Smart calling is different than cold calling. Cold calling is filled with fear and rejection and usually ends with both parties clicking off the phone dissatisfied. Smart calling involves researching the potential customer first, before calling them, to have a more engaging first interaction. John Golden interviews Art Sobczak on smart calling.

This expert sales interview explores:

• Why smart calling is important
• The difference between a warm lead and cold calling
• How to make it personal
• How to minimize resistance

Why Smart Calling:

“It’s actually pretty simple. It’s common sense,” said Sobczak. The idea behind smart calling is that it involves knowing something about the people, and the organization, and the environments, that a consumer is working in before a salesperson calls them. This allows for the opportunity to better customize and personalize the message in a way that resonates with the potential buyer. Plus, it heightens the chance of actually getting to speak with them.

Warm Lead Versus Smart “Cold” Calling:

With a warm lead, you have a little bit of leeway. A warm lead is someone who raises their hand first and expresses an interest in your product or service. With a smart call, the person on the other end of the phone line doesn’t know you, you don’t know them, and they’re not expecting your call. You have to put in the time and the effort and the energy to learn about them before going into the call. If you don’t, you get perceived as all of the other white noise that consumers are being bombarded with every day.

Make it Personal:

“The first thing I do is I try to get them to think differently than a cold call,” said Sobczak. “I make fun of cold calls, because we’ve all gotten them, we all hate them, people hate placing them, and typically they result in rejection.” Most cold calls use the same spiel. It’s a lot like junk mail, which usually gets tossed out immediately. A smart call is like getting a personalized, handwritten note. When you’re on the receiving end of a smart call, you can see that the salesperson has put some effort into what they’re saying. You know you’re not just another person on the dialing list. Instead, someone has taken the time to invest in you.

Minimize Resistance:

The primary goal of smart calling is to minimize resistance and enhance the chances of success. “You have several things working for you on a smart call, and they’re all used in conjunction,” said Sobczak. If you do the research, and someone notices right away at the beginning of a call, it triggers a few different things. The first is that you might have the reciprocity factor. They want to engage with you on a more personal level because you took the time to engage with them. Another thing that happens is that you get clients to lean into what you’re saying. In the first five to ten seconds of a smart call, the seller indicates that they know something about the customer, their industry, or what’s going on in their world. Instead of cold calling, which creates a neutral, if not adverse immediate reaction, smart calling creates a curious response because you’ve shown that you have something relevant to say about them personally. This simple way to minimize resistance creates the opportunity to engage with the customer positively.

For more information on how to turn cold calling into smart calling watch the full expert sales interview!

About our Host:

John is the Amazon bestselling author of Winning the Battle for Sales: Lessons on Closing Every Deal from the World’s Greatest Military Victories and Social Upheaval: How to Win at Social Selling. A globally acknowledged Sales & Marketing thought leader, speaker, and strategist. He is CSMO at Pipeliner CRM. In his spare time, John is an avid Martial Artist.

Pipeliner CRM empowers salespeople to make precise calls. Get your free trial of Pipeliner CRM now.

Imagine you’re a fisherman looking for a fish to catch, but a very special kind of fish for your aquarium. That fish is your lead—and in order to catch it, you’re going to have to follow a specific procedure which can be compared to your sales steps.

1. Create some criteria. You need to know what your fish looks like! The process of examination and adding the criteria represents your sales pipeline strategy. You must be able to recognize the fish when you see it. This will tell you what to look for.

2. Find info. At the beginning, you will have very little information about the fish you’d like to catch. Start to examine your fish, learning and gathering info about it’s habits, habitat, or food it likes.

3. Explore the sea. There may be plenty of fish in the sea, but you want to find the right one. Based on your criteria and the information you have gathered, you need to go where your special fish swims. That could be events or online networking sites.

4. Finding the fish. It is unlikely that your target fish will be the first one that swims by. It takes a long time and perseverance to catch the fish that meets the criteria.

5. Catching the fish. Finally you catch it! But beware—it can still slip away as a lost opportunity. You need to be careful and sensitive to how this particular fish behaves. Reel it in carefully—and here it is! You caught it! It is ready to be put in your aquarium and grow your collection.

So what’s the difference between a lead and opportunity?

A lead is simply a contact or an account with very little information. It could be just a person you met at a conference, or somebody who asked you a question on your blog. They are just somebody who has hinted that they have a problem you can solve. Right now, you have not established whether they want you to solve it.

An opportunity is a contact or an account who has shown enough interest to explore working with you. You have already contacted, called or met them and are digging into their specific needs or requirements.

Want to catch more fish? Sign up with a better fishing pole with Pipeliner CRM. Target your ideal fish—and then catch more of them!

Learn more.

A Key Account is a person or a group of people with whom your business has built more than just a standard business relationship, based on the trust level.

Key Account Management (KAM) defines the full relationship between your business and your customer. It revolves around handling the customers who play a strategic role in your growth.

When dealing with multiple individuals, it’s good to record facts about decision-makers within the account that you’re dealing with. Our goal is to access information and grow key accounts into profitable long-term relationships.

Learn more about Key Account Management.

Stop Selling & Start Leading
#SalesChats: Episode 44

“Stop selling, start leading,” doesn’t mean that salespeople should stop making sales. Rather, this technique is a way to generate more sales by replacing stereotypical sales behaviors with behaviors associated with good leadership. Deb Calvert discusses how to stop selling, and start leading in this #SalesChat, hosted by John Golden and Martha Neumeister.

Calvert explains:

• Why demonstrating leadership helps salespeople sell more
• Buyers like to follow leaders because they have confidence in the abilities of the salesperson to help them solve their problems
• Understanding what a buyer wants, including basic things like answer the questions in a timely manner in a way that’s relevant
• The importance of doing what you say you will do in order to prove yourself as trustworthy
• The five practices of exemplary leadership
• How to communicate like a leader, even across generations
• The importance of encouraging your buyer and recognizing the work that they are doing in the purchasing decision
• Key behaviors that salespeople should pay attention to in order to behave in a way that is more likable to sellers
• The importance of shifting from a diagnostic conversation to a dialogistic conversation
• Immediate steps to take to stop selling and start leading

Our Guest

Deb Calvert

Deb Calvert is one of Treeline’s “65 Most Influential Women in Business,” a Top 50 Sales Influencer, and a UC-Berkeley instructor. Deb founded The Sales Experts Channel and offers sales training, coaching and leadership development programs. She is certified as an executive and sales coach and is a Certified Master of The Leadership Challenge®. Her bestseller,DISCOVER Questions® Get You Connected”, was named by HubSpot as one of the “20 Most Highly Rated Sales Books of All Time.” Her new book, Stop Selling & Start Leading, is now available for pre-order.

Links › peoplefirstps.com | twitter.com | linkedin.com

Our Hosts

John Golden

John is the Amazon bestselling author of Winning the Battle for Sales: Lessons on Closing Every Deal from the World’s Greatest Military Victories and Social Upheaval: How to Win at Social Selling. A globally acknowledged Sales & Marketing thought leader, speaker, and strategist. He is CSMO at Pipeliner CRM. In his spare time, John is an avid Martial Artist.

Martha Neumeister

Martha is social media strategist, responsible for all social media platforms of Pipeliner CRM. She is a communication expert with social media affinity, which she has been focusing on throughout her professional career. She has a bachelor´s degree in Entrepreneurship & Management and a master´s degree in Online Marketing which supports her in her career as Social Media Strategist.

About SalesChats

SalesChats is a fast-paced (no more than 30 minutes) multi-media series that provides leading strategies, tactics and thinking for sales professionals worldwide. It can be found on Twitter (#SalesChats), as a live Google+ Hangout, and as a podcast available on iTunes, SoundCloud and right here on SalesPOP! If you think you would make a great guest for #SalesChats, please contact co-host Martha Neumeister.

SalesChats is co-hosted by John Golden, CSO Pipeliner CRM, and Martha Neumeister, Social Media Strategist Pipeliner CRM.

Achieving sales quotas is on the to-do list for every salesperson. It’s the end of the year, and you take a look at your quota, and typically see one of three things. You’re either desperately trying to make up the last little bit of your remaining goal for the year, happy that you’ve made or exceeded your quota, or, if you’re like 53% of salespeople, you haven’t met your quota, and there’s nothing that you can do to get yourself there. Joanne Black, interviewed by John Golden, explores the real factors that can help you achieve your sales quota.

This expert sales interview explores achieving sales quotas, including:

• There reason for not meeting quota
• How technology impacts revenue generation
• Why the shortcut culture has been detrimental

Why aren’t salespeople achieving sales quotas?

With how important it is to meet annual quotas, it’s surprising that so many salespeople don’t achieve that goal. Part of the reason for this is that salespeople wait too long to look at the numbers for this year and next year. Quarter four should ideally be 25% of the time to close business for the current year, and 75% of the time to build business for next year. That’s often not happening. “One of the things that I see reoccurring is that not only are they not making quota this year, but the expectation is increasing for next year. This seems like such a hopeless task. This mindset has to be altered to better prepare salespeople for the year ahead and encouraging them to meet their quota.

Technology:

There are a lot of reasons for this phenomenon of salespeople not achieving their sales quotas. Part of the reason is the technological revolution that has taken over the sales game. Sales leaders are more focused on technology, and they’re losing out on revenue generation because they aren’t coaching their salespeople and encouraging the development of necessary sales skills. “People think, well, get this new technology and everything will be fixed, but that’s not happening,” said Black. It’s easier for sales leaders to buy technology because if it doesn’t work, they can point fingers at the software. If we invest in our people or coach the sales staff, it takes more time, and the leaders are going to be held responsible if the sales team doesn’t perform. “People use technology to solve fundamental problems, but if your salespeople aren’t well trained, or don’t have a defined sales process, technology isn’t going to solve the problem,” said Black. “If you don’t have your processes right, even great technology can’t help you.

The shortcut culture:

In today’s day and age, everything is based on shortcuts. Hard work has taken a backseat in people’s minds. Considering the ease with which you can create tools, people are pumping out numerous different sales software systems. These tools look fantastic and promise great things. But, if you don’t have the fundamental basics down, you’re not going to be successful, regardless of the tools that you have at your disposal. This shortcut culture doesn’t end up putting salespeople ahead of the game. In fact, the techniques and technology they’re using to try and get ahead are holding them back. “Building relationships takes time, but that is how sales are closed,” said Black. Taking shortcuts does not result in a better quota.

To learn more about how to create techniques for achieving sales quotas, watch the expert sales interview!

About our Host:

John is the Amazon bestselling author of Winning the Battle for Sales: Lessons on Closing Every Deal from the World’s Greatest Military Victories and Social Upheaval: How to Win at Social Selling. A globally acknowledged Sales & Marketing thought leader, speaker, and strategist. He is CSMO at Pipeliner CRM. In his spare time, John is an avid Martial Artist.

Pipeliner CRM empowers sales teams to achieve quota. Get your free trial of Pipeliner CRM now.

Motivation—the driving force shooting you into action! It triggers what you stand for and ultimately who you become. If we all have the same motivational direction, we enhance it mutually with close to no effort.

But what do you do if someone’s motivation is focused another way? A labyrinth of dead-ends grows from generalization. The same words for different people won’t work. Be concrete and personal—no bulk emails to the whole company. Instead, try to break everyone into two groups, and communicate to each differently.

The first group is motivated towards. The “towarder” wants to be first in a line, outperform the sales quota, earn a lot of money. They want to get something!

The second group is motivated away from. “Awayers” don’t want to explain themselves to managers, don’t want to finish last, don’t want to feel weak. They want to avoid something.

In practical life, you have exactly half-to-half chances that the person in front of you is either pure “towarder” or “awayer.” Only 20 percent of the people you’ll meet fall into the mysterious group of shapeshifters, who equally use the motivational approaches from “towards” and “away” back, and forth.

So how to you find out which type of person you are talking to? It’s hidden in the language. The “towarder” will always use phrases like, “I do want to hit the target!” or “I want bigger provisions!” While the “awayer” will choose exact opposites. “I don’t want to miss it.” “I don’t want to be unprepared.”

Get to know them, and the hard part is done. After that, just stay within their language. Because “towarders” always want. What really triggers them is to hear what they’ll get. So motivate them by saying, “Imagine yourself when you hit the target!” And they are already set for the voyage!

With “awayers” it’s a bit trickier. It may sound harsh, but they need to be reminded about all the threats they fear. So tell them, “Imagine what will happen if you miss.” This will get them going.

As the approach is different, so are their values. With “Towarders,” show them the target, and they are already halfway there, having the gift of the tunnel vision, and thus ultimate focus. Yet with this type of focus they tend to never look around, and ignore input variables, like donkeys following the carrot on a stick and ignoring possible problems. They tend to not look back, nulling the whole concept of self-reflection. They rarely learn from their own mistakes.

“Awayers” can be proud of wide vision which foresees, avoids, and eliminates dangers. They tend to be problem-solvers, able to satisfy customers’ needs and wants to a great extent. And they are ruthless in reflection, which also predestines them to cons such as escaping from challenges, never really reaching their full potential, and ending up satisfied with required bare minimum.

So what are the takeaways here?

Listen and pay attention to diversity of your people.

Be specific in motivating your people, and adjust your communication.

Use strengths from both types by assigning them opportunities that fit their type best.

A good leader will always know to whom they are speaking.

Do you use other approaches in your work? Do you think this approach would also work with customers? Let us know in the comments section below. Or learn more about managing sales teams at SalesPOP! online magazine.

The sales process is one of the most important parts of achieving successful sales performance. Too often, companies are resistant to adopt it as a dynamic process that integral to how a company does things. Lisa Magnuson, interviewed by John Golden, explores the resistance to sales processes, and how to make a sales process great.

This expert sales interview discusses:

• The importance of having a sales process
• What a sales process isn’t
• The benefits that a sales process has on retention

The Importance of a Sales Process:

A sales process is vital to any sales organization. Sales leaders need to be more encouraging of their sales team to utilize this essential tool. “Build your sales process based on best practices. Make it front and center, so it is incorporated right into the CRM. This makes it so salespeople are constantly seeing where they are at each stage of the funnel, what should they be doing, and when they have done all of the things required to go to the next stage,” said Magnuson. A sales process is also essential because it helps salespeople see what tools are available for them to use and what customers typically need at each stage. Plus, everything is front and center and easily accessible.

What a Sales Process Isn’t:

Organizations that have a defined process of sales stages, and defined activities within those sales stages, outperform other organizations. And yet, there’s a certain amount of resistance to fully adopting these processes. This is in part because salespeople and most sales leaders resist the science of selling in favor of the artistic and creative side of selling. However, it’s important to look at what a sales process isn’t. When you look at what a sales process isn’t, you see that it’s not inflexible, it’s not a set of scripts, or a one size fits all type of plan. Realizing and understanding this helps salespeople feel more comfortable, knowing that they can put their personalities and unique situations into a proven framework. “The key is for leadership to set the expectations as to what the sales process is going to do for the sales organization, and to sell salespeople on the benefits,” said Magnuson. “By understanding what it’s not, you address the salespeople’s fears and concerns. If you do that at the beginning and the middle and continually reinforce it, you’re going to get compliance and start to build a winning culture built around a process that can be replicated.”

Onboarding Benefits:

There are also a lot of benefits to having a structure sales process concerning hiring and onboarding new salespeople. The turnover rate in the sales world is much higher than in other jobs in the business world, in part because it is difficult to train and orient salespeople to the company’s way of functioning and doing things. Having a sales process increases retention because new employees fall right in line with the best practices according to the sales process, and create good habits from the beginning. They’re going to be more successful, generate more revenue for the organization, and be less likely to want to switch jobs or companies.

About our Host:

John is the Amazon bestselling author of Winning the Battle for Sales: Lessons on Closing Every Deal from the World’s Greatest Military Victories and Social Upheaval: How to Win at Social Selling. A globally acknowledged Sales & Marketing thought leader, speaker, and strategist. He is CSMO at Pipeliner CRM. In his spare time, John is an avid Martial Artist.

Pipeliner CRM empowers sales organizations to totally optimize their sales process. Get your free trial of Pipeliner CRM now.