The Beginner's guide to Sales + AMA

[Bambooing]

[QUOTE="AmericanSpartan, post: 587390, member: 38781]

Currently, I am working toward improving my cold calls. The biggest advice here is NEVER SIT WHILE ON THE PHONE! Be up on your feel and be animated when you talk EVEN ON THE PHONE! SMILE when you greet a prospect and say hello. Your voice, while you may not be aware of it, is HIGHLY reflective of our body language. If you are stiff and stagnate sitting in a chair, your voice will show it. If you are UP ON YOUR FEET, SMILING, EXCITED, ANIMATED... your voice will reflect that too! People think I am calling old friends by the way I act in the office on the phone, but I am just trying to make new friends .
[/QUOTE]

@AmericanSpartan This has helped me immensely and this is what I do anytime I am on the phone. Going further than positively expressing oneself and helping a 'sale', I adopted this purely to help with my stuttering. I once had a phone phobia and avoided talking on the phone for fear of stuttering to the point totally freezing up. Yes, this has happened to me a few times and it saddened me and had to hang up. Felt helpless.

I digress- so in more than one way the above advice works on many levels. Thanks again for your detailed answer and to all others

BTW, not sure how to 'quote snippets properly'.

 

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[ItsAllBull]

Hey I read this whole thread tons of great advice. Ive been trying to do some sales myself for my own venture as Fb ads agency as detailed in my progress thread here : Progress Thread - I Got Fired Today. Succeed or Bust!

For the TL;DR verision of my progress thread I have been doing cold outreach via email. I've sent around 400 emails with a open rate of 35% . yet not one single reply .

Basically my email was a short sales email . Wasn't getting results so I am changing it up and trying a new sales process . please tell me what you think. Thanks a ton!

Update Jan 12 :

Alright my last approach wasn't working to well , actually not at all. Thanks to some input from the great forum users here I designed a new approach with their advice and also from some basic sales books. Here it is :

Basically its comprised of :
1. sending a short referral email to get referred to the right person within the business who deals with my services. This email will contain a brief one sentence description of what I do also. ( Im selling fb ads and Im targeting small local businesses 4-20 employees )

2. Once I get the referral I send the decision maker a brief email about what I do , how I can help , and attempt to set up a meeting.

3. Have the sales call and qualify.

4. Once qualified they will begin a 2 week trial/demo . Once I get them results it goes into the proposal...

5.Present proposal , contracts etc

6. Close and resume client services.

What do you guys think ?

I plan to begin implementing this new approach Monday. Feedback would be awesome

 

[Scot]

Hey I read this whole thread tons of great advice. Ive been trying to do some sales myself for my own venture as Fb ads agency as detailed in my progress thread here : Progress Thread - I Got Fired Today. Succeed or Bust!

For the TL;DR verision of my progress thread I have been doing cold outreach via email. I've sent around 400 emails with a open rate of 35% . yet not one single reply .

Basically my email was a short sales email . Wasn't getting results so I am changing it up and trying a new sales process . please tell me what you think. Thanks a ton!

My apologies to not getting to this faster. I’ll be the first to admit, my strong suit is not cold email contact.

I’d check out threads by @Fox as I feel like he’s done the best with this type of sales. Selling FB marketing is hard, but my biggest tip would be consistency and tenacity. Don’t just send one email and assume you’re done. Have you tried setting up an email campaign where you can send a series of emails?

Just because they didn’t respond doesn’t mean they aren’t interested, just send them another one.

 

[Fox]

My apologies to not getting to this faster. I’ll be the first to admit, my strong suit is not cold email contact.

I’d check out threads by @Fox as I feel like he’s done the best with this type of sales. Selling FB marketing is hard, but my biggest tip would be consistency and tenacity. Don’t just send one email and assume you’re done. Have you tried setting up an email campaign where you can send a series of emails?

Just because they didn’t respond doesn’t mean they aren’t interested, just send them another one.

Thanks Scot.

Ya I land a lot of big clients through cold email so I will give some general advice...

One email is just the opener so the goal is not to sell, it is to get interest. So the content should be to get them wanting to get on a call and showing a lot of free value up front. Very little sales content (if any) in the email. Then the real selling is done on the phone call.

Why?

Bigger price sales have a lot of variables and you want the person you are selling to believe that it is a custom solution to them. At the very least that you understand their problem. Pushing for a sale too early implies that its a one-fit-all solution which no one really wants these days (unless its cheap - not a good market to be in).

So write emails that build trust, spike interest, and get them to take action.

You can build trust by NOT doing what every other cold emailer is doing.
Dont use a script, dont use a sales letter format, dont be weird or spammy.

Write an authentic email that speaks to them in terms of what they care about.
- why you think they could be doing better
- how they could be doing this
- what this might mean for them
- some free advice they can use right away
- some possible insight into their industry/niche which shows them you know their stuff
- a simple non-salesy call to action "id love to go over this on the phone so I can get your feedback and see if it makes sense to go further with this together"

In general people should really believe you wrote this just for them and that you can be trusted.
Sales come later when you get on the phone.

Then send it off and wait a day or two.

No response - call them anyway
Some response - move it to a call ASAP
Great response - move it to a call

If you want to sell then you got to start getting on calls too. Cold emails are just to warm it up a little first but you should move forwards either way.

Hope that helps.

 

[JAJT]

yet not one single reply .

I'm pretty good at cold emails but a big question I have is: why aren't you picking up the phone?

The phone works WONDERS at talking to small companies. If you have a good value-add, you are shooting yourself in the foot by filling up their email inbox asking who to speak to.

Also - your emails are likely going to get a LOT better after you talk to 100 potential customers on the phone. You realize what they REALLY care about, which person in the org ACTUALLY handles your business, and what the shortcuts are to get to the point quickly.

Your sales process should be:

1. Call them. Ask for the marketing guy.
2. Talk to the marketing guy. Say how you can help them and why they need you and what you've done for others in their position. Have a conversation.
3. If they tell you to email them information - ask them what information you should send to make this partnership an "obvious yes" for them. THEN you email them info tailored to them.
4. You call to follow up on the information!

I could write a literal essay on effective email communication for someone in your role but literally nothing I say would help you as much as picking up the phone. Email should really be a supplement to calling in almost any sales process that involves cold contacts.

Also - have you tried targeting these companies with highly targeted facebook ads? Imagine if the marketing guy was F*cking around on facebook and saw "Hey marketing manager from tuscon - you're reading this because I know what I'm doing, click here to learn how I can help you send messages like this to your customers" (or whatever, you get the idea).

 

[ItsAllBull]

Sorry for taking so long to get back to you guys....
@Scot @Fox @JAJT I appreciate the advice and im going to act on it asap.

The reason I was hesitating cold calling was primarily for 2 reasons.

I was avoiding cold calling because I stutter(not so much that is debilitating) , and I know this will be difficult. However with effort i can speak smoothly . I just have to face it and put in the work and develop my speech and as a person.

I just didn't know how to do it and that was causing some fear too. I read some books and got a basic framework on how to do this . I have already made my scripts now I plan to pound the phones!

 

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[Knugs]

Hey Scot,

Thank you for all the nuggets you dropped in here so far. Its really eye opening for me as I have never had any experience in sales. Do you still work in sales (pharma) or are you full time fastlane now?

I wanted to ask you for your advice of how you would approach this from a sales point of view. I'm a doctor and looking to use my experience of work to develop a software for hospitals. I want to preferably pull in one hospital into the development of the software. I really believe that if I develop it around their very specific needs, I will be able to build an amazing relationship and client for life. A solid software that others will profit from.

I guess I have multiple questions.
How would you sell this to a hospital?`Who is actually the decision maker ? Is it the hospital director/finance director, perhaps even a board? Surely when I call the receptionist, I will be turned away. I also want to work together with them to develop the solution and I don't know how cooperative they will be. After all, I will be asking to see how they work and I will be trying to identify issues.
Perhaps I'm asking the wrong questions and there is a better approach?

Luke

 

[Crexty]

Hey Scot. Great thread here.

How would you cold call small businesses to sell office cleaning/janitorial services?

Im calling Lawyers, Medical Facilities, Insurance Offices, Manufacturers, Logistics companies, Chiropractics, Massage Spas, Etc.

I usually say something along the lines of..

Good (morning/afternoon) , this is ___ with ____. Could I please speak to _____, please?

or if i dont know the DM name

Good (morning/afternoon) , this is ___ with ____. Maybe you could help me, I need to speak with whoever is in charge of office cleaning services. Could you put me through to that person?


And i'm having a very hard time getting past gatekeeper. I end up leaving a message with name and number usually, but we all knows what happens with that.

What books, videos, or script would you recommend I try?

 

[Jade.backer]

I'm so glad that this thread was shared. I really wanted someone to guide me.

 

[Scot]

Hey Scot,

Thank you for all the nuggets you dropped in here so far. Its really eye opening for me as I have never had any experience in sales. Do you still work in sales (pharma) or are you full time fastlane now?

I wanted to ask you for your advice of how you would approach this from a sales point of view. I'm a doctor and looking to use my experience of work to develop a software for hospitals. I want to preferably pull in one hospital into the development of the software. I really believe that if I develop it around their very specific needs, I will be able to build an amazing relationship and client for life. A solid software that others will profit from.

I guess I have multiple questions.
How would you sell this to a hospital?`Who is actually the decision maker ? Is it the hospital director/finance director, perhaps even a board? Surely when I call the receptionist, I will be turned away. I also want to work together with them to develop the solution and I don't know how cooperative they will be. After all, I will be asking to see how they work and I will be trying to identify issues.
Perhaps I'm asking the wrong questions and there is a better approach?

Luke

Sorry for the super long delay @Knugs !!

I still work in pharma but I’m in the middle of launching my Fastlane business, which is why I’ve neglected this thread pretty bad lately.

I guess this really depends on what kind of software you’re looking to build. Are you looking at building their EMR system?

I would start with what you know, other doctors. I’m assuming you’re building software that’s for the medical side, not the admin side. Connect with the people who the software touches. So, network with the nurses, doctors, whoever is on the very bottom of the totem pole.

This helps for multiple reasons, you want to connect with them at professional level because you actually will understand the challenges they face. This way you can get the full scope of what you can improve on. And once you build up these relationships, you’ll have an advocate. The best way to get a meeting with someone who’s a decision maker is by having an introduction, especially if they’re willing to back you.

So honestly, this is where I’d start. If you have friends who work at this hospital, perfect, have them network you with other doctors. If you don’t, find people who know people at this hospital. Go to your local Medical association meetings and meet people there. Networking is going to be your best friend here.

 

[Sheps]

Have you tried adding "about the cleaning quote" (or similar) to the gate keepers pitch.

"Maybe you could help me, I need to speak with whoever is in charge of office cleaning services about the cleaning quote. Could you put me through to that person"

It's bending the truth a little. But it is about the cleaning quote. Yours. They didn't ask for it but it's what you're going to talk about.

 

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[Crexty]

Have you tried adding "about the cleaning quote" to the gate keepers pitch.

"Maybe you could help me, I need to speak with whoever is in charge of office cleaning services about the cleaning quote. Could you put me through to that person"

It's bending the truth a little. But it is about the cleaning quote. Yours. They didn't ask for it but it's what you're going to talk about.

Hmmm never thought about that but they like.to dig deep. What if they asked did you already submit one ?

 

[ShellShock]

Thank you for this thread @Scot. It's a real goldmine for everyone on this forum, since sales are an integral part in every business venture. Will follow.

 

[ShellShock]

And i also forgot to mention that the link to this thread in your signature doesn't work (at least for me)