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Welcome to this week's
NeverColdCall.com Newsletter
by #1 Bestselling Author
Frank Rumbauskas
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FROM:
Frank Rumbauskas
"The KISS Test"
We've all heard the term KISS at one time or another - "Keep It
Simple, Stupid." We all understand the logic behind it. However,
I've come to realize that the vast majority of salespeople, sales
managers, and sales trainers violate this basic principle of
business and selling more often than not.
Looking back on every sales training program I've been through,
whether it was new-hire training at a job, a private training class
I signed up for on my own, or a book I've read, every last one of
them over-complicates the selling process and essentially sets
salespeople up to oversell themselves out of sales.
Let me start with some examples of what I'm talking about. At one
position I held, I sat next to someone who was an excellent
salesperson except for the fact that he had the nasty habit of
always talking himself out of sales. He and I both operated much the
same in that rather than cold call, we ran our own personal
marketing programs to generate leads and simply took the calls that
came in as a result. The problem is what he did with the calls. When
someone called me, ready to buy, I immediately went into closing the
deal and making arrangements to either come out with the paperwork
or to fax it over. This guy, on the other hand, went into a
full-length company story, a full-length explanation of the service,
and a lot of other information that he absolutely should not tell a
clearly qualified prospect unless they specifically ask for it. The
end result is that people who called ready to sign up for one of our
more expensive services either changed their mind and dropped to the
entry-level service or they lost interest and didn't buy anything at
all.
Another example is something that I experienced just last week. I
was searching the web for local companies that could provide a
particular service I need for my company. I found the website of a
company that appeared capable of serving my needs so I called and
asked to speak to a salesperson. We spoke for ten minutes and it was
clear that they had exactly what I was looking for, and at the right
price. I asked to have contracts emailed to me in order that I could
sign up and get started right away on setup. Well, getting off the
phone wasn't quite that easy. Here I was, already saying "Yes, I'm
going to buy," and this sales rep launched into a full-blown company
story about how they've been in business for over twenty years, how
they have so many hundred clients worldwide, and on and on and on.
If they weren't so appropriate for my needs I might have gotten
annoyed and changed my mind, but lucky for this rep, the product
sold itself. If that wasn't enough, the email arrived later that
day. The requested proposal and contracts were attached, but the
email itself was a good two pages of more company story nonsense,
more useless drivel about all the big important clients they have,
and more waste-of-time bragging about their capabilities. I was
half-amazed that my spam filter didn't delete this one upon arrival.
The sad part about all this is that even though I still bought, I'm
willing to bet that a lot of people don't. Nothing is more
frustrating than picking up the phone saying, "Hi, here I am with a
check in hand, ready to buy," and having some rep go into a story
bragging about how great the company is and all that they can do. To
a business owner, that comes off as pure arrogance. What's more,
talking about all your big enterprise clients alienates most small
business owners. They assume their needs will be placed second to
those of the big dogs and that they'll be treated as just a number
when calling for service. Here is a salesperson with a great service
that fills a particular niche, and yet she's probably throwing money
out the window by talking herself out of sales on a regular basis.
Going back to sales training I've experienced, I think most training
is at the root of this massive problem. Every course I've taken has
gone through the steps of a sale and they teach salespeople to go
through all the steps. The problem is, what if all the steps don't
take place? For example, "objection handling" is always taught as
one of the steps of a sale. But what if the prospect doesn't have
any objections? When I called that company last week, I'd already
passed the "objection handling" stage simply because the website did
a thorough job of handling my objections. When I was working for
that company I mentioned earlier, simply taking the calls that came
into my line as a result of my personal marketing program, many of
those prospects had no objections because my marketing program took
care of them in advance. By assuming that each of these steps are
going to take place, a lot of salespeople will cause something to
happen when it really shouldn't have to begin with. If a prospect
doesn't come up with any major objections, don't give them a reason
to! It's like shooting yourself in the foot with a really big gun!
I've seen a lot of companies and managers that require their reps to
fill out a "lead sheet" or something similar that documents each
step of the sale. This assumes that each of the steps will happen
when they may not. If you're required to maintain these types of
records, skip anything that doesn't happen naturally. Don't induce a
prospect to enter a selling phase that may not only be unnecessary,
but may cause you to lose the sale entirely.
Use the KISS test when you're selling. Before every action you take
with a prospect, ask yourself if you're keeping it simple or if
you're throwing monkey wrenches in your machinery. Believe me,
you'll save yourself a lot of wasted time, headaches, and lost sales
by doing so. I did.
As always, I never end a newsletter without a sales pitch to buy my
program. I'd have no right to call myself a salesman if I didn't!
Here's the order page:
Order 'Cold Calling Is A Waste Of Time' right
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Do it right now. You'll have the e-book in just a
few minutes, and can start putting my system to use immediately.
(To order by phone please call (602)231-6711, 24
hours a day, 7 days a week.)
Be sure to send in any questions you'd like to see
answered in a future mailbag. The email address is:
newsletter@nevercoldcall.com
And keep the success stories
coming. Include "Success Story" as the subject
line and send to:
successstories@nevercoldcall.com
I read those first!
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Thanks once again for your time and thank you for
reading. Good luck and happy selling!
To your success,
Frank J. Rumbauskas, Jr.
PS: Imagine what it would be like if you never
had to make a cold call - ever again. You'll be able to do exactly
that with "Cold Calling Is A Waste Of Time: Sales Success In The
Information Age" - get it right now:
Order 'Cold Calling Is A Waste Of Time' right
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Copyright 2008 Frank J. Rumbauskas, Jr. and FJR
Advisors, LLC. All rights reserved. "Cold Calling
Is A Waste Of Time: Sales Success In The Information
Age" and "Never Cold Call Again" are registered
trademarks of FJR Advisors, LLC.
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