How to Call for New Business By Just Filling in the Blanks – Art Sobczak

Art Sobczak is the household name of every high performing salesperson. He is a sales leader, a keynote speaker, mentor, and an award-winning author to multiple books on sales to his repute.

Art is sharing with us a sales script template that can be created by just filling in the blanks so that the prospecting becomes easy and you close deals faster. These templates can be applied while taking a call, leaving a voice mail, or dropping an email. It works everywhere and every time. Here is how Art explains.

Most salespeople say, “Cold calling is dead,” but most salespeople will agree to the fact that “the cold is dead but not the calling.” You deliver the same pitch to everyone; you get ignored and rejected every time because the other party is busy.

However, people are still talking to salespersons that have customized and personalized messages. So planning before the call becomes immensely talented. So salespeople leverage Google, social media, and various other resources to know about the customer.

Here is an example of an unplanned call:

“Hi Pat, I am Dale Stevens with DS Associates. I provide internal communications training and keynote programs, and I like to introduce our training program to you; see if you would like to attend a webinar to learn more about our courses.”

There is no research involved in the above call. There is no personalization involved that can appeal to the caller. He is not at all involved with the prospect.

Below is how a smart call looks like:

“Hi, Pat. I am Dale Stevens with DS associates. I understand that one of your initiatives for the year is strengthening the communication and collaboration between your account management and production departments so you can increase your customer retention and order frequency. With other components manufacturers, we were able to help them do exactly that and raise their retention by 55% in just six months, and they are reordered rate by 34%. I’d like to ask you a few questions to see if it would be worthwhile to speak further.”

A smart call has evidence that the salesperson has done his homework before making the call. The salesperson understands the customer or at least can understand the customer.

Social engineering to gather sales intelligence

What does it mean to use social engineering to gather sales intelligence? In social engineering, you ask around the company to better understand inside out of the situation of the company. Gather as much information as possible and craft a personal message that appeals to the customer without sounding creepy. Here is the pitch to get information through social engineering:

“Hi, I am Art Sobczak with Business by Phone. I am going to be speaking with Dale Scott, and I want to be sure that what I have is going to be valuable to him. I would like to ask you a few questions about it.”

It should not be about selling.

Talk about results, not about the product.

Set call objectives before calling

Set what action would you want from the buyer. Set your intentions. Keep a set of secondary objectives also so that if the primary goal is not achievable at that time, you can always use the secondary purpose to gather more information and keep the deal alive. It means you are never rejected. The agreement is still breathing.

How to nail a voice mail?

During voice leave a question in their mind, create a curiosity to receive your call again. Here is how you do it:

• Create a positive, receptive mind for the buyer

• Move to question

Here is an example you can tailor for yourselves:

”Hi Pat, I am Art Sobczak, president of Business by phone. I saw your post in the LinkedIn sales group we both participate in about looking for a prospecting workshop for your virtual national sales meeting. I specialize in working with sales teams that have new business quotas and might not be as confident in their prospecting as management would like. I help them avoid call reluctance and rejection, and increase their numbers of quality calls, appointments, and sales using proven conversational prospecting process. It results in reps being more confident in their calling and having a consistent, predictable pipeline. I would like to ask a few questions to see if it would make sense to have a conversation. ”

It’s natural and more conversational. Tweak it to your own needs. Run it through your colleagues to improve it and practice regularly.