SKILL


Be Different from the Other Reps STEVE ATLAS


How can you create interest in your offer when your prospects are being deluged by other reps trying to do the very same thing? Well...that’s why they call it selling.


You want an appointment so you can make a sale and gain a customer. But first, your prospect has to become interested enough in what you offer to want to meet with you. How do you create that interest?


Frank Douglass is an account


executive who says, “I never use the word ‘meeting’ when I call,” and he adds, “Managers are already in lots of meetings; they don’t need me to add another one.”


Be considerate. Douglass introduc- es himself and his company, asking if he’s caught them at a good time. If they say yes, he proceeds. If they say no, he asks when would be a better time and whether they are an early or a late riser. This helps him determine


the time to call back. Show prospects how your com- pany is different from competitors. Douglass uses the word “but” to introduce his company’s area of specialization: “My company is a technical productivity firm, but we are a little bit different from other firms that you’ve dealt with in the past. We specialize only in technical and engineering productivity.” “Don’t call asking for work,” Douglass advises. “You sound like a beggar pleading for a job – and no one is hir- ing. Our goal is to build a relationship so the prospect will give us work in the future. I tell prospects, ‘Our clients consider us a solutions provider.’” Douglass has two other suggestions


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to create interest from prospects: 1) Give them a way to remember you. For example, you might say, “When I call back, remember me as the person who has a two-hour com- mute from the Jersey Shore.” 2) Be creative. Ask for minimal time


with no risk to the client. Douglass recalls contacting a manufacturing company. “The manager had said, ‘I’m not interested. You’re all the same.’ When I called back, I asked her, ‘Will you meet with me for five minutes? If you don’t like what I have to say, kick me out the door and you’ll never hear from me again.’ She met me and loved what I offered. My guarantee made meeting me a no- risk proposition for her.”


Melanie Barris is a sales manager for a company that sells such compo- nents as pumps, motors, blowers, and motor control components to compa- nies that build industrial machinery. Barris’s reps call companies that run ads in industry-specific magazines serving their industries.


CAGKAN SAYIN / SHUTTERSTOCK.COM


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