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Fanatical Prospecting — Chapter-15: Telephone Prospecting Excellence

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15 Telephone Prospecting Excellence “Mr. Watson—Come here—I want to see you.” [First intelligible words spoken over the telephone] —Alexander Graham Bell Question: “How do you get a salesperson to stop working?” Answer: “Put a phone in front of him.” That’s a little joke that elicits nervous laughs at keynotes and seminars. For thousands of salespeople, picking up the phone and calling a prospect is the most stressful part of their life. Many of these reluctant salespeople stare at the phone, secretly hoping that it will disappear. They procrastinate, get ducks in a row, and work to ensure that everything is perfect before they dial. Any excuse—and I mean any excuse—to do something else takes priority. 154

They work over their leaders, too. Whining that no one answers the phone anymore. Arguing that it is a waste of time. Complaining that people don’t like to be contacted by phone. Labeling any outbound phone call a cold call—even when they are calling back inbound leads—while gravitating toward so-called experts who pontificate that cold calling is dead. Last month a top-five insurance company hired me to deliver a Fanatical Prospecting Boot Camp. The executive who bought me in said that the single biggest challenge facing their new agents was prospecting. His words: “We are having such a hard time getting them to just pick up the phone and talk to people.” When I arrived on the morning of the training, he pulled me aside and said, “I hope I haven’t put you in a bad spot. We didn’t spend time discussing the new reality in our industry, but no one answers the phone anymore. I realize you are going to do live phone blocks, but I wouldn’t expect too much out of them.” (This is the guy paying me big bucks to teach his agents to prospect effectively on the phone, and on the morning of the training he is already making excuses for why it won’t work.) We did three live phone blocks that day using targeted lists the agents brought with them. Over the course of the day, we had a whopping 51 percent contact rate—actual live prospects answering their phones. This was not a statistical anomaly. It was generated by 19 agents who made 1,311 outbound dials. At the end of the day I sat down with my contact and showed him the numbers. He was both thrilled—as in “when can we get you to come back and do this again” thrilled—and bemused. “I don’t understand how you got those results. Everybody tells me that people don’t answer the phone anymore.” “Who is telling you that?” I asked. “The agents,” he responded. “The same people that you say won’t make calls?” I asked. He slowly nodded his head as the weight of this realization sank in. Telephone Prospecting Excellence 155

Nobody Answers a Phone That Doesn’t Ring The myth that the phone no longer works—because people don’t answer—is disproven daily in our Fanatical Prospecting Boot Camps. The myth is disproven by our sales team at Sales Gravy and with thousands of sales teams across the country that survive and thrive on the phone. The statistics don’t lie. We see between a 15 percent and 80 percent contact rate on the phones depending on the industry, product, and role level of the contact. For example, in the business services segment, contact rates are consistently between 25 and 40 percent. This, by the way, is far higher than response rates with e-mail and light-years higher than those of social prospecting. All of our real-world evidence flies directly in the face of the myth that gets repeated over and over again that the telephone has a low success rate. It gets better. We have stats on phone prospecting going back to the early 1990s, and we are seeing clear trends that contact rates via phone have actually risen by around 5 percentage points. We don’t know the exact reason why more prospects are answering their phones, but we suspect three drivers:

1. Phones are anchored to people, not desks. It is common for prospects to answer their mobile phone when you call them—either because their mobile line is their only line or because their office line rolls over to their mobile line.
2. No one is calling. Because so much sales communication has shifted to e-mail, social inboxes, and text, phones are not ringing nearly as much as in the past. Because of this, salespeople who call are standing out in the crowd and getting through.
3. Prospects are getting burned out on impersonal, irrelevant (and often automated) prospecting e-mails. E-mail and social inboxes are being flooded with crap. Prospects are hungry for something differ- ent—a live, authentic human being. 156 Fanatical Prospecting

Think about it. If the phone did not work, why are so many teleprospectingcompaniesspringingupacrosstheglobe—andthriving? Companies are spending tens of thousands of dollars on outsourcers whousethephonetoprospect—becausethereisnootherviablewayto keep the pipe full, and they’ve allowed their salespeople not to do it. The Telephone Is, Has Always Been, and Will Continue to Be the Most Powerful Sales Prospecting Tool Listen to me! The phone is your most powerful sales tool. Period, end of story. Let me say this one more time slowly. There is no other tool in sales that will deliver better results, fill your pipe faster, and help you cover more ground in less time than the phone. So stop looking at it like it’s your enemy or an alien being covered in slimy tentacles. And no, it is not going to dial itself. Here is the brutal truth: Salespeople who ignore the phone fail. They deliver mediocre results and cheat themselves out of hard cash. Tonya, an outside sales rep, wrote me with this question: “My manager is always trying to get me to use the phone for prospecting. I’m terrible on the phone and I’ve tried to explain to him that I’m much better in person. How can I convince him to let me get on the street and knock on doors?” Many outside salespeople when faced with telephone prospect- ing will say, “But I’m way better in person.” My answer: Of course you are better in person. That is why you were hired to be an outside sales rep. But here’s the deal: In sales, time is money, and you can cover far more ground, qualify more opportunities, and set more appointments in a one-hour targeted phone block than in an entire day of driving around in your territory randomly knocking on doors. Think about it this way: How many prospects could you qualify or set appointments with face to face in an eight-hour period? Even Telephone Prospecting Excellence 157

on the busiest city street, 20 would be a stretch. In most territories, with travel time and parking, it would be closer to 10. If it is hot, raining, snowing, or freezing out, the numbers go down further. How about one hour on the phone, with a list of targeted prospects? How many phone calls could you make? Averaging one to two minutes per call, you could make 25 to 50 calls. So if you are touching twice as many prospects in about a tenth of the time, in a climate-controlled environment, which do you think will yield better results? The answer is an obvious no-brainer. The phone is the most efficient prospecting tool because when you are organized, you can reach more prospects in a shorter period of time than through any other prospecting channel—even e-mail. Because you have many more things to do in your sales day than prospect, it is in your best interest to use the most efficient method for contacting lots of prospects. The most efficient, cost-effective way is the telephone. The telephone is also more effective than e-mail, social, and text because when you are actually speaking to another human being, there is a higher probability that you’ll set appointments, sell stuff, and gather qualifying information. Yet, many salespeople find it awkward to use the phone for prospecting because: ■ They don’t know what to say, say stupid things, or read awkward, cheesy scripts that generate resistance and rejection. ■ They don’t have an easy-to-execute telephone prospecting process that actually works. ■ They don’t know how to deal with reflex responses, brush-offs, and objections. ■ They are afraid of rejection. Nobody Likes It; Get Over It While I was working on this book, Dave, a sales rep from North Carolina, hit me up with this question: 158 Fanatical Prospecting

“Jeb, I need your advice. The first call to a prospect proves very difficult for me, and I know it’s all in my head. I’m like that kid in seventh grade who is calling a girl to go to a school dance and then gets scared when her dad answers the phone. I’m normally very confident, comfortable with product knowledge, and I can close business. But, when I’m on the phone with a new prospect, it’s a different story. I know that if I can overcome this my monthly goals will get knocked out quicker than a fixed prizefight. Please help.” What I love about this question is that it is honest and reflects accurately how many salespeople feel about telephone prospecting. Dave, like most salespeople, heads into the office each morning with every intention of getting on the phone and engaging new prospects. As he reluctantly dials that first number—after wasting an hour piddling around in an effort to avoid the inevitable—his palms sweat, his heart pounds, and he secretly prays that no one will answer. Then, the prospect or a gatekeeper answers and he forgets what to say. He stumbles over his words, stuttering and sputtering. The prospect quickly brushes him off: “I’m not interested!” “We’re happy!” “I don’t have time to talk.” He feels rejected and embarrassed and the motivation for calling evaporates. To avoid making more calls, he shuffles papers and wastes time doing anything but dialing again. So he sends e-mails, takes a spin on social media, wastes time digging through the CRM, and whines to his manager that he has no time to call because there is so much admin work to do. I’m not going to sugarcoat it. Telephone prospecting is the most despised activity in sales. Calling and interrupting people you don’t know is uncomfortable. You get a tremendous amount of rejection. It will always be uncomfortable picking up the phone and calling people you don’t know. It is just not a natural thing to do. There will always be calls and even days when you fumble your Telephone Prospecting Excellence 159

words and become embarrassed. You will always get more rejection than acceptance (but that is true for every prospecting channel). That’s why it is called prospecting, not order taking. Look at it this way: If telephone prospecting were easy, everyone would be in sales and we’d all be making minimum wage and living with our parents. Most Salespeople Have Never Been Taught How to Use the Phone What I find across the board, though, is that most salespeople don’t know how to use the phone for prospecting or sales. They’ve never been taught and/or they have a bias toward communicating via e-mail or text. This problem is exacerbated by the fact that at most companies there is deficient to nonexistent telephone prospecting training— both outside sales and inside sales. When companies do provide telephone prospecting training, it is usually complex, contrived BS developed by people who’ve never even used the phone successfully for prospecting. This crap never works in the real world with real prospects, giving salespeople another excuse for avoiding the phone. Then there are the companies and sales organizations that task the marketing department (or worse, the HR department) with developing phone scripts for the sales team and training the salespeople to deliver the scripts. The marketing people who develop these scripts have never had to interrupt the day of a prospect on a live call and most would rather slit their wrists than actually make one. Some of the stuff I find sales teams using leaves my head spinning. Just this month while at a conference, I ran into an HR manager who had been tasked with building the sales pros- pecting training for the company’s sales organization. I asked her if she had ever made a prospecting call or conducted a sales call. 160 Fanatical Prospecting

She responded, “No.” “If you’ve never sold anything, how will you be able to build a sales training curriculum?” I asked. “I built the new-hire orientation curriculum and my boss liked that, so they want me to take a shot at the sales training program.” “But I don’t understand how you can teach people how to sell if you don’t know how to sell.” Her response: “Well, I’ve had people try to sell things to me, and I know what I don’t like, so I’m going to start there.” “I’m just curious, how do you feel about telephone prospecting?” “I could never do that!” Her response was emphatic. My prediction for her sales training is more crap created by a person who has no understanding or appreciation of the sales profession. Finally, there are throngs of sales leaders who have no clue how to coach their people to develop and master phone prospecting skills. They know that the pipeline is more robust and performance improves when their people are actively and consistently prospect- ing by phone. They just don’t know how to lead their people down that road. My goal with this chapter is to set things straight and give you the tools to leverage the phone to drive qualified deals into your pipe and crush your numbers and competitors. ■ You’ll start by learning how to leverage the telephone to maximize your sales day. I’m going to teach you how to double or even quadruple the number of dials you make in a much shorter period of time so that you can get your phone block knocked out and move on to other things that are far more enjoyable. ■ Then I’m going to teach you what to do and say when you get prospects on the phone. You will learn how to reduce resist- ance, increase the probability that you will achieve your defined objective, and mitigate rejection. Telephone Prospecting Excellence 161

■ Finally, in the next chapter, you will learn how to effectively deal with and get past reflex responses, brush-offs, and objec- tions (RBOs) to more effectively set appointments, gather information, and qualify. Before moving forward, though, let’s stipulate a few things: ■ You are going to get rejected a lot on the phone because statistically you will generate more real-time interactions with prospects than through any other prospecting channel. ■ Most of your calls will go to voice mail. Depending on your industry, prospect base, and targeted list you’ll connect with between 20 percent and 50 percent of your prospects on average during phone blocks. This is why you must be effective when you get a prospect on the line. ■ Most of the reason that you are frustrated with the phone and find makingtelephone prospectingcallsabhorrentisbecauseyou or the people who taught you how to prospect are overcom- plicating the living stew out of a very simple, straightforward process. ■ Nobody really likes telephone prospecting. No matter what I teach you, you are probably going to still hate the phone. That doesn’t negate the fact that to reach peak sales performance, you must master telephone prospecting. If you want to earn big bucks and stand tall on top of your team’s ranking report, you’ve got to accept that telephone pros- pecting sucks and get over it. The Ultimate Key to Success Is the Scheduled Phone Block Fanatical prospectors set up daily telephone phone blocks of one to two hours. During this time they remove all distractions—shutting off e-mail and mobile devices, and letting those around them know that they are not to be disturbed. They set clear goals for how many 162 Fanatical Prospecting

calls they will make. This call block is a booked appointment on their schedule and it is sacred. Nothing interferes. Some people choose to break call blocks into small, manageable chunks and set goals for those chunks. It is much easier to set a goal to make 10 calls than 100 or to dial for 30 minutes rather than two hours. It is much easier to overcome your initial fears and trepidations a few calls at time. You can wrap your mind around these small chunks. Some people set an overall goal for each daily phone block. For example, they will decide in advance to make 50 dials. Next, they’ll set smaller, 10-dial blocks. Then they’ll pump themselves up for these small blocks. When they finish, they give themselves a small reward and move to the next 10 calls. I observed a software sales rep who listed the numbers 50 to 1 on a piece of paper. With each dial she put a strike through the number, starting with 50. She said it was much easier for her to get her prospecting calls done using this technique. At Sales Gravy we do Power Hours (and sometimes Power Half Hours). During Power Hours, we put everything aside and focus on making as many dials as possible in a short period of time. Putting the time limit on it helps us stay focused and on track. Have fun. You are likely a competitive, creative person. If you weren’t,youwouldn’tbeinsalesinthefirstplace.Setupchallengesfor yourself. For example, some people count nos. They play a game to see how many nos they can get. It sounds a little sick and twisted, but I’ve done it and it is actually motivating since you will always get more nos than yesses. No matter what you do, though: Schedule that block. Make the appointment with yourself. Keep it sacred and don’t be late. The Five-Step Simple Telephone Prospecting Framework Few things in sales have been more overcomplicated than the simple telephone prospecting call. Efficient and effective telephone Telephone Prospecting Excellence 163

prospecting should get you to yes, no, or maybe as fast as possible, in the least intrusive way, using a relaxed, confident, professional tone that reduces resistance. That way you get the yesses on the table fast and deal with RBOs directly without the painful dance around the bush. When you pick up the phone and call a prospect—cold, warm, hot, referral, follow-up, inbound lead, even existing customer—and they are not expecting your call, you are an interruption. Consider how you feel when your work day is interrupted by someone calling you unannounced. It can make you feel irritated, angry, or resentful because in most cases, the call comes when you are right in the middle of something else. Let’s step into your shoes. What would you want? Okay, your first response is probably, “I wouldn’t want to get the call in the first place.” I’ll give you that. No one wants to be interrupted, not me, not you, not your prospect—even if the call is something we welcome. But let’s get back to reality. As a salesperson you’ve got a choice to make: Interrupt or start a new career at your local coffee shop making minimum wage. Salespeople who don’t interrupt prospects have skinny kids. So if you’re going to get interrupted, what would you want? You would want the caller to get right to the point and get off the phone quickly so you could get back to posting your cat videos on YouTube. Now try standing in your prospect’s shoes. They are people just like you who resent having their day interrupted by an unscheduled caller. Your goal is to make the call quick and to the point so that you achieve your objective and they can get back to what they were doing. To do this effectively, your call must be structured so that you get to the point fast—in 10 seconds or less—and sound like an authentic professional rather than a scripted robot or a stereotype of the cheesy sales guy so often portrayed in movies. 164 Fanatical Prospecting

You also need a process that is consistent and repeatable. A consistent, repeatable structure takes pressure off of you and your prospect. Because you are not winging it each time you call, you won’t have to worry about what to say. And, because you are focused and deliberate, it is respectful of your prospect’s time. Shorter, more impactful calls mean you complete phone blocks faster, which in turn keeps your pipeline full and gives you more time to spend engaged in the activities that make sales fun. An effective telephone prospecting call might sound like this—a simple five-step framework:

1. Get their attention by using their name: “Hi, Julie.”
2. Identify yourself: “My name is Jeb Blount and I’m with Sales Gravy.”
3. Tell them why you are calling: “The reason I’m calling is to set up an appointment with you.”
4. Bridge—give them a because: “I just read an article online that said your company is going to add 200 new sales positions over the next year. Several companies in your industry are already using Sales Gravy exclusively for sourcing sales candidates and they are very happy with the results we are delivering.”
5. Ask for what you want, and shut up: “I thought the best place to start is to schedule a short meeting to learn about your sales recruiting challenges and goals. How about we meet Wednes- day afternoon around 3:00 PM?” One point I want to be sure you get: There are no pauses. The moment you pause you lose control of the call. As soon as my Figure 15.1 5-Step Telephone Prospecting Framework Telephone Prospecting Excellence 165

prospect answers the phone, I walk through the five-step framework without stopping. My goal is to respect their time by getting to the point and getting an answer—yes, no, or maybe—fast. Here is another example. My objective is to gather information: “Hi, Ian, this is Jeb Blount with Acme Restaurant Supply. The reason I’m calling is I read in the paper that you are building a restaurant over on the 44 bypass and I want to learn more about your process for purchasing kitchen equipment. I realize I’m calling a little bit early in the game; however, I’ve found that when we get our design team working with your team before you make critical decisions about kitchen layout, you’ll have more options and can often save a ton of money in construction costs and future labor with a more efficient and streamlined kitchen layout. Can you tell me how you make those decisions and when the selection process will begin?” Here is another example where my objective is to qualify and move them directly into a sales conversation: “Hi, Corrina, this is Jeb Blount from AcmeSoft. The reason I’m calling is you downloaded our white paper on creating more effective landing pages for lead generation and I’m interested to learn what triggeredyour interest. I work witha number of marketing executives who’ve been struggling to bring in enough quality leads to meet their growth objectives, and I’ve got a few best practices that my clients are using to generate more and better leads that I’ll be happy to share with you. Can you tell me more about your situation?” When you use this framework, you’ll find that you stumble over your words less and achieve your objective more often. A framework is a guide. It makes you agile and adaptive because it can be leveraged across different situations, freeing you to focus on your message rather than the time-consuming effort of rethinking your process each time. Telephone prospecting should be professional and straight to the point. There is no reason to overcomplicate it with cheeseball scripts that piss off prospects, create resistance, and make you look 166 Fanatical Prospecting

foolish. Let’s take a closer look at the elements of the Five-Step Simple Teleprospecting Framework. Get Their Attention Once your prospect answers the phone, you have a split second to get their attention. The easiest, fastest way to get someone’s attention is to use the most beautiful word in the world to them—their name. Anywhere, anytime, when you say another person’s name, they will sit up and look up. For that split second you have their attention. The same dynamic is at play when telephone prospecting, and it is important to use this to your advantage. Just say: “Hi, Julie.” Important point: Notice that I didn’t ask Julie, “How are you doing?” There is a reason for this. When you interrupt a prospect’s day, you get resistance. This resistance hits a peak as soon as they realize that you are a salesperson and that they made a big mistake by answering their phone. This realization happens right after you say something like, “Hi, this is Stephen from the widget company. How are you today?” Then you pause. That’swhenyourprospect’sinstincttogetoffthephoneand back to whatever they were doing kicks in. They immediately hit you with a reflex response like “I’m not interested” or ask, “Who is this?” Your prospect was going about her morning happily when her phone rang, interrupting her day. Then she realized her mistake as soonasyousaid“Howareyoudoing?”Suddenlyherget-away-from- this-salesperson-fast mechanism kicked in. As soon as you paused, she hit you with an objection and a stern tone of voice. That’s how your prospect is doing and that’s how you lose control of the call. Don’t ask, “How are you doing?” and don’t pause or leave any awkward silence. Say their name and keep moving. Telephone Prospecting Excellence 167

Identify Yourself Get right down to business. Say your prospect’s name, then tell her who you are and the reason you called. Transparency has two benefits.

1. It demonstrates that you are a professional and that you have respect for your prospect’s time—save the idle chitchat until you have established a real relationship.
2. By telling them who you are and why you are calling, you reduce their stress because people are more comfortable when they know what to expect. The one thing that I know to be true is prospects are people just like you. They don’t want to be tricked, they don’t want to be manipulated, and they don’t want to be interrupted. What they want is to be treated with respect. The best way you can show your respect is to be truthful, relevant, and to the point. Bridge—Give Them a Because We’ve already learned that when we ask people to do something for us, like give up their time, they are more likely to do so when we give them a reason—or a because. The bridge connects the dots between what you want and why they should give it to you. You’ve inter- rupted their day, told them why you are calling, and now you must give them a reason to give up more of their precious time to you. Thepersonyou are callingcould notcarelessaboutyourproduct, service,or features. Theydon’t careaboutwhat you wantorwhat you would “love” or “like” to do. They don’t care about your desires, your quota, or that you are “going to be over in their area.” They only care about what is relevant to their problems and they will give up their time to you for their reasons, not yours. This 168 Fanatical Prospecting

is why message matters. What you say and how you say it will either generate resistance and objections or it will pull the wall down and open the door to a “yes.” Avoid saying things like: ■ “I want to talk to you about my product.” ■ “I’d love to get together with you to show you what we have to offer.” ■ “I want to tell you about our new service.” These statements are all about you and the words talk, tell, and show send a subtle message that what you really want to do is pitch. I assure you the last thing your prospect wants or has time for is you talking at them. Using the bridging and messaging frameworks from the “Message Matters” chapter, craft a short, compelling message that connects emotionally with what is important to your prospect. Use phrases and emotional words like: ■ Learn more about you and your business ■ Share some insights that have helped my other clients ■ Share some best practices that other companies in your industry are using to . . . ■ Gain an understanding of your unique situation ■ See how we might fit ■ Flexibility ■ Options ■ Peace of mind ■ Save ■ Frustrated ■ Concerned ■ Stressed ■ Waste ■ Time ■ Money Telephone Prospecting Excellence 169

These statements and words are all about them. Prospects want to feel that you get them and their problems, or are at least trying to get them, before they’ll agree to give up their time for you. The most effective way to craft the right message is to simply stand in your prospect’s shoes. Look at things through their eyes and use your God-given empathy to sense their emotions and consider what might be important to them. Ask For What You Want and Shut Up The most important step is asking for what you want. ■ If you are qualifying, ask for the information you need to determine your next step. ■ If you want an appointment, ask for a day and time. ■ If you want to engage in a sales conversation, ask an open- ended question that gets them talking. Your goal is to get to yes, no, or maybe fast. Don’t waste any time here. Don’t talk in circles. Don’t use passive, limp language and phrases like “maybe if it would be okay and if you are not too busy, we could kinda maybe get together for a few minutes, what do you think?” Be confident, direct, and smooth—and don’t pause. Get to the point. Ask and assume. Then shut up. The single biggest mistake salespeople make on prospecting calls is they keep talking instead of giving their prospect the opportunity to respond to their request. This increases resistance, creates objections, and gives your prospect an easy way out. So shut up and let your prospect respond. Will there be an RBO when you ask for what you want? Absolutely. This is reality—in sales there are always objections. However, because you wasted no time getting to the objection, you will have more time to respond, 170 Fanatical Prospecting

which in turn will give you a better chance of achieving your objective. We’re going to dive headfirst into techniques for tuning around reflex responses, brush-offs, and objections in the next chapter. What I want to impress upon you, though, is just how many prospects will say yes when you are straightforward, confident, and assume through your words and tone of voice that they’re going to say yes. Ask for what you want, and shut up. Leaving Effective Voice Mail Messages That Get Returned No matter how proficient you become with the teleprospecting framework, no matter how targeted your prospecting list or focused your phone block, no matter how well you time your dials, the majority of your calls are still going to go to voice mail. I know that voice mail drives you crazy, because it drives me crazy. Most of the time it feels like you are wasting your time. There are always these little questions floating around in the back of your mind: When should I leave a voice mail message? Should I even leave a voice mail message? If I do leave a message will I get called back? While there are no definitive answers to any of these questions, knowing how to leave voice mail messages is important because prospects do listen to and return voice mail. An effective voice mail should help you achieve at least one of two objectives:

1. Get a callback from a high-value qualified prospect
2. Build familiarity with a high-value prospect When salespeople ask me when they should leave a voice mail, I always answer, “When it matters.” Telephone Prospecting Excellence 171

For example, if you are dialing a list of prospects for which you have little qualifying information, it might not make sense to leave a voice mail for those prospects. You don’t know them, nor how qualified they are, and they don’t know you. The probability that you will get a callback from one of these prospects is low. For this reason, you’ll be more efficient and effective just dialing as many of them as possible in your allotted block rather than wasting time leaving voice mails. Leaving a voice mail is inefficient. It takes time to work your way through the phone prompts. At around 20 to 30 seconds per voice mail, you can easily spend 10 to 15 minutes of an hour-long phone block just leaving voice mail messages. The callback rate on voice mail messages is very low. As in single-digits low. This makes voice mail both inefficient and ineffective for across-the-board application on all calls. This is why when you leave voice mail, it has to count. For instance, when you are working a list of conquest prospects, you’ll want to leave a voice mail on every call. The same goes with a prospect that you know or suspect is moving into the buying window. With these prospects, it is critical that you get in front of them, so leaving a voice mail that generates a callback or builds familiarity makes sense and has a reasonable risk/reward. Since there is no tried-and-true rule for when to leave voice mails, though, it’s up to you to decide when to make an investment of time in voice mails based on your objectives, list, time availability, and unique situation. However, if you are going to leave a voice mail, leave one that will give you the highest probability of getting a callback. Five-Step Voice Mail Framework to Double Callbacks As I reluctantly trudge through voice mail messages from sales- people, there are three kinds that drive me crazy: 172 Fanatical Prospecting

■ No contact information: These messages are automatically deleted. ■ Long-winded: Somewhere in the middle of their droning on and on, I usually hit “delete.” ■ Garbled contact information: When I have to listen to a message more than once, it wastes my time and I delete it. Here’s the deal: To get more of your messages returned, you must make it easier for your prospects to call you back. There are five steps to leaving effective voice mail messages that get returned. This process deployed consistently will double your callback rate.

1. Identify yourself. Say who you are and the company you work for up front. This makes you sound professional.
2. Say your phone number twice. Prospects can’t call back if they don’t have or you garbled your number. Give your contact informa- tion up front and say it twice—slowly. After they hear your name and company, they may not care about the rest of your message because based on their situation, they can infer what it is about.
3. Tell them the reason for your call. Tell them why you have called. There is nothing more irritating to a buyer than a salesperson who is not honest about their intentions. After you give your personal information just say, “The reason for my call is . . .” or “the purpose of my call is . . . ,” then tell them why you are calling and what you want. Transparency is both respectful and professional.
4. Give them a reason to call you back. Prospects call back when you have something that they want or are curious about. Curiosity is a powerful driver of behavior. When you have knowledge, insight, information, special pricing, new or improved products, a solution to a problem, and so on, you create a motivating force that compels your prospect to call you back.
5. Repeat your name and say your phone number twice. Before you end your message, say your name again slowly and clearly and always, always say your number twice. Telephone Prospecting Excellence 173

Bonus tip: Keep voice mail messages to 30 seconds. When you hold yourself to 30 seconds, you are forced to be clear, succinct, and professional. “Hi, Rick, this is Jeb Blount from Sales Gravy. My phone number is 1-888-360-2249, that’s 1-888-360-2249. The reason I am calling is you downloaded our white paper on cold calling and I want to learn more about your situation and what triggered you to seek out this information. I also have some additional resources on voice mail messages and phone prospecting I thought you might be curious to learn about. Let’s get together this week. Give me a call back at 1-888-360-2249, that’s 1-888-360-2249.” I am aware that it feels awkward to say your phone number four times on the same voice mail message. Your goal is to make it easy and pleasurable for them to call you back, not more comfortable for you. By hearing your phone number twice up front, they don’t need to listen to the entire message to get your phone number if they are ready to call you back. If your message intrigued them and they want to call you back, you also gave them your number twice at the end, so they don’t have to replay the message. Making it easy increases the probability that you’ll get a callback. Timing Teleprospecting Calls Is a Losing Strategy The most frequent question I get about telephone prospecting is: “Jeb, what is the best time to call? I mean, is there a time when people will be more receptive to my calls? You know, like is it better Figure 15.2 5-Step Voice Mail Framework 174 Fanatical Prospecting

to contact a prospect during the morning than the end of business day? Or are there some days of the week that are better than others?” This is followed by a longing expectation that I will reveal the secret code that will open them up to a utopian world where prospects always answer the phone, are always in chipper moods and receptive to sales pitches, agree to appointments without rejection, and close themselves. I get this question from salespeople across all industries and all experience levels—all the time. There are several reasons salespeople ask this question: ■ They are truly interested in timing their calls. ■ They are frustrated and just venting, in which case my answer falls on deaf ears. ■ They are seeking a way out of making calls—an excuse. Timing calls is the greatest excuse and cop-out for salespeople who don’t want to prospect by phone (or frankly, prospect at all). Here are some timing excuses from salespeople looking to escape the phone: ■ “I can’t call on Monday because people are getting ready for the week and it will disturb them.” ■ “I can’t call on Friday because people are getting ready for the weekend and will probably be leaving early.” ■ “I can’t call in the morning because people won’t answer the phone when they are getting ready for the day.” ■ “I can’t call before lunch because people are getting ready to go to lunch and I don’t want to disturb them.” ■ “I can’t call after lunch because people are just getting back in the office and probably checking e-mail.” ■ “I can’t call in the afternoon because people are probably in meetings and not in their offices.” ■ “I can’t call at the end of the day because people are getting ready to go home.” ■ “No worries, I’ll just do my dials tomorrow when prospects will be more likely to answer my calls.” Telephone Prospecting Excellence 175

What really happens is teleprospecting is put off day after day until pipelines are dead empty. Then these desperate salespeople end up in front of me looking for the top-secret call-timing technique that will make everything okay. A great analogy for timing your calls is investing. The investor who attempts to time the market has historically failed to beat the investor who uses a dollar-cost-averaging strategy—making incre- mental investments on a regular schedule over time. If you think about prospecting in the same vein, salespeople who prospect daily on a regular schedule are always more successful over time than those who make the attempt to time their prospect- ing. Like investing, statistics are always in the favor of the salesperson who does a little bit of prospecting every day. Yes, thereisplenty ofdatafrom dozensof studiesthat validatethat there are particular days and times of days that are best for calling. If you go looking, you will find article after article, study after study, and opinion after opinion on the best time to call. A simple online search will also yield hundreds of anecdotal insights about the best time to call: Wednesdays at lunch, in the morning at 10:12 A.M., Friday afternoons, and so on. You’ll find lots of justification for this reasoning. Some of it is on target. Some of it is bunk. Some of it is contradictory. Most of it is meaningless. For example, Insight Squared pro- duced a study1 on call timing that indicated that Tuesdays between 10:00 AM and 4:00 PM are the best times to call. Of course, their best day to call was only 1.3 percent better than their worst day to call. Just Eat the Frog Most of what has been written about call timing is just confusing noise that provides less-than-eager-to-prospect salespeople with an easy excuse to put off telephone prospecting until tomorrow or this afternoon or anytime other than now. 176 Fanatical Prospecting

So, forget about timing your calls and commit instead to a daily, first-thing-in-the-morning call block. Frenchman Nicholas Chamfort advised people to “swallow a toad in the morning if you want to encounter nothing more disgusting the rest of the day.” In his book Eat That Frog, Brian Tracy says that your “frog” is “the hardest, most important task of the day. It is the one task that can have the greatest positive impact on your life and results at the moment.”2 Telephone prospecting is the most important activity in sales. It is the one activity that will have the greatest positive impact on the health of your pipeline, career, and income. It also sucks. It’s frustrating, uncomfortable, and covered with slimy green frog warts. Tracy writes that staring at the frog will not make it more appetizing. When “you have to eat a frog, it doesn’t pay to sit and look at it for very long.” The same with prospecting. Thinking about it, pushing it off, or trying to time it will not make it any more appetizing. The longer that frog sits there, the more foul it gets. That’s when the bargaining starts happening. Instead of just eating it and getting it over with, you start making deals with yourself to “double up” on your frog eating tomorrow. It never works, though. Once you start procrastinating, you’ll never catch up. As you push prospecting off, more tasks, problems, and burning fires move in to take its place. This is why you should block your first two hours every day for telephone activity. Set the appointment with yourself and keep it. Your energy level, confidence, and enthusiasm will be at their peak at the beginning of the day. Plus, prospects will have fewer things on their plate as they begin their day, which makes for less resistance and more yesses. The best way to avoid becoming a statistic is to embrace the suck and eat that frog. Telephone Prospecting Excellence 177