Interestingly, even though I thought there would be mixed responses, the comments were unanimous:  “Yes”.  However, most of the respondents also said that the voice mail had to be an effective one. Informal polls of salespeople over the years have indicated that most voice mails do not get returned. That, and some of the messages that have been left for me, lead me to conclude that many voice mails are not nearly as effective as they could be. And since you will get voice mail 90% of the time that you dial new prospects, instead of asking: “Should you leave a voice mail?” the question should be: “How can I leave voice mails that get returned?”

Before we discuss how to do that, let’s look at a typical message I received recently (the names have been changed out of respect to the caller!):

“Hi, this is Jill Smith calling from ABC company. I wanted to introduce myself as your new dedicated Account Executive for ABC. We’re a leading blah, blah, blah provider. Our primary differentiator is in our diversity of offerings, with service delivery being a close second. I would like an opportunity to explore how we can also work with your organization moving forward.  I look forward to hearing back from you.”

Now – let me ask you this: How many of you are still awake after reading this? Imagine how it sounded on the phone! How far along would you have allowed this message to get before you deleted it? Personally, I would have deleted before the end of the second sentence – in other words, about 5 seconds into the message. Why? Not because it’s a bad message. It was informational, delivered in a pleasant voice, and it’s nice to know I have a dedicated Account Executive. But unless I happened to be in the market for ABC’s products right now, there’s really no reason for me to call back. And the chances of you making a proactive outbound prospecting call on someone who actually has a recognized need for your product or service at the exact moment you called are slim to none.

Therefore, it’s important to understand that most prospecting calls are not to sell a product or service, but to initiate a relationship, so that when the prospect does have a need for your product, they will contact you. And in initiating relationships, first impressions are very important when you are proactively calling out. If you haven’t spoken to a prospect before, your voice mail will be the first time they hear your voice. So what do you say to generate that great first impression? Let’s look at some principles and practices of voice mail that, if followed, will generate more calls backs.

First, some general rules. Providentially, I received a voice mail this morning before I sat down to write this article that illustrated the points I am about to make. After stating his name and company, this gentleman went on to say: “I have a few questions about the marketing for your website. My number is 555-1212. I hope to hear from you soon.” That was it. Very brief and to the point – much appreciated. He was prepared, with no fumbling for words, no hesitation. Again –much appreciated. However, the message was delivered in such a dull monotone, with absolutely no enthusiasm whatsoever, and it left me with no idea what he was offering or what value there was in it for me to call him back. Instantly forgettable, and guaranteed not to entice me to call back. In fact, the only reason I remembered what he said was that it was so bad, I wrote down exactly what he said. Except for his name and company which I had already forgotten by the time I reached the end of the message.

Here are the general rules:

• Be pleasant and cheerful. Nobody wants to talk to a miserable salesperson.
• Be enthusiastic (but not overly so). If you’re not enthusiastic about your offering, how can you expect the prospect to be? Your tone of voice on the message can have as much bearing on whether you get a call back as the actual content of the message.
• Be brief. By that, I don’t mean that you should rush through your message. I mean don’t use too many words. People are “time poor” these days, and they have no tolerance for anyone who is deemed to be wasting that time. There’s a great scene in the movie Amadeus where Salieri is asked for his opinion of Mozart’s music. After a moment’s consideration, Salieri replies: “Too many notes!” And that’s what’s wrong with many voice mails – too many notes!
• Be prepared. Know what you are going to say. You can’t afford to wait until the beep to think about what you are going to say. You have about 5 seconds to grab the prospect’s attention, establish your credentials, and make them want to listen to more. That’s it. If you don’t capture their attention by then, you’re toast. Deleted. If you do manage to grab their attention, you have another 10 seconds to communicate your value, and another 5 seconds to conclude the message. Script your voice mail message before you call, memorize it, and rehearse it – but never read it when leaving the message. Also, record yourself and listen to what you are saying. If your message is boring to you, guess how it will sound to the prospect?
• Be persistent. I never call back on the first voice mail I receive from a stranger. I want to see if the person is really serious about talking to me. Call me three times and I’ll call you back. Oh – and don’t bombard the prospect with a new message every three hours. Leave 3 or 4 days between calls.

Okay. Those are the general rules. Now specifically what do you say? There are five basic steps to an effective voice mail:

1. State your name and company.

2. Establish your credentials.

3. Give them a reason to call back.

4. Suggest a specific time for a call.

5. Repeat your name and give your call back number.

Let’s look at each of the steps in more detail.

1. State your name and company.

Firstly, do you state you name and your company name right up front? I have seen this point debated many times, so let me state my position on this: Of course you do! The voice mail is not a mystery novel, and you have nothing to hide (or at least, you shouldn’t have), so say who you are and where you are calling from.

2. Establish your credentials.

Having stated who you are, you then have 5 seconds to establish your credentials as a professional who should be taken seriously. Please don’t say: “I’m just calling to introduce myself as your new Account Executive….” Having spent three years as a Purchasing Agent in a former life, I have heard those words about one thousand times too many. This is a terrible thing to have done, and I’m not proud of it, but I got so tired of this approach that as soon as I heard those words, I would interrupt and say: “Well, it’s very nice to meet you. Thank you for calling.” Then I would hang up. Just by stating your name and company at the start of your message you have already introduced yourself, so it’s a total waste of time to say that’s why you are calling.

There are several ways you can establish credibility in those first few seconds, and which way you do it will depend on your research and why you are calling. One of the best ways to establish credibility is to reference someone the prospect knows. For example: “I was speaking with Don Smith and he suggested I contact you.”

Another way to establish credibility is to demonstrate you know something of their industry or business. Example: “I talk to a lot of people in your industry and I find that one of the biggest challenges facing them is the shortage of qualified people….”

When it’s applicable, you can refer to a news item or an announcement on their website: “I saw the article about your company bidding for the new subway cars for Toronto, and I…..”

An alternative way to gain credibility is to relate a recent success story: “The reason I’m calling is that we’ve worked with a number of companies similar to yours to help them reduce their operating costs….” Does that sound like a sales pitch? Of course it does! You’re a salesperson, and you’re not fooling anyone by pretending you’re not. Be proud. One note of caution here is that, at this point, it may be dangerous to talk about the prospect’s direct competition. Choose an example of a similar size or type of company, rather than a direct competitor.

So those are some ideas for quickly establishing your professional credentials and getting the prospect’s attention.

3. Give them a reason to call back.

Now what? Now you have to give them a reason to call back. Here’s a hint – if the prospect doesn’t see any value in calling you back, they won’t! Use a strong value statement that lets the prospect know why they should call you back. Another hint – use actual results other customers have seen from using your product or service. For example: “One of our clients experienced a 15% drop in their IT operating costs over the last six months.”

Then let the prospect know you’d like to set up a dialogue to see if they could benefit as well: “I’m wondering if we could help you enjoy a similar reduction in costs”

4. Suggest a specific time for a call between you

“Would you have 5 to 10 minutes for an initial phone dialogue on Thursday morning at 10:15?” Make sure you call at the stated time to further establish your professionalism. People notice these things.

5. Repeat your name and give your call back number.

Now is the time to state your name again (they won’t have remembered it from the first time you said it at the start of the message). Then leave your number – twice. Say it the first time at talking speed, and the second time at writing speed: “Again, my name is Derrick Pick, and my number is 416.752.1107.That’s 416.752.1107. I look forward to hearing from you.”

So, putting all together, it will sound like this (obviously you customize the message to your situation):

“Mr. Smith, this is Derrick Pick calling from Acme Industries. The reason I’m calling is that we helped a company very similar to yours to reduce their operating costs by 15% over the last six months, and I’m wondering if we could help you enjoy a similar reduction in costs. Would you have 5 to 10 minutes for an initial phone dialogue on Thursday morning at 10:15? Again, my name is Derrick Pick, and my number is 416.752.1107. That’s 416.752.1107. I look forward to hearing from you.”

Will this voice mail guarantee you a call back? Of course not. Will it work some of the time? Yes it will. Certainly more times than most of the messages I’ve received over the years.

One last piece of advice: follow up your voice mail with an e-mail stating exactly what you said on your voice mail. The salespeople I work with tell me this generates more call-backs than just leaving voice mail.

Try it – it works!

I didn’t know what to do with the invitation, so I did what I usually do when I don’t know what to do. I didn’t do anything. Actually, I did do one thing – I deleted it, and didn’t give it another thought until about three months later, when the invitation reappeared in my Inbox. Again I deleted it. Then it re-appeared again three months after that. This time I decided to accept the invitation, if only to stop it reappearing again! Of course, I had to set up a LinkedIn account for myself in order to connect with Alan, which I did because there was no charge for it. So I opened my free account, and then, not knowing what else to do with it, let it sit idle, apart from adding a few connections here and there.

Fast forward two years. During a conversation a friend asked me if I was on LinkedIn, and I replied that I was, but that I didn’t do much with it. When he asked why not, I told him I didn’t see much use for it apart from just keeping in touch with people I know. His reply took me by surprise:

“Why not? It’s freaking awesome. Don’t you use the Advanced Search function at least?”

Duh! Use it? I didn’t even know where to find it, let alone use it. My friend made me log on, and then in just a few clicks, he opened up a whole new dimension of prospecting to me. We did a search on VP Sales for IT companies in Toronto, and there were 490 results. 490 new prospects! I was amazed at the power of the program, and what I had been missing out on, and I have been a raving fan of it ever since.

In talking with salespeople, though, I’ve come to realize that while a lot of salespeople have LinkedIn profiles, there are a lot of them who aren’t aware of the full potential of the tool to help them sell. So I thought I would share some of the ways you can harness the power of the tool to help you prospect and sell more effectively (please note – this blog is not an advertisement for LinkedIn, and I am not receiving any payment for this posting! I am only interested in one thing – helping you sell more):

• First and foremost, you need to make sure your profile is well written and complete, so that it properly showcases your credibility and expertise. The system will help you complete your profile with various prompts. A comprehensive profile will also ensure you appear in more searches.
• One of the most valuable features of LinkedIn is the “Advanced” button. (Don’t be embarrassed if you don’t know where it is – I had to be shown myself. It’s to the right of the People search bar).  This will take you to the Advanced People Search screen where you can perform a targeted search for new prospects by specific geographies, job titles, companies, industry, company size, and more. You will need to upgrade to one of the paid versions to take full advantage of the Advanced search capabilities, but I’d highly recommend it. Upgrading also gives you other privileges such as access to far more profiles during searches than the 100 with the free version. This is worth the upgrade alone. Some of the other benefits of upgrading are that you can see everyone who has viewed your profile, and you get free InMails each month.
• In the Advanced screen you can also search for 2^nd connections to the prospect you are targeting. The search results will show you all of the people that both you and the prospect are connected to. If appropriate, you can then ask the common connection to introduce you to the prospect – either personally or through LinkedIn. Having a common connection also helps you build rapport with the new prospect, since one of the aspects of good rapport is commonality. So it pays to build your network of connections that you can call on for referrals. Be cautious, though, and only invite people to connect with you that you know, and only accept invitations from people you know. Remember that it’s the quality of your connections that counts, not the quantity. And don’t forget to thank the person who referred you, and offer to reciprocate.
• If you don’t have a 2^nd connection to introduce you, you can also use InMail or the Open Link function to contact new prospects, or regular e-mail if you have to. Be respectful, though, and go easy on the sales pitch. Use the opportunity to initiate a relationship and direct the person to your profile. If they like what they see, they’ll reply. You can also follow this basic process to get referred to decision makers.
• When calling new prospects, have two files open on your computer: the prospect’s company website, and their LinkedIn profile. Not only does the profile show you which connections you have in common, but it also gives you their work history, interests, and group memberships, all of which can give you valuable insight into the person that can help you in gaining access to them, and engaging them in a dialogue.
• Use the Company search function to find the appropriate contacts for your product or service within a target organization.
• Check your Network Updates on a regular basis. Whenever I see someone has moved to a new organization or has been promoted, I make it a habit to send a congratulatory message through LinkedIn. It’s a great way to stay in touch with your connections, and it can lead to new business. I recently sent a note of congratulations to a connection who had been promoted to National Sales Manager, and it led directly to a contract for sales training.
• It’s also great for maintaining existing relationships. Once a month, scroll through your connections and choose five people who you haven’t contacted in a while, and send them a short note to say Hi. I’m currently negotiating a contract with one of the people I sent a note to last month.
• Once a month, in case you missed them in the network updates, look through your connections for anyone who has recently changed organizations. Contact them after they have been in their new job for a couple of months and enquire about a referral into their new company.

These are just some of the ways that LinkedIn can help you boost your prospecting success. It’s by no means the only tool I use, but it is the one that has helped me the most in growing my business over the past 5 years, and I fully expect will continue to do so in the future.

And I have to give kudos to Alan for having the foresight to recognize how useful LinkedIn could be, and for becoming an early adopter of the technology.  Oh -and thanks for introducing me to it. And thank you to all the Delaine Alumni group members who contributed to our discussion on using LinkedIn. You know who you are.

Try it – it works!

On Monday I received an e-mailed request from someone (we’ll call him Bob) wanting more information about our sales training programs. I thought the name looked familiar, and  out of habit, I searched LinkedIn to see if Bob had a profile. Sure enough he did, and it turned out that Bob was actually a participant in one of our earliest programs back in 1988.

When I called Bob, I asked him what prompted his enquiry after all these years. It just so happened that his boss had asked him to look into possible training programs for their sales team, and Bob immediately thought of Delaine. During the course of our dialogue, he told me a story about his life.

“I’m a member of the local chapter of Toastmasters,” he told me. “Last week it was my turn to give a presentation, and as part of my presentation, I decided to share with the group the Master Dream List you made us complete in the program we did all those years ago.”

Bob told me when he read the list out, they all laughed at some of the things he’d written down. However, he was proud of how many of the dreams he had actually accomplished, and he encouraged the group members to each compile a list of their own.

I encourage you to compile your own list now, as Bob did so many years ago. Even if you’ve already compiled a list, now’s your chance to review and add to it as well

Here’s what you do: take a blank sheet of paper, and write: “Master Dream List” at the top. Now let your imagination run riot and list down anything and everything you want to do in your life but haven’t yet accomplished.

Write down anything that comes to mind – any wish, want, or desire, regardless of how ridiculous, childish, or unrealistic it may seem now. Nobody else is going to see this list (except maybe your partner or spouse), so let yourself dare to dream, and dream big. Don’t be practical or logical, and don’t make any judgements about what you write. Whatever you can imagine yourself doing, or want to do, write it on your list.

Pause now in reading this blog and go and do it. Make up your Master Dream List right now.

Okay – hi, welcome back. You now have your own Master Dream List, and you can turn it into your personal Instruction Manual for Your Life by converting each item on your dream list into actual SMART goals. For those who haven’t heard this term, SMART stands for Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Time related.  Some of your goals will be immediate, some will be short term, and some will be long term.

Does turning your dreams into goals guarantee you will accomplish them? Of course not. But according to the Harvard Business School you are 50% more likely to achieve a goal when you write it down, and 93% more likely to achieve it if you turn it into a SMART goal.

I compiled my Master Dream List 28 years ago, and I revisit it from time to time to check on my progress. I haven’t achieved all of my dreams yet, but I have accomplished a great deal of them (e.g. driven a Jaguar). Over the years I have added some new ones (e.g. spend a week on Nevis every winter), and I’ve crossed some off the list because I will never achieve them (e.g. scoring the winning goal for Manchester United in the F.A. Cup Final…well, on second thought, maybe I’ll still leave this one on the list, you never know!). One thing I do know, though, is that without having put that list together, I would not have accomplished half of the things I actually have.

The earlier in life you compile your Master Dream List and convert it into your personal Instruction Manual for Your Life, the more you will accomplish and do with your life.  Try it – it works!

Trust Builder No. 1:  Integrity

Integrity encompasses professionalism, conscientiousness, and above all, honesty. We should never lie to our customers, but we do need to be judicious at times as to what we tell them and how.

For example, I was coaching an inside salesperson for an electrical parts distributor (we’ll call him Mario), and he received an inbound call from one of his customers (whom we’ll call Louie). Louie was calling about one of the distributor’s vendors, a wire manufacturer. This is how the dialogue went:

“Mario – it’s Louie.”

“Louie, my friend – how are you today?”

“I’m good, but I’m trying to get some information about Acme wire. I’ve called them three times in the past week and left messages and I haven’t heard back from them once. What the heck’s going on?”

“Oh – sorry about that, Louie. You should have called me. Those guys at Acme are weasels – they never get back to customers. Even I have a hard time getting information from them sometimes.”

“Is that right? Well, that’s very interesting. Thanks, Mario. You know what? If that’s their attitude, I don’t think I’ll be buying their wire anymore. I’ll call you later.”

With that the call ended, and Louie headed off to buy from the competition. Mario was devastated. He thought he was acting with integrity by telling Louie the truth, which he was. Unfortunately, he completely undermined the integrity of the manufacturer to the point where Louie went and bought from the competition. So, while we should never lie to a customer, we do sometimes need to be careful in how we relate information. As my lawyer once said to me: “Derrick, you should never lie, but there are a hundred ways to tell the truth.”

In Mario’s case, how could he have handled the situation differently to maintain the customer’s trust, not just in himself, but also in the manufacturer? By simply saying: “No problem, Louie – tell me what you need, and I’ll get that information for you and call you back by noon.” Problem solved for Louie, Mario retains control of the situation, and trust is maintained all around.

Trust Builder No. 2:  Competence

Competence is demonstrating to the customer that you have the knowledge and ability to help them. Stay abreast of the latest knowledge of your industry and products. Ask clarifying questions for anything you don’t fully understand. Show that you are a competent listener by repeating information back to customers, and summarizing content at the end of a dialogue. Don’t bluff your way through questions that you don’t know the answers to. Instead tell customers you want to double check the information to make sure you are giving them the right answers.

Trust Builder No. 3:  Empathy

The Harvard Business School once identified “I understand…” as the two most important words in business. Empathy is showing other people that you understand their emotions and problems. It allows you to display a genuine concern for the customer’s welfare, and a sincere commitment to acting in their best self interests. Discover why people are feeling the way they are, and why they need what they are asking for, and do what you can to help them. For more on this topic, see our previous blog: How to turn $5,000 into $8 Million with one simple question.

Trust-builder No.4:  Dependability

Demonstrate that you can be trusted to follow through on your promises. Do what you say you will, when you say you will, and how you say you will. Nothing will break trust faster than breaking a promise, and as Debbie Harry sang in Blondie’s hit Heart of Glass: “Once you mistrust, love’s gone behind.” Don’t just tell customers what they want to hear. Give them realistic expectations as to what will happen to give yourself the best chance to display your dependability.

Trust-builder No. 5:  Likeability

It’s been said many times: “All other things being equal, people prefer to do business with people they like.” There are many factors that contribute to how likeable you are as a person, but in the context of relationships with your customers, these factors encompass courtesy, respect, remembering names and key facts, treating each customer as special, and being interested in them and their lives. (Watch for more on this in a future blog).

To sum up, act with integrity, show you are competent, demonstrate empathy, be dependable, and be likeable, and you will build a lasting bond of trust with customers that will ensure they remain loyal to you and your company for the long term.

The five trust builders. Try them – they work!

This simple question helped a salesperson turn a $5,000 opportunity into an $8 Million contract. Too simple? Perhaps, but maybe you’ll think differently about it after I’ve shared the story with you.

I had just spent two days conducting sales training for the inside sales team of a global computer manufacturer. Their job was to support the field salespeople by providing customers with information, quotations, etc. Essentially, the field salespeople treated them as glorified Executive Assistants. In working with this group, however, I believed they could be much more of an asset to the company by taking a proactive role in the sales process than just simply responding to requests from the field. So one of the things we discussed during the training was qualifying, and what questions should be asked in order to ensure customers were investing in the right solutions.

When we finished the training, I headed out on to the sales floor to do some side-by-side coaching with individual salespeople. Round about 3:00 in the afternoon, I landed at Craig’s desk. Craig was a seasoned pro, with over 25 years of sales experience. I asked him what calls he had lined up for me to coach him on that day.

He told me he had just received a request from his field salesperson to provide a quote to a customer for a computer server.  Craig showed me the e-mail from the field person, and the gist of the message was:

This guy called me and left a voice mail. He wants a quote on a server, but didn’t give me any specifications. I haven’t been into this account since they do very little business with us, and I’ve never met him or spoken to him. Could you give him a call and find out what he needs, and send him a quote? Thanks.

I asked Craig how he intended to proceed, and he said:

“Normally I just follow orders from the field person, so I would just call the customer, get the specs, and send him a quote. End of story.”

“Well,” I replied. “Today isn’t a normal day is it? You have me sitting next to you observing everything you’re doing. So what are you going to do differently today that you wouldn’t normally do?”

“I guess I’m going to have to use some of the stuff you’ve been teaching us, aren’t I?”

“That would be nice,” I said. “What specifically are you going to do?”

“Well – I usually wouldn’t ask this, but since you stressed it, I guess I should ask what they are going to be using their new server for, instead of just blindly quoting it.”

“Sure – that would be good.”

I could see that, even with such a simple question, Craig was out of his comfort zone. He was used to following the orders of his field person, and was nervous about trying something new that the field person hadn’t sanctioned. I suggested we rehearse the call first, with me playing the customer.

We rehearsed how the call might go and how he would work the question into the dialogue. I also reminded Craig not to forget to engender cooperation from the customer by first conditioning him that he needed some answers to a few questions.

When I felt Craig was at least somewhat more comfortable, he made the actual call.

“Hi, this is Robert.”

“Robert – this is Craig calling from ……  I’m your Inside Account Manager, and I work with Andrea Jones, the field manager for your account. Andrea told me you had requested a quote for a server so I’m just calling to get some specs so I can send that out to you.”

“Okay….” and then Robert was off and running, relating his needed specs to Craig, which Craig duly started to note down. At this point, I knew if I didn’t intervene, Craig would slip into his established habit of just taking down the required specifications, and then writing up a quote. I gestured to Craig that he should ask the question. First, Craig remembered to preface the question with:

“Robert, to make sure you’re investing in the right solution, do you mind if I get your answers to a couple of quick questions?”

“Sure.” Robert said with a sigh. He was obviously just expecting to be able to give his specs, and get a quote.

“Do you mind if I ask why you need this server? What you will be using it for?”

There was a 2-second pause while Robert weighed up whether or not he should enter into this dialogue with Craig, and then he said: “Do you have half an hour to spare?”

“Absolutely!” Craig replied. He looked over at me with a quizzical look as we both wondered what this was about.

Robert then proceeded to tell Craig the reasons why he needed the server. He had joined his company just a month before. He had been hired to organize and complete a physical move of the company’s data centre from Chicago to San Francisco – a massive undertaking, of which the purchase of the server was merely the first step. Robert shared that the project was much larger in scope than he originally believed, and he admitted that he was feeling somewhat overwhelmed by it all.

“I really need some help here – can you help me?” he asked plaintively.

Long story short, Craig connected Robert with his Services Division, and Robert ended up contracting out the data centre move to Craig’s company – an $8 Million contract for the firm.

Craig would have been happy that day taking a $5,000 order for the server, and his field person would probably have been happy with that also. They both would have been blissfully ignorant of the massive opportunity that they would have missed out on if it hadn’t been for that one question:

“Why do you need this?”

Try it – it works!

After facilitating a Customer Service Excellence program for the post-sales technical support team of a major computer manufacturer, I was conducting side-by-side phone coaching with one of the support technicians (we’ll call him John – names have been changed to protect the innocent!). John received a call from a customer who was obviously on a speaker phone. The following dialogue took place:

“This is John – how may I help you today?”

“Yeah – we’d like to know if such-and-such can be used with a whatsit?”

“Hmm. I don’t know, but if you’ll give me a couple of minutes I think I know where to find the answer. Do you mind holding?”

With a somewhat cynical tone, the customer replied: “No – I guess not.”

John started to take his headphones off so he could go and find the answer. As he did that, we realized he had forgotten to actually place the customer on hold. The customer didn’t know they weren’t on hold either, and were oblivious to the fact that John could still hear them.  We heard the following exchange between the customer and another person in his office:

“Oh great – this guy doesn’t know (bleeping) squat.”

“Wonderful. Bleep, bleep.”

John looked at me and mouthed: “What should I do?”

“Put them on hold.” I mouthed back.

John did so, and then asked me how to proceed. I told him this was the perfect situation to show some empathy:

Ignore their remarks – it’s not personal. They’re obviously upset and need an answer as soon as possible. Do you know where to find the answer?”

“I think so.”

“Okay – just go and get it as quickly as you can and come back and give it to them.”

John was gone about 45 seconds, and came back waving a piece of paper with the answer on it. After re-connecting with the customer, he said:

“Okay – I’m back. You were right. I didn’t know squat about this before. But I do now and I have your answer.”  With that, he paused. (Note: This is not the kind of behaviour we teach in our programs, but given the circumstances, I thought this was a novel and somewhat amusing way of dealing with the situation.)

After a couple of seconds of stunned silence on the other end, the customer sheepishly asked:

“Do you think we could have it, please?”

“Of course,” John replied, and then proceeded to relay the answer to the customer. The customer then said:

“Thank you very much. Obviously you overheard us talking, and we’re sorry we were rude. We appreciate the help.”

“No problem – I was glad to help. Let me give you my direct line in case you have any other questions…..”

And with that, the call concluded.

There are a couple of lessons to be learned here:

1. Customers can get upset when they don’t receive instant answers to their questions. That doesn’t excuse their rudeness, but we need to show empathy towards customers who have contacted us to solve a problem. Don’t take their anger personally (unless of course you caused the problem in the first place!). If necessary, use the ANGRY process described in a previous blog to defuse customer anger.

2. Customers don’t want to hear “I don’t know….”  They are coming to us for our expertise, not to hear that we don’t know the answer to their problem.  Saying: “I don’t know…” not only undermines your credibility, but also, if they are already angry, it is only likely to exasperate the situation, and elevate that anger.

You do, of course, need to be honest with customers. However, as my lawyer once told me, you should never lie, but there are a hundred ways of telling the truth. An alternative to the “I don’t know…” approach is to let the customer know that you will help them and provide the right answer, even if it takes a little time. We have found the following to be extremely effective in helping customers stay calm while explaining they have to wait for their answer:

“I want to make sure you’re getting the right information. Can you give me just two minutes to double check that, and I’ll be right back with your answer?”

Phrasing it this way does not undermine your credibility, and the customer is re-assured that they are going to get the right information. They are less likely to be angry, and will be more tolerant of being placed on hold to wait for their answer. Try it – it works!

After the CEO and I introduced ourselves and were settled in his office, he asked me how the journey was. I started to regale him with the story of my cab ride. After a few minutes, I noticed that his eyes had started to glaze over and he was shifting in his chair. He may have been genuinely interested in my journey when he asked the question, but 10 minutes into the story, his interest was definitely on the wane! Realizing this, and hoping I hadn’t blown the opportunity, I transitioned quickly into my prepared opening statement in order to focus us on business. His attention back on me, the call went well from there, and he became a client.

I’ll never know if I would have blown the sale if I had continued blathering, but I do know this incident taught me a couple of valuable lessons. I already knew the importance of empathy in selling, and how really understanding the customer and their needs helps me provide truly appropriate solutions. What I learned that day though, was that when I am talking, I’m not listening. Zig Ziglar once said that selling is not telling, selling is asking the right questions. I’ll modify that by saying that selling is not telling, selling is asking the right questions, and then listening to the answers. And since listening is one of the cornerstones of empathy, if you’re not listening with all your mental acuity, you cannot effectively be building empathy, and that is going to hurt your selling success.

The other lesson I learned that day was to forget about myself completely, and focus my attention entirely on the customer. It is quite natural, of course, to provide an answer when someone asks you a question. And we do like talking about ourselves – it is our favourite subject. However, in a sales situation, when we focus on ourselves and not on the prospect, we run a real risk of leaving the prospect feeling like we really don’t have their best interests at heart. After all, the purpose of qualifying in sales is to gain as much of an understanding of them and their situation as possible. In other words, the customer should be the focus of the dialogue, not the salesperson.

When you focus on the customer, it allows you to build a complete understanding of their situation. You will empathize so deeply with their concerns and problems that you will be able to provide solutions that far outweigh the competition in terms of their value. It may not win you every sale (I don’t know anything that works 100% of the time), but forgetting about yourself completely will certainly make it harder for customers to buy from your competition, and easier to buy from you.

Look for more ways that you can use empathy to help you sell on purpose instead of by accident in future blogs.

Back in those days, companies still had live telephone receptionists to field incoming calls. I asked the receptionist to connect me with someone who could tell me if a particular 1-800 number was available for use. After being told I would be transferred to the appropriate department, there was a click and a pause before someone picked up the call.

“Yes – can I help you?”

“Good Morning. I wonder if you could tell me if 1-800-DELAINE is an available number, please?”

“Hmm – I don’t know why they put you through to me. That’s not our department. Hold on – I’ll transfer you.” Before I could say anything else, there was a click and I was en route to another department.

“Good Morning. I wonder if you could tell me if 1-800-DELAINE is available as a number?” I asked again of the new person who picked up. This was met with basically the same answer as the first time, and before I knew it I was on hold waiting for another department to answer.

When the next person picked up, we went through exactly the same routine. Lo and behold, the end result was yet another transfer. And, just like the man in Monty Python’s “Do you play cricket” sketch who kept getting hit repeatedly in the head with a cricket ball: Of course, I was getting used to it by then. But that didn’t make it any less frustrating, and I was becoming angrier by the second. I remembered a study by Anderson Consulting of what happens to a customer’s frame of mind when they are transferred multiple times in order to get an issue resolved. They found that customer satisfaction is diminished by 20% with each transfer. Since I had now been transferred four times, my customer satisfaction was rapidly approaching zero!

And then I reached Betty.

“This is Betty, how can I help you today?”

“WELL, THE FIRST THING YOU CAN DO IS NOT PUT ME ON HOLD OR TRANSFER ME!” I shouted.

“Oh my dear, you sound so upset.”

“YOU’RE DARN RIGHT I’M UPSET. I’M JUST TRYING TO GET A SIMPLE ANSWER TO A SIMPLE QUESTION, AND NOBODY SEEMS TO BE ABLE TO HELP ME. I’VE BEEN TRANSFERRED 4 TIMES ALREADY! WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE?”

“Oh my goodness! No wonder you’re upset. I don’t blame you for being angry – I would be too! Why don’t you tell me what you want to know and I’ll see what I can do to help you – and I promise I won’t transfer you.”

Well – that sure knocked the fight out of me. How can you argue with someone who’s validating how you are feeling and offering to help? I immediately began to calm down and started to feel more rational again.

“Betty – I’m just trying to find out if a 1-800 number is available,” I sighed.

“Is that all? And they got you all upset over that? I’m so sorry we made you feel that way. What’s the number you’re looking for?”

I repeated the number and then Betty said: “1-800-DELAINE? Okay, let me find out. Actually, I will have to put you on hold first. You’re going to laugh – or maybe not – but that’s not my department. But I’m not going to transfer you and I will get an answer for you.”

I didn’t actually laugh, but I did feel a whole lot better, and I at last had confidence I was going to get an answer one way or the other. About a minute later Betty was back.

“After all that, I have to tell you the number has already been taken. I’m so sorry about that. Is there another number you’d like me to check?”

There wasn’t, so I thanked Betty for her help, and was about to hang up when she said:

“Listen. Let me give you my direct number. If you ever have to call us again for anything, you make sure you call me, and I’ll make sure you get the help you need.”

With that we said our goodbyes. I never did get a 1-800 number, and I didn’t have any reason to call the phone company again, but if I did, you can be sure I would have called Betty!

The next time you are dealing with an emotional customer, take a leaf out of Betty’s book and implement her process for defusing the anger:

Empathize with the customer and show you understand how they feel.

Validate their emotion to calm the customer, and show them that you are their ally not their enemy.

Apologize – not for the problem, but for the fact that the company made you feel that way.

Take personal command of the situation and do everything you can to ensure the issue is resolved.

Give them your contact information in case they need to be in touch again.

Using this process you will ensure that you defuse customer anger so that you can resolve their problem, while actually boosting customer satisfaction and ensuring long term loyalty. Try it – it works!

In 1977, I applied for a job as a salesperson with a company supplying equipment and chemicals to researchers in the health sciences field. I had some trepidation about being in sales, but in one of my interviews with my prospective manager, I’d asked him what kind of training I would receive. “Oh – don’t worry, you’ll get full training,” he told me. So I accepted the job.

On the first day my manager sat me down at a desk in the warehouse, gave me a copy of the company catalogue, and told me to read it from cover to cover. Two days later, I told him that I’d finished reading it, and he said, “Read it again.” This scenario repeated itself a number of times over the next two weeks. Finally, I asked when the next phase of my training would start. “How about now?” came the cheerful reply, and with that he grabbed his car keys, and enthusiastically told me to get in his car. We spent the next two hours cruising around with him pointing out the locations of our major customers in the city. Back at the office, I thanked him for the tour, and enquired as to when the rest of my training would begin. “That was it – that was your training. You’ve studied the catalogue, you know where the customers are, now go sell something!”

Needless to say, without any guidance as to what to do, my first sales calls did not go well. In fact, as a defence mechanism against my embarrassment for not knowing what the heck I was doing, I started telling customers I was the new technical support person for the company, and I would ask if there were any problems I could solve for them. That was my whole sales approach for the first few months. It did help in starting some dialogues, and actually led to some sales (though I have to admit I wasn’t setting the world on fire with my spectacular sales numbers!). I was merely “lucking” into sales simply by virtue of being in the right place, at the right time. In other words, I was selling by accident, and not with any plan or purpose.

How do you ensure you’re selling on purpose instead of by accident? I’ve identified a number of ways to do that, and empathy plays a major role in all of them.

They say that if you want to know a person, walk a mile in their shoes. That’s what empathy is all about – understanding why and how other people do the things they do. The dictionary definition is: To mentally identify with another person, thereby understanding their side of a situation. So put yourself in your prospect’s or customer’s shoes for a few minutes, and imagine how it feels to be them. What’s going through their minds when you try to interact with them.

Picture this: you’re the customer, and you’re in your office, fifteen things to do in the next ten minutes, a deadline looming for a meeting with the boss, seven things you’re thinking about all at once, and you’re expecting a call from your spouse. Just then your phone rings. Thinking it’s your spouse, you reach out and take the call without thinking to check the caller I.D.

So – you pick up the phone, and lo and behold, it’s a salesperson on the other end. Here’s what the salesperson actually says: “Hi there – this is Derrick Pick calling from Solutions R’ Us. I’m the new Account Executive for your territory, so I’m just calling to introduce myself and let you know all the great things that Solutions R’ Us has to offer, and to see if there’s anything I can help you with today…”

As the harried prospect, here’s what your brain actually hears:  “Hi there, I’m Blankety-blank from some company or other, and I’m just calling to waste some of your time and make you late for your meeting, and blah, blah, blah……”

How can you avoid this scenario?  Well, one of the rules of selling on purpose instead of by accident is to put yourself in the customer’s shoes. Use empathy to gain an understanding of what would be of value to them in their situation, and give them a reason to engage with you.

Prior to contacting the customer:

Research the customer’s organization. Visit their website to develop an understanding of their situation, and identify some of the challenges the organization may be facing, and how you might be able help them meet and overcome those challenges.

Research the individual. Gain some insight into their background and current role – LinkedIn and Google are excellent for this. Anticipate what issues that would be uppermost in this customer’s mind. Talk with other people in your company or industry about dealing with people in similar circumstances. Conduct a quick search of the internet for blogs, articles, tweets, etc. for tips on possible ways you could help.

Use this knowledge to gain a preliminary understanding of the customer, and to anticipate how your product or service could help them.  Then you can develop a customized strategy for your approach. What will you say to gain their attention and interest? What questions will you ask to gain a deeper understanding of their issues, goals, and challenges? What benefits of your solution will you present to help them understand the value you bring to the table, and what would motivate them to take action?

Using empathy to put yourself in the customer’s shoes will better prepare you for your interactions with them, and position you for more successful outcome to your sales calls.

Look for more ways that you can use empathy to help you sell on purpose instead of by accident in future blogs.