One of the biggest challenges companies are facing is how to engage with new prospects. Before a sales rep even picks up the phone they need to ask themselves this question. Why should this prospect talk to me? In most cases the answer the rep comes up with, is not something the prospect would even care about. The reason is the answer is, in most cases all about the rep. Your prospects don’t care about you. They care about themselves. You must give them a compelling reason that is all about them in order for them to want to engage with you.
How can you be sure what you are saying is something they will care about? For starters you can be sure they don’t care about your product, or service, or how great you are. So, eliminate anything referring to those items. You’re probably asking yourself, If I can’t talk about those things what do I talk about? How about talking about them.
You have to figure out what is important to the prospect. It could be that there are some major changes occurring in their industry. Will these changes affect them? You should start by determining what impacts in the industry they work in, are currently on the minds of the people you want to talk to.
Then you need to figure out what positive result they can achieve by speaking with you. You notice I did not say by buying from you. You haven’t even spoken to them yet so why would they want to buy anything form you now? First you have to provide them with a reason to even talk.
Your goal for the first conversation is just that. To engage in a conversation. Maybe just maybe during that conversation the two of you may discover that there is a challenge they are concerned with, and that you may be able to help them gain a positive result that allows them to overcome that challenge.
But first they need a solid reason why they should even talk to you. So, before you pick up the phone, figure out what may be important to them. Then ask them questions to determine if they could achieve a specific result would that be of interest to them.