The outcome of the sales call isn’t decided during the call; it’s determined before it. Sales calls are won or lost before you pick up the phone and start the dialing process. And it’s your state of mind that plays a crucial role in painting your success or failure.
Phone sales isn’t easy. You must be fully prepared in order to make your call worthwhile, and your preparation depends on the seven questions that we are going to discuss today.
These six questions will play a major part in any sales call you are going to make. And if you don’t ask the following six questions to yourself before making the call, your success or failure will solely depend on your luck.
Don’t let your luck fail you and ask the following six questions before making any sales call.
1. What’s the Reason for Calling?
One of the most important questions before making any sales call should be, why am I making this call? Is it because this prospect or number is on my list, or there’s a more significant reason for me calling this specific lead?
Ask yourself the reason you are contacting the respective prospect. What’s the main reason behind it, and how it will affect you or the things around you? Is this just another sales call for you, or there’s a higher purpose for it in your mind? Be honest with yourself and find the reason before you pick up the phone and dial in a number.
You must know your why before you are calling as it’s the only thing that will make your work worthwhile.
2. Who Am I Calling and What’s Their Position?
Now here’s a thing, if you are unaware of the person and their designation you are contacting, you have no upper hand! It’s like you are calling an unknown number that’s from a foreign country and expecting miracles. That’s not how a good sales call goes.
You must have a sufficient idea about who you are calling and their respective position in the organization, community, or company. Without any clue about your prospect, you won’t be able to make any impact and personalize the call.
Having a good idea about your prospect and their position will help you to convey your message in an effective way. You will more likely be able to close the deal and sell your services/products.
3. Is the Prospect Influential or Just Another Worker?
So you are all aware of your prospects but do you have any information on how influential they can be? For instance, if you call a normal 9 to 5 employee of a company and talk to them about how your services and products and how it can change their company’s environment, etc., it won’t do any good.
Your call will just waste your time and efforts. So it’s essential to know if your prospect is influential in the company. If you are calling a regional manager and conveying your message, it would be more beneficial than just calling a less powerful employee of that same company.
4. Is the Prospect Amongst the Decision-Makers?
It’s crucial to ask yourself if the prospect you are calling is considered as one of the decision-makers? This will help you to carry forward your sales talk according to the person who’s on the other end. For instance, if it’s a manager, you’ll deal with them differently than a normal employee or a CFO.
It’s important to tell your conscious about who you are dealing with. If the person on the other end is somewhat considered as one of the decision-makers in the company, you’ll go have the ear of someone who can make your sales call worthwhile.
If the prospect you are calling is amongst the decision-makers of the company, you’ll be ready to hit the sweet spots at the right time.
5. What am I Trying to Accomplish?
Before picking up the phone and dialing the contact information on the dialer, you must be crystal clear about the thing you are looking forward to accomplishing via the call. Your end-goal of the call must be super clear to you.
If you don’t know what you are trying to accomplish via the sales call, you won’t be able to sell your services or products. Without the end goal, there will be no difference between the customer and you, as both of you will be unaware of the bigger picture.
Ask yourself questions that will help you to identify the goal you are trying to accomplish via the call. Don’t get too overwhelmed by how you are going to do it; just remember the end goal, and you’ll reach there anyhow.
Create a scenario in your mind palace about the things you are trying to accomplish via the call to the point where you can clearly see them.
6. How Am I Going to Accomplish My Goal?
Once you have the goals you want to accomplish with the call, it’s time to create a plan for how you are going to do it. This roadmap will include all the details related to achieving the end-goals you have set to accomplish via the call.
You are allowed to go deep into the specificity and line-up any sort of game plan that works for you. But that plan must be getting you closer to accomplishing the goals you have set to achieve on the call.
If you don’t know how you will achieve the end goals, your call will not benefit you or the company you are working for. It’s just like saying “I want to become a billionaire”, and not changing any behaviors to accomplish that.
So before you call your prospect, be sure about the things you are trying to accomplish and adhere to the plan.
Conclusion
And that’s about it. Ask the six questions we have mentioned above to yourself before making any sales call.