Expert Tips to Slay your B2B Sales Calls

Lilah: Good morning, good afternoon, good evening, depending on where you are in the world and welcome to our conversation today. Today, I’m joined by Matthew Hall, a senior sales expert and we’re going to be talking you through some expert tips to slay your B2B sales calls. So welcome, Matt. Thank you so much for sparing the time to talk to us today.

Matthew: Hi, Lilah, thanks for inviting me back again. I always find it really refreshing coming back to do a talk like this because it keeps me in my own game because I have to do some research as well as think about what I do today. It’s really, really good to come back on. So thank you very much for inviting me.

Lilah: No, the pleasure is ours. I know that from the previous webinars that you’ve done we had some great feedback, so we’re really excited to have you today and obviously share your experiences. As you say, sometimes when we just stop to take stock it actually enables us to sort of think about what we’re doing every day as well. So I always find these conversations to be really inspiring as well. So, yeah, thank you so much for your time.

Matthew: I agree.

Lilah: Right, so what I will say to the audience today, is we have a number of questions that were provided with before today’s session that we’re going to run through but if you have any questions as we go through, Matt has said that he’s prepared to take live questions as we go. So do feel free to pop those in the chatbox as and when they come up and we’ll try and address those obviously time permitting. So saying that then Matt, let’s go to the first question that we’ve had come in and that is how do …… it’s probably a really poignant one…. is how do we make a cold call not come across as a cold call? Probably the base level of where to start, what’s your perspective?

Matthew: Thanks very much. So again, a really, really interesting point because I really hope I don’t come across as a cold call when I ring a business, and it made me sort of deeply think about it. Starting from the very beginning, Lilah, I like to try and map out and map out my day well. By doing so, what I do is I plan the type of data that I want to call in the first place. So it adds a bit of value to that piece of data that I’m going to call. So I’ll go off, I’ll do some research about different industries, I’ll research job titles that I want to speak to, I’ll find out people’s names and maybe try and get some direct phone numbers and there are a few platforms out there that I am more than happy to share with people. So there’s a platform that I use very well called Cognism, which is a great platform to use to get contact data and another very useful one is another product called Lusher, which again is another tool out there to use. There are multiple other tools online that you can research to get things like names of people, as well as direct phone numbers to get these types of contacts to speak to. Those services I know cost money to get, so in some instances, in some businesses, I would actually go off and pay for those services myself and the reason why I put that in today’s sort of talk about this question is that we really have to value the data that we have in the first place. So if I’m willing to invest in a service or product to be able to get names and job titles and phone numbers, I think every call that I make, I want to ensure that I am excited, enthusiastic and also that I’ve done research on that business. So when I speak to them, I know about their sector, I know about what they do as a company, I’ve done my research, I’ve done my due diligence and so actually come across that I am an expert in their field. Again, if someone asked me if this is a cold call, I’m not going to lie to them. That’s what I’m not going to do but what I want to say to them is “no, this is not a cold call. Do you know what? I have researched your business, I have researched your competition, your industry, the clients that you’re looking to work with and I have a great value proposition to deliver to you. So no, this is not cold. I spent a long time researching, looking for your company and this, for me, is actually a perfectly timed call for your organisation.” That’s how I come across as a non-cold because I’ve spent time, I’ve spent effort and for me, it’s a timed and planned phone call at that point.

Lilah: So effectively, it might be the first time that you have communicated with that organisation or with that individual but the fact that you have put in so much effort upfront to understand who the contact is, understand their challenges, understand their sector and really then, I guess it sounds to me like you’re humanising that engagement with whoever answers the phone to you to say, “well, it’s not a cold call, because actually, I’ve done a lot of research in your sector and I genuinely have something to talk to you about.” Is that right? You’re kind of humanising that conversation rather than just being like, can you put me through to so-and-so?

Matthew: Absolutely, yeah and actually when they start questioning things to me, I just come across that I know about it. Like, I’m fully aware of questions that they may actually come back to me with. It’s really, really worked for me and I’d like to think I’ve been fairly successful here at Lead Forensics, you know and I’ve used this same type of planning in my mornings and in my afternoons to make all the sorts of calls I want to make. Don’t get me wrong, there’ll be times where I will go through data and I will just call it for the first time because I’ve run out of planned names and job titles that I want to speak to. So there are times for that but actually if we think about planning our day successfully, that’s really, really important because you will just sound like this is meant to happen, this call is meant to happen. Just as another thought as well, if we do come across the decision-maker that we’re about to speak to is busy, take that on board. If I was to ring you, you are a busy person, Lilah yeah,…..and so if I was to ring you and I disturbed you in your day-to-day and you say, “look, I’m busy right now”. Understand that, just take that, take it on board and say, “look, not a problem. When’s a good time to call back? Is there a good time, is there a bad time? I don’t want this to happen again for you. I don’t want to disturb you”. Make a note and ensure that you call back at that dedicated time that you’ve been given. So your next call, again is not cold. “Hey, Lilah, you asked me to call back today. How are you? I still want to talk to you about this great value proposition for you. I’ve done a lot of research” and again, you haven’t lost that piece of data. You’ve kept in good communication with the person you’re trying to speak to. It’s worked for me. It really has worked for me. So I hope it works for other people. Yeah, I really do.

Lilah: So you might not necessarily get very far on that first, very first call. But ultimately, if you can then start to build a bit of a rapport with that person who says, “no, no, no, I’m busy, you know, I can’t speak to you now”. Effectively, like you say, the next time that you’re calling…….even if you didn’t manage to convey your message in that first call……. that subsequent call is definitely not a cold call because you’ve already established some degree of relationship there. Is that right? So I actually just because you don’t get to where you want to get to with that first call, it can actually be a gateway into the second call. Is that right?

Matthew: Yeah, you’ve got it spot on and the good thing is because we’ve done our homework and we’ve made some notes about the time that we’re going to call back and we’re still calling this section of data, which is to do with the industry that you’ve done research on and the types of decision-makers you want to speak to. Actually, that second call is even more important because you’ve been told that this is a good time to speak to me. So it’s really, really important and it is important to make sure you do call back at that time because if you disturb that person once again and you call them at a time when they’re busy again, you will just annoy that decision-maker. You will annoy them and you will lose all value that you’ve built on, either buying that bit of data, getting a number, spending the time that you’ve done it, the research that you spent on it, you would have wasted all that time. So it’s so key to keep your time management in order, get your data in order and make sure you do as the decision-maker asked of you.

Lilah: So it’s about being respectful of the person that you’re trying to connect with and engage with them on a human level that they are going to be busy. Your call might be interrupting them in the middle of something, they might be having a good day, they might be having a bad day but ultimately, you’re trying to be respectful of that time but really, in order to build that rapport and kind of build that engagement for subsequent conversations, correct?

Matthew: Yeah, absolutely and again, if I just maybe focus this back over to you, Lilah. If I was selling a marketing software and I managed to get in contact with you. If my marketing software could help you deliver a load of brand new sales leads for your sales team and whether whatever my pitch was at 0 cost or a free this, I’m hoping you would either want an email or want to have a follow up phone call, you would want something from me. Is that right?

Lilah: Yeah, absolutely. Some sort of follow-up would be helpful because I think when you can catch someone on the fly, it can be really difficult for them to appreciate what it is that you’re actually saying, even if it is really helpful. So actually, the best engagement that I have is when people manage to get me on the phone, they’re conveying their message and then they’re like, “do you know what? Let me just fire you across some information now”…… so that then I can look at that whilst I’m talking because if I’m trying to digest all of that information whilst I’ve got 101 other things in my head that can be really difficult to do, even if it’s a simple concept. So actually, I think you’re right. If you can follow that up or even in real-time, have that ready to go, you’ve got a captive audience right there, correct?

Matthew: Absolutely and again, if I’ve done my time and homework and due diligence before speaking to you, Lilah, it would be similar to speaking to another global head of marketing for another type of SaaS business. So I can just replicate this type of conversation time and time again. Not sound robotic, be excited, be enthusiastic and actually just because I know what your company does, what you’re looking to achieve, I’ve done my research, I hopefully will come across as actually that I value what I’m trying to get across to you. Yeah, absolutely.

Lilah: And I know that we’ll have people listening today where they’ll be like, “do you know what? I’ve got such a quota of calls to get through. I cannot possibly prep for every single one”. So what would your advice be to those people in terms of making the preparation efficient or how to prioritise your contacts? Anything like that because I can understand if you’re quotaed on your number of dials that you do, for example, they’re actually thinking that, “Oh my gosh, I’ve got to prepare for every single one of those”. That can be quite daunting, right? So what would your advice be there?

Matthew: Yeah, so bite-size chunks are always good. So there’ll be a period of time that hopefully, you’ll have some time in your morning to do some preparation or maybe a time after lunch where you could do a bit more preparation. Something that I used to do, was in the mornings, I would prepare a minimum of 50 calls. So I would look in my CRM, I would make sure I’ve got names, contacts, phone numbers, email addresses, and if I can, even job titles as well. Because what I’m looking to do then is make sure that I’m ringing batches of people within a similar industry, similar location and similar job title. Actually, over periods of time, your data will become more and more cleansed. So, yes, it could be fairly daunting from the outset. If you just think about this as a month, a two or a three-month project for you, actually over a period of time what you’ll find is your data will become more and more cleansed. You’ll become more and more successful because you know the data I’m about to call is ready to go, I know I’m ready and prepared for it and actually you don’t become that unorganised salesperson that you’re just ringing off the cuff, which really doesn’t help. If you come across that you haven’t got a clue what that person does, you haven’t got a clue what that business does or ……that’s when it comes back to ‘how do I come across as not sounding like a cold call?’ Well, you will, you really will. You need to be prepared.

Lilah: Yeah, so it’s all about that first impression and making that first impression count and not forgetting that every single person that you’re calling isn’t just a number, it’s not just the next in your dial log or whatever. They’re actually a person, they’re actually an opportunity to engage with if you can. What I’m hearing is that you kind of time block in terms of your preparation and your calling. You organise your prospects so that you’re calling similar types of people at the same time so that you’ve got your pitch honed for that audience. By being organised and time blocking, actually, then you’re able to get yourself into the headspace that these aren’t just a number, after number, after number that I’m dialling……these are all individual people and I’m going to aim to build a rapport with them all. Is that right?

Matthew: That’s absolutely spot on. Have you done it yourself, Lilah? You sound pretty professional at this.

Lilah: Yes, but maybe I’ll be able to give it a go after this. We’ll see (laughter). Let’s move on to the next question……. so we’ve talked a little bit about connecting with people on a human level and building that one-to-one connection. So what are your top tips for building a rapport during a sales call?

Matthew: Yeah, so this flows very nicely onto that first question that you just asked because it’s all around doing your homework in the initial outlay, when you’re looking at the data. You do need to sound enthusiastic and have an element of the motivation behind yourself. Because if we can imagine, if we’re calling someone, it’s been a long day, it’s been a slog……. I believe that you’re going to come across that it’s a cold call and that really that person may have received four or five calls that day anyway and I don’t believe you’re going to get a chance at building any rapport or having any conversation with them. Things that I try to do if I know I’ve got a number of calls to make and it’s been a long day and I’m trying to keep my motivation high…….. the bit of advice that I’ve got is that you just focus on the outcome rather than the task at hand every day. So actually, if I keep focusing on getting a second stage call booked in or trying to get a demonstration booked in or even an email address where I can upgrade this data set that I’ve got. Then actually, when it comes to rapport, I know that all I’m looking to do is just have a good, open and honest conversation with someone. I think that comes down to being genuine and authentic and never, ever coming across as pushy to someone. So if someone says that I’m pushy……. if I come across as being pushy, I’m not going to get anywhere. I’m not going to build rapport with that person. So I just need to make sure if someone’s busy, just say “not a problem. I know I’ve caught you at a bad time. Is there a good time that I could call you? I’d like to send you a bit of an email that will outline everything that we were going to speak about today. So when I do speak to you next week, whenever at least you’ve had a chance to look through this product/service that we’re offering” and on the second call, rapport is built……you’re being genuine in what you say, you followed it up as you promised and actually, hopefully, that second call, as long as that email is well-tailored with maybe a video that’s gone into it…….that report is solid and you should progress the call on that second one.

Lilah: I must say that I do love it when if I’ve had a call come in and I’ve not been able to take it, if I didn’t get a follow-up email with like you say, a little video message or something like that, it does create a sense of ‘human’ to it and then I’m like, oh, I feel a bit bad now that I didn’t take that call because that’s genuinely a person. You can forget that when you’re talking to people on the phone, right? So I do quite like those video communications afterward.

Matthew: Yeah, nice. Just as another thought, if every call that I went onto I was thinking, I’m going to book my demonstration or I’m going to make a sale. I know that I’m going to get more ‘nos’ throughout the day than I am ‘yeses’. That’s just the numbers game. So I’ve just taught myself to get small victories in all the calls that I make and actually, then if I go onto that call thinking, look, the worst outcome that I can get from this call is getting someone’s email address. If that’s the worst outcome for every call I make, I’m satisfied because that’s the outcome minimum that I’m going to get from it. So I just believe that you’re then not going to go onto your next call feeling downhearted or you’re going to feel frustrated or your day is not going the way that you want to. So, in fact, your tonality and your enthusiasm will remain high because you can get to the end of your day going. Do you know what? I made 100 calls today or 50 calls or whatever your target is, and you say…….. Do you know what? Out of 50 I managed to upgrade 40 bits of my data. It was a good day and I’ve remained enthusiastic and that rapport will sound authentic. Absolutely Yeah.

Lilah: And how do you walk that line in terms of rapport because obviously if you were to go into a call and be so enthusiastic that you were sort of bouncing off the walls and that sort of thing and actually the person is really not responsive to that. There’s like this fine line that you have to walk right between being disengaged…… It’s another call…… and so overly enthusiastic that actually then the person that you’re talking to is not interested, either. So how do you walk that line and how do you control that enthusiasm to kind of resonate with the person that you’re speaking with?

Matthew: OK so another little thought here……. and hopefully people listening today will have the ability to listen back to their calls by using call recording software or whatever they have access to…… and actually just listen to what you’re saying and what the person that you’re speaking to is saying and how they come across. Just listen to what positive outcomes look like and also what a negative outcome looks like, to see if your enthusiasm is over the top on them. Now Lilah, we’ll be making hundreds of calls in a day so I believe that we should be changing our tone, we should be changing our pitch, we should be trying these things out to find out what works for us and what doesn’t. Actually, by just reflecting at the end of every day and going…… you know what, I can look back at all the calls that I made and I can see this one was a success and this one was a success and then I can go, wow, what happened on that call? Why was that call so good? ……Have a listen to it. I see, see why it was so good, see what I said, see how I said it and mimic it. Give that another go and see if it’s successful again. I am speaking to humans. OK, so this is the other thing. So, in fact, the tonality I give to one person could be very, very different to the next person because, again, I don’t know what your day’s been like Lilah. I don’t know whether you’ve had a great day or you’ve just come off a terrible call…..you just had some bad news. We’re all human beings and we need to make sure that we go on with that mindset. So it’s not going to work on every call. It is a numbers game. We just need to make sure that we keep some enthusiasm throughout our day and if we let the figures make the change in us, if we make bad figures change our tonality, we won’t be as victorious as we could be. That’s for sure.

Lilah: I think that listening back to your calls and trying to identify the calls that you are successful on and the calls that you weren’t successful on is a really good tool in any salesperson’s toolkit, right? Because we can think we’re coming across in a certain way but actually when you listen back to it, it might be as you say, you missed a cue from someone or it might be that actually your tone was off. If you’ve just come off of another call that was maybe quite stressful that might come across in your tone of voice. So by being able to listen back to yourself and analyse what went well and what didn’t go well is a really great way of ensuring that kind of continuous improvement, right?

Matthew: Yeah, really good thought. Actually, I haven’t tried this before but this is a thought from what you’ve just said there, Lilah. I’m just thinking if I was to go back and listen to all the good calls that I’d made and I saved them down. Maybe these are ones that I managed to book a demonstration on the first call or I just had a very, very positive outcome from it and I save those types of call down….that would be a very good resource for me, the moment I have a bad one-to-one with my manager and I wasn’t being successful…..and I feel cross or angry or down or I feel that, oh, I’ve got to slog this afternoon and I just need to motivate myself very quickly. By having that little bit of ammunition to listen to first might just set my mindset of where I need to go and how I need to put my tonality into these calls and how that would help me build rapport on those first calls. Because if I come across a bit robotic, bored, it’s just no. 99 out of 100 calls today, I can’t believe it, it’s like the end of the day. If I come across like that then I’m not going to build that rapport and as the question says at the beginning….Top Tips for Building Rapport….. enthusiasm, excitement, enjoyment, just enjoyment of your job. You have to enjoy what you’re doing, you have to….. as much as sometimes it can be a slog to motivate yourself. Think of your goals. Think about why you’re there. Yeah, it’s very important.

Lilah: Yeah, absolutely. I couldn’t agree more. Mindset is everything. I have a big team, for example and so I use the concept of being a chameleon to liaise with all my different team members. Does that come into your mind when you’re talking to people to kind of adjust your language according to what you’re getting back from the person that you’re speaking to? Is language mirroring a benefit? Or is that a bit cringey on a call? What’s your perspective on adjusting your stance according to what you’re getting back from the prospect?

Matthew: I think that there is an element that you do need to. But again, from my own success in calls, I still like to be quite genuine in who I am as a person, rather than just mimicking someone because there’s probably only a certain amount of time you can keep that up. So actually, I want to try and have a personality that I can use time and time again rather than, oh, was I supposed to be like on this call or was I supposed to be like this on another call? If I can find that middle ground where I sound positive. I sound knowledgeable and calm and ready to have this conversation with the person that I’m speaking to, I don’t need to mirror as much as probably we think we need to. I think there’s an element that we do need to, for sure, but also we just need to be authentic in how we’re saying it to people, that’s for sure.

Lilah: No, so you try to stay authentic and have people buy into you as an individual rather than becoming that kind of chameleon. So I think that’s nice actually, like you say, being authentic to who you are. You know, it is a nice approach to take.

Matthew: Yeah, I would say it’s worked. All this cold calling that we need to do, try different things, try and be that chameleon and try and be the authentic version of you and see what works. Absolutely see what works. Make a note of it. What works for you? What doesn’t work? Make a note. You know, we’re in it for the long slog, so we may as well make sure that we’re doing it successfully or the best way that we can and so definitely make a note of what works well.

Lilah: Absolutely. Just moving on to the next question then. So it kind of segues quite nicely……… So how do you make a good first impression? We might have already touched on it a little bit but is there anything else that you’d like to add to that?

Matthew: Yeah, so what I like to do with things like the data…… and I know we’ve mentioned this in that first question but expanding upon it a bit further….. is I need to make sure that I’ve got detailed notes about the company or the industry that I’m calling and maybe have some ammunition ready for you of businesses that you’ve had success within that industry or location that you’re calling. Because if I want to give a good impression, I just want to make sure I come across knowledgeable about that business within those 15 or 20 seconds that I may have in that first conversation with them. Good impression. Don’t lie. Don’t be scripted. Listen to what the person is saying. I’m trying to have a conversation with someone and I will do my utmost to just sound human and just sound genuine in that message that I’m trying to deliver to them. My product or service that I want to share with you, I absolutely want to share with you because I know this product or service that I’m offering can genuinely change your business, it genuinely can. It’s actually my fault, if I don’t get that message across, it’s not their fault, it’s my fault. I’ve had my chance, I just have to make sure that I sound enthusiastic and genuine and I have to deliver this message. Again, I think it’s very, very good to have a first impression but also have a great second impression. So if they ask you to call back, make sure you do, make sure it’s timely. Because again you will come across honest and genuine and that you have a day mapped out and you have certain times to call people and this is the right time that you ask me to call you back. I can ensure that it is done. Yeah.

Lilah: And in terms of that, then……So, you mentioned there about getting your message across and so we call that your value proposition. Let’s first start with…… what is the value proposition in case anybody doesn’t know that? And then how do you convey that value proposition in a succinct way so that people just don’t turn off during your calls?

Matthew: OK. I went off and did a bit of research, Lilah, to try and find the best interpretation of this I could and the best I found was from the Harvard Business School. Now there are three points to a value proposition, from Harvard’s point of view. Number one, which customers are you going to serve? Number two, what needs are you going to meet? And number three, what relative price will provide acceptable value for customers and acceptable profitability for the customer? So I’ve broken these three down, and we’ll spend a bit of time looking into each. So, which customers are you going to serve? Again, it comes down to all these questions today. It comes down to choosing who you’re going to call. Ensuring you’ve got a reason why you’re doing it. Understand what that company does and make sure that you include all the information you know within that first call. So look, I understand that I’ve done some research on this business. I understand what you do as a company. I know who you’re looking to try and reach out and the product and service that I’m offering today will tick that box on that first stage of the Harvard Business School…….. What is a value proposition? Does that make sense, Lilah?

Lilah: It does and it’s quite a lot to convey in the few seconds that you might have. So what would your tip be in terms of trying to……it’s like an elevator pitch, isn’t it? So how can people put together their elevator pitch to convey all of those really important points really, really quickly in a concise way that the person that you’re speaking to is going to understand?

Matthew: So preparation is the first thing and I think this has been quite vital in I’d say my success……grouping companies that you’re going to speak to because this value that you’re going to present to one business…….to be honest, I wouldn’t have time to put together a valuable piece in every call that I made to a different industry, to a different business if everything was one industry on one call, a different industry on second call, a different industry on third call. I have to batch my value propositions and businesses that I speak to because what I’m going to do is I’m going to do some research on the business. I’m going to look at their existing client base. I’m going to ensure that I then start talking about businesses similar to them that they could be working with but they’re not. But with my software, they can. That’s all down to…. if I want to be very, very……..if I want to be super productive with the volume of data that I’ve got….. in fact, the time that I spend in my mornings is super, super crucial because I know I will then have to make less calls to deliver this value proposition and get better outcomes from it.

Lilah: And in terms of that, so typically when we were writing a value proposition or an elevator pitch, just if anyone is looking at what is my value proposition. We generally think it needs to be conveyed in two sentences, no more than that. So if you’re jotting it out …….and they’re not super long sentences with lots and lots of commas…….. like normal, normal-sized sentences and then practice, practice, practice so it becomes natural. Really, if you can’t convey your value proposition within two sentences, it’s taking you too long to convey that across to your audience. So if anyone is thinking, oh, I need to get my value proposition sorted, try and jot it down within two sentences and then practise saying it out loud so that everyone can hear you, you can hear yourself. If you take too long, if you stumble over your words, all of that sort of thing, then you’re only going to come a cropper when you’re actually on those calls. So a value proposition is really short, isn’t it?

Matthew: It really is and something that I see time and time again in the office in the mornings, is people will be practising this with some of their colleagues. They’ll be practising this in the morning before they get on the call so they’re not then ruining some of their data by…. their first call, they stumble! They’ve already made their stumbles, they’ve made their mistakes before they’ve started ringing this valuable data that we talked about on the first question that we spent time and effort researching. In fact, they’ve already practised, they’re ready to go. On that second part of it, Lilah, we talk about the needs that we’re going to meet for this organisation. What needs are you going to meet? This is down to questioning and there’s a whole different topic on questioning and how we should question a decision maker when we speak to them. Also what types of questions, what role is the decision-maker got? There’s loads and loads of great cool stuff out there that you can start reading about questioning. But the one thing again that I’ve learned about is, I will find their needs by asking them good questions. I’ve tried before to try and find their needs on their website but generally speaking their needs won’t be on their websites. They won’t be saying, we’re in need of more sales at the moment. That’s not how a website works. A website is more like this is our product, this is our service, this is what we offer. Not that we could do with more sales leads at the moment. So questioning is important on that first call because we’re going to find out if they had a successful 2021 or not. Has COVID hit them? Have they had lower sales inquiries? I can then use that as part of my value proposition to show them how to embed our software, our product, our service into their business and how it will help overcome that need that they have at the moment.

Lilah: And I think there’s a really interesting point in there…. is that no-one actually wants to hear what you want to sell, right? You want to sell it but no-one actually wants to hear that. So what you need to do in your value prop is rather than selling your product or service, whatever it happens to be, is to actually consider what challenges or problems are you going to solve for the person? Because actually, by putting that buyer first message, you’re going to resonate so much faster. So I guess most people already know this but in case you don’t, no-one wants to hear what you want to sell ……flip it around. Is there anything else you want to add to that piece?

Matthew: No, no. To be honest, that’s absolutely the nail on the head and again, another great book out there called Spin Selling. I’d recommend that to so many people. You could use that in any part of a cold call to a demonstration or even down to results, where you find out what situation that company is in at the moment and if they’ve got any problems and how you can help overcome them. Rather than just saying, our software is the best or this is the best or it’s really cheap at the moment………they’ve heard that a million times on the phone. Actually, just to be genuine with that person, say…… Look, if my software could do anything, what do you need at the moment? How can we support you in your growth? How can we support you in your account management? How can we support you in retaining your client base? Let’s really actually start digging with those sorts of questions.

Lilah: Yeah, so I think as you say, it’s putting that buyer first in terms of what they need. I tell you what annoys me the most, is when people come on a sales call with me and say, what are you trying to achieve this year, Lilah? ……..and I’m like, I’m busy. I know what I need to achieve. I don’t need to tell you that! So you have to contextualise those types of conversations because I do think there’s maybe some sales training out there that encourages you to ask those questions upfront but I definitely think that they need to be contextualised first of all. You can’t just open with…… what your challenge is for this year, Lilah?….. because I have no reason to tell you, right? So it’s just wasting my time up until that point. You have to build some sense of rapport before you go in for the kill on those things, right?

Matthew: Absolutely and I think again, this falls very nicely into these previous questions that we’ve had. How do we build good rapport? How do we make a good impression? We have to do all these things before we can start posing questions like that. Absolutely, we do. That mindset of I may not be able to get this on the first call, it may be the second or even the third call. We’re building this report all the time that the person that we’re speaking to feels like that they’re more than happy to share that with you because the trust has been built. The third part of that value proposition is regards to this, what relative price will provide acceptable value for customers and acceptable profitability for the customer? Again, this is all down to a bit of homework. So many websites out there these days, you can find out what they are selling, how much they’re selling it for. So if someone is selling widgets at a pound each, Lilah and my products £1000, I know they’ve got to sell a minimum of 1,000 widgets before my software becomes a no-brainer. So knowing the types of cost that they will be selling their product at will help me to then have a good conversation with someone about what sort of value that they’re looking to buy into Lead Forensics. So it’s very, very crucial to know about products and services that they’re offering, the types of cost that are involved in that because sometimes that’s the only bit of information we can go at. When it comes down to it, hopefully at some point, we can find out about lost business and how much it would cost to lose a company, all these other things so we can build more value. But from the initial outset, we can get a lot of information from someone’s website to be able to find out the value and the cost behind their products and services that they offer.

Lilah: Well, an easy way of doing that without necessarily needing to know all the ins and outs of the exact pricing structures that they have is just to consider…… Are they high volume, low ticket kind of price point or are they low volume but a high ticket price point or are they combination of both? Most businesses will fit into one camp or the other and straightaway you can consider your positioning from a pricing perspective. Even if you just know that….are they have a high volume, low ticket value or are they high ticket value and low volume, right?

Matthew: Yeah, I absolutely agree.

Lilah: Good, good. I’m going to skip over this question because I think we’ve already answered this one and what I’ll do is just move on to an offer for everyone who has joined us today and everybody listening……..and that is, we would like to give you the chance to try Lead Forensics for free. So Lead Forensics, if you haven’t already identified in the webinar so far, identifies your website visitors so we can tell you which businesses are visiting your website. We’d like to give you the opportunity to try that on your website—free, no catch, no commitment, no credit card details, all of that, for two weeks…….. and then, you can see exactly which businesses are visiting your website. You can look at fueling your sales pipeline, you can look at engaging those prospects and see whether Lead Forensics will bring any value to your business. So we’re just going to pop up a quick poll and if you would like to take your trial of Lead Forensics, then just answer ‘Yes’ to the poll and we’ll get someone to get in touch with you to just pop that code on your website. It’s really quick. We’ll show you how it all works and we’ll let you loose for two weeks. If you want to know some more information, just click. ‘I’m not sure, can you send me some more info’………and then obviously, if you’ve got enough opportunities or you’re not interested at this time, then no problem, just hit. ‘No, thank you’ and we won’t contact you about a future demonstration. So we’ll just leave that for a couple more seconds, just until we’ve got the last few people kind of giving us their thoughts on that piece, we’ll see how we go…….. and then what I’d like to also do is see whether anyone will be interested in attending any of our future webinars. Today, we are talking about sales, so accelerate sales webinars. We also have a marketing webinar series, so feel free to just let us know if you’d like to join us at a future webinar. Well, some of those dates on there look a bit wrong, so what we’ll do is………. yeah, I know, December, November, no. We’re in January! So we will let you know if you say yes, we’ll let you know about our forthcoming webinars, which are in both in February. So what that leaves me to do is to wrap up. So Matt, do you have any closing thoughts, any key takeaways ? So if our listeners today only take away one or two things, what would they be?

Matthew: So I actually wrote down the word authenticity. Be authentic when you make calls. We’re not robots, we’re talking to human beings. Just make sure we come across authentic and just enjoy what you do. Don’t take every call to heart. Make sure you’ve got a plan every day. Manage your data well…….. and just as I say, authenticity is key.

Lilah: Super, I really liked your point about listening back to what you’re saying because we think we know how we’ve come across, we don’t know until we’ve listened back, right? I think that’s really, really important. I think that if anyone wants to become a better salesperson, probably the best tool you can give yourself is actually to be analytical and to be open to critiquing yourself in terms of how well you’ve done and to improve upon that next time, right?

Matthew: Yeah, absolutely. That’s a great one. Also, If people do have any questions for me directly, I’m more than happy to answer them on LinkedIn. QR codes for this are on the screen (44.23 on video) or however, you want to get hold of me, I’m more than happy to help….I love and I enjoy helping people so please feel free to reach out.

Lilah: So if anyone does want to reach out to Matt with any questions or to me, I’m not sure how helpful I would be. But Matt is the person who can be very helpful. But you can just scan those QR codes and it will take you straight away to our LinkedIn profiles. Otherwise, obviously, we’re fairly easy to find on LinkedIn. I’m probably easier to find than Matt but obviously Matt is on LinkedIn as well. Just scan the QR codes or just give us a quick search and you’ll find us. I am connected with Matt so if you find me and you can’t find Matt, you can find Matt through me. Lastly, I guess it’s over to me to say just a huge thank you to Matt for today. I really love talking with you and I think that you provide some great insight to people who are starting in sales or maybe a bit more experienced in sales but want some tips. So again, I just really appreciate your time today. We’ve actually had some comments come in kind of just saying that people have enjoyed the conversation and saying thank you. So you know, thank you to those people who have left those comments as well. We really do appreciate it. Anything else to add at the end there, Matt?

Matthew: If you want to invite me again, I’ll be more than happy.

Lilah: OK, OK.

Matthew: Be authentic and don’t give up yet and as you say, Lilah……listen to calls is a really good shout. But yeah, just enjoy what you do and have enthusiasm. Enjoy it. Like and enjoy your calls. Enjoy them.

Lilah: Well, thank you so much for joining us today everyone and I hope you have a lovely evening or day or afternoon and we’ll see you again soon, hopefully. Thank you very much.

Matt: Thanks, everyone.