You’ve spent years of hard work learning and perfecting your craft. You have logged tons of hours building your career: expanding your knowledge, improving your skills, upgrading your technology, expanding your customer base, and providing the best service in your industry. Finally you have the fancy office, the thousand dollar suit, the gold watch and pen, and the fancy title. However, when a prospective client picks up the phone to answer your cold call and hears his strange voice for the first time, he instantly becomes a stereotypical, annoying, unreliable $8 an hour telemarketer.
There’s loads of material on how to overcome objections over the phone, and all sorts of tips, tricks, and magic scripts on how to schedule appointments over the phone. The problem, though, is that by the time you’ve barely said your name, most prospects have already formed a mental image of you, and it’s not a good one.
While I’ve never been one to buy into the golden script or the Magical word or phrase theory, this word added to your introduction will give you instant credibility and dramatically increase your effectiveness in scheduling appointments over the phone. However, before you give yourself the floor, you need to understand the reasoning behind its power.
First, understand that it’s not the call itself that upsets the prospect. Rather, the problem stems from the prospect’s negative and preconceived image of you, the caller, in their mind. They downplay the possibility of feeling like a low-level “telemarketer” is calling them. In your mind, you’re sitting there, going through a long “list” of names and numbers, calling everyone on the list and saying pretty much the same thing. This person feels like they are just a “number” to the telesales person. That’s why you hear people say to you, “Take me off your list!”
The fact is that the less important the caller is, the less important the customer feels. Think about it. If the company assigns the lowest paid, least experienced, and most expendable person in the company to call you, how important are you to that company?
On the other hand, the more important the caller is, the more important the prospect feels. Imagine getting a call from Microsoft support after purchasing some software and the tech says, “We just wanted to call and check if everything is ok…” That would be nice. However, imagine if you pick up the phone and the recognizable voice says, “Just Bill Gates. I just wanted to call you.” myself to make sure you are satisfied with my product…”
Wow! You should be impressed. It is obvious that this very important person does not sit and make 100 calls all day to the whole world. However, she found time to call you! You would feel important and whatever you bought would have gone up significantly in value.
When the prospect gets a call from a “daily” or “newbie” salesperson, they don’t feel special enough. You need to project the image of an important VIP. Using this word will help you project the image of a very important executive without misrepresenting his position in the company. The word is:
“Personally,” as in “I thought I’d call you personally, Mister Prospect…” with little emphasis on the word personally.
It can look like this:
Me: “Bill Smith, please.”
Prospect: “This is Bill.”
Me: “Yeah, Bill, Steve Smith with ABC Copiers. Bill, I thought I’d give you a call. personally. You’ll see…”
The result this produces is amazing. In a sense, you’re projecting the image of someone who has an assistant, a large staff, or an entire company that usually handles your regular, non-essential, and run-of-the-mill phone calls. However, THIS lead, THIS account is too important for you to let anyone but you; the VIP, the main boss, the main principle, make this call!
This completely sets you apart from every call this person has received, makes them feel important, and gives you instant credibility.
Sales Rep: “Yes, John, Mary Waters, ABC Life. John, I thought I’d give you a call. personally about this matter… do you have a minute?”
This prospect may have received a thousand calls from insurance salespeople, but none of them have ever called. personally! Give this a try and notice the warm reception and openness you receive. This word really works like magic.
Also, while I’m not a big fan of leaving messages on cold calls, if you do, try this:
Sales Rep: “Ms. Jones, Bill Salesexpert, with BBB Financial. Ms. Jones, I thought I should give you a call. personally about this. There are some big tax changes next year that I think you should be aware of. Please call me…”
If you want to make more phone appointments or close more sales, DO NOT COLD CALL… CALL PERSONALLY!