Question: Has your Sales Organisation formally documented and deployed compelling reasons for prospects to grant you a first meeting, and are your sales executives compelling and persuasive in their conversations with prospects and customers?
The reality
According to our research at ThinkSales Global, only 36.6% of Sales Organisations have formally documented and deployed (via email, phone calls and other channels) compelling reasons for prospects to grant them a first meeting.
In addition, 36.5% of companies rate their confidence as Outstanding that their sales executives are compelling and persuasive in their conversations with prospects and customers.
The ‘unpersuasive script’ problem
Many sales organisations have call scripts in place to guide sales executives through the process of opening doors. The problem is that if these scripts lack compelling reasons that speak directly to what the customer cares about, your sales executives will just burn through leads and miss opportunities to engage.
If your script is not working, consider call planning activity to breathe new life into your opening. Your sales executives only have a few moments to capture a prospect’s attention – they need to make those moments count, and the right script can help them do that.
Create scripts that speak directly to your prospects
Call scripts that are only focused on your business and what you’re selling do not take your prospects into account. The more you can understand your customers, the better you will be able to engage with them. This requires careful planning, monitoring and tweaking until you have the right script that delivers the results you need.
Sales leader’s toolkit
Call management planning template
Call plans force sales executives to consider a variety of questions that effectively improve client interaction. These questions should be used as the basis for creating call scripts.
Once your scripts are created, monitor how well they work and tweak them accordingly. Record phone calls so that your sales managers can evaluate how they are delivered and where sales executives could benefit from training and coaching.
Specific questions could include:
- List the key objectives of this call.
- Clarify what commitments/agreements or outcomes are required.
- Identify what the customer cares deeply about – matters your solution can solve?
- Identify the potential needs of the customer. Are their concerns likely to be operational or strategic?
- Do you have track record stories you can share where your company has helped organisations operating the same/similar industry, sector or segment?
- What relevant information is required?
- What specific questions do you need to ask?
- Identify specific products and/or services to be focused on?
- Potential objections that may be raised?
- Objection overcomers that could be used?
Assess the health of your sales organisation
Documenting and deployed compelling reasons for prospects to grant a first meeting and sales executives using compelling and persuasive facts in their conversations with prospects and customers are two of 322 measures of a world-class Sales Organisation.
ThinkSales Global is a specialist revenue engineering consultancy.
We assist our clients to deliver market-defying results through strategic and tactical intentions within a Sales Organisation Maturity Model that addresses the five key pillars of high-performing Sales Organsations, namely:
- Competitive Strategy
- Customer Engagement
- Sales Talent
- Sales Management
- Sales Enablement
How does your Sales Organisation stack up? Find out by taking the ThinkSales 5 Pillar Strategic Sales Assessment™.
This first-of-its-kind 360-degree gap analysis report enables your Sales Leadership team to assess its strengths and detect weaknesses and impediments to revenue growth across the five pillars.
Click here for more information on the ThinkSales 5 Pillar Strategic Sales Assessment™.
