Smart Calling Part One: The Customer
Smart Calling by Art Sobczak. I highly recommend you check it out!
To preface this new series, I will be starting an apprenticeship as a sales development representative at a company called Reliant Technology towards the beginning of next month. So, to prepare myself I am currently reading a book called Smart Calling and decided to do a blog post series on what I’ve learned.
The first thing that jumped out to me during the first couple of chapters is that sales is not about what you need or what you think is useful, it’s about what the customer needs and thinks will benefit them. You have to put yourself in their shoes and understand their goals and motivators before you can even consider picking up the phone.
The reason for that is this. They won’t be interested in talking unless you make it clear that what you offer will actually have benefits for THEM. If you start the call in the mindset of “I need to make a sale” they will be able to sense that, and will lose interest very quickly. However, if you put yourself in the mindset of “what needs does the person at the other end of the call have, and how does my product/service help meet those needs?” that changes the whole point of the call. The other person does not care what you need, you have to be interested in their needs and helping them meet their needs.
When you change your mindset from a self-serving one to one devoted to helping others, it makes a big difference. When I started the application process for the position at Reliant, this was one of the first things I noticed about them and it’s what got me so excited about the opportunity! People can sense when you are more concerned with helping solve their problems than your own, and it makes a huge difference on how they perceive you.
Another thing that helps with making calls like this is knowing things about the company and/or person you are calling in advance. There’s a quote in the book that I love, and it’s a play on the quote “it’s all about who you know.” The quote is this, “it’s all about WHAT you know, about who you want to know, so you can actually get to know them.” I just love that! The point he is trying to make with that, is that you need to research the company and the person at that company who you’ll be calling so you can personalize your call even further to show that you are truly interested in their best interest. He delves into that more deeply, but I gotta leave something as a mystery so you’ll be interested in actually reading it!