Last week, I had an annoying salesperson call me and I want to share this story with you because sales calls don’t have to annoy people! I was about three minutes from a scheduled conference call when I picked up the phone. I thought it was a client and not a sales call but either way, I had to help him quickly. Right after I answered, the man on the other end started talking about himself and how great he was. Imagine my state of mind. I am already worried about being on time for my phone call and this guy takes off all about himself. He didn’t even ask if I had a minute or tell me how it could benefit me. Because he wasn’t even taking a breath, I had to interrupt him to tell him that I had a call in one minute and I needed to go. What do you think he did? Talked faster! Seriously, I don’t know why I felt it would have been rude of me to simply hang up the phone on this guy but instead, I kept interrupting him and arguing why I needed to go. This does NOT need to be a sales situation!!! One of the first things you need to do in a sales call is to build rapport and conduct some type of needs analysis. You don’t create rapport by talking only about yourself and if you start bragging about your products/services without asking any questions, prepare for a huge NO. This is why people make excuses that are not the real reason they don’t want to buy. They say things like “I need to think about it,” or “I need to check with my spouse or business partner.”
So, what should he have done?
-Introduced himself and told me one sentence about how his product/service could benefit me.
– Asked me if he caught me at a good time or if I have a few minutes for him to tell me how his product could benefit me. If I hear a benefit that interest me, I might give a few minutes (in my case, I truly didn’t have a few minutes).
-If I had said I had a few minutes, he might have tried to build rapport by throwing out some data about our company or finding an affinity from reading our website. We give many personal details about ourselves so why not spend a few minutes doing your research?
– He could have then asked a few questions that would show him what product benefits I might be most intersted in.
– Once he identified what my needs were, he could then start his presentation. I would have been SO much more receptive to either talking with him then or rescheduling with him later.
I would love to hear your sales horror stories – whether you were the salesperson or the prospect. Sales shouldn’t be annoying!!!