If you were given an opportunity to make your business shine, highlight all the great aspects of your product, and begin forging a strong connection with your consumer, you would be excited, right? These are all things that you can do on a sales call. The sales call is a crucial piece of effectively driving your customers towards the conclusion of the sales process and achieving that close.
What is a sales call?
A sales call is the act of pitching or selling your product or business to somebody who is interested in purchasing. A sales call is often your first impression, so it’s important to be prepared to effectively communicate your product offerings. There can be several ways to pitch your product, but they all revolve around the idea of verbally communicating the benefits and features of your product or business to the potential customer. A great example of how to pitch is by using our PMP (Passion Mission Product) structure format for pitching your awesome product to buyers.
How can you prepare for a sales call?
The best thing that you can do to help prepare yourself for success is by researching the business and the person that you are going to be speaking with. Be ready to emphasize your product differentiators. This is called a value proposition, which helps showcase why customers should buy your product over a competitor. What you are going to offer should be directly aligned with their pain point. Be sure to try to anticipate any potential reservations or objections that they may have, so that you can provide detail on how your product can address these. Set objectives and goals for each sales call, so you can have a clear picture of what you are looking to achieve and how to best deliver the information to your buyer. An important goal to have is making the buyer’s job as easy as possible because of your assistance.
How do you have an effective sales call?
After a successful preparation for your sales call, it is now time to execute. When on the call, be sure to set an agenda. We recommend allowing your buyer to share a bit about what they’re looking for in a product. This allows you to tailor your message and demonstrate how your product can deliver this. As you communicate the benefits and features of your product, tailor the information to be as relevant and applicable to your potential customer as possible. As you field their questions, address their reservations and objections that you had prepared for. Focus less on going through a rehearsed sales pitch about your product, and focus more on understanding what your customer is feeling and what obstacles may be preventing them from making the purchase. If you are not able to directly resolve their issues with your product, honestly communicate to them that you understand their concerns, but you still have reason to believe that your product can still be a good fit for them.
What do you do after a successful sales call?
After completing the sales call, it is essential that you assess the call and realistically evaluate your performance. This means identifying your strengths, but also what you could have improved on. What kinds of questions did they ask? How did they receive the information that you presented to them? Taking note of all of these things will help you to effectively improve your performance for future sales calls and tailor your follow up. It is crucial that you clearly define the next steps in the process on the call, and in an email follow up. If you cannot do so during the call, make sure to provide this information as soon as possible in a detailed follow up, likely through email. This should include a general recap of your pitch and your product differentiators, and all pending details or answers that they may still need, in order to move them forward in the sales process. Showing genuine appreciation for their time and an emphasis on listening will help you establish that personal connection that you need to be developing with your contacts over time.
As we have explored throughout this resource, the sales call is a key tool that you must be leveraging in order to generate more sales. When you capitalize on this opportunity to showcase your product, it will have a positive effect on your business’ success. Always remember that not every sales call is going to be successful or even go smoothly. As you gain experience, you will become an expert on this piece of the process, and even look forward to these opportunities.