good prospects in here,” or “I don’t want to miss one.” Idiots.

Work Probabilities, Not Possibilities.

Be willing to let go.

One of the quickest ways you can boost results is to make a concerted effort to stop calling all the low-probability records in your prospecting pipeline. Stop calling them immediately. That creates room for you to call fresh records that are more closely aligned with your bullseye best prospect profile.

You Want To JackHammer Into A Solid Vein Of Gold,
Not Thrash Around In The Manure Pile Looking For A Few Nuggets.

If you are working hard and not getting results, the most likely culprit is that you are calling a list that is weaker than it has to be. Reevaluate your profile. Tighten your target bullseye. Get more aggressive about letting go at the point of diminishing returns. Don’t try hard to rationalize a reason to keep investing time with a record. Let go.

Get to the point where you can say to yourself “I know this is the best list I can call with the time I have. I have done the research; I am using good list sources. I am highly confident that this is the very best place to be prospecting.”

In my day I wanted to feel very confident that 85% of my activity was being invested with records that I had confirmed or had a very high degree of confidence were the best records to call. As to the rest of the records, I would only spend so much time determining if they were worthy. If after a certain amount of effort I wasn’t sure of the potential value, buh-bye record, on to the next.

Records Being “Good Enough” To Call Isn’t Good Enough

It is not sufficient for the list you are actively calling to be “good enough.” If there are better records to call, higher value or higher probability, closer to your bullseye best prospect profile, you need to be calling them. Not the ones that are just okay.

Once you are confident that your list is the best it can be, look to the other 2 factors that may be dragging you down.

2. Your Process:

If you or your team are not getting decent results, it could also be that the call process you are working to earn a conversation with or reply from your decision-maker is lousy or non-existent.

You are trying to generate the most results by working a system of interaction — a system, pre-planned well thought series of interactions purposely chosen to provide you with the best chance to meet your business goals.

There is only one best call process for you to use to set the most discovery calls. There are not 4 best systems. The best way to achieve your goal does not change with every dial, the weather, or your mood and motivation. You don’t have to work the “3 cycles of 3” system I believe in, but you do need to work a system. Your “system” will be responsible for 80% or more of your results. If you don’t have a system, or you don’t work your system consistently, or are quick to abandon it, those are very good reasons why your results are poor.

There is an activity component to your system. If you are not making enough dials on the right schedule and leaving enough touches (voicemails or emails primarily) when you should, then your results will plummet. But be careful, increasing activity levels using a poor call process is not going to solve your problem. Keep in mind that the most productive appointment setters/discovery-call setters do not make the most dials. They don’t.

If you are not getting results and you are working in a reasonable range of activity, the problem is not your activity level, it is your process.

Sorting And Ranking

There is also a sorting and ranking component to your system. Your system should enable you to identify the highest value targets so that you can spend more time with them. Even more importantly, your system enables you to identify the lowest-value and no-value targets so that you will not spend any more time with them. Time spent rolling in the garbage pile looking for something good is time you can’t spend shooting fish in a barrel that has been drained.

If you are not getting results, be honest with yourself as to whether you have a decent system and whether you are working it properly. Time and time again I run into teams that retool and start generating a greatly increased number of discovery calls only to get a call a year later. “It doesn’t seem to be working anymore. We don’t know why?”

Often it turns out that the carefully thought out call process created and proven to provide the greatest chance of call success has been completely abandoned. Not enough calls are being made. They are not being made at the right times. The required number of touches are not being delivered. Qualification, sorting, ranking by value are not being done, so a tremendous amount of time is being wasted calling sludge.

If you or your team are not getting results, do you feel confident that you have documented an outreach process that gives you the very best chance of reaching your business prospecting goals? If not, tighten it up, massage it, upgrade it, then jump right back in.

If you have a process documented, is it being worked properly? Let’s face it. The good news about prospecting is that you can figure out what to do. The bad news is that then you have to do it, again and again, and again. Sales prospecting is repetitive work. Once you discover what works you must do it over and over.

Stop Thinking and Work Your Process

There are exceptions to every rule. Crazy things happen. We deal with human beings that at times will act illogically and outside our expectations. There is a lunatic fringe element contained in any group of people we prospect and any system we use.

However, you get a huge boost in results when you are consistent with your call process. Assuming you are laser targeted on the highest probability list, eighty percent or more of results will spill out of the consistent implementation of your core process. Less than 20% of results will be generated by exceptions to the rule, randomness, shit luck, serendipity, or the lunatic fringe.

There is a strong temptation to rationalize why on any individual call or with any individual record why you can vary from your core process. Fight this.

If you are not getting results, one of the main reasons is that your call/outreach process needs to be improved. Or, if you have a good process, a reason for lack of results is that you vary from your core process too frequently. If you are finding reasons to abandon your call process too frequently, you don’t really have a process, and results will plummet.

Even Variations From Your Process Are Part Of Your Process.

Even the variations in your system, the times you drive off the road and vary from your core process, is built into your process. When you choose to vary from your core process or cut it short, you do so for consistent objective reasons. You don’t vary from your process because you are bored, that you dread saying the same thing over and over, that you can’t bring yourself to leave one more voicemail that will not be answered. Your feelings of boredom and lack of motivation have nothing to do with what works. Nothing.

A Tale From The Cube

True story. I had a client who offered a unique environment service involving meters leaking mercury into natural gas fields. As a practical matter, only the top 50-100 oil companies were reasonable targets for this service. The contracts were worth millions if not tens of million dollars. Two good callers had tried yet failed to produce results. My calling days had long been over, but I offered to work the system to determine where the problem was.

So I was calling very top executives at very, very large companies. I worked the system and did the same thing over and over. I teach the stuff, and I was bored out of my mind. The same calls, the same corporate receptionists or phone trees, the same script routines, the same emails, the same roadblocks and rejections over and over. My tedium and boredom were occasionally rudely interrupted by a top dog that said “yes.” I ended up getting my client meetings within the top levels of major oil companies. The system worked.

The drudgery of doing the same thing over and over was brutal. The temptation to skip steps or rationalize why for this call, for this company, it was okay to cut the process short was very strong. But I would think back to my early calling days when I would keep saying to myself “just work the system.” When I was bored or began to doubt myself, I would “just work the system.” When the thought of leaving that same voicemail one more time would make me want to vomit, I would “just work the system.” Don’t think about the system; work the system. I would play all sorts of mental tricks to keep me focused and working the system as efficiently as possible.

There is a time to take a step back and think about what your process should be. Most of the time you should be working that system.

If you are not getting results, it could very well be that your process needs to be improved. Or more commonly, that you are not consistently working your system.

Once you conclude that you are hitting the right targets and that your process is solid and you are working your process well, there is only one other core reason why you are not booking enough discovery calls or first sales appointments.

3. Your Messaging

If you are confident you are reaching out to the right targets, confident that your process is solid and that you are working it consistently, there is only one other key reason why you are not generating results.

Your messaging is weak.
Your verbiage is watered down.
You sound like the other idiots who have called and wasted their time.
You are not giving them reasons to listen to you just a little bit longer.
You are not communicating value and credibility worth their time.

Your verbiage is not enabling those who recognize a need and will be writing a check to you or one of your competitors within 3-15 months, to conclude that you are worth their time.

Most commonly, you are pulling your punches. You have things you could be saying that would connote credibility, value, and representative results you deliver, but you are not saying those things.

It might be because of feeling that being direct is being “too salesy,” which is ridiculous.

It might be because you have some level of personal discomfort just laying your cards on the table and letting your prospect say “yes” or “no.”

You might be afraid to be rejected, so you do mental backflips and rationalize that if you are “nice” and “not pushy” that people will listen to you longer. Wrong.

If you are confident that you are calling the right targets and that your process for calling is solid, the only other core problem is that your message is not resonating.

So you have to punch up your messaging. Be more direct. Push more value and credibility to the beginning of your pitch. Eliminate every moment and every syllable that is not communicating credibility and value to someone who has a need you can fill.

You need to get over your mental crap about being pushy, being perceived as rude, or interrupting someone. Those are your issues, not your prospects.

By choosing to prospect by phone you have already decided to interrupt people, so you need to get over that. Having decided to interrupt busy people, how are you most respectful of their time?

Do you call them up and recite verbiage and let second after second slip by without providing them information sufficient to conclude that you are worth their time? Do you fill the time between “hello” and “ we are all set” with “I know you are busy,” ”won’t take much of your time,” “do you have a minute” and “I am not worthy?” If so, you deserve everything you get.

Or, are you most respectful of your suspect’s time, a suspect you have chosen to interrupt, with a clear, direct statement as to what you do, why you are credible, the benefits delivered, and what they would get if they spent more time with you?

It takes about 30 seconds to deliver such a statement. The 15%-18% of the people you speak to who have a need will “get it” and can conclude that you are worth more of their time. Maybe a bit longer on the phone, maybe at a face to face meeting, or on a discovery call.

Those who do not have a need can also “get it” and say goodbye. That is a successful call for you, and you have minimized the interruption of your suspects time with a clear, concise, direct statement of what you do, why you are credible, and what they might get if they spent more time with you.

Just lay your cards on the table crisply, clearly, and with impact using the verbiage that most impactfully communicates your message. Roll out the big guns.

You are always nice, you are always professional, but your messaging must communicate sufficient credibility and value to achieve your business objectives when you are speaking to a qualified prospect who recognizes a need on some level and will be writing a check to your or a competitor shortly.

Value Knocks Down Doors.

Punch up your scripts so that they are clear, concise, direct and powerfully communicate your credibility and value.

Focus On The Component Parts Of The Process That Lead To Results;
Don’t Focus On The Result.

Hang in here with me on this statement. When you wish to set more discovery calls and sales appointments, don’t focus on the result. Focus on improving specific parts of the process that lead to the result.

Your list.
Your process.
Your messaging.

If it is not working, do a deep dive into the component parts and each small step of your process. Focus on punching up the steps that will lead to the results you

7 Self-Sabotaging Sales Script Choices

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When you get decision-makers on the phone, are you interrupted, cut-off, hung up on or quickly hear “We are all set”, “Send me some info” or something else that represents phone frustration.

The truth is that many times YOU are the cause of those problems.

Yes, YOU!! You choose words and a script structure that actually causes the very problems that frustrate you and you wish to avoid.

During the past week I had the opportunity to review scripts for two clients. One was an on-site presentation, the other a telephone-coaching client. Both of them made common strategic errors with their choice of words. Let me share the highlights of my advice.

TOO LONG: You’re wondering why you get cut off? You are not getting to the point and communicating something they want. If your written script is 4, 5 or 6 minutes long, what are you thinking? You are causing the problems that frustrate you. Condense and communicate value and credibility clearly. Your initial pitch should be 30 seconds long. No more. You need to accomplish 5 things in those 30 seconds.

DON’T ASK QUESTIONS UP FRONT: It is a major strategic error in scripting to ask, “How are you?” or “Did I catch you at a bad time?” Why? They know you don’t care, you sound like all the rest that waste their time, and you already know they are probably busy… so don’t ask, give them information that makes you more important than what they are doing. When you ask questions like this you think you are being nice but you are actually cutting your own throat. You spend so much time dialing to get someone you have identified as a decision-maker, get to the value exchange. The value exchange will lead to success, convenience or comfort will not.

DON’T TRY TO QUALIFY THEM BEFORE YOU HAVE COMMITMENT: Big mistakes made up front in scripting are efforts to qualify in the wrong place. If you have carefully selected a pool of targets that closely resembles the accounts you wish to clone, and you have called to identify the decision-maker and probably in previous calls had the opportunity to re-confirm that your target handles XXX, why would you ask them – within seconds of hearing “Hello” – “Are you the person who handles XXX?”

When you do that you sound like all the rest, so by your own actions you have enabled your target to lump you in with all the other time wasters, you have given them control of the conversation, something you never want to do and …. you are not communicating value…, so such questions are a waste of words and significantly reduce conversion rates of conversations to appointments set. There are other ways to confirm decision-making authority before you hang-up.

“WE” IS OVERUSED: Listen, it is not about you. It is about them. Scripts that are laced throughout with “We this,” “We that” or “We want” are misguided as nobody cares about you. Your choice of words has to be about them. When communicating to a decision maker eliminate the “we’s” and use “YOU, YOU, YOU.” Talk about what they will get at the meeting, talk about benefits others have received. Re-craft your words to be oriented about THEM and the value they will get when meeting you.

ELIMINATE UNNECESSARY WORDS: Don’t say “The reason for my call is… the point of my call is” Just say it. If you are going to communicate 5 points in 30 seconds you need to rip out every unnecessary word.

DON’T DESTROY YOUR OWN CREDIBILITY: Don’t say things like “companies like yours will save $25,000 or more.” If I hadn’t heard of your company until 10 seconds ago and you have never interacted with my company, how can you say you will definitely do anything? When you say things like this the credibility meter plummets and the crap meter rises. You are better off to say, “70% of the companies we meet with are able to save $25,000 or more.”

DON’T TRY TO SELL YOUR PRODUCT OR SERVICE: The only thing you are trying to sell with that phone conversation is a meeting. The only thing you are trying to communicate is a value exchange so that your targets can conclude that it is worth his/her time to spend 30-60 minutes with you… even if they don’t buy, which of course, is what they are probably thinking. It is hard enough to sell that over the phone. Do not cross the line and start pitching the value of your product or service. It is way too early to do so and you will schedule far fewer appointments within qualified companies.

Sell the meeting and you get more opportunities to sell your product or service. Pitch your product or service too early and you get fewer appointments… fewer opportunities to sell.

There are many other common self-sabotaging script mistakes.

Best wishes for sales success,
Scott Channell

50 Shades of “Not Interested.” A Sales Rebuttal Objection Strategy.

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Funny story. Newbie in training relates a call in which the decision-maker replied “not interested.” Get this. The newbie actually thought that meant they were “not interested.” Hilarious.

Newbie reps, they are so innocent.

When your prospect says “not interested.” The least likely reality of this blow off is that your decision-maker is actually “not interested.”

If your objection handling response assumes that there is an element of truth present when you hear the “not interested” objection prospecting blow off, you are losing a lot of opportunities and future closes.

Here are some examples to deal with this common sales objection that work better than begging them to not hang-up.

The “Not Interested” sales objection: What is really going on?

First consideration: Your sales prospecting scripts invited that response. What you said and how you said it are the reasons why you hear this common sales objection over and over again.

Sad but true. If you are hearing the “not interested” sales objection too often and want to craft a more effective responses, the first place you need to look is your mirror. Why? The words you spoke prior to hearing the “I’m not interested” objection probably caused the sales objection blow off you now feel a need to overcome.

Your first step is not to focus on overcoming this sales objection blow-off, and most of the time it is a blow-off, not an actual statement of truth. Your first focus is within.

When you hear “not interested” as a sales objection, your decision-maker may actually by saying one of these things.

“I don’t understand what they do so “I’m not interested.””
“Sounds like another dime a dozen service provider requesting a demo and not worth my time, even though I need what they offer so “I’m not interested.””
“This person sounds like the other idiot sales reps who call me and waste my time with a weak sales message so “I’m not interested.””
“I need this but I’m going to select the salespeople I talk to so “I’m not interested.””

Your sales objection and rebuttal script strategy in overcoming the “I’m not interested” objection starts before your prospects even say it.

How to overcome the “not interested” sales objection and “say something” syndrome.

Second consideration: Human compulsion to fill silence in conversation with something. When calling, blather will do.

When it comes to cold calling many inside sales teams suffer from neurological auto verbiage impulse compulsion. When callers don’t know what to say they say something anyway.

When precision crafting your “not interested” sales rebuttal better salespeople appreciate that many times “not interested” is the equivalent of “I don’t get it,” “I’m buying but this person isn’t worth my time,” “I’m buying but this company sounds pretty run of the mill, I’ll pick someone more credible,” “We are making this decision sometime in the future, not now,” or “I need more time to grasp what is being said.”

It is key that your response assume that what was expressed was not literally true. It is not because “buyers are liars.” It would be convenient for us if that was true because we then would not have to accept responsibility for causing that objection by our confusing, bland, non-credible, benefit-light sales scripts. But buyers are not liars. They may not understand what we offer, get our value, why we are more worthy than the rest or how they will benefit from meeting with us. That is on us, not them.

So your sales objection handling strategy for the “not interested” blow-off starts by understanding that when you hear “I’m not interested” what is really going on is…

1. They don’t understand what you do.
2. They need more time to grasp what you are saying.
3. They don’t think you are worth their time even though they have a need.
4. They will have a need in the future but don’t see the value in meeting now.
5. They will have a need in the future but don’t feel it is worth mentioning to you.
6. They have a need but have already or will pick their own providers to speak to. You don’t seem worthy.
7. They have no need now or in the future.

The least likely reality is #7.

The Worst Response to the “I’m not interested” Sales Objection Assumes it is True.

Third consideration: You need techniques to double-check what the potential customer is really thinking .

So, if you don’t know what the decision maker really means( frankly, most of the time the decision-maker doesn’t know what they mean or is still processing what you said) you have to give them more time to process what you say and reinforce the clarity of what you do, your credibility and value, and what they will get if they commit to a next step with you.

So your objection handling response to “not interested” assumes that what you are hearing is not literally true and gives the decision-maker more time to process what is being said and absorb what’s in it for them.

Your rebuttal to “not interested” must restate and reinforce what you do, your credibility, your benefits and specifically what they will get if they spend more time with you. [Shameless plug: Sample rebuttal scripts and examples can be found in my books available on Amazon.]

If their response is still something other than “yes,” you need to do one more thing. Check for future business needs.

Remember, when you hear the “I’m not interested” sales objection one of the more probable things it really means is “We will have a need in the near future, but not now.”

In my world most of my training and coaching clients sell longer sales cycle offerings. Their sales process acknowledge and reflects that reality. It is far more likely they interact with a decision-maker at a time when they are not in active buying mode. Many of those decision-makers will buy within the next 6 – 18 months. They will buy from a competitor if you are not there.

When you hear the “not interested” objection they may really be saying “not now.” So you have to enable them to tell you how to sell them.

So after starting with your impactful benefit and credibility laden “set the appointment” pitch,” and responding to the “I’m not interested” objection by repeating and reinforcing what you do, your credibility, the benefits clients get from you and what they will learn at a meeting… end with this.

“Not an issue, don’t want to be on your back, but obviously we do a lot of this. Could you suggest a time for me to be back in touch with you?” Then say nothing. Nothing.

You will be surprised at how many times after hearing the “I’m not interested” objection and hearing it again delivering your response, that you hear “Call me in two weeks, call me in a month or call me in 3 months.”

Your simple response when you do. “Happy to do that, is there a particular reason why that is a good time to call?” Be quiet. They tell you. You promise to call, say thanks and then hang-up.

Your “not interested” decision-maker just turned into a qualified opportunity. Ka-ching.

The next time you hear “not interested,” be ready.

Coming Sales Shakeout: Will You Rise or Regret?

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If you own a company, or are a CEO or sales leader, this is a moment of truth.
What you do or don’t do NOW, will largely determine where your company or sales team sinks or swims during (and after) this recession.

What to do? What are the differences between companies that did not survive, survived weaker, and those that outperformed their competition in recession?
(There are links to studies and articles on this at end of this article)

We have been through this before:1980-82, 1990-91, 2000-02, 2007-09. Do you wish to be a company or sales organization that rises rather than regrets in this economic downturn? There are patterns among those that outpaced their competition during recessions. Some even achieved breakthrough performance.

Let me outline the best combination of moves based upon a comprehensive study of companies emerging from three recent recessions, and my own personal experiences and opinions.

But first, reality is startling. Seventeen percent of companies don’t survive a recession: They go bankrupt or get bought out. Three years after recession, 80% of the survivors had not regained prerecession growth rates for sales/profits. 40% of the survivors had yet to reach pre-downturn revenue/profit levels. Those are sobering conclusions of the HBR study. Yikes.

But, but, but, nine percent of companies significantly outperformed rivals after the slowdown.

Here are the key factors that will determine whether your company will rise or regret.
Let’s headline the keys then do a deeper dive on what this means for sales growth strategy.

  1. Improve sales and operational efficiency: Cutting costs does not equal increased efficiency. In fact, to improve efficiencies you may have to increase spend in certain areas.
  2. Secure the business you have now: Minimize your loss of current accounts. You will soon find out how strong your “relationships” are. Assume nothing. Interact in a meaningful way with current customers more frequently. If you don’t, prepare to pay a very steep price.
  3. Develop new markets: Customer needs and priorities will change. Be prepared to meet the new needs of potential ideal clients in new markets.
  4. Strengthen your infrastructure: Bargain prices for assets and improvements will abound. Invest strategically now and be able to respond faster/better to customer and ideal prospect needs than your non-investing rivals when sales start to rebound.
  5. Plug your gaps: Every sales organization has weaknesses. Identify them and be less weak.
  6. Leverage your efforts: You must get the most bang for your time and money. The 80/20 rule applies on steroids.
  7. Extreme clarity about target markets and target accounts: Most importantly, this means deciding (clearly and distinctly) what business you WILL NOT be seeking. For those of you soiling your pants now, this is a major reason why. Don’t repeat it.
  8. Do not be mumbling “woulda, coulda, shouda” three months from now: Imagine what you would have done the last twelve or eighteen months, the different situation you would be in now, if you could have predicted this disaster. Resolve now to not be saying “woulda, coulda, shouda” in three months as to the things you could be doing immediately.
  9. Get moving now: Want to know the biggest difference between those who survive or perish when faced with all types of disasters? Those most likely to survive act immediately. When faced with a “decisive moment” they get moving. Boom. Those most likely to perish sit, ponder, evaluate, wait to see what others do, and wait for a “better” time to do something.

Balance the need to cut costs with necessity to invest

Those most likely to sell more than competitors after a recession are realists. You need to survive if you wish to be around to outperform the competition. Cutting costs is necessary. But investments in some areas is also required if you wish to outperform competitors and pick up new clients and market share that simply would not be possible in normal times.

Improving sales efficiencies is best way to cut cost of new client acquisition

Those that are most likely to outperform focus on improving sales and marketing efficiency rather than across the board cuts. That might mean reducing head count and other expenses, but the end goal is to be more sales efficient. To generate a lead and convert that lead at less cost than you did before. In order to increase sales efficiency, you will cut some costs, but you also might have to invest some time and money to make your sales process more efficient.

Indiscriminate cuts in sales expenses or layoffs may cut costs faster but your ability to compete short-term and when the recovery begins can be crippled. Focus on cuts that reduce your costs of sale long-term. When the recovery begins you will be able to sell more, sell faster, and at less cost per sale. You focused on improving sales efficiency.

Invest to survive and better meet new client needs when demand returns

This might be the best time to invest in your sales process or infrastructure. Reality is that a lot of things that would help you be competitive are going to cost less for a while. There could be a lot of “good deals” on things that would help you meet future demand.

This is also the time to invest in new markets. Major client dislocation is happening now and will escalate as ideal potential clients have new needs and are open to those that can best meet them. There will be fewer competitors and many that survive will be weaker. Ideal prospects are going to have new needs based upon whatever is the new normal.

If you have had your eye on a new market, this could very well be the time to make a bold move

What is your right balance between achieving sales efficiencies and investing in new sales assets/infrastructure and/or new markets?

You need to answer that question. Right now.

9 Keys to outperform your rivals in recession

Let’s expand a bit on the points above. The concepts of improving operating efficiencies, moving into new markets and investing in new assets come from the HBR article I cite below. There are other links to articles I recommend you read.

  1. Improve sales efficiency

Focus on cutting some selling costs but also possibly make investments in some areas with the goal of permanently reducing costs of acquiring a qualified lead and converting it to a new account. Focus on improving sales productivity and effectiveness. Selling more faster and at less cost.

  1. Secure the business you have now.

Assume nothing. If you are a weaker competitor your rivals are going to do everything possible to better meet the new needs of your clients. They will try to rip your clients from your cold clutching hands. Head that off at the pass by doubling or tripling your communication with accounts. Be helpful. Be genuine. Be of service. Secure your current relationships at all costs. Those costs will pale compared to what it will take to get a new account for the next few years. When in doubt do more.

  1. Develop new markets

This seems a contrarian thought when so many are worried about survival. But if ever there was a time to be bold this is it. Clients are going to have new needs and be open to better options. Their current providers may be bankrupt or just hanging on and unable to meet their needs.

  1. Strengthen your infrastructure

You need stuff to sell more and more efficiently. Information, data, expertise, scripting, process, tools, training systems. Things you put off before due to cost may very well be available for far less now. To improve prospecting and sales productivity this may be the time to invest in assets, infrastructure, guidance to improve your systems and competitive advantage.

  1. Plug your sales gaps

Let’s face it. Pretty much every sales team has weak spots. Weak spots that were not a priority when the economy was healthy. Maybe your sales database crm is bloated with thousands of outdated low probability leads, maybe your script paths were weak, your reps were varying from plan and winging it too much, your proposal and sales conversions were lower than they could have been. Maybe you had some marginal performing cream-skimming non-creators of sales demand and revenue growth that you tolerated.

Gaps must get plugged right now. Marginal performers? Nice knowing you. Bloated databases filled with outdated lousy leads? Gone in a keystroke. Reps winging it on your dime? No more tolerance. Get moving.

  1. Leverage your efforts

There is no time. There is less money for most. You need to work the 80/20 rule on steroids right now. You must decide where to allocate time and money for best results with the same care that a surgeon decides to cut.

Not all actions are equal when it comes to your ability to survive and be able to outsell your competition. You won’t be able to do a lot of things, maybe most things, but you must absolutely do the things necessary to put you in the best position to outsell others when demand rises.

  1. Extreme clarity about target markets and ideal client targets

I can really sound like a jerk quick right here. Deciding who to target for best sales results in tough times also means clearly defining who you WILL NOT target.

When the economy was great the biggest reason sales teams would underperform (IMHO) was failure to laser focus on the highest-probability highest-value targets. Sales leadership was often content to let their sales teams work a database or leads that were the equivalent of a manure pile which contained a gold nugget or two, rather than jackhammer into a solid boulder of gold easily identified.

If you have any hopes of surviving this recession or having any chance of beating your rivals in the race for new clients that has already started, you must have absolute clarity on who to target, who not to target.

  1. Avoid “Woulda, coulda, shouda” Deja vu

Reality is that we probably didn’t do half of the things that we knew had to be done and should have been done to improve sales efficiency and productivity before the downturn. Many are holding their heads in their hands lamenting their woulda, coulda, should of’s.

Three months from now, six months from now, don’t be filled with sorrow and regret, and suffering the consequences of the things you could be doing right now, but never did.

  1. Get moving

If you are a business owner, CEO or leader of a sales team, you must get your organization moving in the right direction right now.

Think it is tough now? Wait a little while until your financially stronger or more strategic hustling rivals start peeling off your best accounts. Then you will be a real professor of pain.

This is a “decisive moment” in the life of your business or sales career. You must act now on the right strategic response and balance defensive (cost-cutting to survive) and offensive tactics (new investments, new markets) to emerge able to compete and quite possibly outperform competitors.

The study I cite found that over three recent recessions 17% of companies did not survive. Three years post-recession less than 10% had outperformed rivals to achieve breakthrough performance. The rest were struggling to get back to where they were.

Where are you going to end up?

Article that highighted some key points in this post and got me thinking about others.
Roaring Out of Recession

Other articles with surviving recession strategies
When A Recession Comes, Don’t Stop Advertising

How to Market In a Downturn

Sales Contrarian: Time for Biggest Goals Is Now. Don’t Settle for Survival.

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This is very contrarian given the times, but I really believe it.

If you are in business, this is the time to have the biggest goals of your life.

Why do I say that when so many are staring at disaster? Wondering if they will barely survive?

Because major disruption of client relationships is happening and will escalate.
You will never (hopefully) have an chance like this again.
To dislodge your competitors best clients/accounts.
To pick up market share by better meeting the needs of those looking for more value… and very willing to ditch current providers to get it.
To fill the void when a good number of your competitors go out of business.

Make a note of this.
The battle for new clients/accounts has already begun.
It does not start when the recovery begins. It has started now.

Many companies know that shortly there will be fewer competitors and a lot of weaker competitors. They are preparing now to pounce on those willing to change providers and those whose providers went out of business. They know some companies will have new needs/new priorities when the recovery begins and they plan on being there at the right time, with the right offering in front of the right client.

What used to be done in months or weeks, is right now getting done in weeks/days.

Companies are closing gaps in their systems, processes, capabilities right now in anticipation of having only a short window of opportunity to leapfrog the competition and pick up new accounts in numbers just not possible in normal times.

I guess you could wait…
Good things do come to those that wait.
But only the scraps leftover from those that took decisive action.

What woulda, coulda, shoulda things would you have done a year ago if you could have predicted this black swan event?

Those things need to get done right now. And you need to do those things and strategize with the 80/20 rule in mind. You need to leverage your time and resources for the greatest impact on results. The virus picks the time period, you don’t.

Let me tell you what the clients I am working with right now are NOT doing.
They are not rewriting their responses to objections or other matters trivial to meeting the challenge ahead.

They are laser focusing and executing on systems, processes, offerings, behaviors that will enable them to emerge from this mess stronger than they were before. That is the way I urge you to think.

Final word, these times are not an “opportunity” in the normal sense of the word. For those of us (including me) that have loved ones on the front lines caring for the sick and dying and stress about their safety every day, and know a lot of people who will be financially ruined, this is not a positive event in any way shape or form. Far from it.

But this crisis is a reality. These are the cards that have been dealt. We must deal with them.

Those that were financially weak before are toast. It would take extraordinary strategy, focus and execution for those weak before the crisis to survive. Unlikely.

Those that were strong before this in a financial, structural, talent and sales capabilities sense. They are positioned well to pick up your best clients and greater market share in this tsunami of change.

To all the firms that were in the middle of the pack, whether you survive, thrive, go under now or suffer a slow financial death will largely be determined by what you do now, in this decisive moment, not months from now.

Set big goals right now and take massive action on them.

Are you thinking woulda, coulda, shoulda about things you wish you had done in the last year or two?

Three months from now, don’t multiply the consequences of that by thinking woulda coulda, shoulda about what you could have done starting right now.

Common Causes of B2B Appointment Setting Failure

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A potential client asked, “What are some of the reasons that projects don’t work out?” Great question. Knowing what to avoid greatly increases the odds of success.

Here is my list of factors that can kill your improvement efforts for b2b appointment setting.

1. Define worthwhile prospects too broadly.

Everyone thinks, “that’s not me.” The odds are great that it is you.

In my early calling days, I never took a project unless a client would let me select the list. Never. They ALL said, “don’t worry about that, we have that covered.” They were always wrong.

Even today, when companies have a lot of legacy records that have not been maintained, or thousands of records in a database that has not been kept up, they think their data is OK. Wading through all that trying to find a few nuggets in the manure pile is a tremendous waste of time. Plus, paying people to slog through garbage and then expect solid results is ridiculous. Great way to demotivate your team that has a tough job to begin with.

Lesson: Know how to research a prospect profile to identify the most responsive list possible. If you have a lot of legacy records in your database, be quick to dump them. You will gain productivity and results when you do.

2. Freeze with inaction at even the most obvious must-do “no-brainer” steps

If a business owner or manager lacks confidence in making basic marketing and sales decisions, it kills progress. Even the most basic must-be-done decisions are put off, pondered and often put to a vote among the clueless.

The worst decision is often to do nothing. If you lack enough sales/marketing know-how to lead a change effort, you must work with someone who does. Then do what they recommend. If you don’t, you just fall further behind the competition.

3. Ask Those That Must Change Their Behaviors What to Do

Here is a truism for you. People resist change. Even when what they are doing is not working, has not worked for a long time, is ridiculously inefficient, and is wasting company resources and costing them opportunities.

I can guarantee you that those working the current underperforming system will resist and try to erect roadblocks to change.

I am all for and encourage collaboration, but don’t underestimate people’s resistance to change. People want to stay in their comfort zone, even when it is a disaster zone.

You must lead people in these situations.

4. Failure to inspect what you expect

When sales management is active reps will stick with sales behaviors most likely to work, even when they would be more comfortable with a different approach.

If sales management inspects what they expect, the behaviors that lead to more sales get implemented and improved on.

Sales management is not banging the table demanding more dials, more calls, more proposals, more meetings while you totally neglect to inspect and coach on the behaviors that lead to the sale.

The table bangers and “whip them harder” managers see top talent flee while the mediocre and less, that have fewer options, stay.

But managers that inspect and activelycoach on the behaviors that lead to sales, can lift the mediocre into the top tier of results.

5. Failure to do the basics well

If a sales team is executing the basics well, that suffices to beat about 90% of the competition. I really believe that.

Sometimes companies love their technologies, their big dollar investments in the newest “best” programs, and guess what they struggle. When it comes to building a solid foundation, the basics of prioritizing targets, communicating their value and credibility, or having a decent sales or prospecting process, their solid foundation is sand. Everything crumbles.

Pay attention to the basics first and let them take root. Most of the time, that is enough to get you where you want to go.

So in summary, you increase the odds of prospecting success when you avoid these mistakes:

1. Don’t cast your list net too wide. Create a proper profile and follow it where it leads you. Don’t assume you know. You don’t.

2. Make decisions. Know what you don’t know. If you don’t have enough comfort and understanding about sales and marketing to make decisions, find someone that does and do what they say.

3. Understand that people resist change. That those who have to be newly accountable and learn new behaviors will battle and resist as much as you let them.

4. Inspect what you expect. Inspect the behaviors that lead to sales as they are in progress. Be constructive and proactive about suggesting changes and making people accountable for improvement.

5. Execute the basics really well. No excuses. Don’t skip the boring basics so you can get right to the fancy and exciting stuff. Build your sales program on strong foundations, not sand.

“Send Me Some Information” Response Wimp Test.

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SAMPLE BEST RESPONSE TO THE ” JUST SEND ME SOME INFORMATION” SALES OBJECTION IS BELOW.

IF YOUR OBJECTION RESPONSE TO “SEND ME SOME INFO” IS OFTEN “UM, OK” YOU ARE AN OFFICIAL WIMP. Here is what you can do about it. 

On the list of top sales objections, this may be the most common one you will hear. Let me be blunt. If your rebuttal to “Just send your material” is “um OK”, you are an objection wimp, your sales job is at risk, and you are dooming yourself to lead generation and appointment setting frustration. You’re also wasting a lot of time and company resources.

We know that most of the time when someone says “Send me some information,” it is really a blow off. Rather than tell you to get lost, they mumble a request to send them some info (which 95% or more intend to throw away) and for them the brush off is complete, the prospecting call is over. The most common responses to this sales objection wastes a great opportunity for qualifying as to worth and interest and leads to wasted lead generation time and a lot of frustration.

The “Send me more information” response is more often a golden opportunity to qualify rather than something that needs to be overcome.

Your cold call results will increase greatly when you use this an opportunity to qualify and kick out the tire-kickers and worthless. The additional leads you can identify, without all the follow up calls, vault you forward faster. Your phone script response helps identify those that are a fit for you right away.

If you let the caller control your response to this objection, you lose. Because then you will have doomed yourself to calling back… calling back… banging your head against the wall and getting frustrated because these people who asked you to send your material (who you thought might be legitimately interested) don’t return your follow-up sales call after sales call. When, after 10 or 15 attempts, if you do get them back on the phone, that “interest” has almost always vaporized. They at best vaguely remember you. If they did get something you sent they haven’t read it or they can’t remember receiving it all. Almost always, the end of the road is a “No.” Given that background “Um, ok” isn’t the sales objection response given by a top producing sales rep. Our sales results can turn on getting this right.

Inside Sales Teams Let a Lot of Opportunities Slip Away If They Don’t Nail This.

If you get on this sales response treadmill, it is your own fault, not the fault of the people you are prospecting. Remember that your sales objective in prospecting is not just to set sales appointments, it is to re-shuffle the deck and sort your prospects in accordance with their potential value and worth. If you just say “ok” to the send-more-information sales objection blow-off, you have received no information of value to your prospecting efforts.

Not only that, the people who are legitimately high-potential, high-value prospects are not given the opportunity to identify themselves to you. Your response to the send me information objection must give those types of prospects the opportunity to identify themselves. Otherwise, you won’t know who they are and you won’t know who is worth more of your sales prospecting follow-up time. A prime opportunity to engage a qualified prospect and close more sales is wasted. Sales jobs can be lost due to this one

How can inside sales cold calling sales reps avoid this brush off?

The next time you get the send-more-information-objection blow-off, consider a sales objections script something like this: “You know, I don’t send out general information. The corporate literature I might send you is only going to tell you what I just told you. We are a 90 million dollar company that’s been in business 15 years supplying technology equipment like widgets and wadgets to companies such as United Intergalactic, Mega Corp and I B Sorry Corp. Let me ask you. Is there is some specific information that would be helpful to you, or if you happen to have a specific purchase coming up, I would be happy to put it together and send it out to you. Do you have anything specific in mind that I can help you with?”

And at that point… you do the most difficult thing a salesperson ever has to do when responding to a phone sales objection. You say nothing and wait for your prospect to speak. A great indicator of sales talent and the ability to close more sales is the ability to listen. Want to be recognized as top tier sales professional? Ditch the search for the latest greatest fresh sales strategy and just shut-up and listen more. Your sales process will thank you for it.

If he/she can’t come up with something specific, recognize that you have delivered your most powerful benefit laden credibility building opening value statement. If they don’t respond with something specific so that you can properly prioritize them, you can with confidence go right into plan B and cut that target loose. Buh-bye.

If prospects do come up with something specific, like “Well, … we are going to replace $500,000.00 worth of widgets in a month…” or “well, we are going to buy $1,200,000.00 worth of stuff next quarter. Why don’t you send me some info on x y or z?” You’ll now know you have “a live one.”  

Contrary to the knee-jerk inclinations of the great unwashed, don’t try to immediately overcome the sales objection or act like a trained seal, “Oh, I’d be happy to send some.” 

When your prospect response with something specific they want, you have to do three things or your pipeline will suffer.

First, you have to really listen, let them speak. Don’t interrupt.

2nd, when they are done, ask an open-ended qualifying question or two in order to clarify their request and allow them to give you more information about their needs. 

When a target has told you he/she has a specific need or purchase coming up, it is even more important that you land a meeting.

Your prepared, practiced and ready to deliver response to “send some info” just identified the one out of 10 that have a real need and are not guaranteed to waste your time. So do what you intended to do with the call: sell the meeting. And remember: the most frequent reason people don’t meet with you is that you don’t give them enough reason to meet with you and you don’t ask for a meeting. 

So #3 is to give them a reason to meet and ask.

“You know, I could put together a lot of info that would be useful to you...right off the top of my head I can think of three companies in your industry that we’ve helped to select and install what you seem to be looking for. I don’t know a lot of details about your company. But, you do have a few options to consider on this and there are a couple of things you want to avoid that could really cost you some money. Super Salesperson is our rep in your area and she has a lot of experience with this. If she had the opportunity to learn more specifics about your company, she could give you a lot of information that would be helpful to you and specific to your situation. It may or may not lead to a next step… either is fine. I could set up a meeting for you now. Would that be worth 30 minutes of your time?”

Your sales objection script paths must stay 100% focused on accomplishing business objective: selling a meeting or discovery call to an active buyer. 

Let’s look at what you have done with that send me some information sales objection response. You have given those companies that do have a specific need the opportunity to inform you of that need. And you have leveraged that information into a tremendous benefit that they will receive if they agree to meet with you. They will get specific information on their particular needs from someone who is very knowledgeable. That is usually a pretty good reason for people to meet with you.

The next time you hear “send me some information” remember that you have a choice. Be a wimp, just readily agree and doom yourself to wasting 90% of the time following up on this blow-off. Or, you can stiffen your spine a bit. You can refuse the invitation to waste 90% of your time on hope and the mere possibility that someone that requests information has a real need and intends to buy.

You should have a script path ready to identify those that are “real” and book the meeting now, while wasting not one more minute on those that are blowing you off. 

Best wishes for prospecting success,
Scott Channell

Top 10 Phone Scripts Mistakes to Avoid

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It takes a lot of effort, monotony and frustration to get an active buyer on the phone. Someone who is going to write a check to your or a competitor. A competitor for sure if you are not there.

So at the moment of truth when you hear “Hello” and an active buyer will decide whether you are worth listening to in mere moments…. are you and your team ready to maximize opportunities? Or, after all your hard work will you hear “we are all set.”

“We are all set” is code for “we are going to write a check to someone, but this person doesn’t seem worth the time compared to my other choices, so I’ll just say “all set” and be rid of them.”

This article is about how to avoid 10 common sales prospecting script mistakes that grab defeat from the hands of victory.

Ten Common Strategic Scripting Errors That Let Active Buyers and Great New Account Opportunities Slip Right Through Your Fingers.

10. Failure to have a strategic response to common objections.

When you hear “send some info.” “we are all set” or “call me back,” do you meekly say “OK?” Or, do you have a strategic response ready that separates the qualified prospects from the tire-kickers and can get you a meeting now rather than later?

9. You don’t communicate value.

If you continually get interrupted, shut-off or turned down, you are not communicating value. You are the issue, not the people you call.

8. You think scripts are the key to prospecting success.

Wrong. Great scripts only help you if you are having conversations with the right people and enough of them. It is your system of organized calling and touches (you do have a system?) that consistently delivers you those conversations.

7. Failure to eliminate extra unnecessary words.

Get to the point. Seconds matter on the phone.

6. Failure to communicate credibility.

What experience or results have you achieved that makes you worth listening to?

4. Failure to communicate specific benefits.

You’re great. Provide great service. Nobody is listening. Jolt them alive by relating specific significant benefits you deliver.

3. You give your decision-maker control over the conversation.

Lay the proper foundation for the business result you seek to achieve before you start to speak.

2. Failure to communicate as a peer.

Don’t present yourself as the unworthy begging salesperson. You have value to present. You are just as important as they are. Act like it. Be confident.

1. Failure to write it down.

Prepare for common phone scenarios by writing down the best words to use to accomplish your business objective. Do you “make it up” or “wing-it” every time? You are leaving a lot of money on the table.

BONUS MISTAKE. You try to sell your product or service rather than the meeting.

Big difference between the two. Sell your service, no meeting. Sell the meeting, you have a shot at selling your service. Understand the difference in approach.

Best wishes for sales prospecting success,
Scott Channell

Worst Sales Script Phrases to Set Discovery Calls/Sales Appointments

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When it comes to scheduling more discovery calls with high-probability buyers, there are a lot of people working very hard and shooting themselves in the foot.

It is unfortunate (ridiculous, actually) that someone would invest the time to dial, dial, call, voicemail and email. Then when a potential client who would love to hear about new options, work with a better vendor or solve a problem they have picks up the phone, at the moment of truth, the salesperson chooses words that CHASE THEM AWAY. Rather than choose words that enable them to conclude that more time with the caller or the caller’s company would be worthwhile.

Here is a laundry list of phrases that you should ban from your “set the discovery call” script.

That is, what you should not say when that qualified high-level decision maker you have identified picks up the phone, and you have less than few seconds to enable them to conclude that you are worth more time and ask them to meet.

In the end, I will share the two big misconceptions that drive salespeople to use phrases that chase great prospects away and four things that SDR’s get wrong about setting discovery calls.

How are you?
How is your day going?

You have seconds to communicate what you do, your credibility, how you help and what you want. In the most important first three seconds, you choose to communicate none of that?

Did I catch you at a bad time

Is this a good time to talk…

Do you have a few minutes…

Do you have a moment to answer a quick question about …

We can assume that people who can authorize big checks are busy. In fact, don’t we hear over and over again that “everyone is busy” and “no one has time?” So why waste precious seconds with a question you know the answer to? It makes you look like all the other knucklehead time-wasters that don’t get to the point, and turn control of the conversation to your prospect to boot? Makes no sense.

If your thought is that you are “nice” or respectful to the person you have interrupted, you are wrong. You have already decided to interrupt them. Respect them by saying something that would help them decide if you are worth more time.

I know you are busy, I’ll be brief

You “know” nothing. You sound just like many time-wasters that call me so why should I keep listening. And you are not brief by wasting seconds with verbiage that does not help me at all.

Just want to ask a quick question. Giving you a quick call to…

The reason I called is …

The reason for the call today is

Get to the point. Just say it. This drivel is not providing information helpful to your suspect. Precious seconds are wasted. Tick tock tick tock.

We help companies just like yours

You know nothing about us. The lies are starting already. If that is true, relate specifics so that they conclude that on their own. It is immediately discounted 100% and throws you in the same trash can with the other time-wasters. Particularly unfortunate when that statement is true. You turn off the prospect before you can get there.

Asking a question in your initial pitch, any question.

How are you handling that?

Would you like to save money?

If I could wave a magic wand, what is the one thing…

This will not go over well with the herd, but it is a strategic blunder for you to ask a question, or heaven forbid, multiple questions, during your initial 30-second or less set the discovery call pitch. When seeking to set a discovery call with a qualified prospect the only question, you ask initially is “would you have some time in the next week or two?” That is the only question at this point.

Your goal is to set up a meeting. Everything you say must relate to that goal. When you ask a question, they are now in charge. They rarely have the same goal as you at this point.

You must lay a solid foundation of clearly communicating what you do, your credibility, the value delivered and what you want. You must do that without exception first.

Asking questions derails that objective and puts them in charge. Once they get what you do and why you might be worth their time and what you want, then you have the option of maybe asking some questions, not until.

Are you the person in charge of …

Are you the person that handles X

Or worse…. I spoke to so and so who told me you were the person in charge of X. Is that true?

Most of the time you are calling someone that you feel is the decision-maker. Why waste precious seconds confirming something you already know. In the few cases where you are wrong, if you are clearly communicating what you do, the person you are speaking to will recognize that and redirect you. 95% of the time those are wasted words, and you are providing no info of value to your suspect in the most crucial first few seconds.

We provide the best, most affordable, unique, leading widget services

Stay away from any hype words. As prospects don’t know you, any hype words you use are immediately discounted 99%. Initially, Stick to fact-based statements they will not immediately discount.

I this, I that, I want, I, I, I.

Nobody cares about you. Rip out every “I” or “we” you can from your scripts. Rephrase to a “you” perspective.

We want to get to know your business and see how we can help you.

What we would like to do is…

What we would like to do is meet with you and see what kind of value we can provide …

Nobody cares.

Looking to find 15 minutes to meet, discuss,

Among the most common example of sales prospecting malpractice, shoot yourself in the foot, steal defeat from the jaws of victory in discovery call setting land.

If you are saying this, you need to work on your self-esteem. If you are not worth their time the fact you will waste only 15 minutes is not a benefit. If you are a worthwhile credible, trusted advisor who can deliver desired outcomes to me or my organization and has valued information to share that is helpful for us to hear, why are you worth only 15 minutes? It must be because you are not worth it. Bye.

You diminish your value in the eyes of your best prospects when you drivel out this phrase.

If top people have an issue with time, they will ask

Four reasons why these worthless phrases are used.

  1. Callers think they can out-nice the competition.

Don’t get me wrong. You are always professional and courteous in your communication, never rude, never pressuring. But you make a mistake confusing being direct with being rude, too-salesy (don’t get me going) or pushy.  You think that if you are super nice, nicer and more considerate than the rest, that it will win you some points. It won’t.

You win points among BUYERS with a well prepared pithy pitch professionally delivered that enables a busy decision-maker to decide if you are worth more time.

  1. Callers fear annoying someone, so they do verbal backflips not to offend.

Here is a bulletin. You have already decided to interrupt them. The same verbiage that will be welcomed by those most likely to buy, those that recognize a need and understand what you do, your credibility and value you deliver, will be rejected by those with no needs or happy with their situations.

Adding verbiage that communicates no helpful information at all to BUYERS, so that you can have more comfortable conversations with those who will not be receptive to your message is not helping you. In fact, your effort to “not annoy” is increasing the annoyance you create.

In the same amount of time, you spend groveling and apologizing, beating around the bush and trying not to annoy you could say something worthwhile. So that those you speak to can “get it” and say “yes” or “no.” That is being respectful to your prospects.

  1. You are not trying to set a discovery call with everyone you speak.

You should be focused on those you speak to who are BUYERS. A buyer is someone who if they heard the right things would write a check or change vendors.

Not everyone you speak to is a buyer.  Only a small percentage might be. Stay focused on choosing words and phrases that would enable BUYERS to conclude you are worth more time. FORGET THE REST.

When you water down your verbiage or delay getting to the point to have a more comfortable conversation with those that will not meet or buy, you are diluting your message to the buyers. You, with the verbiage and behaviors you choose, have chosen to deliver a weaker watered down message to BUYERS, in the hopes that non-buyers might be less annoyed. Makes no sense.

  1. It is not your responsibility to convince anyone of anything

Relieve yourself of the burden of thinking you have to set a meeting with everyone you speak to. That is the wrong mindset. It is your job to work a total system so that you bump into more qualified prospects at the right time. And when you do bump into them, you deliver the words they need to hear to conclude you are worth more of their time. Some will, some won’t. Next.

Hope these phrases and comments challenge your thinking and help you rewrite your scripts.