Morgan Takes Over

hey what's going on everybody this is morgan j ingram here director of sales execution evolution at jbarrow sales training and i will be filling in for today's episode of the podcast john is on a flight right now to india so i will be filling in the gap with a couple questions you all asked on the cold calling webinar and then also essentially some questions that have been asked in the facebook group so also be on the lookout for this week i'll be heading up to toronto for the cold calling workshop that will be happening that will be really exciting so i know some of you that are listening to this podcast today will be there so i'll get to meet you in person um and if you're in the toronto area would be great to connect with you so we'll be doing that will be probably my last travel for the year and maybe do some additional stuff depending as we kind of wrap up the end of december but normally in december for us from a sales training perspective a lot of people are trying to talk to us because they're trying to close but i know our travels will be a lot in january february and march and so be on the lookout for those locations you guys can connect with us it's been me traveling a good bit as well so now things are slowing down so really just having that strategy for the next year i'm super excited for it and the team's excited as well so i'm gonna hop into this podcast episode today just gonna be at answering some questions providing some cool calling tips um and then also going through the questions in the facebook group so here's a question that we got was hey what's your strategy for getting through a gatekeeper that asks why you're calling so i think that this is a very tough question and the reason i believe it's a tough question is because there is no silver bullet right i mean if we need the silver bullet then hey this would be a lot easier but i think when it comes to like the gatekeeper you really have to come with the the connotation that sometimes you just won't get through no matter what the line is so you know essentially for me you know what i do is i always ask hey i'm trying to talk to so and so and if they ask why i'm calling i say hey i'm just following up on my email which necessarily isn't really a lie you're actually following up on an email they may have sent them or you may be sending them an email so you're just following up on it right part of a professional contact strategy so what i would do when when they when you say that is normally they'll be like okay um you know what did the email say give them a quick value prop if it's an as if it's an ea definitely like fully give them the value prop and go into detail what the research that you found but a gatekeeper may not understand the context of the organization so more so i would just stay on the side of making sure and telling them that hey look like this is what the value of the email was and then essentially when that happens they normally will ask you okay so you know what's the extension that you're looking to call and so when they ask you that it's they'll give it to you and then once you get that extension no i'll always ask them hey look you know what's the direct line that i can call just so that i don't get disconnected so here's why because when you when they put you through or maybe they didn't give you the extension or they do get the extension sometimes you actually don't get the full direct dial so you have to go through the operator again because they may not have a phone tree automation that you can say their last name it'll connect to them so what you want to do is you want to be able to get that information ask that question write it down so then you no longer have to go through the gatekeeper so make sure that when you're asking for the extension or you're asking for to be put through get that information so that you can call that person so sometimes they'll give you um cell phone numbers i've gotten cell phone numbers before and that was really awesome so just just making sure that you're getting that information that's prompt and it's good to go for you so another way you can go about calling gatekeepers is being super direct so you can like hey put me through the line right there's another thing you can do but essentially at the end of the day i mean those are two tactics i don't really try to go too crazy with it because at the end of the day they're going to put me through or they're not and if they don't put me through and they're just being rude about it or they're just they're not doing anything at all like another thing that i'll ask for is like hey you know just real quick like what's the best way to get in front of them and sometimes they may be like email which is like the go-to answer but they may be like well they're really active on social like try them there right or they could maybe tell you like hey an event's coming up and we're sponsoring so you can make an appearance there those are just examples but you can also additionally use the framework of what uh the emails that you have so if you're emailing someone and you don't know if it's going through it may just be bad data that could be a good time to just recheck the domain so hey look you know i understand you not be able to put me through can you actually set me up with some details on how this email address is so they can easily give you real quick an email address that you can easily use and then now you can email that person and get through whatever the the firewall or the blacklist that may be put on right so it's just important to understand what the email is so then obviously you can send them good emails so those are my tactics with gatekeepers another question on top of that is um or is he expecting your call a gatekeeper right so if they say hey um are they expecting your call um normally i just go no they're not just reaching out with this purpose and i did this research and i do that with gatekeepers and executive assistants because i'm giving them a reason that i'm calling so i'm not just a person that's just calling to call so just like we talk about in our trainings is the reason for my call is there's a reasoning behind what i'm trying to do right there so that's why i go with those two different tactics so that's really how you handle gatekeepers again this is all about a b testing don't go too crazy with it but that's a good way to make sure you can get some substance out there um next is if you don't our next question is if you can't close the prospecting calls with the demo or next steps what do you think about requesting sender sending calendar invite for follow-up so if you can't close on that call they're neglecting you and things of that nature what i always try to do is try to figure out when i can get that again that counter by like that the person that mentioned this question for the next time we connect because it's going to be difficult for you to follow up with this person if there isn't a calendar invite there isn't a note that you sent them to follow back up on there has to be some context to get to reach out with them to them with to then solidify it again and then reconnect so what i would do here is say hey look you know you told me you can't hop on a demo next week or the following week or this month you told me to reach out in three months so you can ask a couple questions here like hey look you know that's when you told me to reach out you know one thing we can do is i can send you a proposed calendar invite for a time to connect and then you know with that time to connect you know be able to find us a time to reconnect and then have this conversation again and the reason i always say that is we say hey look you know between now and then i want to make sure we don't get lost in the weeds and i don't become an annoying sales rep when i follow up with you again right in two three months which basically means i will become an annoying sales rep if uh we don't at least schedule some time for us to have a conversation again so that's something i pay attention to um another thing that you can do is if they say hey look you know i want i don't want to reconnect um in two three months or i don't want to put a calendar invite in there like just reach back out you know we'll see if the situation change like what i do there is i just say hey look and i know that you don't want to put time on the calendar and you know when you don't want to put time on the calendar like that's obviously harder for us to connect but i understand that you know what would be the best subject line for us to email you with right that i can get a response from so that we can end up reconnecting because what is happening is when people say reach out in two three months they don't want to reconnect with you right they get blown up and then now you don't have contacts and then now it's a lot harder for that person to connect with them with so my suggestion is to focus in on hey look like i know i know that at least there's some value here because you told me to reach back at this time and you responded but at the same time it's like we need to make sure we at least have some agreement so when i do reach back out there's at least some value there so essentially what you're doing there is setting up the the email so that when you do send them that subject line i don't care what the code word is it could be winning the winnie the poo it could be star wars it doesn't matter but as long as you have an agreed upon subject line that's going to obviously help you from a context standpoint to get that answer back so i want so we all think about that is hey when someone isn't doesn't move forward with the demo or the next steps like making sure that you're getting some type of proposed calendar invite to reconnect with in three three four months and or sending them hey or no asking what's a con what's the subject line that you can use to then reconnect with them with so i'm just giving you guys some just information off that but what you always want to think about is on every single prospecting call on every single cold call you want to make sure that you're getting some type of information that you can then leverage and use to reach them back out with because for the most part you're not going to get a you're not going to get another shot probably to get i'll get that person on the phone again it's again as we all know hard to get people on the phone i'm not saying don't make calls but it's a lot harder so if you're able to understand that it's going to be better at the end of that call if you at least get some type of next steps so those are some things to consider i'd use those tactics i use those same tactics and they're really beneficial but you want to make sure again you're getting some type of information on that call so that when you reach back out you're having a good conversation and even then if they reject all those you can be like hey look you know at the end of the day for context when i reach back out again you know why is it not a good time to talk and they'll give you some some context there so so things to consider another another question um that we have here and this is a this is kind of around when people are telling you hey i'm in a meeting or i'm heading into a meeting going there's a question that we got so when you get that question like really think about a way to dissuade the conversation so when someone says i'm heading into a meeting i'm in a meeting we all know that they're most likely not in a meeting or they're not heading it though they may be heading into a meeting right but they're trying to get you off the phone so a couple things that you can do you know i've said hey look i'm heading into meeting myself like let's have a good conversation so i'm just playing in the level playing field um when they say i'm in a meeting i'm gonna say hey i'm in a meeting as well and i'm actually with my boss and he said that this is one of the top tier counts that we're trying to talk to based on xyz whatever you found on your information and your research and then use that as a leverage point to call and then also additionally what you could do is oh great so you're in a meeting like go ahead and put me on speakerphone and i'll talk to everybody in the room right so i mean i've done all those things before but that's a way to just dissuade the situation like this all comes back down to just being different and being unique in the calls that you're making because there's so many people out there that are saying the same thing and when you when you're saying the same thing as everybody else you're going to be treated like everybody else so really just consider what are the things you're doing to make sure that you're getting the right value in the stuff that you're doing so that when you're doing that you're obviously having a better conversation than everybody else right so think about how to dissuade the product not product that dissuade the prospect so that you actually can have a benefit on a beneficial viable conversation so that's my advice on that is hey look someone's heading into a meeting or they're in a meeting come up with an rejection that you're comfortable with right right so like what i just said like that's i'm comfortable in doing that and i'd say in a certain tone so like obviously i'm not getting berated but so it's just setting yourself up like that making sure that you're having a thoughtful way of reaching out and you're getting some good stuff so that's my tips on that uh we also have another question based upon when you're when you're calling somebody like what are the best ways to be prepared before we make that call and i would say that the best way to be prepared is have a cool calling not script but talk structure so know where your intro is so i know my intro is every single time hey bob thanks for taking my call to you a few moments right then i have the reason for my call is and that it's based on personas so persona based messaging based on calling right i got my call to actions you know do you want to set up a 20 30 minute introductory call do you want to meet up for you uh you want to meet up at an event come to the webinar right things that i set up those are things that i'm going to try to do so always think about what your school calling talk track is because when you understand your talk track and your structure that conversation becomes a lot more confident and now you're seamlessly coming inside of that that frame and now you're just only focused on impact value impact value impact value and that's what you want to think about every single time you make those calls so consider that going into before hey before i make these calls like set up the process that then integrates with the things that you're going to say so then it actually becomes valuable for those people so gonna get off of cold calling tips a little bit but those but those things are important i want everyone to that's listening to take those tips write them down try them out today when it really comes to being good on the phone i think just getting results is it just comes down to understanding how do you handle objections for you for you right for not for everybody else how you handle it for you because again the way you say stuff is going to be different so you got to understand that and then also having a structure to talk track around the people that you're calling and then also making sure that you're oh another tip that i'm sorry to mention actually is being proactive in those voicemails so when you're leaving a voicemail always say the beginning of the value that you're leaving and then at the end leave hey look this is you know morgan ingerman from jv barrell sales training no need to call me back following up with an email that has more value on the the voice letters gave you so first name their first name the reason for my call is maybe you have a case study maybe you have a use case testimonial say your name or your name at the end contact information and then after the contact information say hey i'm going to follow up with you it could be like a video it could be a blog post but you in our voicemails you don't you always want to be progressive to the next step so that they have something to look forward to receive so that's what i always tell people on voicemails you won't you might not get a call back that's not the whole case of leaving a voicemail and i think that's very few and far between you just want them to check out the new information that you're sending them so again that's a ton of tips on cold calling be confident in your cold calls everybody like we're in december right now this is one of the hardest times to schedule opportunities for sure however if you can get people on the phone which people are starting to wind down and a lot more people i mean a lot less people are going to be in the office so a lot more executives are willing to pick up the phone so just do that and use that information to be successful so on top of that let's go into some different questions from the facebook group so one question from the facebook group was how would you do messaging or sales cycle um change without the use of case studies and customer references so essentially how are you sending out information that when you don't have those use cases yet so that's where it comes down to persona based messaging so you need to figure out hey what are the three four five top personas that we interact with that are going to be the end users who are going to be the people who are the decision makers and signing these deals so that's why at the end of the day you have to create that persona based messaging matrix and by creating that persona based messaging matrix now you can come into your calls more confident so now when you're reaching out you can do it at volume and at scale and you're profiling people based on how they would interact with you and then based on that interaction you now have an easier way to reach out to people and also going into the second part of that question the sales cycle so now because you set yourself up for success and now you're understanding what those personas are and those challenges and priorities you can now talk directly to that in the sales cycle so you can play hey you know i i know one of the things that you know executives like you or people like in your role say xyz and then setting that up for the right things that you want to talk about and that's again more beneficial to do there's a lot of work on the up front but on the back end that you're going to really do more results because now you're talking directly to them and you're not talking at them right you're not with them in the same room and they understand hey look at least this person may not do the job that i'm doing but at least they understand what i go through and now i can have a better conversation and then essentially i did the same thing when i joined j barrow so i went through the vp of sales enablement vp of sales vp of sales development and we figured out what are the top five priorities of those people created messaging off of that cold calling talk tracks out of that and then when i'm in sales cycle conversations because i understand the priorities i can map that back to what our solution is and how we best help companies with sales training so i want you all to think about that as well information's in your crm you can obviously ask somebody in the organization that has that information but as if you can get that all that stuff now conversations are better your follow-up stronger and now you're not just doing doctor checkup as john says doctor checkup questions you're doing something that's more important and that's going to get more results and so on top of that the sales cycle you're going to be able to follow up with meaningful information you're going to be way more credible in those conversations because you understand that those persons pain points their industry and you'll be able to stand out from everybody else because most people like like as you all know those stuff that you watch from us is they're going through the motions so we're always trying to figure out how can we evolve but you can just be that incremental increments better by just focusing on hey look i know your priorities and pain points because i've studied them i took the time to research them again i'm not in your role but i've taken the time to do that so that's why that's important there as well and so again that's how you set up messaging and sales cycles that's the answer to that question getting the prospects excited i think getting up the prospects excited is something obviously that is tough because we're in a world with so much noise and so to create urgency is a tough thing right that's one of the hardest things in sales so in order to do that it really comes down to reiterating what someone tells you they're looking to accomplish so if someone says hey we're looking to accomplishment accomplish this in this timeline we're looking to deal with these challenges and these priorities you know based on these challenges and priorities this is where a solution fits and then you send them an email so we call summer email you send them that email that conversation of what you had now that person becomes a lot more confident in what you're selling them and also you can always point back to that email to be like hey look like this is what we talked about you told me in this time frame this is when you want to make a decision let's do it so that's one thing that i'd focus in on is how do you get prospects excited is that now on a cold call all you're doing is really just selling time it's always a lot harder to get someone excited in a minute or two best way to get someone excited goes back to use cases and customer success stories because if you're able to come out the gates with that that's going to be beneficial so you know one thing i could say is hey you know we helped a company with cold calling and in their training they set up four meetings and then one of the reps now is scheduling close to 10 meetings a week with phone calls so that's a an amazing stat so now i can use that as a leader to be like oh shoot now i'm fired up because if they're given if i'm doing results for that person then if we can get similar results now i'm more interested in the conversation because that is results driven and that's data data that now i can use to then sell move forward right so those are ways to get your prospects excited i think it really just comes down to holding them accountable to what they said making sure that you're coaching people in the right direction when you're a manager to make sure that you're getting people excited uh to get their excitement for those summer emails and then also it's calling with confidence and then having those use cases that promote promote more confidence so i think those are ways to do that in a successful manner and then a kind of last wrap-up question here from the group is and this is a question i asked was what are you all doing for the last sprint of the year so i saw a couple answers people are building a pipeline for q1 people are looking at deals where they can close people are trying to clean out their pipelines people are doing strategy meetings we had one past couple days ago but i want to go back to point number one is building pipeline for q1 right now that's my main focus how many people can i already be talking to on the point of closing or hey at least they'll have a conversation with me at the beginning of next year like that's the main thing that i want to focus on is how can i get the best pipeline going into the next year possible like for the next month lock in how can i come in pipelines full everybody's ready for me to have conversations we're running off to the gates right racing that's what you want so last sprint if you're in sales focus in on getting that pipeline full so that you don't have to deal with like negotiations and you're nickel and diming you're hey look i got a big pipeline i got a ton of conversations can sell the right way and then also have a great year so again that's a lot of questions i just answered there facebook and the cold calling webinar again be in toronto this week so if you're going to be there at the workshop i look forward to connecting with you um and if you'll be around the area i look forward to connect with you as well i'll be there for the weekend and check out the scene so again i appreciate you all listening to the make it happen podcast um as john would say let's make it happen have a great week guys We'll see you next time.

We'll see you next time. We'll see you next time. We'll see you next time.