“Hi, could I speak to Phil Bernstein?” I braced myself for the sales pitch.
The caller identified himself as Dan from Oregon Premier Real Estate*, and the call took a quick left turn:
Phil, I’m kind of embarrassed here. I have your name and phone number written on a sheet of paper. I know I’m supposed to call you, but I don’t know why.”
This threw me. It was 2006, at the height of the real estate boom, but I didn’t know him or his company. “I’m sorry,” I said. “I don’t recognize your name.”
Dan: That’s okay, we’ll figure it out. Are you selling your house?
Me: No…
Dan: Okay, so that’s not it. Are you looking around for a new home?
Me: No, we’re happy where we are.
Dan: Wow… what else could it be? Are you shopping for investment property, maybe?
Me: Nope, that’s not it.
Dan: Is someone in your family selling, or looking?
Me: Wow, Dan. I’m drawing a complete blank here. I don’t think so.
Dan: Refinancing your mortgage?
Me: Already did that.
Dan: Well, gee, Phil. I’ve hit a brick wall. Sorry to bother you. Here’s my number — if you think of something later, give me a call.
We hung up, and I spent the next few minutes trying to figure out how I could help the poor guy. Then the light bulb went on.
I’d been cold called by a pro.As I sat on my couch, I gave him a golf clap.
I can’t justify the dishonesty — once I realized that he’d misled me, it disqualified him from ever representing me in a transaction. But there’s a lot to be learned from the way he politely qualified me with a series of questions, determined that I wasn’t a prospect — I wasn’t buying, selling, or refinancing, and didn’t know anyone who was — and politely ended the call so that he could move on to the next call.
*Names have been changed.
Question: What’s the best cold call you’ve ever made, or received? Who impressed you with professionalism, good questions, or sheer chutzpah?
If you’re a buyer, there’s nothing worse than an unprepared salesperson wasting your time. So why do so many sellers still walk in completely unprepared?
It used to be that information was hard to come by, and customers were willing to answer even the most basic questions. In 2014, customers know that you can get many of your questions answered with just the click of a mouse.
I’ve developed an eight-step formula to help you walk into your next sales call prepared. You can complete all eight steps in fifteen minutes or less. You’ll find the whole formula in the new guide I just published called “Fifteen Minutes to READY: Eight Crucial Steps to Make Sure You Win at the First Sales Meeting.”
You can get it free by subscribing to Phil Bernstein’s blog (that’s this one!). The subscription form’s in the upper right corner of the blog.
A simple old-school technique for fixing the meeting on your prospect’s calendar.
The one thing that every salesperson should do EVERY. SINGLE. TIME. before a first meeting — and that too many don’t.
The final step to take on the day of the appointment to make sure the client shows up.
How do you get your copy? It’s simple. Fill in your name and email address in the subscription box in the upper right of this blog, and you’ll get an instant download. You can unsubscribe at any time — but you won’t want to.
If you are already a subscriber and got this message in an email, hit Reply and ask for the report, and I’ll send you a copy
Dirty Harry Teaches Sales to Reluctant Salespeople — a scene from 1973’s “Magnum Force”, featuring Inspector Harry Callahan (Clint Eastwood) and a woman named Sunny who lives in his apartment building:
Sunny: [as Harry walks by to his apartment] Hi!
Harry Callahan: Oh, hi… what’s your name?
Sunny: Sunny. You know, I’ve been living here for almost six months now. It’s funny I’ve never met you before.
Harry Callahan: Oh well… I work a lot.
Sunny: I know. You’re the cop who lives upstairs.
Harry Callahan: That’s right.
Sunny: Mind if I ask you a question?
Harry Callahan: Go ahead.
Sunny: What does a girl have to do to go to bed with you?
Harry Callahan: [blinks twice, then smiles] Try knocking on the door.
More than 10 years ago, I was sitting in the stands at a middle school, watching my son and his friends take on another group of kids in a basketball game. One of the other dads, knowing that I worked in the radio business, sat down next to me and asked me some questions about political advertising. He was a judge –in an elected position – and was up for reelection.
I don’t remember a lot about the conversation. He knew I sold advertising for a living, and he had some questions about the advertising rules that candidates needed to follow. I answered the questions. Then we turned and watched our kids play. Eventually the game ended, we got into our cars, and I forgot all about it.
Until about two months later when I heard the judge’s radio commercial on my news/talk station. I tracked down the account executive who had gotten the order, and learned that the judge had hired an advertising agency – and had bought $10,000 in advertising on my station.
If I had followed up on the initial conversation, I could have gotten the order myself. Instead, I just assumed he’d call me if he was interested.
My commission for this: zero. It took me a long time to get over that missed opportunity.
That painful event returned to my mind a few weeks ago as I rode in a car with an Account Executive in the Southeast. He was upset because he just seen his chiropractor advertising on a competing television station.
“I’ve been going to that guy for years – and he advertises on Fox?”, he said as he banged his hand on the dashboard.
I asked the Account Executive if he had ever asked the chiropractor to buy anything. “No,” he replied. “But he knows what I do for a living!”
A decade ago, that judge had known what I did for a living, too. Here’s the expensive lesson I learned: It doesn’t matter — you still have to ask for the business.
· That chiropractor may have a patient who’s an auto mechanic. He knows what the mechanic does for a living. That doesn’t mean he’s going to automatically bring his car to his patient’s repair shop.
· The chiropractor may have a patient who’s an insurance salesman. He knows what the salesman does for a living. That doesn’t mean he’s going to automatically buy a policy from that agency.
To the chiropractor, the Account Executive was just another patient, and the patient’s occupation was somewhat less important to him than the back pain he was trying to fix. While the AE was waiting for the chiropractor to think about buying advertising, a competitor walked in and swept the money off the table.
Reluctant salespeople depend on relationships in one area to automatically extend everywhere. This rarely works. If you want to somebody to buy, you need to ask for the business. If you want to come in, try knocking on the door.
Whether you’re a rookie seller paid on a formal commission plan, an entrepreneur struggling to find customers, or you’re just trying to get your small business to the next level, knowing how to sell can be the difference between hitting your goals and shutting your doors. I’ll give you some techniques to battle call reluctance, strategies to handle rejection, and some ways to make sure you’re fully prepared for that crucial first meeting.
Doors open at 6 pm for networking and mingling. Light food is provided as well as a cash bar. The formal presentation as well as audience announcements takes place from 7:00-8:00 pm. You then have until 8:30 to introduce yourself to anyone whom you haven’t yet met and the event comes to an end at 8:30. Street parking is available.
If you have any further questions about this event, contact Katie Kelley at Katie@KatieKelleyNetworks.com or call (503) 616-6112.
The Katie Kelley Networks Fall Soiree
Katie Kelley Networks brings together a premier group of Portland’s male and female business leaders from the corporate, civic and entrepreneurial realms to collectively raise the bar for networking done right. The only prerequisites for attendance are a love for business and community building. At these events, you will enjoy a jovial cocktail party atmosphere, expand your local network and learn fresh business skills. What’s not to love about that?
A few years ago I was presenting an advertising plan to a dentist in Montana. I had met with him a couple of weeks before, and he had been open, enthusiastic, and eager to hear my ideas. In a week of 27 presentations, this one seemed to be in the bag — he was ready to do something, and I had the perfect plan for him.
Now it was a different story. He argued with me about my overall marketing philosophy, didn’t like the strategy I proposed, and called my script “simple-minded”. His demeanor was dismissive, bordering on rude. At the end of the meeting, he told us he’d “think about it”, and left before we could ask him anything more.
I was shaken. Usually when a meeting goes bad I know what went wrong. This time a big opportunity had blown up, and I had no idea why.
The next day his wife, who’d been at both meetings, called the station Account Executive to apologize. A few hours before our presentation, the dentist had met with his accountant and learned that there was more than $100,000 missing from the practice’s bank account. He wasn’t going to buy anything from anyone for a while.
Ever since that day, I start every presentation this way:
Before we begin, I need to ask a quick question. Has anything changed since our last meeting?
Most of the time, nothing has, and I can launch things without a problem. But over the past five years, by asking that question I’ve learned that between the last meeting and this one:
The owner has just decided to sell the business.
The company has agreed to merge with a competitor, all decisions are on hold for the next six months, and the guy we’re meeting with will be leaving the company.
The store has picked up a new product line, and will be retooling its marketing substantially.
The medical practice has just hired an advertising agency.
Knowing this information before diving in has allowed me to make adjustments on the fly, some of which have utterly changed the strategy I recommended. On two occasions, we even agreed to cancel the presentation — it was going to be a waste everyone’s time.
Things happen quickly in business, and the questions you asked on Tuesday could have completely different answers the following Monday. Asking if anything’s changed before you dive in can save you enormous heartache.
