A few weeks ago I was meeting with a friend (Terry) who is an executive in a mid-size company and we ended up talking about sales people.
At one point I said, “As a sales person, it’s really tough to connect with people like you. Don’t you ever answer your phone?”
Boy, did that set him off!
For the next fifteen minutes he ranted about sales people and why he seldom takes their calls.
Here is the sanitized version of what he told me.
“You all sound the same. Although you have different names, voices and tonalities, it’s like you all went to the same school. Everyone asks how I am when I answer the phone and quite frankly, one of these days I’m going to say, “I’m doing horrible” and see how they respond.”
“Practically everyone introduces themselves, tells me who their company is and what they do. They ramble on for what seems like an eternity even though it’s probably less than a minute. I don’t care about that crap.”
“I really hate it when they launch into a pitch and try to convince me how good their product is especially when their product isn’t relevant to me.”
“I had a guy call me the other day and try to pitch a call center solution. When I asked him how many people he thought I had in my call center he was clueless. He said, ‘I was hoping you could tell me.’ If he had taken 3 minutes to visit our website, it would have been evident that we don’t have a call center.”
“Very few people actually do any research and that comes through loud and clear when they ask me stupid questions about my business. Questions that could easily be found on our website or a quick Google search.”
Terry continued his rant but his message was clear.
Do some homework. Tailor your opening or message. Demonstrate that you have expertise or knowledge about their industry and/or pain points.
Selling is more challenging than ever. Stand out from your competition and buyers might start taking your calls.
Lisa is driven by the mantra – Be Strategic. Be Pro-active. Be Brave. – and has been successfully training and coaching sales leaders and their teams to do the same for over 15 years. As the President of Teneo Results since 2003, she has trained thousands of sales professionals at more than 250 companies across North America. She transitions salespeople away from the standard “product & price” approach to having purposeful business conversations with their customers that drive results.