The 7 White Lies Prospects Tell Telephone Prospectors

AppId is over the quota
AppId is over the quota

One of the secrets for being more effective and successful in telephone sales is to know the types of objections you are likely to encounter. When you do, you are never caught off guard because you are better prepared to deal with them.

For instance, here are the top 7 objections telephone reps typically encounter in the initial phase of a call; usually during or right after the opening statement. You can call them 'white lies' because the prospect tosses them out because they want to get rid of you not because they're honest truths.

White Lie #1: I'm in a meeting

When you hear this objection don't you think, "Oh ya... then why did you answer the phone?" This is a wonderful mistruth because it tends to make the caller feel slightly guilty that he/she interrupted. It tends to work too. Reps utter some sort of an vague apology and say they'll call back. Meanwhile, the lie worked in getting your call deflected.

White Lie #2: Call me back

This is a very clever deception because the prospect leaves you with the feeling of 'hope.' We kid ourselves into believing that she REALLY DOES want us to call back and so we fall for it. Sometimes we even suggest a time and a date to which they agree. The only problem is the prospect is rarely there... thanks to call display and voice mail.

White Lie #3: Send me/e-mail me some Information

This is such a brush off. Sort of a cousin to the 'call me back' lie, this objection creates a degree of hope. I have watched reps gleefully stuff an envelope or spend 15 minutes composing a wonderful e-mail with 9 attachments, all the while confidently believing the prospect is waiting with baited breath. Don't hold your breath on this one either. The grotesque majority don't want your e-mail, letter or fax. They asked for it to get rid of you. Don't fall for it.

White Lie #4: I'm busy

This is not really a lie but the net result is still the same. Guiltily the telephone rep feels like he's an intrusion and gets knocked off his game. Quickly the valiant rep tries to recover by asking when would be a better time. The prospect says, "There is no better time, you'll have to just try later." The call comes to a grinding halt.

White Lie #5: Don't Need/Want Anything Right Now

Delivered politely, this little bit of misdirection works like a charm almost every time. The poor sales rep doesn't want to appear pushy and aggressive so he or she backs off immediately. If there's no need then there's no opportunity, right? The call ends nicely with a promise by the rep to call back 'in a few weeks.' Meanwhile the prospect has dodged a sales bullet and goes on merrily with his day.

White Lie #6: Send me a Quote /Proposal

This is probably the nastiest of the white lies. It's nefarious because the prospect might well be wasting a lot of your time and effort getting you to do work that he or she will never seriously consider. Proposals or quotes suggest that the client is serious about buying. Diligently and eagerly the rep takes the time to churn out a quote or proposal and makes countless follow up calls. Meanwhile, other, legitimate prospects are ignored or put aside.

White Lie #7: Satisfied with Current Vendor

Like its friend, "Don't Need Anything Right Now" this coverup is usually based on a truth. It works because it deflates the eager drive of the unsuspecting sales rep. We take the prospect at his word and dejectedly hang up. The prospect may indeed be happy with his vendor but a whopping good offer or an exciting new product may turn his head.

3 Steps to Managing Little White Lies

The trick to dealing with these lies/objections is not to cave in. Use these three steps to get past the lie and get the client talking.

Step #1: Empathize. No matter what the prospects throws at you simply pause and say, "I understand." It buys you some time to think and catches the prospect off guard a bit.

Step #2: Ignore it. It's probably a lie (although in some cases it could well be the truth) anyway so trying to respond to it won't solve the problem.

Step #3: Ask a compelling question. Start with this trigger phrase, "Jim, one quick question before I let you go..." Believe it or not, most prospects have a conscience. They know they mislead you and many of them feel slightly guilty. They will usually feel compelled to answer the question.

The trick is to ask a question that gets them thinking about a pain or a gain; a motivator; something that is compelling and out of the ordinary. For instance:

-A financial adviser might say, "Are you absolutely, 100% satisfied with your portfolio's performance this year?"
-A safety poster rep might ask, "Roughly how many man hours have you lost to industrial accidents over the last six months?"
-A sales trainer might inquire, "Are all your reps meeting and exceeding their sales quota for the year?"
- A TENS reps might ask a chiropractor, "Has the economic turn down had an impact on the revenues of your practice?"

Questions like these tend to give pause. While they won't always hook the prospect's interest, some will. If the question works, you can ask more because now the prospect is engaged; mission accomplished.
This is where preparation and planning comes into play. You KNOW with absolute and utter certainty that you're going to encounter these seven little lies throughout your calling day. If that's true -and it is - then you need to have a strategy whereby you don't fall for the lie and make a game of it by countering with a compelling thought, issue, concern, problem, opportunity.

Know the little white lies and have your counter question prepared ahead of time.

Jim Domanski is president of Teleconcepts Consulting and works with companies and individuals who struggle to use the telephone more effectively. Author of four highly regarded books on tele-selling, Jim also writes two e-newsletters for tele-sales reps and tele-sales managers. He has also provides training and consulting to audiences, universities, and clients through the US, Canada and Europe. Visit his website at http://www.telesalesmaster.com/, sign up for his newsletter (Tele-Sales Vitamins) and download articles and download his Special Report: "The Top 10 Voice Mail Blunders and What You Can do About Them."

Following Up Sales Leads Instantly

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AppId is over the quota

Many businesses get new business leads through every day and some do not have the time to follow them all up. Sometimes leads that are followed up do not respond to an e-mail, or the client does not answer the phone; at this point many companies will just leave the lead.

In sales terms, the longer a sales lead goes unresponded to, the colder it becomes. This could be for a number of reasons:

The client has gone onto another website and found what they needThey have been contacted by another company and 'sold to' from that competitorThey have changed their mind and gone a different route

The term 'strike while the iron is hot' is an important one in the sales world and following up sales leads needs to be done within minutes, while the client still has the interest/topic in mind. The longer it is left, the client may then shift priority and put the query they enquiried about onto the back burner.

Chasing Sales Leads

All enquiries cost money, some from the advertising that they originated from, or from the marketing that happened to bring them in. Businesses that get lots of leads sometimes struggle in following them all up, older leads that have not responded to a follow up call/e-mail may get forgotten due to the more recent leads that have come in.

Organised businesses do record all sales leads on a database and then follow them up methodically based on a call back system. However sometimes this can also create problems in that the time spent loading leads up and call back attempts may mean that sales leads slip through the net.

Non sales people do struggle with follow up sales leads sometimes and often give up chasing clients after 1-2 attempts at calling; however research has shown that it takes an average of 7 attempts to get hold of a prospect.

Consider Outsourcing Sales Lead Followup

For businesses that only get in 2-3 business enquiries a day, outsourcing may not be best option, as a little organisation and tenacity is all that is needed to ensure that leads are followed up promptly and as few as possible fall through the net.

Businesses that get 10-20 sales enquiries through a day (or more with marketing events or exhibitions) may need to consider outsourcing the follow up to a telemarketing agency to handle and provide feedback on. This way all leads are going to be logged and put into a proper call back system to ensure that each one is chased and none slip through. There are always going to be leads that are hard to follow up (due to people being busy or not answering their phones) or dud leads, but the wasted leads should be kept to a minimum.

The main thing to remember is that sales leads need to be followed up within a few minutes of them enquiring, following up a lead hours or days will only lead to sales leads going cold and customers going to competitors.

Marketing Quotes is a free price comparison service to UK businesses to help get free quotes and advise from local marketing companies.

Carry a Light Cross in Insurance Lead Generation With Outsourced Telemarketing

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AppId is over the quota

Every one is carrying a cross. Nobody lives in this world without burden nor with happiness alone. The same is true in business. All companies, even the giants, are laboriously carrying their own crosses, from the demands in production to the always changing status of the soft economy. There is no time in a year that a heavy load is absent. This constant struggle is made worse by a mild to severe blows from unexpected events, like skyrocketing prices of raw materials or fortuitous circumstances, e.g. fire.

With a weak and ineffective insurance lead generation and insurance appointment setting, the weight is made graver. Instead of giving support to ease and to hasten the sales cycle, it adds to the problem. The inability to fill a sales pipeline with qualified leads, such as life insurance leads or auto insurance leads, is spoiling a company's mission of reaching its goals with less pain and modest speed. The overwhelming expenses resulting to meager results deeply cuts performance and the overall financial stability of a company. For small-and-medium businesses and neophytes, the situation is worse since all companies carry the same cross. As opposed to veterans, they are still fledglings, and are still still half-conscious of the whats and hows of their journey.

All of these appalling things have solutions and among them, one is guaranteed to be of great help, which is a partnership with an outbound call center. This alliance is through buying leads from an outsourced telemarketing program. Third party service providers use client profiling, cold-calling and appointment setting as their prime tools in qualifying a sales lead, e.g. health insurance leads. It allows clients to gain adequate resources-manpower, business contact list, technology, management-of the telemarketing firm.

It is always true that two is better than one. Having a reliable partner that will give support on a firm's carrying of the cross is enough to hurdle the challenges stored in B2B lead generation. Through partnership, firms will be able to save a material quantum of stamina and time that will be used in concentrating to core functions. The relief from generating sales leads gives great opportunity for a company to improve internal efficiency. Equally important is the fact that a large amount of money will be saved, which, in turn, is to be saved for later crucial expenses.

True enough, a lighter cross is born with buying leads through this outsourced service. But, this does not mean that a company has to be complacent in choosing a service provider. The truth is that a company must exercise due diligence in picking its partner. This is so because the rewards of lead generation will only be realized if done properly.

Kurt Walters works as a business intelligence consultant. He is inviting you to visit http://www.ledgerleads.com/ to learn more about lead generation and appointment setting for accounting, tax and financial services.