For Parts 1-3 of the Essential Selling Skills Bootcamp, click here.

Telephone Prospecting

Subjects Covered

  • The Five Steps of Telephone Prospecting
  • Social Prospecting
  • Best Sales Prospecting Tools

The Reality of Telephone prospecting

When prospecting over the phone, you will encounter much rejection, and that is because you will contact more prospects than any other prospecting channel.

  • You will have everyone tell you that telephone prospecting doesn’t work or cold calling is dead.
  • You will hate it, and most of us do.

No matter what I will teach you in this training engagement, you will still hate it and hate me for talking about it.

The Five Steps of Telephone Prospecting

  1. Get their attention by saying their name first.
  2. Identify yourself and who do you represent by stating your name and your company’s name.
  3. Be transparent; by telling them the reason you are calling them.
  4. Give them a reason to continue listing to you.
  5. End the conversation with what you want by asking for an appointment or follow-up call.

 First Step – Get Their Attention

  • Get their attention by saying their name.
  • Nothing grapes someone’s attention like calling their name.
  • Don’t ask “How are you Doing?” Don’t ever PAUSE or leave any gap in the conversation. Say their name and keep going.
  • When you pause, you give them time to realize that you are a salesperson.
  • You provide them with time to create resistance.
  • You allow them to tell you that they are not interested

Tip: Make sure that you pronounce their name correctly.

Second Step – Identify Yourself

  • Get straight to the point.
  • Demonstrate that you are professional and that you respect their time.

Tip: Humans don’t want to be tricked nor manipulated so be transparent.

Third Step – Tell Them What You Want

  • People don’t like to be tricked, manipulated and have their time wasted.
  • Be truthful, relevant and to the point.
  • By telling them what this call is about you reduce their anxiety about who you are and why you are calling.

Tip: Follow a script but don’t be scripted.

Fourth Step – Give Them a Reason

  • You have interrupted their day and have told them what you want.
  • You need to give them a reason for not hanging up on you.
  • The reason will link what you want to why they should give it to you. (What’s in it for them?)
  • Your reason message is the second critical millstone to the sales process.
  • What you say in the next few seconds and how you say it will determine the outcome.

Tip: Humans don’t like it when their intelligence is insulted so avoid any gimmicky offers or solutions.

Fifth Step – Ask What You Want and End It

  • Asking for what you want is a significant step.
  • If you are qualifying your prospect, then ask for information to determine your next move.
  • If you are seeking an appointment request for a specific day and time.
  • Your goal is to get to a YES, NO or MAYBE fast.
  • Just ask for what you want and stop talking.

Social Prospecting

Social prospecting is about canvassing social networks, identifying potential prospects, and engaging them through relevant and personalized content. Through social media, the sales professional is able to engage with prospects that meet their buyer’s persona.

The Four Main Objects of Social Prospecting

  • Personal branding and building familiarity with what you represent.
  • Transforming yourself as a thought leader and subject matter expert.
  • Inbound prospecting through education and insight.
  • Outbound prospecting connecting with the right people.

How to Social Prospect

  • Share valuable and relevant content on social media. For example, post videos about your product features, followed by reviews.
  • Be active on social networks like such as LinkedIn by joining groups, posting relevant content and getting involved in discussions or questions but be vocal and controversial.
  • Send InMail via LinkedIn. Buy a Sales Navigator License from LinkedIn and use it to know when and whom to reach out to.
  • Optimize your LinkedIn profile for selling, not career building. Don’t use your job title as your headline but change it to how you can add value. Instead, write something that describes your expertise. Use your summary and career experience sections to highlight how you help your buyers.

Tip: Don’t let Social Media distract you from picking up the phone. It is a tool to let you reach out to the right prospect so you can call them.

Social Prospecting Facts

Which Social Channels to utilize?

  • Be visible on where you will find your buyers personas active.
  • Keep it limited to two or three channels.
  • Choose the one that you are comfortable with.

Attending Events and Trade Shows

Trade shows, conferences, and even events hosted by your clients and customers can help you connect with other prospects.

Tip: When attending events, remember not to pitch your products or services immediately. Spend some time getting to know potential customers and collect contact information so you can get in touch at a later date.

Keys to Successful Prospecting at Events

Review the Exhibitor /Attendees List
Highlight the ones you are interested in or may have some collaborations with. Do some research on them and try to set an appointment in advance.

Be Prepared
Use social media to research the companies and the products and services that you will be visiting. To establish the mutual benefits in approaching them.

Don’t Sell Anything
When attending events, remember not to pitch your products or services immediately. Spend some time getting to know potential customers and collect contact information so you can get in touch at a later date.

Provide them with something of value.
Offer to send a link to a useful article or website that would give them an insight from or connect them with one of your contacts that may be helpful to them. By creating value without selling them anything they are more likely to remember you the next time you reach out to them.

Use a CRM to capture your contacts and follow up with them after the event
This will help you build your Sales Professional Network and follow up with them.