16 Sales Prospecting Tips to Crush Your Next Call

Calling prospects takes a good degree of courage, talent -- and yes, some luck. You might never be able to control whether the person who picks up is having a good day … assuming they pick up at all.

But great salespeople do everything they can to succeed regardless, from proactively boosting their confidence, staying focused, practicing their techniques, and honing their skills.

因此，如果您想取得出色的结果，即使运气不在您身边，请遵循以下16个销售通话提示。

Mindset

1）自信

Your first impression hinges on how confident you sound. After all, prospects don’t have much else to go on -- if you seem nervous, they’ll assume you don’t have a good reason to call, but appearing self-assured and in command will make you seem credible.

Worried you’ll come across as anxious? Listen to a pump-up song right before you call, take a few seconds to play a mental “highlight reel” of your greatest selling hits, and picture the best possible outcome of the conversation. And most importantly, make sure you’re well-prepared. If you’ve done your homework, you’ll automatically feel ready.

2) Don’t worry about mistakes

如果您偶然发现几次或不完美回答每个问题，没关系。您是人类，这意味着您偶尔会搞砸。潜在客户不仅愿意忽略偶尔的Blooper，而且甚至可能看到您更加相关。只是说类似的话，“Oops, got something caught in my throat,”或者“I think it’s time for another coffee.”

3) Count your nos

If you’re struggling to stay motivated, try Jeff Hoffman’s tip:Count the “nos”you get. Rather than feeling dejected when you’re shut down, you’ll feel like you’ve made progress.

为了使事情变得更加令人兴奋，请挑战另外两三个销售人员参加比赛。获得一定数量的NOS胜利的第一位代表 - 也许他们可以选择下一份午餐，免费饮料或只是吹牛的权利。

4) Remember your motivation

Keep your enthusiasm up by periodically reminding yourself why you’re doing this. Maybe you have a financial goal. Maybe you’re trying to set a personal record or beating a team member’s. Maybe you’re trying to grow your business. Keeping that “why” in the back of your mind will help you overcome disinterested prospects, hang ups, and no responses.

战略

1) Warm them up on social media

You’ll get a much better reaction if you seem familiar. People can’t help it: Thanks to theexposure effect, we naturally feel warmer toward those we know.

That’s why you should try to interact with buyers on social media before you call. Request to connect with them on LinkedIn, like and retweet their posts on Twitter, and so forth. By the time you say“This is Jim from Dunder Mifflin,”they’ll know your name.

2) Do prospecting in chunks

Set aside a block of time each day for making calls. It’s much more efficient to make several outreach calls in a row than call one prospect, prep for a demo, go to a meeting, make a few more calls, connect with 10 people on LinkedIn, and so on.

Not only are you staying in the prospecting mindset, but you can keep all your materials close at hand.

3) Vary your prospecting times

That being said, calling a prospect at the same time every time rarely works. If they didn’t pick up in the morning the first two times you tried, they probably won’t pick up the third time. Mix it up to maximize your chances of connecting: Try the morning, mid-afternoon, and early evening.

Conversation

1) Find a commonality

Research showshumans are hardwired to like people who seem similar。Capitalize on this by mentioning something you share with your prospect -- and don’t worry if you didn’t go to the same college or grow up in the same place, this strategy still works even with statements like,“I’ve visited Japan as well! What did you think?”和“Saw on Twitter you’re a big fan of chess pie. My grandma used to make the most delicious chess pie ever. Where did you get your recipe?”

证明您是一个真实的人，就像他们一样，可以软化潜在客户的防御能力，并使他们更有可能保持在线。

2) Explain why you’re reaching out

The first question in your prospect’s mind you need to answer (or risk losing their attention for good):“你为什么打电话me？”

There’s a great formula to use in your response:“I’m calling because we help [type of business] companies like yours with [pain point or opportunity].”

For example, if you’re calling a small ecommerce company, you might say,“I’m reaching out because we help recently launched ecommerce companies like yours make their website look trustworthy to consumers.”

The more specific you can get, the better. This reinforces the importance of doing research: Knowing key details about your prospects helps you customize your messaging, and it also helps you weed out bad fits.

3) Avoid the cheesy pitch

您可能很想跟进您的理由，以概述您的解决方案 - 它的工作原理，为什么如此出色以及哪些公司正在使用它。不要这样做。硬出售只会关闭线路另一端的人；只要想象一下，如果您的一天被一个陌生人打断了他们的产品音调，您的一天就会感觉如何。

Instead, ask one simple question:“Is that a [challenge, opportunity] you’re [experiencing, interested in solving]?”

If they say yes, you can ask for some time on their calendar to discuss some strategies.

4) Have a plan …

But be prepared to pivot. Going in with a roadmap, some relevant statistics, and a few pre-written questions is smart. However, if you’ve written an entire script, make sure you’re comfortable straying from it. There’s almost zero chance your prospect will say exactly what you expect, so if you’re thrown off by any deviation, the call won’t end well.

The takeaway? Have your notes in front of you, but try not to read them word for word, and expect the conversation to take unexpected turns.

5) Don’t give up immediately

Prospect hits you with an objection? Don’t be defeated so easily. Sometimes, you need to provide some value before the buyer sees you as worthy of their time.

With that in mind, be cheerily persistent -- and more importantly, helpful.

Let’s say your prospect says,“No, we’re not dealing with that issue right now.”

You’d say something along the lines of,“真是太好了。你能告诉我一点铁道部e about your [strategy for X, Q4 plans, etc.]?”尝试挖掘更多信息，并找到机会提供建议。

Post-Call

1) Add your notes immediately

As soon as you hang up, log relevant details in the CRM. Did the prospect mention they’re using a competitor? Write that down. Did you build some rapport around a specific topic? Make a note of it so you can bring it up in your next email or call.

您还应该安排任何提醒或下一步。这样可以确保您永远不会让重要的活动在裂缝中滑落。

2) Follow up

No matter what you do, don’t forget to touch base later that day. The post-call email might be the most important part of the process; you can’t assume you’ll stay top-of-mind without a timely follow up.

如果你答应送他们一些材料,这样做now. You should also confirm your next call and -- if you assigned any homework -- what they’re supposed to do before then.

3) Ask for feedback

Your sales manager probably has a ton of tips and helpful strategies -- don’t let their wisdom go to waste. If you’re not already meeting with them once per week to listen to a recorded call and discuss it, ask if that’s an option. You can also reach out to a senior salesperson for their help; although they’re usually extremely busy, they may be flattered enough to say yes. (At the very least, they’ll agree to one session.)

Another alternative: Ask a peer if they want to review your call, and in exchange, you’ll review theirs. This is a great opportunity to help each other out.

4）尝试对话分析平台

Call intelligence tools likeGong和Chorus每天都变得越来越复杂。这些可以抄录您的呼叫并分析以获取关键见解，例如“The prospect mentioned another vendor on the second call, which is a strong buying signal,”或者“You spoke 80% of the time; ask more questions."

According to HubSpot Research, most salespeople findprospecting the hardest part of sales。有了这些技巧，您可以更有效地展望 - 这意味着您将害怕的任务少得多。

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