Even the most experienced salespeople sometimes feel a pang of dread when picking up the phone to talk to a prospect. The smallest slip-up could cause a prospective customer to jump out of the sales funnel pretty sharpish!

Here at Funnel Boost, we have put together some of our top tips for making a sales call that your prospect will love.

1. Do your research

As the old adage says, forewarned is forearmed. Don’t jump into a sales call headfirst.

Take the time to research your customer. What is their name, their job title, the industry they work in? This information will help you understand their pain points and give you additional information to talk about. All this information should be in your CRM system or if not; a quick online search will provide you with the details you need.

2. Keep it simple

Some salespeople think that blinding their prospect with jargon and industry-specific terminology makes them sound impressive, but in reality, all they are doing is confusing the prospect.

Keep your sales call simple and talk to your customer in terms that they understand.

According to Sales Hacker, top-performing salespeople spend 40% less time discussing technical topics.

3. Don’t bury the lead

Your prospect is a busy person, and won’t appreciate you talking about your company for ten minutes and then quickly rattling through the benefits of your product or service. Lead with how you can benefit your prospective customer and solve their pain points.

The benefit of this is that psychologically, people give more weight to the first piece of information they hear in a conversation.

4. Use social proof

If you tell your prospect that your product or service is great, they’ll probably not believe you. But, what if a company like them told them you were great? That’s the power of social proof.

Come armed to the call with a couple of relevant case studies or testimonials from your top clients and don’t be afraid to use them.

5. Listen more than you talk

Calling a prospect is not an excuse to talk to them for ages, and then give them a few minutes at the end of the call to ask any questions. Listen to them and ask them questions as you go along. This will help you understand what your prospect wants from your product or service, and keeps them engaged too.

According to Sales Hacker, top salespeople only talk for 46% of the first phone call to a prospect, with lower-performing salespeople talking for up to 72% of the time.

Listening can also be a great way to pick up on social cues. Does your prospect sound zoned-out, stressed or angry? Offer to reschedule the call for another time. Your prospect will be grateful, and you will get more out of the rescheduled call.

If you would like a pipeline full of qualified leads, get in touch with us today.