Today's Teleprospecting Tips
There are many facets to teleprospecting -pre-call plan, qualifying questions, overcoming objections and so forth. Through my training experience at AG, there is not one common area of weakness; everyone has different strengths and weaknesses. I'd like to take this opportunity to go over some of the trends that I have come across and things to keep in mind when you reflect back on your own on your lead gen team's prospecting approach:
1. Be assertive! There are many ways to be assertive, but one thing to be aware of is not using submissive phrases such as, ‘I was hoping, ‘I was wondering'. Be present and be confident. As Jaime noted in one of her recent blogs, 90% of effective communication is non-verbal. So if we statistically are relying on 10% to be effective, don't waste it by sounding submissive and unsure. It's a simple tweak in the messaging that can have strong effects on the outcome of your conversation and your own mental state.
2. Ask questions - Whether you are leaving a voicemail, sending an email, or having a conversation, ask questions. Use the knowledge that you have gained through other conversations to ask a strong question. How are you currently addressing XYZ need? What are your plans around XYZ? Are you able to do this? Add a little assertiveness to your question and phrase it "When do you plan on..." (everyone else is doing it, when are you). The goal of asking questions should be to get the prospect thinking about what they are not doing, and uncovering the pains that others in their situation have already addressed through your solution.
3. Reference Others - This is such a useful tactic. Our ultimate goal is to either qualify or de-qualify a prospect/company. The sooner you can do this the faster you can move on to someone else. Something that I have found to be extremely helpful is to reference the others that you have reached out to within the organization. Give yourself the credibility you deserve and show the prospect how hard you've been working to speak with someone.
4. Be Honest - Prospects don't always know that you are not their sales rep. For that reason I think that it is very important to let them know of your role. Many times you will have a conversation and the prospect asks that you follow up with them in three weeks to discuss further. That's fine, and by all means do follow up, but I still find it important to let them know of your role. Understanding that you are not going to be able to provide them with the in-depth technical knowledge that they need in three weeks, they may ask to be connected with their sales rep instead. If so, set it up and back qualify.
5. Keep it simple - As much as I would prefer a prospect calling me back for a nice conversation, more often than not their busy day does not permit that. That being said, their busy day is most likely going to prohibit them from being able to read a long email. Therefore, keep it simple. As Nicole often speaks about, make sure you have a clear purpose within your email, don't product dump, and always end with the prospect thinking about how efficient/effective their current solution/process really is.
It's tough to write about a surefire way to approach teleprospecting, as there are so many different variables that can affect the success of your call. What's important, though, is to have a strong foundation, and that starts with your teleprospector! Be confident in the knowledge that they have of your product, the market and be confident in your own process, because YOU trained them.