Why You’re Losing Deals by Not Picking Up the Phone | Michelle Cecil

Description

Listen

Quoted on this wiki

Every place a page here uses this source, in the order the words come in it.

1. 4:04

   off vendor review even artificial micro deadlines for things like first cut of red lines and security review helps my prospects get their internal team moving we built a guide on how to help you drive six and seven figure deals with our friends at outreach get it free in the show notes number two “name drop references in the first sentence of every engagement you have with your prospect” or customer whether you're talking about pricing whether it's a very first discovery call or a product demonstration always always always be name dropping and referencing i use the example of the pest control company that knocks on my door they reference greg and rita up the street and i very quickly let them in my house to take care of the ants but as we're selling software as

   In Customer logos and name-dropping

2. 5:00

   ton of trust that's the most important part we know what we're talking about we know who you know um we're in the neighborhood as well beautiful round us out michelle what's number three eliminate bs rapport people usually don't really want to talk to software salespeople about sports we might like talking about sports especially during football season “We build trust by name dropping current customers that we have that are near them, by letting them know we understand their business, by telling them what we notice about their website or their LinkedIn profile.” really care. So we build trust by letting them know we understand their business and we're taking the meeting seriously. We erode trust by BS rapport.

   In Credibility in cold emails

3. 13:59

   And shocker, we never heard back from them. So that was it. We gave them a response. We thought they were going to pick one, two, or three option. They didn't. And of course they didn't. They were confused and probably felt confused, felt overwhelmed and backed away because of it. So what we should have done, what I think would have been the right move is to say, “completely understand where you're coming from on this. We've seen customers do one of three things.” When's the best time to walk you through those three options? Me and my team could do today at four, tomorrow at eight. That would have been, I think the perfect response. And I think we would have gotten the deal done. The piece about just picking up the phone and calling them is something that it was a lesson that I had to learn when I was selling ERP systems to law firms, because we

   In Objection handling

4. 20:27

   and you know, this is like, this is like my failure. It's not like anyone else's. So this is totally outside of what I would normally do. But normally, have a phone call or a Zoom meeting where you prep them, and then give them notes, like actual notes like you would give an SE or you would give anyone else “joining your call where it goes like, hey, these are the things they care about.” These are the things to hit on. These are the experiences I know you've had that they're going to want to ask about. And then the other thing that I would do that we have to do, and we can't be shy when working with customers and prospects, is we have to have to prep the prospect and just say like, hey, here's how, here are the ways that this customer is similar to you.

   In Proof relevance and matching

5. 20:32

   It's not like anyone else's. So this is totally outside of what I would normally do. But normally, have a phone call or a Zoom meeting where you prep them, and then give them notes, like actual notes like you would give an SE or you would give anyone else joining your call where it goes like, hey, these are the things they care about. These are the things to hit on. “These are the experiences I know you've had that they're going to want to ask about.” And then the other thing that I would do that we have to do, and we can't be shy when working with customers and prospects, is we have to have to prep the prospect and just say like, hey, here's how, here are the ways that this customer is similar to you. Here are the ways that this customer is different from you. And is that okay? Or what type of reference do you need?

   In Proof relevance and matching

6. 20:48

   These are the things to hit on. These are the experiences I know you've had that they're going to want to ask about. And then the other thing that I would do that we have to do, and we can't be shy when working with customers and prospects, is we have to have to prep the prospect and just say like, hey, here's how, here are the ways that this customer is similar to you. “Here are the ways that this customer is different from you.” And is that okay? Or what type of reference do you need? And so when someone asks, like, send me three references, that's another way you get on the phone and go, hey, we have 20,000 customers. I want to make sure that the customer that you work with and that you speak with is going to be the most helpful to you and is going to give you the best information.

   In Proof relevance and matching

7. 28:58

   I'll do the first one, Armand, we can alternate. First one. What is your number one cold call tactic? No one will be shocked. My number one cold call tactic is name dropping information about the company of the person that you're calling and name dropping the references nearby. One hundred percent. I think the very first thing out of your mouth should be, “hi, my name is Michelle. The reason I'm calling is I work with XYZ company, ABC company, one, two, three company near you guys.” We just started implementing two of the three of those on our new blank product calling because I know you also do projects that have BIM on them. What are you all using for BIM right now? What's your number one discovery question? Why won't this happen? What what is going to stop? And not during discovery, obviously, this is you know, you're in stage evaluation.

   In Cold call openers

8. 29:43

   But why is this not going to happen? What are you concerned about? What are the what are your red flags on the initiative? What are your red flags on partnering with us? What's the number one way that you get a prospect to respect you understand their business, understand their industry, understand their location, geographical locations, big for construction, but understanding them, “name dropping references, name dropping information, you know, about their projects and about their business and about their initiatives.” Lastly, what is the number one thing that you do outside of sales to make it the president's club? I don't work outside of eight to five when my kids are awake. I might work before they wake up. if i need to do something i might work after they go to bed but when my kids are awake i'm not working i'm with my kids and if my kids have a sick day i will miss any customer meeting any

   In Account-based personalization

9. 32:03

   over email maybe they said they're moving in another direction maybe they pushed out the deal you need to manufacture a reason in their best interest so for example if someone says hey we want to move forward but timing's a little bit off then you might say hey totally get it you “mind if i give you a buzz around 3 p.m i just had a couple ideas on implementation right that's in” their best interest number two when you're managing your references you need to prep both sides that means your customer jump on a call with them and make sure that they know the exact things your prospect is going to ask about and the number two jump on the reference call itself with both your

   In Call timing and call blocks