It takes an average of 18 calls to actually connect with a buyer. 

18. Phew! 

Moreover, the call-back rates are below 1%.

If any of those 18 calls is to hit the bullseye, sales reps need to bring their A-game to every conversation with the prospect. You need to be creative, smart, spontaneous, friendly, engaging, composed, polite, and professional while also being convincing enough so that you meet your goal of closing the deal. For many sales reps, this might not come naturally, and yet, doesn’t it sometimes feel like some people are just born with these skills? Well, whether you are born with it or not, there are tips, tricks, and pre-call preparation strategies you can use to elevate your sales calling game. 

Here are 12 go-to sales call tips that you can add to your arsenal. 

Ensure pre-call prep: your underrated cheat code

What you say to your potential customers on the phone call makes all the difference, and it is greatly impacted by the information you already possess about them. To avoid an awkward conversation, sales professionals should get to know their potential buyers prior to interacting with them. Follow them on social media, try connecting with them through Linkedin, and find mutual connections and contact information, if any. Get as much context and as many insights as you can into your prospect, their business, and their short- and long-term requirements. That way, you will have the perfect ice-breakers and rapport-building ideas to engage with your prospect during the sales process. 

Be confident to win confidence 

Sure, you may have to deal with clients who will be annoyed by random strangers calling them. Some of them may exhibit the “oh, don’t bother me” attitude or may lose their cool. Yes, sales reps have to deal with all these during the prospecting process. Yet, confidence is all that matters in a sales pitch. Your tone should always be self-assured. Confidence arises in you when you believe in what you are trying to sell, and also, when you have researched and prepared well for the call. 

Don’t be too pushy

It’s tempting to display your enthusiasm for your product and talk about how great your product is and how it can be the perfect solution to the client’s needs. There’s a fine balance to achieve, however. You definitely don’t want to be too pushy. Going overboard with hard-selling only ends up rubbing your client the wrong way. Instead, put a simple query to the buyer, i.e., whether they are interested in resolving the particular issue that they are facing? 

Use empathy to forge a connection

Whenever you make a sales prospecting call, the first query that arises in a potential customer‘s mind is: Why do I need to listen to you? Obviously, the customer wouldn‘t be interested if you imply that you are calling only to sell your product. You should make the customer feel that you are trying to help them by prioritizing their pain points instead of trying to sell your product to them.

Let‘s take an example. If you are interacting with a small-scale eCommerce company, you can say, “I am contacting you because we can assist recently established eCommerce companies such as yours in building a website that appears authentic to consumers.”

Again, this proves that sales reps must do intensive research. If you have detailed information about your client, you can personalize your message as per their needs.

Ensure you bring empathy to the introduction

Remember this: The person you are calling operates in the same chaotic environment as you do. Everyone is constantly being bombarded with messages - especially sales messages - and as a result, you are left dealing with a short attention span. Therefore, the initial 30 seconds of your call is ‘make-or-break’ in your prospecting efforts. Salespeople must possess a knack for attracting and holding the customer’s attention within the first few seconds. This is imperative because if you haven’t got their attention, the customer might hang up the phone and give you the cold shoulder. You’ve lost an opportunity. 

Apply the following rules for a rewarding cold call:

• Personalizing your call
• Engaging with the customer
• Using pain points and a value proposition

For instance, an introductory line for a first-time call would involve first introducing yourself followed by a short description of your business along with referring to the needs of the customer and how your product can satisfy those needs.  

An overdose of anything is bad. Try not to overwhelm the client with too many details in the introduction which can make them lose interest. The purpose of introducing is to break the ice and initiate a conversation. Here are seven actionable tips that you can add to use to structure your next sales call, and more as they come.

Nail your sales pitch

After flooring the clients with the introduction, it’s time to deliver the main talk of sales prospecting. This is where you provide a general synopsis of what you can deliver to the potential buyer, i.e., the issues that your business can resolve and what kind of customers you can help.

Use these great tips for the best sales prospecting:

• Show pride in your product or service. There is no better time to blow your trumpet than now - give concrete examples about how you offer more than your competitors. Better still, explain how you can deliver higher value than your competitors. Underscore your product's USPs to drive home their value because that is what will activate your prospect's willingness to invest in what you are offering. 
• A little bit of self-praise helps, especially when it comes with some great customer testimonials. Talk about the advantages of your product, establish your value proposition, and never forget to describe the amazing experiences of existing customers after using your product. 

Sales intelligence platforms (like Wingman) have sales prospecting tools that allow you to share your pre-recorded client testimonials with your prospects. Since these testimonials are directly taken from your client calls, your prospects have a good reason to believe in their integrity. Moreover, you can track when your prospect accesses that recording and hit the iron while it’s hot!

Pursue qualified leads

“Never wear a shoe that doesn’t fit you.”- Aireen Pontillo

The whole idea of having a sales team is to attract more buyers. This is your goal, without argument. Nevertheless, an ideal customer profile is vital, and you need to ensure that your leads are a good fit for your business. If your product is not a good fit or is not well-placed to deliver value to your customer, you are going to end up with a displeased customer on your hands. You want to avoid unhappy customers at all costs. So maybe, you can filter the ones that don’t fit right at the cold-calling stage. 

Through the discovery call and your best sales discovery questions, investigate the prospect’s profile well and ensure that there is a clear link between the client’s problems and the solutions that your sales team recommends. Ask the prospects questions related to their business requirements, prominent issues, and basic information about their company. Also, be sure to talk to the decision-makers and the parties that will most utilize or benefit from your product or service. It may be tempting to simply talk to decision-makers. After all, they sign off on the deal and the budget. 

Be persistent in selling your product

“We don’t have the budget at present.”

“I will discuss with you later. Busy right now.”

Sound familiar? Even the most suave and the most experienced salespersons will tell you that they frequently encounter “hit a wall” in the form of these statements. When your client is using these words, it may mean that they still have not warmed up to you. That’s no reason to give up and walk away. You simply need to put effort into forging a connection. 

Here’s a tip: Use your prospect’s objections as a chance to uncover their mindset. While driving their point home, you might discover bigger or deeper reasons for them to be rejecting your product or service. Once you get to the root of the issue, you might be able to come up with a solution to the client‘s specific issue.

Document your learnings 

As soon as you are done with the phone call, update useful sales information in the CRM for follow-up. This includes all the issues and obstacles with your prospect. Also, if you managed to strike a friendly rapport with them over some particular topic, you should make a note of it so that you can again bring that up in the subsequent email or phone call. Imagine starting with “Has your dog’s broken paw healed?” instead of “So, are your budgets looking better now?”  

Never forget to follow-up

Don’t get all excited after a successful call because your job is not done yet! Following up is a critical part in a sales process.

• Sending an email as soon as possible after cold calling is an important task. Remember, people’s memories are short-lived!
• If you have promised to send any materials to the buyer, do so immediately.

Add conversation analytics to your toolkit

There’s a world of new tech out there that can help sales and marketing teams work more effectively. For example, today, you have sales prospecting tools - particularly intelligence tools  - that get smarter every day. Imagine having a mentor looking over your shoulder, listening in, and giving you tips on how to sell better - that’s what you get with sales intelligence tools (like Wingman). 

Sales prospecting intelligence solutions monitor your calls and help you figure out where you lost the customer’s interest or where you can do better. Armed with that level of personalized insight and sales metrics, you will be able to constantly improve and perfect your sales pitches.

Take feedback from the sales team regularly

You can also discuss your recorded calls with mentors, including senior sales reps within your marketing team, and get their valuable feedback. Remember, experience has the upper hand among sales professionals, and you can learn a lot from the senior members of the sales team.

Unlock the power of sales intelligence

You now have a dozen tips to add to your arsenal, and you could definitely use some help! That’s just where Wingman comes in as your sales buddy!

Wingman is our AI-powered sales prospecting platform that can assist you on your sales calls with its rich, data-driven insights. You can integrate your business platforms such as CRM, dialer, and communication channels (like Slack) to get a single source of truth. With these actionable insights and crucial sales metrics, you can fine-tune your sales prospecting process and qualify the right leads. 

Moreover, Wingman provides live assistance to help you tackle tricky situations on call. It enables you to understand your prospect’s perspective and suggests how to respond to competitor mentions and common sales objections. Pretty cool, right? Well, there’s more! You can use Wingman’s automated call transcription to extract granular metrics for data-driven sales analytics and find ways to improve your sales performance. To step up your sales prospecting game, book a demo with Wingman today!

‍