Do you listen to yourself?
If you are a manager of sales professionals, you are charged with not only driving a certain amount of revenue, but you’re also charged with developing the abilities of the sales team. It’s a given. Our incentive is our own survival and the belief in leverage. We know we’ll be asked to bring in more revenue next year than we were asked to do this year—and most likely without additional headcount. The only way to do that is to have a more efficient and effective team, which is another way of saying I will continuously need more leverage or better productivity out of each of my team members.
To accomplish that, you (hopefully) invest in sales training, books, CDs, and/or DVDs for your team. You coach them through role-play them, listening in on their phone calls and you ride-along when they do prospecting and sales calls, right?
But, what about those of us who don’t have a boss to do that for us—or one that doesn’t seem to be very good at it—or heaven forbid the one that just doesn’t seem to want to do it for us?
Well, here’s what I do to improve my own performance, at least on the phone. There are now a number of ways to easily record our own phone calls, so I simply record myself. When we recently picked up a new product line, I had to create a new set of Best Practices for selling that solution. When I began using those Best Practices I recorded a days-worth of calls. As a result, I made a few changes to the scripting and how I answered objections and questions.
After that first set of revisions, I recorded myself again for a day. Now that I’m comfortable with what I say and when I say it, I am now concentrating on how I say it. So from here on out when I listen to myself on phone calls, I’m looking for tonality, enthusiasm, and belief. Would I buy from me?
Whether you are a manager or must manage yourself, record some calls and take a listen. Hopefully, you’ll like what you hear!
If you’d like more information on improving your performance, or, if you’re simply interested in why no team of sales professionals has ever failed to at least double the number of Initial Appointments they were setting after going through one of our programs, give us a call or drop us a line. We love talking appointment making!
Caponi Performance Group and Contact Science jointly market the telephone prospecting and cold calling solution called Coldcalling101™. It is the only comprehensive solution to solving the biggest barrier to success in most selling organizations—the inability to secure enough Initial Appointments to begin the selling process. We accomplish that through simultaneously addressing both the efficiency and effectiveness of the process. We can be reached at 817 224-9900 or at bcaponi@caponipg.com. You can also find answers to many of your challenges in our books: Contrary to Popular Belief, Cold Calling DOES Work! Volume I: Effectiveness, The Art of Appointment Making and Volume II: Efficiency, the Science of Appointment Making.
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