A Strange Telemarketing Selling Secret
I want to tell you a quick story…
Before I jumped into the world of roofing sales, I was a telemarketer… a very good telemarketer.
My last phone sales job before roofing was selling animated Bible videos for NEST Entertainment.
Maybe you hate telemarketers. That’s cool because I hated telemarketing.
I had a hard time making it to work 5 days a week because the job was so depressing. The only reason they didn’t fire me was because I sold more videos in 4 days of work than other people sold in 5 days of telemarketing.
The Sales Contest Loophole
However, I couldn’t afford to pay my bills on 4 days of pay. Fortunately, there was a loophole! It was the weekly sales contest.
The winner of the weekly sales contest would usually get a chance to putt for a $100 cash bonus after work on Friday. You’ve seen those little practice putting greens some people have in their office, right? They would pull one of those out of an executive’s office, set it up in the hallway, and with everybody watching — no pressure, right? — let the winner putt for cash.
Now, I can’t play a lick of golf, but I can putt like my life depends on it!
In order to win the weekly sales contest, and the chance to putt for $100, I had to sell the most orders by credit card.
Since I really needed the money to pay my bills, Friday was my big rally day. I would turn my baseball cap backward and go hard on the phones until I had the most credit card orders for the week locked-down tight.
By the way, it was a lot easier to sell those videos by invoice because people could just mail back a check. Getting them to pull out a credit card and pay in advance was a different story.
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Download the FREE Special ReportTell Them What To Do
Here’s the lesson in this story…
Most of the other salespeople, after they made the sale, would hope the person would want to pay by credit card.
If you’re counting on hope, you’re using the wrong strategy.
You have to tell people exactly what you what them to do, step-by-step, because people usually don’t know what to do on their own.
People are waiting for somebody to confidently lead them to the solution they want.
Closing Sales Pitch
When I finished my presentation, I would confidently tell them, “Go ahead and grab your credit card now so we can get this video right out to you. Are you using Visa or MasterCard?”
Obviously, it’s a little challenging to get people to give their credit card numbers, zip code, and 3-digit security code on the back to a stranger, especially one who just called them out of the blue. They haven’t even seen me. They’ve only heard my voice. They don’t know me and I don’t know them, but if they want what I just sold them, they were going to have to give me their plastic money digits.
Yes, sometimes they would ask, “Can’t I just mail you a check?”
If I knew for sure they wanted the videos, I would reply back, “No, we’ll have to use your credit card. Go ahead and grab it now.“
The company I worked for may have been willing to take a check, but when I needed a half dozen more credit cards by the end of the day to putt for an extra $100, they were going to have to give me their credit card over the phone, sight unseen, or I was hanging up to find somebody else.
I was convinced, and because I was convinced, I was convincing.
Very seldom did somebody who objected up-front fail to go ahead and grab their credit card when they could hear the conviction in my voice. They would usually respond, “Oh, okay. Let me go ahead and get that for you. Give me a second…”
What Should You Do?
Are you telling your prospect exactly what you want them to do?
The more your prospect has to figure out on their own, the more likely they are to do business with somebody else. They’ll wait for a salesperson more convincing than you to come along and sell them. If you’re not telling them what to do, you’re probably confusing them.
Stronger doesn’t mean you’re a sales bully, it just means you’re convinced, and because you’re convinced, you are convincing.
Some of the best salespeople on the planet are kind, gentle, and convincing.
Peace,
Mike
Mike Coday
Mike started selling roofs in '95 while working as a youth pastor at a small church in North Texas. A decade later he transitioned to speaking at industry conferences and training outside sales teams. Today, he works exclusively as the premier consultant to roofing company owners who are driven for growth.Download this FREE special report now to make more money selling roofs.
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