It may not be immediately obvious when you first meet me, but I’m a natural introvert. I find networking hard work and challenging, so when I first started my sales career it took me a while to get going. It was draining at times, depressing even took a lot out of me, but I didn’t let my nerves get the best of me.
I did my research, worked hard to understand my business, practiced, listened to my managers, tried, failed, and tried some more until I finally found a way of operating that worked for me. And once I got that right, I started hitting targets in a way that meant I never really looked back.
Over the years I’ve learned certain strategies to help me maintain my composure and hone my sales calls, so much so that if I meet you for the first time as a potential customer, you’d never know about my introverted tendencies. These days I try to pass those techniques along to my training and coaching clients.
There are certain techniques that anyone can employ to get the most out of their sales calls. Here are just a few with:
- Do your research.
Confidence and excitement come from prior planning.
Before going into a call, set time aside to learn more about your prospect. Form a plan outlining exactly how your offering is a solution to their problems, and be the trustworthy expert who can help make their lives easier.
As you research, look for reasons to get excited about your upcoming call. Do you have shared interests? Are you speaking to a company in an exciting and ground breaking industry? Seek to understand who you’re speaking with because you never know what you might find!
- Be an expert.
In addition to knowing your prospect, know what your offering does inside and out. It (literally) pays to know every small nuance about what makes your product or service the best choice for the person you’re speaking with and how it differentiates from solutions like it.
I used to dread hopping on the phone in the first few days of starting a sales role.
But as I learned more about my industry, product, and the value we could bring, I became that much more confident. Calls became exciting when I finally knew I was fully equipped to address concerns and answer even the most technical of questions.
- Make yourself laugh and smile.
Didn’t get enough sleep last night? Do you know the prospect on this call is going to be tough and abrasive? Have a calendar of back-to-back meetings? Prepare by putting yourself in a positive, high-energy mood.
Do the things that make you happy or fire you up. Nothing is off the table! Listen to pump-up music. Just do whatever puts you in that mood to be positive, helpful, and focused.
- Stand up, walk around, and use your non-verbal communication skills.
Regardless of whether you’re speaking to someone on a video or phone call, stand up, walk around, and use positive body language. For one, standing gets your blood flowing, relative to sitting — helping you think clearly and focus on the conversation. Second, more than 70% of communication stems from our non-verbal communication, and neglecting this fact on a call can be disastrous.
It doesn’t matter whether a prospect sees you or not. There will always be a subconscious alert going off in their heads, telling them something is off when we don’t act as we speak. Use your hands to convey meaning, and always talk to someone as if they were sitting in front of you.
- Breathe.
Calls can be nerve-wracking, especially with larger clients or when there’s a massive deal on the line. In situations like that, you need to clear your mind and breathe. When our breathing is shallow (sometimes subconsciously) we cut off the resource that allows our brain to function at peak performance.
So a quick 30-second mini meditation can be key to hopping into that call with your game face on. So close your eyes, take deep and thoughtful breaths, then get on that call with a clear mind.
These are all techniques that have worked for me over the years, and if you give them a shot, I bet they’ll work for you.
Does making sales calls fill you with dread, or do you worry that you’re not getting the results you’d like. Then let’s talk.
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