45 Seconds to Sales Success
By: Jennifer Nietz
I often get asked by clients to let them see our call script. We don’t use scripts, but rather prefer what we refer to as call plans.
Call plans are built to serve as a framework for our conversations with prospects. These call plans are designed to put critical information at our fingertips.
We teach our salespeople to use the call plan as a guide. We believe that reading scripts causes a person to sound more like a robot than someone who is intelligently interested in helping a decision maker through an important buying decision.
We stress to our account executives that the opening statement needs to be as powerful as possible.
Consider it a 45-second success statement.
There are four elements that lead to 45 Seconds to Sales Success:
1) Your message must be less than one minute in length.
Next time you are leaving a sales voicemail, record it. Listen to it and notice the time on it.
If it is over a minute, you have probably stopped listening to your own message. That is what your prospect does also.
Continue to refine your message and the length so that you can assure you maintain the attention of the decision maker.
2) Prove your power.
What is the name of your company, and why are you the best at what you do?
Are you the largest, most experienced, fastest, safest, greenest, or most competitive?
Tell them and try to prove it in your power statement.
3) Encapsulate your relevant experience.
What is your specific experience, and who is that experience with?
If you can, tell them who you work with, or if that is confidential, tell them the type of work you’ve done that is impressive and germane to your prospect.
4) Give them a reason to call back.
Tell them why. This could be that they are the ideal client or have similarities to the type of client you have worked with in the past.
You may just want to verify some information you have learned about them or their organization, and discuss the opportunity a relationship with your organization could produce.
In summary, the voicemail is a great way to convey critical information and have a decision maker start to develop trust. Very few voicemails get returned, but taking the above steps will increase that potential.
Voicemails develop curiosity, credibility, recognition, and trust; keep refining your call plans and never give up!
*Note: This article was originally published in December 2013 and has been updated and revised for relevance.
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