CHAPTER 6
Listening and Presenting

PHONE SALES CHALLENGE – Matt, a commercial carpet salesman, had this complaint: “Sometimes I tell customers all the great stuff about our line, and they don’t say anything. Others talk and talk and I’m bored out of my mind.”

Good salespeople—no, the best salespeople—are able to pick up on layers of customer needs, customer personality types, possible objections, and the timing of a close, all on the phone, simply by listening intently. Admittedly, this is a two-part process: focusing sharply enough to catch all the subtle as well as the direct messages the customer sends, and then processing those messages into the best presentation strategy to close the sale.

So, we listen in order to present well, not the other way around. The “features-dump” style of presentation—where the salesperson, speaking quickly, rattles off a list of specifications or perceived benefits of the company’s products—is outdated. Customers today are so over this anonymous, unwelcome barrage of verbiage that they will just hang up. But a presentation in which every feature highlights a benefit will go a long way toward getting the decision maker to buy.

In books written to help gals attract a guy, a common thread of advice is (to paraphrase): “Ask questions, pay very close attention to what the guy says, and then during the conversation work his own words back into what you say. When you do this, he will think you are more intelligent.” Whether this works in dating or not, it will certainly work with the decision maker on your phone sales call. Customers won’t listen to your presentation until you have proven that you’re listening to them; a presentation based on hints you have picked up through focused listening will make you sound like a genius!

The first step is strategic listening at a deeper level. Look at what happens when you fail to listen:

CUSTOMER: Just give me the bottom line.

SALESPERSON: Well, it has five-gig memory and an adjustable …

CUSTOMER (interrupting): Look, are you going to cut to the chase and give me a price or not? I don’t have time for this.

The salesperson missed two listening cues from this customer. The first was that she was dealing with an Assured personality type. The second was that she continued to rattle off specifications instead of stopping to ask a question or respond with the price. Either way, she lost the attention of the buyer and most likely lost the opportunity to regain it. In the next scenario, the salesperson just creates an objection by not listening to the reluctance in the customer’s response:

CUSTOMER: We all participate in the decision.

SALESPERSON: I’d like to come and meet with you personally so we can present how our new service will help you.

CUSTOMER: Uh, well, we’re really not at that point. You’ll have to talk to someone else.

Unwillingness to take on individual responsibility for a sales decision is a classic Kind personality behavior. Instead of engaging the customer and asking questions about the decision process and other team members, this sales representative caused the customer to shut down. Not only will there be no sale on this call, but a valuable opportunity to gain critical information has been lost. In the scenario that follows, the salesperson actually irritates the customer.

CUSTOMER: The plan is for us to maintain our relationship with Good Service Company for at least the rest of the contract period, so we are not considering a change at this time.

SALESPERSON: We can cut the price and make it more attractive for you.

CUSTOMER (speaking more loudly): Didn’t you hear me? We have a contract. Not interested.

Oh no. The old bulldozer routine that assumes decisions are always about price certainly wasn’t effective. If a customer explains that he has a contract for the rest of the year, that’s a valuable piece of information. It offers the sales representative an opening to inquire about the contract process and find out what is working and not working about the competitor’s product or service. Pay attention!

As a salesperson, you are under pressure to make decisions very quickly about whether to pursue a call or cut your losses and contact a better prospect. This pressure can potentially result in the loss of a sale. Listening strategically over the phone is as essential as being able to talk.

As you are listening, you should be asking yourself some of the following questions:

Is this customer receptive?

Is this customer too busy to talk?

Does this customer sound stressed?

Is this customer multitasking during your call?

What is the personality type of the customer?

You need to immediately pick up on your customer’s energy. Customers provide you with vocal clues from the first few seconds of your call. These auditory messages are either invitations to move forward or obstacles that require you to slow down.

Listen from “Hello”

When you listen to what your customers are saying once you’ve got them on the phone, you can quickly read by their language whether they are receptive or whether you should move on. Let’s dissect the approaches you would use.

THE EXISTING CUSTOMER

In connecting with existing customers, you are already familiar with how they typically sound and can more readily detect whether their natural personality style is reflected in their voice. Warning signs might include a normally relaxed talker speaking more hurriedly, or an individual who tends to be arrogant and combative suddenly being nonresponsive or subdued. When you detect this change in their normal speaking pattern, you want to engage with a question:

“Everett, it sounds like you’ve got a pretty full plate today. Can we schedule this call for a better time?”

or

“You sound like you’re in a hurry today. When would be a better time to catch you?”

Since you know Everett and are picking up on his inflection clues, this is an opportunity for you to professionally step back and book an appointment for a time when he will be more receptive to listening to you. Don’t be the boilerplate salesperson; be the one who engages each customer as a real person. Customers often think we’re all alike as salespeople; show them you’re not and get the business where others fail.

Remember, though, that this approach is effective only with an existing customer who is familiar with you as well as with your company’s offerings and thus may be more willing to work with you. You cannot afford to step away from a new customer without gathering some information from him or her.

THE NEW CUSTOMER

Listen for suggestions of stress in your customer’s voice. When people are under stress, their vocal chords tighten, creating a strained quality to their speaking voice. This suggests it may not be the best time to try to engage them in a conversation. In this instance, avoid lagging; simply say, “I have just two quick questions”—and be sure to make them quick, so that you can secure the information you need to for a later appointment.

Suggestions of stress in a new customer’s voice can also mean she is distracted. You may hear a lower volume in her voice, or pauses, or whispering or keyboarding in the background. Or there may be a time lag in the response or a clear disconnect with what you are saying. When you find yourself in this situation, use the person’s name, ask one or two questions to reengage her, and understand that this is not an opportune time for a features/benefits presentation because she isn’t listening in the way you need her to be.

In general, if you detect stress in a customer’s voice, you know it’s a bad time. Don’t try to sell to someone who is under pressure. A nonfocused salesperson who doesn’t pay attention to customers’ clues and continues to push is less likely to ever connect again because he or she will be remembered as the one who didn’t listen.

Even on a customer-requested follow-up call, which should be an easy path to a close, you want to be alert. A lack of enthusiasm in the customer’s tone can mean any number of things. You’ll want to uncover whether this lackluster manner is due to changed conditions concerning the sale or simply a change in mood that has nothing to do with you or your product. If conditions have changed at the customer’s end, your job is to regroup quickly and strategize for a new goal. For example, you may decide to set an appointment for a later time when the customer might be more receptive and less distracted.

In addition, keep in mind that the customer’s job is to get you off the phone as quickly as possible without your making a sale. That’s part of the game of phone selling. Nowhere in the customer’s job description is the phrase, “entertain calls from salespeople.” Unfortunately, customers have become so accustomed to salespeople who unprofessionally waste their time by telling, telling, and more telling, that they think we all talk too much.

Regardless of what businesses those other salespeople represent, they are competing for your customer’s time. And that’s your real competition: time. Your attention to the customer, demonstrated by your listening, can be a differentiator. Are your competitors listening at the same level that you are? Believe me, your customer knows—and purchases accordingly.

Listen for the Customer’s Personality Style

When calling a new prospect with whom you don’t have an established relationship, listen for the customer’s personality style. This is called strategic listening, in which you pass from casual listening to a deeper level of attention. You have only a few seconds of effective conversation time to react and choose a strategy suitable to a personality type. The information you gain from this type of listening will determine what you choose to say or do next. You can blow the deal if you try to close when the customer has indicated that an appointment for a later conversation is better. Let’s look at the Precise Customer first.

THE PRECISE CUSTOMER

Precise Customers tend to sound monotone and speak more slowly, pause often, and hide their emotions. So, you must avoid interrupting even if their answers are maddeningly slow. You need to pause more frequently to allow them to give you something to work with. Listen to the Ps’ carefully chosen words. Concentrate on the detail clues they are providing you in the call.

You will hear Ps use phrases and sentences such as:

“We’ll need test data, proof of your results.”

“We have a lot of expertise in-house, so I’ll have to see how you can add to that.”

“I’m not going to paint you a pretty picture.”

You’ll also hear a lot of words like “documentation,” “analysis,” “test data,” “negotiate,” “details,” “benchmark,” and “proven.”

Precise Customers may very well tell you everything you need to do to get the sale. Their message, though, is that the process and needs are all very complex and the information they are giving you should deter you from pursuing the sale. What they don’t realize (and you should!) is that they have provided you with a checklist of everything you’ll need to prepare to get their business. Listen to the P customer carefully and take notes!

THE ENERGIZED CUSTOMER

Energized Customers’messages may throw you off because they are usually open and friendly. Be especially tuned in to the message behind the chatter when an E is on the line.

The Energized Customer sounds more emotional and hurried whether the situation warrants that response or not. They interrupt and are generally talkative and opinionated. You must listen as energetically as they talk, asking lots of “can you tell me” questions. Allow them to talk and they will volunteer most of what you want to know. Listen carefully for their inflection, because these customers emphasize their real needs.

Phrases and sentences that you’ll hear E customers say include:

“We need that information right now!”

“Lots going on here”

“Cool new stuff”

“Good news!”

You’ll also hear a lot of words like “excited,” “everyone,” “relationship,” “exceptional,” “unbelievable”—and maybe even “awesome,” depending on age.

Energized Customers are that way all the time. Don’t be fooled by what sounds like enthusiasm for your company’s product or service. Listen, instead, for any inside information they might let slip. Since they’re talkers, they’re not always careful about monitoring what they say.

THE ASSURED CUSTOMER

The Assured Customer sounds direct, impatient, and hurried. These customers know what they want and will tell you, usually in an abrupt manner. You’ll want to listen to their real needs, and focus your brief presentation on their specific goals. Be prepared to listen, process, and respond quickly, or you will find yourself at the other end of a dial tone.

Phrases and sentences you will hear the Assured Customer say in your calls include:

“What’s this opportunity going to cost me?”

“I’ve got a great deal from supplier X.”

“Give me the short version.”

“Our strategic initiative is …”

They will also pepper their conversations with concepts like “bottom line,” “end game,” “ROI,” “profitability,” and “strategic.”

When the A challenges you with a suggestion that someone has offered a better deal, remember what you’re hearing: it’s a challenge, not an objection. Listen for the pause that might mean you’ve said something that has struck home.

Keep in mind, too, that unlike the E, the Assured Customer never slips. Whatever comes out of the A’s mouth was intended.

THE KIND CUSTOMER

Kind Customers come off as calm and friendly. When you read the tones in their voice, your inclination might be to sound supportive initially. Listen for hesitation or uncertainty. Since these customers aren’t comfortable saying “no” outright, you must listen for more subtle cues. Ks know that they often get taken advantage of, so they become more cautious buyers. This caution is reflected in their slow and deliberate decision-making style. Words or phrases that Ks might use are:

“Others will be involved in the decision.”

“This could take a while.”

“I’m not sure.”

Their favorite descriptions of fellow decision makers are “careful,” “loyal,” and perhaps most of all, “nice person.”

The upside is that if you listen carefully, the Kind Customer, like the Precise Customer, will probably give you all the information you need to pursue the purchase with the other decision makers. The Ps, though, are much more structured than the Ks in their communication patterns.

Focus on the Phone: The Listening Challenge

Paying attention to why we, as salespeople, too often fall short of the most effectual listening can help us to turn this shortcoming into a strength. Listening is both a skill and an asset.

Sadly, all too often, we don’t listen well for some of the following reasons:

We have never formally been taught listening as a skill.

We have short attention spans.

We multitask while on the phone.

We begin to steamroll in our enthusiasm.

We regurgitate product information.

We are so intent on our next question or comment that we disregard the customer’s reaction.

Sound familiar? Now think back to school. (Okay, that may not be a happy thought necessarily, but go with it here for just a moment.) You had courses in reading and writing, history and math, but do you remember taking any listening classes? Most people haven’t. And by the way, do you remember receiving any financial reward for listening to what your teachers said? Your high school experience, unfortunately, might have caused you to grow up with more listening-avoidance skills than listening enhancements. You may have even developed a distaste for listening purposefully for a long period of time to anyone who isn’t really interesting to you. And we all know that not every customer is interesting to us!

Now, fast-forward to the sales challenges you face every day. Today, years removed from the classroom, the greatest tool you have for your success is the ability to listen to your customer. Let’s assess the situation this puts you in: You’ve never had a serious listening course, but the greatest skill you need to be successful in your job is listening!

Focus on the phone by meeting two major challenges head-on:

1. Obstacles. These are challenges—such as multitasking distractions, inability to see customer reactions, restlessness, and fatigue—that can inhibit efficient listening and cause you to lose sales.

2. Attitude. Most of us are generally more interested in what we have to say than in what others have to say. We wait impatiently for our chance to speak, especially when we have something else to say and are enthusiastic about the topic.

Since both types of challenges can get in the way of your phone sales success, you need to be able to handle them. This can be done easily with a little self-management.

OBSTACLE CHALLENGES

An obstacle is anything that gets in the way of your listening success. Whether you eliminate obstacles or merely find a way around them, one thing is certain: You cannot afford to ignore them. Multitasking Distractions. Part of what attracts many of us to the sales profession (besides the money!) is that it is a fast-paced, varied, and challenging career. For this reason, we often find ourselves multitasking—for example, using our computer to email while on the phone, placing a sandwich order with a colleague, and making coffee at our desk, all at the same time. Sometimes we get a misguided impression that by multitasking, we are getting more done. Let’s take a closer look at this belief.

On the phone, multitasking can be the kiss of death, because if our attention is divided, we are not listening to our customers! When we stop listening, we miss important details that might lead to a sale. When we check email, review our stock portfolio, mouth silent conversations with colleagues, and engage in other activities, our heads are down, and our tone and inflection are impaired. Even rocking in your seat will make you sound different to a customer and affect your ability to listen to the subtleties in the conversation. In addition, these subtle changes in your tone and inflection are heard by the customer on the other end, thereby impeding your ability to gain a rapid rapport.

Solution: Organize and prepare for sales calls. Don’t pick up the phone until you have done the following:

Cleared your desk.

Turned your chair away from all distractions.

Closed your door, or put out a “Making Calls—Please Do Not Disturb” sign.

Turned off audible distractions such as music, the alert tone on email, and your call waiting.

Prepared yourself to make and/or take calls.

Your job during that phone call is to listen to your customer. Those who listen build better relationships, know more about customer needs, and close more business.

Inability to See Customer Reactions. On the phone, we have to determine where our customers are in their thinking with only their words and the tone in their voice to go by. There are many messages in the nonverbal part of communication that can give us a direct line to a close:

Does the customer sound hurried?

Are there hesitations in the customer’s comments?

Are you hearing enthusiasm and fast tempo?

Does the customer sound friendly and engaged, or irritated at having been interrupted?

What information can you gather about customers from the way they speak? A great deal can be learned from tone and tempo, but you need to listen purposefully beyond the words themselves. For example:

“I am not the decision maker.” (They probably want to get you off the phone, but they likely know who is making the decision.)

“You’ve caught me at a bad time.” (If said quickly and in a friendly way, they may be interested but it truly is a bad time. Ask for an appointment.)

Listen to yourself as you read aloud each statement below. Be sure to note the different meanings conveyed when you emphasize a different word.

“We are not really purchasing at this time.” (Hmmm, maybe they are thinking about putting it out for bids? How do you get on the bid list?)

“We are not really purchasing at this time.” (When might this customer want to purchase? Ask about a time frame, or a changed initiative.)

“We are not really purchasing at this time.” (Is this a lease or outsource opportunity?)

“We are not really purchasing at this time.” (Once again, what is the customer’s time frame. Ask about contract deadlines or fiscal year, or schedule an appointment for a later date.)

Solution: Use the personality types as a template. Once you’ve determined what type your customer is, you will be able to compare what you are hearing on the phone to the predictable behavior of that type.

Then picture the customer; try to imagine a live person. Summon up an image of age, hair color, expressions they might have, and even their work environment. Are they standing on a factory floor wearing a hard hat? Is this an executive in a glass-walled office? Use the personality types to help you picture the person on the other end of the line. This will help you stay tuned in.

Short Attention Span. Many people in sales tend to be right-brain dominant and, quite frankly, often a little on the high-energy side. These are great assets in our business, but they can cause us to have a short attention span for ideas coming in from the outside. We get bored during the call when the customer is talking, especially if he or she is rambling.

This really isn’t surprising, considering that people talk at only about 250 words per minute, and the brain can process at more than 1,000 words per minute (look at speed-readers). Eventually, our high-speed brains drive us to start looking around for something entertaining. Unfortunately, when we do that, we become redirected. Mentally zoning out can cause us to miss an important element in the conversation, an element that might determine the sale.

Solution: Instead of “zoning out,” try the following:

Take notes. Write down what the customer is saying. Capturing a customer’s keywords is an important way to track what he or she is thinking. Writing is a good way to keep you focused, and the notes are helpful long after you have finished the call. Plus, you now have a written record of the conversation that you can refer to later, enter into your contact manager, and use for preparing a customer-centered proposal. (Note that writing is more effective for retention than typing, because of how the brain processes information.)

Recap during the conversation. Active listening is so rare in business conversation that when you can accurately rephrase what the customer has said, the surprise value alone may get the customer’s attention.

Doodle. This engages your brain by supporting the hands to brain connection.

Play with a squeeze ball. Use your left hand to engage your right brain. Or vice versa—whole-brain thinking will allow you to be sharper and better able to remember what is being said.

Walk around your space. You may be someone who thinks better when you are moving.

ATTITUDE CHALLENGES

One important aspect of our willingness to listen is the value we place on time; another is the value we place on what the customer has to say relative to what we want to say. These two factors are attitude issues and are dealt with next.

Impatience. Because most salespeople have been through lots of product training, we are often eager to spill out all we know in a sales call, especially when we are aware that time is short. However, in most sales calls your job is to move the process along to advance the sale, and that means patiently hearing as much as the customer offers in order to better connect when it’s time to close the deal. So the bottom line is to listen and take notes whenever the customer is talking.

Those of us with really high-speed thinking may be less aware of exactly how much time has passed during our conversations with customers. As long as the customer is talking, your chances of getting the sale go up. The reverse is true as well. As long as you are talking, the customer’s interest is probably down. Although one of our greatest assets as sales professionals is our willingness to communicate, sadly, one of our detriments is that we tend to talk too much.

Solution: Use the tongue trick. When you are tempted to interrupt, take your tongue and place it behind your teeth. This acts as a gentle physical reminder to be quiet until the customer is finished. (You can use this technique in face-to-face interactions as well, and no one is the wiser.) This will help you to abide by our 80/20 rule: The customer should be talking 80 percent of the time. While the customer is talking, be sure that you are actively listening, rather than waiting for your turn to talk. Remember: You should be speaking only 20 percent of the time. So, given this guideline, do you talk too much?

You have probably not timed yourself to see if you are adhering to the 80/20 rule. It might be worth your while to time a few of your calls, to see whether you or your customer is doing most of the talking.

This rule is especially effective in dealing with Es and As, who really want to run the conversation. Ps and Ks are better listeners, so you may alter those proportions for them, but be careful. Often, P and K salespeople feel the need to provide too many details in the conversation, risking a lost customer at the other end of the phone line.

Lack of Interest in Other People. Another attitude element is our own lack of interest in others. Ouch! Be truthful now; if customers on the other end are boring or don’t talk openly, you may feel the need to talk more to keep the conversation going. Resist that urge, even though you think that what you have to say is much more interesting than what they have to say! Instead, figure out why they are boring. This could be because you have not asked enough pertinent questions. The customer may have even said “no” earlier, and because you didn’t listen and kept going, he or she has now zoned out, is multitasking, or is just waiting for a pause to break in and hang up.

Some of us are genuinely curious about our customers and their individual stories. Others see people as merely a means to an end. Whatever your own basic attitude is, it probably comes through in your phone manner.

Solution: Use personality-matching to make phone interaction more interesting. A prospect becomes a puzzle that you solve by uncovering clues within conversations that you engineer. It is your job to find what is interesting about them. Take the three most boring customers or prospects you have and apply the personality-matching techniques to your next conversation. You might find that the issue is a personality-type difference between you two. When that’s the case, by using the strategies in this book, you can turn boredom into bucks!

Listen While Presenting: I-N-V-O-L-V-E Your Customer

Since good listening can be exhausting, actively hearing and processing information while strategizing the next level of the conversation takes a lot of energy. For this reason, occasional breaks in your call day will help. What should help more, though, is remembering that the reason for listening is for you to make the sale to anyone over the phone. Combining good listening with strategic presenting will take you to the close more quickly.

Today’s customers have about a thirteen-second attention span. What to do? Keep the customer involved. It is especially important in phone selling to get the customer involved right from the start. Here are the steps you need to take for ensuring that the customer is indeed listening, paying attention, and thinking of buying from you. The acronym INVOLVE will help you remember what to do.

I—INTEREST your customer. Try something that your competition has never tried before. Do something different to help create excitement and to establish your creativity as a professional during your presentation. Have some fun with it; your customer will, too! Use these enhancements:

A colorful story.

A satisfied customer you can conference in for a testimonial.

A product comparison that you can email during the conversation.

A website you can refer the customer to while you are talking.

N—NEVER use the phrase “I think” during your presentation. Why? Because as a salesperson, your opinions are suspect since customers assume you are on commission. In addition, customers don’t really care about what you think; they care about what they think. They also care about what other customers or experts who have used your product or service think. Testimonials, review articles, and awards can all build your case. Make sure they’re easily accessible in an online location or digital file for instant use. You may be tempted to use “I think” with Kind customers in particular to speed up their slow and reluctant decision style. Resist the urge. What’s important is getting the customer to say: “I think we’ll accept your proposal.”

V—VERBALLY keep the customer engaged by asking questions during your phone presentation. For example, ask: “What do you think of that idea?” and “How much do you think that will save you in the long run?” or “Where can you use this?” Remember to pause and wait for the customer to answer after you have asked the question and take notes on the response.

O—ORGANIZE your thoughts before presenting over the phone. Remember today’s customers and their very short attention spans? Be succinct, focus on this particular customer’s specific needs, and don’t talk too much. The better organized you are, the less chance you’ll talk yourself right out of a sale! Customers remember in threes, so organize to focus on three specific selling points—and jot these down before you start your call. You can open with, “Ms. Solumba, there are three main features you might find interesting in your situation.” Then go through the three features, keeping the information very brief.

L—LET your customer interrupt. If your customer is either excited or bored, you may be interrupted. If the customer is excited, great! Close the sale right there. If the customer is bored, they are telling you to move on to another point—that the one you’re spending too much time on has lost their interest and isn’t important to them. You can encourage interruption (and make sure the customer is paying attention) with the occasional pause. Pauses can be very powerful tools on the phone. In Western culture we rarely pause during conversation, so even a short, one- or two-second pause breaks the monotony of your presentation and gets the attention of your customer.

V—VERIFY that what you are presenting are, in fact, the right ideas to suit your customer’s most pressing needs. How do you do this? By listening. Did the customer agree, interrupt, or cut you off? Listen for the clues and follow through with some ideas of your own. Remember to write down what the customer is saying in their own words throughout your call. When you go for the close, the more closely you sum up in the customer’s words, the more in sync you’ll sound. This will solidify the customer’s confidence that he or she has made the right decision.

E—EXPRESS yourself skillfully. If you are emphasizing how your service worked with another customer, tell a story to make it interesting and compelling to the customer. If you focus on your customer’s real need, you avoid rambling and establish your credibility. You’ll find that the sale is just around the corner.

Vary the Tools You Use for Effective Presentations

Of course you’ve been taught (or have picked up on your own) a method for presenting your product or service. Unfortunately, many of the methods that are so commonly used have become outdated and ineffective, especially when you use the same approach every time with every customer. Varying the format that you use to get across the advantages of your company’s offerings can jump-start you toward a quicker close.

USE STORYTELLING

Customers respond to stories that give them past history or emphasize success. They remember stories that emphasize your product and how well that product has worked. If you sell heating and airconditioning systems, and your systems are less expensive to maintain in the long term than your competition’s, tell a story about a customer who saved 20 percent in maintenance costs over a five-year period. Keep it short and to the point.

Rules for stories that provide your customer with proof include the following:

It must be authentic, because your customer may ask for more information or a reference.

It must be short, no more than two to three sentences.

It should establish your credibility and compliment your customer.

It should not directly address your competitor’s weaknesses or flaws.

It must be practiced to ensure smooth and effective delivery. The implication in stories is, “Customer, you are smart like our other smart customers, so you will want to use our product in just the same way.”

We refer to this as providing a third-party testimonial, which is more effective than offering your opinion over the phone. You are now simply (yet importantly) the messenger for a positive experience another customer has enjoyed by conducting business with you.

Customers are much better informed today than they used to be. Buyers are more sophisticated these days because of the easy availability of information (just look at how much you can learn about products on the Web). You’re not going to put anything past the customer, so go instead for a story you know or an experience with which you are familiar.

DROP NAMES

It is important to know when to name-drop to help you close more sales. If you are talking to a customer at a smaller company, compare other customers that are approximately the same size, provided they’re not direct competitors. When you are talking with a Fortune 100 company, name-drop other 100s or 500s that are similar; they may be in the same industry but again, not direct competitors. For example, a frozen food distributor and a canned food distributor are the same industry, and may even have some of the same customers; however, they are not competing directly.

If there is someone your customer knows and likes, this is an excellent name to drop. For example, if you are selling help desk services to a company, you might use the internal contact’s name with which you are already doing business. You need to know in advance that the two people like each other. If you don’t have this information, however, you run the risk of using a negative association and possibly losing the sale.

Never use name-dropping when:

What you sell is too confidential or if the situation requires extreme discretion.

The name is the customer’s direct competitor.

The company’s name or product may be offensive or insulting in your customer’s eyes.

The products are too different or unrelated (like pet foods and airplane parts.

AVOID STEAMROLLING

As salespeople representing products or services we believe in, we sometimes get wrapped around our knowledge. We are so excited about what we sell and so intent on what we want to say, that we feel like we have to throw out every neat feature and include a cherry on top! Let’s face it, we begin to enjoy our captive audience because we all like people to listen to us.

For example, a sales rep who has just come through a lengthy new product training course would want to share his or her knowledge, especially if it is truly a super innovation. Any good salesperson is a subject matter expert, and it makes sense that you are eager to convey all you’ve learned. Unfortunately, the customer may need only a tiny piece of what you know. The customer only wants his or her problem solved—not an encyclopedia of all you know.

Now, ask yourself this tough question: Is talking more helping you close more sales? If you answer “yes,” you are in the minority or you’re deluding yourself.

Consider that when you talk longer than thirty seconds at a stretch, customers think you have talked too much—unless you are specifically addressing their needs, which you will discover only by listening!

Put a silent timer near the phone. (One of those minute timers that looks like a small hourglass is great.) Just for fun, time your customer as he or she talks. Then time yourself and let the timer help you regulate your talk time. When the sand runs low while you are talking, stop and ask the customer a check-in question, such as: “How does that sound to you, Fred?” or a even a closing question, such as: “Can you tell me your thoughts on that feature for your business?”

The Payoff

Presenting that comes before questioning and listening is the ultimate turnoff for customers. But a salesperson who listens can present strategically, engaging the customer with only what is important to the decision. These phone sales professionals sell more!

If Matt, the carpet salesman from the start of this chapter, has learned anything, his calls should go better. Let’s listen in:

CUSTOMER: Just give me the bottom line.

MATT: Thanks for helping cut this process short. Because we have three different alternatives that might fit, if you give me a couple more pieces of information, I can narrow it down to exactly how to price this job.

CUSTOMER: Sure. So many of you guys want to suck up my time reading me the whole product manual. Go ahead.

So far so good. Here’s another:

CUSTOMER: We all participate in the decision.

MATT: Great, tell me how the process takes place and who is involved.

CUSTOMER: Well, Andrew in HR and Keira in Accounting are a part of the group, but mostly it’s LaVonne and Steven. By the way, I think the next meeting is Tuesday.

That was better! But let’s see how else Matt might handle the call:

CUSTOMER: We’ll probably be staying with Good Services Company until the end of the year.

MATT: Okay, can you tell me about what they’re providing and how the contracts are awarded?

CUSTOMER: What I’ve seen is that they’re just installers and handle any warranty issues. I really think that we should have one company for the carpet itself as well as the installation, but then, that’s just my opinion.

MATT: Sounds good to me. That’s what we do. Thanks for your help. How should we proceed to get information on that bid list?

Looks like Matt is on his way to a bonus year!