Conducting a sales call is nerve-wracking – but sales discovery calls can be even harder, because your team has not yet built a relationship with the prospective client. However, there are things sales leaders can do to boost their reps’ confidence and effectiveness. Share these 7 tips for conducting more effective sales discovery calls with your team to make them discovery-call-experts in no time.
1. Prepare answers to any objections you anticipate your prospect having. Research the company so that you know exactly how your product can fit into their business. Prepare yourself for any reservations they may have so you can counter them and turn them into strengths for your case.
2. Research the people you will be calling ahead of time. You need to know more than just how the company works – learn who the decision-makers are, how long they have been with the company and what they like to do. This will help you create a bond with them and understand how to better help them.
3. Listen more than you talk. Your prospects will give you many of the answers you are looking for if you let them do the talking.
4. Ask about their buying ability upfront. This will keep you from wasting both your time and the prospect’s. Don’t be blunt; instead you can ask them when they would want to start using your product, which will help you determine if they are really considering.
5. Fix a problem they have rather than selling features. The prospect is interested in a solution, not a product. Identify a problem — or pain — that is plaguing them and show, in detail, how your product can solve it.
6. Schedule the next meeting with your prospect. Once you have sparked their interest, don’t let them get away. Stay focused and move them down your sales funnel into the next selling stage – start planning for the next step as soon as you can.
7. Evaluate your success once the call is completed. Track your win/loss rate with sales metrics and be diligent about discovering which strategies are working and which are coming up short.
What other tips would you give your sales development team to help them make more successful discovery sales calls?
