Constructing the Ideal Prospecting Call Flow - Part 1 of 3

Did you ever wonder why many intelligent people seem to have great difficulty prospecting? It is definitely not because of their IQ or lack of effort. So why do some smart, hard working people struggle when it comes to prospecting? Well our research finds there are several reasons.

1. Sales people are often not familiar with the four critical components of a call flow

2. They dont take the time to choreograph and practice call transitions

3. They fail to understand call milestones and objectives

The Four Critical Components

Other than the obvious items in a call flow such as your name, most sales rep call flows we look at do not contain the four essential ingredients that maximize the probability of keeping a conversation going. The four call flow items we need to embed in the first 20 seconds are common ground, implied pain, implied vision and some type of a result or metric.

Common ground is how you create some intersect point or linkage to the individual you are trying to contact. There are three types of common ground. They are arranged, warm and cold. Arranged is unquestionably the best. This is when you have a contact who will actually arrange an introduction via email, conference call or at a meeting to introduce you to the person you are trying to reach. A warm call is when you have a name to use in statement like, I was referred to you by&. The final is cold where you must try and create a common ground link with the person you attempting to contact. This can be something like, & the reason I am calling is because I saw your name in a recent news article that stated&. This is the weakest but still has a higher connect rate than not attempting any common link.

Implied pain is hidden in the actual prospecting call flow. As mentioned in our previous newsletters, using pain in your call flow limits your reach and if it is implied it can project an upside not just covering off a down side. The concept of implied pain is usually interwoven with an implied vision or benefit statement. For example, if we were talking to a sales VP and it was a warm call, it may sound something like, &I was referred to you by Joe Smith who thought how we helped cut new sales reps time to first sale would be of interest to you&.

The final item is any type of a result or metric than can be properly placed in the call flow without sounding artificial. For example if we say something like, &and as a result, their company was saved and they became wildly profitable, it sounds like fabrication even if it were true. Whereas if we embed a number in the call flow that is reasonable and, we have qualifiers around it, the believability goes up. So, if we use the call flow above it may sound like, &I was referred to you by Joe Smith who thought how we helped cut new sales reps time to first sales by up to 60% might be of interest to you& Notice when we use numbers we are not saying we can save you 60% or suggesting that they will see the same results. As an FYI, this is a true statement we have attained with several clients.

Make sure to check back regularly as we further explore the ideal prospecting call flow in part 2 of this 3 part series.