If you’re anything like me, you receive a dozen of these calls a day.
Posted: Sun Dec 22, 2024 6:14 am
“I’m with XYX Company. We do this and that. We’ve bee phone number database n recognized by so many great organizations and do a better job than other companies similar to us. If you are in front of your computer, go to this URL and I can show you our product.”
Telephone Prospecting Fail
I sighed and said I was driving and was not in front of my computer. Now was not a good time. They continued, “Okay, no problem. Let’s schedule some time this week — about 30-40 minutes — and I can show you more.”
Maybe it’s ego. Maybe it’s the desire to feel important. Maybe we believe what we have to say is more important than our peers. Maybe we believe they actually care about what we are saying. Maybe we just like to hear ourselves talk.
I don’t know why people often talk more when they should be listening. Really listening. Especially in sales, when a potential customer’s time is so valuable.
I heard a statistic once stating the average person thinks about themselves 90 percent of the time. So, no matter the topic, people put a small portion of it into their own context. How can they relate to this? Do they believe what I am saying? Will this provide them more knowledge, help them become better, confirm or dispute a core belief?
At the end of the exchange, it really is not about you, it’s about them. Simply changing the paradigm to seek first to understand, then to be understood can have a profound impact on your relationship with other people. In any relationship, I am encouraged when I met someone who is a great listener. They’re engaged, and asking probing questions. They seek clarification and make me feel more important. Mostly, they just make me feel heard.
As we interact with people in sales and marketing, how many of them are too busy talking (about themselves, their company, their product) in their telephone prospecting pitch to listen to what is important to us?
Is your sales and marketing messaging mostly focused on you (company/product) or focused on the customer? Do you have a good story to share relating to a company that did a great job of initially engaging a prospective customer and incorporated “listening” into the conversation?
We’re friends of a company that markets software into a tightly defined market of retailers. Last year they invested heavily in an inbound marketing strategy. It was designed to “soften the beaches” for the sales team, generate sales-ready leads. But they wondered if they were marketing to the right customers.
The marketing director hired a team of savvy inbound marketers. By the end of the first year, a ton of leads filled their system and social media stats were through the roof. It was time to celebrate.
Telephone Prospecting Fail
I sighed and said I was driving and was not in front of my computer. Now was not a good time. They continued, “Okay, no problem. Let’s schedule some time this week — about 30-40 minutes — and I can show you more.”
Maybe it’s ego. Maybe it’s the desire to feel important. Maybe we believe what we have to say is more important than our peers. Maybe we believe they actually care about what we are saying. Maybe we just like to hear ourselves talk.
I don’t know why people often talk more when they should be listening. Really listening. Especially in sales, when a potential customer’s time is so valuable.
I heard a statistic once stating the average person thinks about themselves 90 percent of the time. So, no matter the topic, people put a small portion of it into their own context. How can they relate to this? Do they believe what I am saying? Will this provide them more knowledge, help them become better, confirm or dispute a core belief?
At the end of the exchange, it really is not about you, it’s about them. Simply changing the paradigm to seek first to understand, then to be understood can have a profound impact on your relationship with other people. In any relationship, I am encouraged when I met someone who is a great listener. They’re engaged, and asking probing questions. They seek clarification and make me feel more important. Mostly, they just make me feel heard.
As we interact with people in sales and marketing, how many of them are too busy talking (about themselves, their company, their product) in their telephone prospecting pitch to listen to what is important to us?
Is your sales and marketing messaging mostly focused on you (company/product) or focused on the customer? Do you have a good story to share relating to a company that did a great job of initially engaging a prospective customer and incorporated “listening” into the conversation?
We’re friends of a company that markets software into a tightly defined market of retailers. Last year they invested heavily in an inbound marketing strategy. It was designed to “soften the beaches” for the sales team, generate sales-ready leads. But they wondered if they were marketing to the right customers.
The marketing director hired a team of savvy inbound marketers. By the end of the first year, a ton of leads filled their system and social media stats were through the roof. It was time to celebrate.