Winning Clients - The Discipline of the Call

Most of us would say that we want to win. We have seen many sales professional sincerely want to produce record sales and enjoy record commissions. If enthusiasm was the only criteria most would be winners. Sadly, the main criteria for winning is preparation. And unfortunately, many sales people are not willing to prepare to win. The act of preparation, for whatever reason, is just too much for many to overcome. Truly, one thing that separates the high achievers from the mediocre is the willingness to spend an hour or even 20 minutes of completely uninterrupted, focused preparation. Yes, most people remain in mediocrity because of their attention spans, not because of ability, circumstances, access, history, parents or anything else. It is their attention span.

This is one reason we call this topic, the Discipline of the Call. It requires discipline.

What is the Call. When we refer the the Call, we mean any interaction (preferably face to face) with the prospect. You should never communicate with a prospect without first thinking through your communication, knowing what you want to accomplish, knowing how you are going to accomplish it and not wasting your prospects time. For that matter, don't waste your own time with haphazard communication that is pointless just so you can say you made a call.

There are four elements in each call: the objective, the advance, getting referrals and review.
The Objective
It would really be easy to say that having an objective goes without saying; nevertheless, experience has proven that this point is not so obvious. A clear, meaningful objective is specific and relevant to anyone involved with the call including you, your team or the prospect. One thing that we have seen repeatedly that is just downright embarrassing to the process of selling is when a sales person is lazy and wants to talk to people without being prepared, hoping to move things along by their charisma. Or perhaps they don't want to do the research they should do and would rather ask others to do their job for them. Calling a meeting with a prospect just because it has been a while since we last spoke is not a reason for a meeting. Calling a meeting with the the salesperson's support team to qualify a prospect is not a good use of the support team's time.

One thing that will quickly destroy a salesperson's credibility is wasting other people's time. Don't do it. Every call should have an objective.

The Advance
An advance is anything that helps to move the deal up or out of the pipeline. Moving up means that it gets closer to closing. Moving out means we get rid of it. We never, never, never want to spend our valuable time on deals that aren't going to close. The sooner we recognize that, the better. This requires honesty with ourselves. Throughout the sales cycle we should be honest about any indicators that this might be a no-go.

Moving a deal up can mean any number of things. Perhaps we are still trying to get to the decision maker or another person in the Circle of Influence. In that case, an objective of our call could be to get through an obstacle to that person. Perhaps we are trying to develop our value proposition. The objective of the call could be to get a key metric that fills in the blank. Perhaps we need to validate part of our value proposition. Anything that gets us closer to Go / No-Go is an advance.

Referrals
When is the right time to ask for referrals? Every time we talk with clients or prospects. This should be as natural a part of your conversation as remarking on the weather. Most sales professionals are hesitant to ask for a referral until something has been accomplished or until a prospect becomes a client. Why wait? Once the prospect understands what we have to offer, they are in a position to introduce us to others. The sales person should conduct himself in such a way that the prospect is willing to introduce them to their collegues and peers whether or not they become a client.

Review
Always review the accomplishments of the call so that everyone understands what has been accomplished and where we are in the process. Reaffirm the results of the call. Do this in writing.