“Never be afraid to ask questions.” – Veronica McGibney in today’s Tip 669

How about you? Do you afraid to ask questions?

Join the conversation below and share your thoughts!

Veronica McGibney on LinkedIn

Have feedback? Want to share a sales tip? Call or text the Sales Success Hotline: 512-777-1442 or Email: [email protected]

Transcript

Scott Ingram: You’re listening to the Daily Sales Tips podcast and I’m your host, Scott Ingram. Today’s tip comes from Veronica McGibney. Veronica describes herself as a Fashionista turned SALESista. Shes an experienced SDR, BDR and manager and is driven by creativity and relationships and she takes pride in being authentic. Here she is:

Veronica McGibney: Hello. My sales tip is to always ask questions, never feel intimidated or embarrassed to ask a question. It can be scary to be that vulnerable, to show people potentially a weakness because we may not know something, but just recently as I was networking and building relationships on LinkedIn, a couple sales leaders were talking about different acronyms. And instead of liking it saying that I agree, I took a step and I said, “What does this mean?” And I was nervous because I didn’t want to seem stupid, but because I asked, I learned and now that’s something else I have in my arsenal of knowledge and information. So never be afraid to ask questions.

Scott Ingram: For more about Veronica and to connect with her on LinkedIn, just click over to DailySales.Tips/669

Then, be sure to come back tomorrow for another great sales tip. Thanks for listening!

Oh, and if you’re in the US. You can now join the listener list by texting DST to 55444. Give it a shot and I’ll talk to you tomorrow.

“LinkedIn is just such a great way to build rapport and build a relationship.” – Millie Gulley in today’s Tip 668

Are you personalizing your LinkedIn connection request?

Join the conversation below and check out the full interview with Millie!

Millie Gulley on LinkedIn
Millie Gulley on Sales Success Stories Interview
LinkedIn Sales Stars

Have feedback? Want to share a sales tip? Call or text the Sales Success Hotline: 512-777-1442 or Email: [email protected]

Transcript

Scott Ingram: You’re listening to the Daily Sales Tips podcast and I’m your host, Scott Ingram. Today’s tip is a clip from the newest Sales Success Stories episode that we just released today, featuring Millie Gulley who was the top SDR at Sprinklr before her very recent promotion to an Account Executive role. It also fits nicely with our release of the final update to the LinkedIn Stars Stars Top 100 list for the year. Here’s Millie:

Millie Gulley: I think my favorite thing to do is to leverage LinkedIn because LinkedIn is such a great way to build relationships with people that are in like these awesome industries and different verticals. But for me, I’ve feel I’ve really mastered the art of building relationships and knowing the right time to turn it into a soft call to action.

So, you know, as I prospect all, always, no matter if I’m just going to email say 10 people today from that company, I will go ahead and add as many people from that company across our product line that I could potentially talk to, right. Maybe they’re not the number one or two days priority, but I’m going to add them so that I can eventually get to them on LinkedIn because it’s such an easy way to get wins.

And for me, I’ll always look at the profile, I’ll leverage the research I’ve done for the emails, and once they’ve accepted my connection request, I’ll always look for a way to personalize that. That was a gal once from Kentucky, I forget which company she was at, but she was from Kentucky. And I told her this story about how me and my mom were traveling across the country. And we went to Cracker-barrel and we thought it was the only restaurant that we hold. It was the only Cracker Barrel in America. And then we got to the next day and realized it was a chain. And so I told her that funny story and she found it hilarious and we went back and forth for a week. And eventually, I was like, “Hey, I see you do this like, you know, we work with XYZ. I would love to just know, see you open to learning a bit more about this.“

And LinkedIn, I think is just such a great way to build rapport and build a relationship before you just asked very softly, you know, can I just spend a bit of time, like learning more about your role. And secondly, on LinkedIn, I love sending videos. So if someone accepts my request and it feels right, like I’ll just pull out my phone and I will send them a really personalized video, for example, like, “Hey Scott, I saw your recent post. I love that you said this and this…” adding a bit of personalization in there, and then just throwing out a similar kind of email on the format. Like we work with XYZ. I see you do this. I imagine like this, and this is a headache, you know, would you be interested in learning a bit more about how we work in your space and I’ll send the video and I found it super effective, right. Because it’s a way to stand out and that’s really what makes you successful with SDR. Like you need to stand out from the sea of people that are trying to get to them. So I would definitely recommend like lean on those videos.

Scott Ingram: Yeah. So a couple of questions there. So as you’re sending out those initial connection requests and you’re kind of going broadly across the account, are you personalizing that connection request or are you coming back with personalization once they accept?

Millie Gulley: I always play around a bit and I think it depends if they seem like a real change agent and they are very social, then I’ll throw out like a little message when I do send the requests. But for the most part, I have found like a pretty successful connection rate, which I’m really fortunate about. Cause I know that not everyone has found that. And then I’ll go in with a very personalized note because to me, if someone’s accepting that initial request, like they’re open to a conversation, whether it be about sprinkler is another story, but they’re at least open for me to say like, “Hey, thank you for accepting” and a personalized note. So I’ll lean on it for like the change agents and like the number one person I want. But for the most part, like what helps me kind of spread wide and thin is sending as many of those and then leaning on the ones that accept.

Scott Ingram: For a link to Millie’s full episode and to the LinkedIn Sales Stars list, just click over to DailySales.Tips/668 and we’ll have everything for you there.

Then be sure to come back tomorrow for another great sales tip. Thanks for listening!

“The one who’s under the most pressure loses the negotiation because they are more likely to give in.” – Mark Schenkius in today’s Tip 667

Do you feel pressured to meet your sales targets?

Join the conversation below and share your thoughts!

ROI 10
The Other Side of Sales
Mark Schenkius on LinkedIn
619. Quarter End & The “Expiring Discount” – Todd Caponi

Have feedback? Want to share a sales tip? Call or text the Sales Success Hotline: 512-777-1442 or Email: [email protected]

Transcript

Scott Ingram: You’re listening to the Daily Sales Tips podcast and I’m your host, Scott Ingram. Today Mark Schenkius is back to add some additional perspective to a previous tip from Todd Caponi. Mark is the founder of ROI 10 where he helps sales professionals get better at dealing with buyers, and he’s also the author of “The Other Side of Sales,” where he shares his perspective after 15 years in procurement. Here he is:

Mark Schenkius: Hi everyone, I was recently listening to Daily Sales Tip #619 by Todd Caponi where he talks about companies offering time-bound discounts to their consumers or customers. He mentions a lot of valid points and considering the fact that year-end is approaching, I thought I’d add an additional buyer’s perspective here.

Buyers know that sellers are under pressure to meet their targets by year-end and that sellers are willing to offer discounts to make that happen.

Negotiations are often about pressure. The one who’s under the most pressure loses the negotiation because they are more likely to give in. And one of the most common used pressure tools is time.

“You only have 2 days before the offer expires”

“If we can’t get to a deal now, I am going to check other options”

The big question here is: what pressure is the buyer under? What are their deadlines?

Finding out helps you in removing your own pressures and allows you to focus on theirs. However, if you do feel pressured to meet your sales targets, then consider the following:

If a seller offers a discount to a buyer, the first thing going through their heads are thoughts like this:

“Wow, I guess I normally overpay” or even worse

“You tried to cheat me and you didn’t succeed. How do I know you’re offering me a fair price now?”

Whatever those thoughts are, they all erode trust which I believe is disastrous for any sales professional. The trick is to always make your offers explicitly conditional so a buyer doesn’t feel cheated. You’re basically offering them a new kind of deal.

Try the following approach when making an offer to a buyer close to year-end. This method is focused on addressing the elephant in the room and helps you to put pressure on the buyer to take a decision. Here goes:

“Quite frankly, I would really love to close this deal before year-end as it helps me in achieving my targets for this year. That’s actually the reason why I can offer you this fantastic price. Unfortunately, that means the offer expires on 31 st December at which stage we will go back to the standard pricing of the products or services you need.”

By saying this, you have addressed the elephant in the room which is all about making a sale before a deadline. You have confirmed the assumption of the buyer by openly sharing this information. You have made the offer conditional by adding a time element to it. At the same time, you have put pressure on the buyer to take a decision before year-end otherwise, they will feel they lost a potentially good deal. And losing a good deal is something a buyer will always find hard to swallow.

Happy negotiations everyone!

Scott Ingram: For more about Mark and his book “The Other Side of Sales,” click over to DailySales.Tips/667 and we’ll have everything for you there including a link to Todd Caponi’s original tip that prompted this response.

Once you’ve checked that out, be sure to come back tomorrow for another great sales tip. Thanks for listening!

“Limits improve a customer’s expectation of what a product or service does and doesn’t do.” – Anthony Coundouris in today’s Tip 666

Do you naming limits?

Join the conversation below and check out the links!

4Qs Framework
run_frictionless Website
run_frictionless: How to free a founder from a sales
Anthony Coundouris on LinkedIn

Have feedback? Want to share a sales tip? Call or text the Sales Success Hotline: 512-777-1442 or Email: [email protected]

Transcript

Scott Ingram: You’re listening to the Daily Sales Tips podcast and I’m your host, Scott Ingram. Today’s tip comes from Anthony Coundouris. Anthony has a decade of experience consulting with technology and SAAS startups. He specializes in designing automated sales and marketing systems and is the author of the book run_frictionless. Here he is:

Anthony Coundouris: Thanks, Scott, for having me on the show. In today’s Daily Sales Tip, I’d like to teach why it is beneficial to name limits.

If you guessed I’m an Australian, you guessed right. Fun fact about Australians. 80% of us live on the east coast with the remaining 10% on the west coast. I’m an east coast fella.

Here’s the definition of naming limits

When you are creating a sales process, a customer learns as much from the list of functions as they do from the list of limits. Limits improve a customer’s expectation of what a product or service does and doesn’t do. The boundaries of expectations are defined by both.

Here’s why you want to start naming limits

Have you ever visited a restaurant, been seated, had your order taken, dined on some tasty food, and then been told your credit card is not accepted when trying to pay the bill? If you had this experience, it is likely the restaurant didn’t make limits known in the early game.

When salespeople disguise a limit in the early game and reveal the limit in the endgame, they destroy any trust built with the customer. Think of the early, middle, and endgame as three stages of your sales process.

I consult to many SaaS companies serving business customers. A common problem they have is when a customer buys their software, the customer experiences a long on-boarding process.

Let’s address this friction-point by telling the customer automated onboarding is not available today. However, you have three work-arounds.

Work-around one. Use Excel to perform a few tasks manually. While your application can shoulder the majority of the workload, a this-party desktop application handles 5% of operations.

Work-around two. Sign up to a partner application via an API. Rather than your organization shouldering the burden of every feature request, you draw on third party applications with a cloud-ecosystem. <

Work-around three. You offer to handle onboarding manually for your customer, free. You free the customer of the friction by setting up an offshore team who handle repetitive, manually-intensive tasks.

In all three examples we name limits and work-arounds. Every organization has product limits. Even Google with a market cap of US$1BN name product limits. The difference is whether you choose to name limits in the early game or bury them.

Let’s sum up

If you followed my advice and named limits in the early game, you made a good call. Here’s why.

“Talk to people who have been successful in the past.” – Jeff Bajorek in today’s Tip 665

How do you know what that process is supposed to look like?

Join the conversation below and check out the links!

Jeff Bajorek Blog Post
Jeff’Bajorek on LinkedIn
The Why And The Buy Podcast
Rethink The Way You Sell Community
Rethink The Way You Sell: When It Goes Sideways

Have feedback? Want to share a sales tip? Call or text the Sales Success Hotline: 512-777-1442 or Email: [email protected]

Transcript

Scott Ingram: You’re listening to the Daily Sales Tips podcast and I’m your host, Scott Ingram. Here’s Jeff Bajorek with his weekly contribution to the show:

Jeff Bajorek: Focused on a process you get results. Focused on results you get frustrated. Well, how do you know what that process is supposed to look like? Well, you start with the results that’s where the paradox starts to come in. Look, if you were doing what needed to be done, you’d be getting the results that you’re looking for. My friend, Anthony Iannarino told me that and it’s something that sticks with me. But the thing is you, you need to focus on the activities that are going to drive those results because the results themselves are out of your control. You’ve been doing this long enough to know that people don’t buy when you tell them to buy when they’re ready. And your job is to put yourself in a position to have as many people buying as you possibly can. It’s kind of the paradox of selling, right?

So how do you know where you’re supposed to start? How do you know what you’re supposed to do? Well, if you’re in a startup, unfortunately, that means you’ve got to try some things, give them a long enough leash to see if they’re going to pan out. And then you have to check your results against what you’re doing. But the chances are you’ve been working in an organization or you are working in an organization that’s been doing this awhile. And if they’ve been doing this awhile, they undoubtedly have best practices that they can help you understand so that you can layout your own process, something that’s going to work for you.

So my advice to you is to talk to people who have been successful in the past. And don’t just ask them what they did to get that success or attain that success, ask them why they think it worked. These will be great conversations. These are the conversations I had with my mentor when I got started. And he’ll tell me, he actually told me today, that those questions that I asked him, it made him better too. Cause he had to really think about the things that he did and why they worked. And when you understand why things work, you can become adaptable. You can take that concept. You can make the actions your own working within that concept.

So look, the results are ultimately the thing that we need to check our actions against. But when you get down to your day to day, it’s your consistent activity within that sales process, that’s going to yield the results that you’re looking for. Look, I hope I haven’t talked in too many circles here. I think you can grasp what I’m trying to say. You have to control the things that are within your control in order to not drive yourself crazy in this profession. But the things that you need to do are dictated by how well they turn out.

Scott Ingram: Like Anthony Iannarino. Jeff Bajorek has a really good blog where he often goes deeper into these ideas. We’ll have a link to his blog and his newsletter at DailySales.Tips/665 and I’d encourage you to check them both out.

Then, be sure to come back tomorrow for another great sales tip. Thanks for listening!

“Starting off with what they hope to get out of it might be an interesting take on something we probably all been doing for years.” – Christine Rogers in today’s Tip 664

How do you set expectations in your sales process?

Join the conversation below and learn more about Christine!

Aspireship
Christine Rogers on LinkedIn
Submit a Sales Tip

Have feedback? Want to share a sales tip? Call or text the Sales Success Hotline: 512-777-1442 or Email: [email protected]

Transcript

Scott Ingram: You’re listening to the Daily Sales Tips podcast and I’m your host, Scott Ingram. Today’s tip comes from Christine Rogers. Christine is a seasoned sales and marketing leader with over 15 years of recruiting, hiring, training, and managing high-performing sales teams. She’s currently the President and COO of Aspireship, a platform designed to train and match-high potential sales candidates with great SAAS companies looking to hire. Here she is:

Christine Rogers: Setting expectations. You know, we do a great job of setting expectations in the sales process. We start every call, every zoom with a quick overview of where we’ve been and where we want to go set up expectations for, you know, if all goes well, this is where we’ll end up at the end of this conversation.

But what about the expectations of our prospect the most, the last time you asked them what they think about this call, what their expectations are and what they’re hoping to get out of this specific conversation, or more importantly, what are they hoping or expecting about onboarding or timing or ongoing client management? What does that mean for them?

I think we might be missing something here. I know that it’s critical for us to set the tone and really control the call and control the process in a way that feels good for the client and for the prospect. But I think maybe starting off with what they hope to get out of it might be an interesting take on something we probably all been doing for years.

Scott Ingram: To learn more about Christine and Aspireship and to connect with her on LinkedIn. Just click over to DailySales.Tips/664 and we’ll have everything for you there.

Then, make sure you’re subscribed to the podcast so you never miss an episode and come on back tomorrow for another great sales tip. Thanks for listening!

“I’ve just learned that I love speaking to college students. They ask great questions. Their excitement and desire to learn and grow is infectious. Hopefully, we inspire each other.” – Scott Ingram in today’s Tip 663

How about you? Do you have your own LinkedIn tips?

Join the conversation below and feel free to share your ideas!

LinkedIn Sales Stars list
Submit a Sales Tip

Have feedback? Want to share a sales tip? Call or text the Sales Success Hotline: 512-777-1442 or Email: [email protected]

Transcript

Scott Ingram: You’re listening to the Daily Sales Tips podcast and I’m your host, Scott Ingram. Last week I had an opportunity to speak to the students participating in the Northern Intercollegiate Sales Competition (NISC) at the invitation of Dr. Stefanie Boyer. We forgot to record the opening chunk of what I shared so I promised them that I’d do a quick recap tip just for them here on Daily Sales Tips. So I’m going to cram as much of that into the next 5 minutes or so as I can. The focus was on LinkedIn. So here we go:

First, start with the basics and your profile. Make sure you’ve got a professional headshot that represents you well. Your picture speaks volumes and shows up everywhere that you do on LinkedIn, so make sure you’ve got that squared away. From there, make sure you’ve got a strong headline and give people some insights into who you are in your about section. Don’t be afraid to be human and be yourself here. This shouldn’t read like a resume, but instead should be a friendly, easy way for people to get a sense of who you are. These are all important elements.

Once you’ve got the basics taken care of on your profile. Connect with people! That’s what LinkedIn is all about. It’s an incredible tool to help you stay connected with people. Take a long term view of this as well. Your friends today won’t always be in junior positions. 10 years from now you’ll be amazed at where they end up and the type of work they’re doing and the positions they’ve grown into. Stay in touch and work to maintain those connections over time. There’s literally no better tool than LinkedIn to help you do that.

This is a little hard to do right now, but things won’t always be this way. As much and as often as you can. Take things offline. LinkedIn and social networking platforms are great, but remember these are real people. Find ways to be with those real people. Connect over coffee, have a drink, or until that’s safe to do, setup a Zoom either one to one, or for a small group of people you’d like to develop deeper relationships with. There’s great power in being a connector, and it takes very little effort.

If you want to really start building your brand and start posting on the platform. Work to be consistent. You certainly don’t need to post everyday. LinkedIn will actually start to slow you down if you post more than once a day. Think about a manageable schedule that you can maintain over the long term. Even once a week is perfectly fine. Think you can do 2-3 times a week. Great. Just try to develop a cadence that you can execute consistently.

To get even better at posting I’d suggest you do two things. Learn from other people who are doing it well. You can find a ton of those folks on my LinkedIn Sales Stars list, and I’ll include a link to that list at DailySales.Tips/663 where you’ll also find a transcript of this tip. But don’t just watch what they do. Don’t be shy about reaching out and connecting in a more meaningful way. Ask them a question. Ask them for a few minutes to really connect in a meaningful way. One of the things I typically do is to informally bring the LinkedIn Sales Stars together after each update of the list, and we’ll be updating that list shortly. Doesn’t take a lot of effort and we all get an opportunity to get to know each other and learn from each other.

Last but not least, be you. Authenticity wins on LinkedIn. Give us some insights into who you are, what you’re interested in, and especially at this stage, what you’re learning. You don’t have to be the world’s foremost expert on anything yet. There’s value in sharing your journey. Post about the things that you’re focused on. Talk about your failures and what’s not working. All of these things remind the rest of us, who might be ahead of you on your journey of some of the important basics. There’s a ton of value in that. Inject your personality and your humanity. Be somebody that others might want to connect with based on some of those shared interests you’ve exposed.

I’ve just learned that I love speaking to college students. They ask great questions. Their excitement and desire to learn and grow is infectious. Hopefully, we inspire each other.

Thanks to Stefanie and the students for having me and being so engaged. I hope you’ll all subscribe to the podcast and keep learning, and then come on back tomorrow for another great sales tip. Thanks for listening!

“Listening will create that empathy, that empathy allows you to get vulnerable with that buyer. And when you get vulnerable, you create an advantage that sets you apart from your competitors.” – Beau Brooks in today’s Tip 662

How about you? Do you ask tough questions?

Join the conversation below and learn more about Beau!

Beau Brooks on LinkedIn
Ripple Effect Podcast
Formstack for Sales & Marketing
How to Create Automated Sales Workflows
Respond to Leads Faster with Formstack for Salesforce 

Have feedback? Want to share a sales tip? Call or text the Sales Success Hotline: 512-777-1442 or Email: [email protected]

Transcript

Scott Ingram: You’re listening to the Daily Sales Tips podcast and I’m your host, Scott Ingram. Today’s tip comes from Beau Brooks. Beau is the SVP of Sales and Customer Experience at Formstack, a workplace productivity platform used by over 27,000 organizations worldwide to digitize what matters, automate workflows and fix processes, all without code. Previously Beau lead Sales and CX teams at Signpost, and Customer Retention efforts at Dish Network. Here he is:

Beau Brooks: Have you ever been watching a movie and noticed as one character says to another, tell me something that no one else in the world knows about you. Well, that today is our sales tip. In those situations. Characters are trying to build a strong, emotional connection. We know in sales that customers buy emotionally and then justify it rationally in their heads. So as a salesperson, we are always trying to find a way to create a stronger emotional connection to get that buyer to think emotionally.

Everyone that we’re fighting within a sales process is generally following the same process. They’re using a sales methodology to walk through discovery, demonstrate their product or service, go through objection handling, and then move to close for you as a salesperson to set yourself apart, finding those emotional connections through difficult questions will put your customer into a state that will allow them to think differently, to think emotionally.

This seems like a very basic thing, asking tough questions. Obviously, we’re going to do that as salespeople, but it is so infrequently used because it is a very uncomfortable process to go through. Listening to what your customers say is the key to this. My encouragement is as you walk into a sales conversation, start with those one or two questions that you want to ask in order to understand why your buyer’s engaging with you. What problem are they looking to solve? And then sit back and thoroughly, listen to the things that your customer is saying. They will give you tons of clues in their answer as to what their withholding, what may be really bothering them under the surface that they’re not revealing. Those things can be seen in things that they repeat in things that they emphasize. And in tone and body language changes if you’re on video, that gives you a great way to sit back and listen and diagnose those.

Then you move forward through the sales conversation by replying with questions, responsively based on what they’ve given you, rather than following a script of questions that we do through your discovery and analysis of what your customer cares about. Being responsive to this process is key to creating an emotional connection.

And then last get vulnerable. As you’ve identified these areas where you feel, you can sense it, that the customer is not telling you they’re withholding something. That’s key to the reason that they want to solve this problem, get vulnerable with that customer, and ask them very directly, almost uncomfortably. What that thing maybe. It feels like you’re not telling me something, but there’s something that you really care about here. And I really need to understand that in order to help you solve this problem, that will cause the customer to pause and think, and hopefully drop their guard to give you a piece of information that not only helps you as you demonstrate your product or service and how you’ll solve their problem but also creates that stronger emotional connection that your competitors, that your buyer is also talking to won’t have.

Early in my time at Formstack, we had the great opportunity to work with one of the top four sports organizations in the U S and early in the sales conversation. The customer was asking us about taking online donations and volunteer information in a seamless way where they could facilitate their different teams in doing this process as well.

Through several product demonstrations and conversations, we showed them examples of how we’d solve this for other organizations. We walked them through how we would assist them in getting to a good spot. And the question kept coming up. It came up three, four times.

And finally, I looked at the CTO on a video call and I said, you know what? We have answered this question several times, but it keeps coming up. There’s something that you’re not telling us. And if we can get that out on the table, it’s really going to help us get to the root of the problem that you’re trying to solve. And I remember as clear as it was yesterday, CTO stopped. What out a big sigh took a pause and then told me, we screwed up. There’s something that we need to fix. And his job was on the line. His team was not looking good in the organization. And he confessed that to me. And it completely changed the way that we demo the product. We showed them specifically what they were needing to do. And by the end of that call, the CTO told us we’re done looking at competitors. We’re ready to move forward. Let’s figure out a way to get this done and that emotional connection by asking him a really tough question that nobody else in the sales process within our competitor’s organizations was willing to ask, created that emotional connection. That’s now led to a multi-year relationship with this organization that continues to grow, and we’re their trusted advisor and data capture.

So focus on listening in your questions. Listening will create that empathy, that empathy allows you to get vulnerable with that buyer. And when you get vulnerable, you create an advantage that sets you apart from your competitors. That’s it. Get emotional and ask those really tough questions.

Scott Ingram: We’ve got links for you to connect with Beau and learn more about Formstack at DailySales.Tips/662.

Once you’ve done that, make sure you’re subscribed to this podcast and come on back tomorrow for another great sales tip. Thanks for listening!

“Do consistently for every single call, the exactly verbatim, and the tone” – Marcus Chan in today’s Tip 661

How about you? How do you leave a voicemail?

Join the conversation below and check out the links!

Marcus Chan Resources
Marcus Chan Webinar
Real B2B Sales Talk Community
Marcus Chan on LinkedIn

Have feedback? Want to share a sales tip? Call or text the Sales Success Hotline: 512-777-1442 or Email: [email protected]

Transcript

Scott Ingram: You’re listening to the Daily Sales Tips podcast and I’m your host, Scott Ingram. Today’s tip comes from Marcus Chan. Marcus is the founder of Venli Consulting Group where he helps salespeople sell more and sell better without needing years of experience. He’s been featured on Yahoo! Finance, MarketWatch, NBC, and now the Daily Sales Tips podcast. Here he is:

Marcus Chan: Most salespeople hate leaving voicemails. Now he asked him why most of them say well it’s because they don’t call me back. And the reality is, that you’re right. You’re absolutely right. If you have the wrong voicemail. So the next few minutes, I’m going to teach you my voicemail scripting. That gets me over a 70% callback rate. I have talked to literally thousands of reps over the last decade. I’m gonna teach you step-by-step exactly what to say and how to say it. So as you listen to this, I’ll want you to really listen to the tone and the words I say, and also explain the why it’s so effective.

Now, first off, most reps, when they leave a voicemail, it sounds something like this. “Hey Scott, it’s Marcus Chan with ABC company. Hey, I’m giving you a call because I want to show his great solution has XYZ benefit. Why book a time in the calendar? Here’s my number, blah, blah, blah.” Now you might get some calls back and off that, but it’s usually pretty rare. Usually, just very, very small percent that will call back.

So instead you want to shift it to this. “Hey Scott, it’s Marcus. I’m calling in reference to ABC company. Please going back on my cell (541) 221-9999 again, (541) 221-9999. Thank you.” Boom. That’s it. Notice there, the tone, it’s firm. It’s not enthusiastic. It does not sound like a salesperson. So that by itself is a pattern interrupt. They’re like, “Ooh, what’s this all about?”

The second piece is notice how limited information you gave. I didn’t say it’s Marcus Chan. I said it’s Marcus. When you say it’s Marcus, or it’s your name, the first name, the psychology behind is they recognize it as like, “Oh, should I know this person? Hmm.” So they’re going through their head as I listened to the voicemail. Now you sort of peak some curiosity.

And then the third piece is notice that he didn’t even say the name of company you’re working with. You just dropped a reference and now reference should be an existing company you do business with. So now they’re like, “Huh, what’s this all about?” So now what’s happening is you provide a limited information. Your tone is firm. You don’t sound like a salesperson, and now you create FOMO in their mind fear missing. So they’re not sure why you left that voicemail. And as a result that will lead to a higher likelihood of them listening to it and calling you back.

Now, if you also notice as well, it’s a very short voicemail, maybe 15 – 20 seconds long. So it’s easy and fast for them to listen to and be able to decide what to do next.

And here’s, what’s really powerful. Let’s just say, for example, you leave a voicemail on a Monday and you wait two days and you decide to call them again on Wednesday and you leave the exact same message, again. Verbatim with nothing changing. Think about if you were on the receiving of received to the same voicemail of someone sounding firm and probably limited information in which their tone is creating, it’s firm and urgent. Now your chance of them call you back increases. And what’s amazing is when you do this consistently with every single voicemail, you will see, you will get more calls back because they’re not sure why you’re calling and when they’re calling you, their guard is down and they’re more open to the conversation. They’re like, “Oh, okay.” And they’re thrown off. That’s a very powerful state to have your prospect. And when they’re calling you, I promise you to do as consistently for every single call, the exactly verbatim, how I said, and the tone you will get more calls back than you ever gotten before.

And I have had reps who say, Hey, I’m not sure how it’s going to work for me, but then they commit to it for a full week. Every single time they leave a voicemail, they saw they got more calls back than ever. And of course, was more practice with tonality and the firmness. You will see your conversions will also skyrocket as a result.

Scott Ingram: Marcus has got a killer resources page and a free webinar available for you and we’ll have links to all of that at DailySales.Tips/661

Once you’ve checked that out, be sure to come back tomorrow for another great sales tip from Beau Brooks. Thanks for listening!

“Some of the things that we see that have been key to success here are being in that mindset of video and prospecting is about opening a door and getting their attention.” – Tyler Lessard in today’s Tip 660

How about you? Do you do personalized video messages?

Join the conversation below and learn more about Tyler!

Vidyard
Tyler Lessard on LinkedIn
The Visual Sale Book

Have feedback? Want to share a sales tip? Call or text the Sales Success Hotline: 512-777-1442 or Email: [email protected]

Transcript

Scott Ingram: You’re listening to the Daily Sales Tips podcast and I’m your host, Scott Ingram. Today’s tip comes from Tyler Lessard. Tyler is the co-author of the brand new book “The Visual Sale,” host of the Creating Connections show, and Chief Video Strategist at Vidyard. In that role, he works with B2B Sales teams big and small to strategize on the use of video to book more meetings and close more deals. Here he is:

Tyler Lessard: If you will argue that video has become a critical part of how we sell in this new virtual world. In fact, Forester recently launched its 2021 B2B Sales Predictions. And at the top of the list was the expanded use of video for both live video conferences, as well as recorded personalized video messages. And it’s not hard to understand why video is such an important part of the mix now. It is of course the next best thing to being there in person, but it also gives us the opportunity to show rather than just tell, to create clarity throughout the sales process and to earn the trust of our buyers at a time when frankly it matters more than ever.

Those sales teams who have already started to adopt video above and beyond live zoom calls have seen some pretty interesting results, not just in their outbound prospecting, but throughout their entire sales process. And those who have taken a strategic approach to the kinds of videos that they’re creating, both ad hoc as a rep, as well as collectively as a team have started to see shorten deal cycles as well as higher close rates. So what are these businesses doing right? And how can the rest of us get on the video train?

Let’s start with outbound prospecting. Many of you may have already seen this out there. It’s the ability for sales reps to quickly record and send a video message via either LinkedIn or directly over email. Tools now exist to make this really simple and integrated with your existing accounts. And frankly, it can often be faster to record a video message than to type out an email that said most sales reps still don’t know how to unlock this potential in video, to help us book more meetings and get more opportunities in the door.

Some of the things that we see that have been key to success here are being in that mindset of video and prospecting is about opening a door and getting their attention. It’s about delivering a message that creates immediate rapport. That’s helpful and human, but also clearly shows them that you are there to solve a problem.

Now, the second part where we see video now used in the sales process is to start to show people what it is that you do, and to give them more customized and personalized content experiences as they go through your sales process. Now, traditionally many of us have waited until the live demos to off what we do. And then we’ll wait another two or three weeks for the next zoom call to have another live discussion or to present new ideas. But savvy sales reps are now drip-feeding their prospects with short videos throughout the weeks or days leading up to live calls. They may record a custom demo with a screen share video, walking through a specific feature or function. They might use visuals to clearly explain an answer to a question that that prospect may have, whether it be related to capabilities, benefits, how other customers use their products or services, or about pricing or competition.

Short recorded videos that cover these topics can not only be more timely and easy for prospects to consume, but they’re also easier for them to share around with other decision-makers at their organization. And it can help you move the deal along much faster than waiting for those next live calls.

And finally, we’re seeing sales reps use videos to record and share sales proposal walk-throughs. So instead of simply sending over a document and relying on them to read through it, is sharing a video where you actually talk through what it is that they’ll be getting, why the value is, what it is, what the pricing looks like, and reiterating the problems that you’re going to be solving for them.

Not only does it help your champion clearly understand what your pricing looks like, but it’s something that they can forward around to other decision-makers and they can hear your message directly rather than trying to interpret it for themselves. There are many other ways to be using video in today’s sales process and the real win for today’s sales teams are to get their reps comfortable, confident, and expert in recording and sharing videos in being strong on camera and it learning how to use different types of content at different phases of their sales process.

There’s lots of great resources out there to learn more about these ideas, but I’d encourage you to check out the new book, The Visual Sale, how to explode sales, drive marketing, and grow your business in a virtual world, which provides a myriad of ideas, best practices and real examples from modern sales and marketing teams of how they’re using video to stand out, to book more meetings and to ultimately close more deals.

Scott Ingram: Now I want you to go do three things. Grab your own copy of “The Visual Sale,” Try out Vidyard as a tool to record and send custom videos and then connect with Tyler on LinkedIn for some more tips and ideas and we’ll have links for you to do all of that at DailySales.Tips/660

Once you’ve done that. Be sure to come back tomorrow for another great sales tip from Marcus Chan!