The 6 Keys to Successful Prospecting Calls
1) What is the primary purpose of calling the prospect?
You need to consider the purpose of the call –
- What is the positive outcome you are looking to achieve?
- How will you know you’ve been successful?
If you don’t have a defined outcome don’t make the call.
What could be the main purposes of a business call?
- Contact Details – Getting a decision makers name and email address
- Arrange an appointment – Perk interest into what you have to offer
- Provide a presentation – Wow them into wanting your service/product
- Chase a commitment – Returning of contracts or closing a sale
- Relationship building – Showing your contact they are important to you
2) Preparation you need to do before making a prospecting call?
Once you know the purpose of your call, you will understand the preparation needed. Fail to plan, and you plan to fail!
Don’t full into the trap of doing too much preparation or too little! A common mistake is to research everything and anything about a prospect before calling.
We need to remember that calling prospects often results in rejection and rejection is one of the most common fears known. Your mind knows this and will create a list of reasons not to call so it can avoid this rejection. “You need to do more research” is just one of these ‘reasons’ – Don’t spend all your time researching when you could have hit the phone and got results.
3) Creating a prospecting call structure
To achieve your desired outcome, a call structure is essential.
Benefits of a call structure
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Like all good stories, your call structure should have a start beginning, middle and end.
3 Parts of a call structure
– Connect: Connect and Set the Scene
– Discover: Listen and Learn
– Recap and Confirm: Paint the picture
4) Get into the right state of mind before calling the prospect
Before even lifting the phone you need to be in the right mindset.
How to do this:
- Let it go – You need to put any emotional distractions away. Your energy is sapped by our busy lives, thinking about what you’ve got on in the day, the weekend plans, the deadlines and targets to achieve. All this takes you away from being in the moment and bleeds into your tone of voice.
- Beliefs – You must believe you will get the results you are looking for. Believe that what you are phoning up about will benefit the person, and your call is a worthwhile use of their time. Not believing in the reason for your call or the outcome will always result in a self-fulfilling prophecy.
- Energy – Get excited! Turn your power meter up to maximum. If you can’t do this, then how can you expect the prospect/client receiving your call get to excited?
5) Build Rapport with Your Prospect
Building rapport is vital in your calls. It is that special connection you can create.
People like people who are like themselves or how they like they want to be!
Rapport and the skill of asking questions is a book in its own right, let alone a blog article. Here I cover the very basics and when I say the basics, that is what I mean! Please invest time in learning rapport and asking questions, and it will change your life.
How to build rapport
- Using your vocal toolbox effectively (tone 38% words 7% Body language 55%), at the beginning of the call match your prospects vocal pace and tone. If their tone and energy is low or slow, start to lead them into a more energetic state.
- Questions are the gateway to success. They are the light sabre of the relationship building and selling game.
- Active Listening is the skill and art of showing that you are not only listening you are hearing them. Positive replies and paraphrasing can be useful here. Be careful not to be a parrot though!
6) Make notes after finishing your prospecting call
You will not remember anything like what you think you will remember, so make full notes of the conversation and update your systems.
Notes will improve the customer experience on the next interaction with your prospect or client.
You can also learn from every interaction. Taking the time to learn from every interaction will improve your results.
- Connect back with the purpose/desired outcome that you set out with at the beginning.
- How did I achieve it? or What stop me achieving it?
- What did I do well? What can I improve next time?
- The ‘What’ reflection model
- What? What happen?
- So what? What does that mean?
- Now what? What will I do next time?
