When you approach a new prospect, what do you have to offer? Whether youāre sending an email or cold calling, you need to grab the attention of your contact and make them want to talk with you. But too often sellers spew on about their product or lead off with a trap question that screams salesperson.
The solution to this prospecting dilemma used to be to start your discussion as a business conversation rather than a traditional semi-scripted cold call. You based it on needs you uncovered in research before ever approaching your prospect.
But even that isnāt enough any more.
Business owners and executives are busy people with too many responsibilities, too little time, and too few staff to pick up the slack. They donāt have time for a conversation unless it will help them do their job more efficiently and effectively.
Too often the prospecting business discussion is one designed to gather a prospectās needs and covertly qualify if an opportunity exists. While you begin the conversation discussing the business issue you uncovered in your research, it quickly deteriorates into a series of questions that feel much like a sales call.
Your contact ends the conversation without agreeing to a first appointment, and you donāt know why. You never mentioned your product, and you were only talking about them. So what happened? It used to work.
What changed?
If you want to catch your prospectsā attention, you must go beyond even the business discussion. You have to have something important to talk with them about, something that feels almost life changing for them.
Hereās how you get a prospect to talk to you:
- Know your purpose. In your first call or email, your purpose isnāt to close for an appointment. I know youāre shocked, but it isnāt. Rather, itās simply to have a conversation to get to know each other, begin building a relationship, and see if you should have a meeting. While youāre feeling the pressure to fill your pipeline this moment, many of the people youāll speak with wonāt be ready to make any immediate changes. But, if you leave a positive impression as a thoughtful, intelligent person who may be able to help their business in the future, theyāll want to stay in touch. That gives you a lead for 3, 6 or 9 months from now.
Better still, theyāll probably call you because theyāll remember your discussion.
- Offer to share your expertise freely. Research is important but itās how you apply it that truly distinguishes you. Determine the business issue you could assist with, then offer your expertise on what they should be thinking about to address that point. Donāt hold back because you think a prospect should pay for your advice. Few companies you speak with will be able to implement your suggestions without your companyās help. Let go of that concern and open up. Share the great knowledge you have. If you have ideas about how a company could better control their IT costs, tell them. Some will be recommendations that directly connect to your offerings, but others should not. If, for example, during your discussion you believe some basic training would help their office manager to administer better system back-ups, tell them. You can sell them a full-scale business recovery solution later.
Guide them with ideas they can implement right now while positioning what you can assist with in the future.
- Make them think about the possibilities. As you share, discuss what youāve seen other companies do to address a similar problem. Think about your clients, the challenges theyāre facing and what theyāre doing about those problems. Show prospects the possibilities of what they could be doing to improve productivity, cut costs, or address that need you uncovered in your research. Share one or two simple-to-implement ideas, as well as one or two more complex suggestions. Base your ideas on how youāve observed your clients address those matters in their organizations or how they have implemented your solutions to change their businesses.
The business owners and executives youāre calling are so busy they havenāt had time to consider other possibilities. Theyāre surviving with the issues when they may not have to.
- Help them re-examine their status quo. By not pushing prospects into a change with your first call, youāre freeing them up to rethink their status quo. Your conversation of suggestions and possibilities allows them to take time out and think for a moment about what could be. Suddenly training the office manager may not be enough. They may appreciate your recommendation on how they can protect their business from security threats, educate their staff on phishing emails, move more applications to the cloud, or manage their whole IT infrastructure. They wonāt want to wait 3 or 6 months to talk again. Theyāll want to pick your brain some more and consider ways to eliminate the issues theyāve been living with now that they know they donāt have to.
I know, youāre thinking this sounds like a deeper conversation than you usually conduct in a cold call. And, youāre concerned that you interrupted the person. Theyād never stay on the phone for this type of discussion.
But, it works.
It works because youāve grabbed your prospectās attention and made them want to talk with you. After a conversation like this, they either want to schedule time for a deeper conversation, or they want to hear from you again sometime soon.
You can solve your prospecting dilemma by elevating your conversation to one based on your expertise and ideas. Before you know it, not only will your pipeline increase, but your relationship database of potential new prospects will be overflowing too.
