[E43] Q&A Week: Effective phone sales tactics and shy salespeople

In this episode, I answer questions about effective phone sales tactics and if it’s possible for a shy person to be great sales.

If you have any sales or mindset related questions, send me a message through the contact page or via LinkedIn.

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Episode 43 – Transcript

On this episode, I see if I can answer more than one single question in a 10 minute period. Welcome to Episode 43, and my goal this week is to take some of the questions that I’ve received in person, in training, online, things that I’ve read online that other people have asked in groups, and really try to answer them in the best way that I can.

Yesterday, I was only able to get through one question with my answer, but hopefully that was valuable. I know, it was kind of a summary answer of a lot of stuff I’ve talked about over the last eight weeks as well as what I put online.

I think a lot of the stuff I covered yesterday was valuable to answering that question about building confidence. And I know, I only got through one question went over time a little bit, hopefully, it was still valuable. If you didn’t check it out, make sure and download Episode 42.

And if you haven’t already, make sure to subscribe so you can get all the episodes every single day they come out. But for now, whether you’re listening to this while driving, at the gym, going for a walk, you’re at work, taking a break, time to dive into some questions and see how many I can get through.

The first one on my list today, which I’ve get all the time is what’s a simple but effective over the phone sales tactic? Or variation of this is what is the one thing I can do to close more deals?

And it’s a tough one to answer and I know where it’s coming from. Everyone and not just in this day and age, in this era, in our current society, but I think this is probably always been true. Everyone wants to know that one key, that one silver bullet, that one way to win all the time, that one shortcut; how can I do this thing? How can I be an expert in the shortest amount of time with one strategy? What’s the one key?

And no matter what and there are times where somebody who’s mastered something might be able to give you one word advice or one area that you should focus on, and that would be the most successful. But that’s usually at a really high level and there’s a lot of intricacies that happen within that for it to be true.

And so when I get this question, I always try to answer it. And it’s really not one most effective way. There’s so many different things to be effective over the phone effective and sales, be a good closer, who long term as a professional is closing deals consistently and effectively.

However, what I will say is that the top three things that I always tell people is to be authentic, be transparent and be honest. I know there’s no simple answer, there’s no like say this one thing and you’ll close deals. Like there’s so many books, and manuals, and podcasts and videos and books all out there giving you all the different tips and tactics.

I mean, like right now on my shelf, I have a book that I bought because I was super curious about it. It’s on sales tactics and strategies for selling timeshare, which they no longer call timeshare. But selling timeshare, it’s 400 pages of step by step scripting and strategies on how to close time here.

But there’s no one simple thing. There’s no page that says do this one thing and you’ll be effective. It’s 400 pages of scripts and strategies. And so there isn’t a simple thing. But when you get down to the basics, no matter what you’re selling, and this is universal across everything, be authentic, be transparent, and being honest, that will help you be effective.

Will you close the most number of deals? Yes, long term, you should, deals that will stay with your company, happy clients, who will be excited and thankful raving fans who will hopefully refer you to other people. Short term, it may not seem like that works very well, but that’s always the key is to be a professional and to be authentic, transparent, honest.

Just be authentic to who you are, to what you can do. I talked about this before I hammer on it a lot about strengths and who you are. Don’t try to be somebody else. Kind of like in the episode, the guest episode I had last week with Rob Howze, he was talking about that as well.

He was talking about how he struggled in sales when he was trying to be somebody else and trying to put on a front and trying to be what he thought you were supposed to be in sales. Once he let that go, boom, the roof flew off and he was on off to the races and just being very effective in sales because he was who he was.

You also want to be transparent. Transparency is so key. Every product and service out there has amazing benefits. That’s why they were created. The person who created it, or the team that created it, whatever it is, thinks it’s amazing and it solves problems. And at the same time, there are downsides to every product or service out there. There’s always something, there’s always one little thing that somebody might not like or that’s kind of a negative.

It’s all about trade offs. You can’t have 100% good things. So, there’s going to be some downsides, there’s going to be some blind spots, there’s going to be things that aren’t great, but hopefully, the benefits outweigh those costs and that’s why somebody would buy from you. And so be transparent.

When you’re in sales, tell the good and the bad. Hopefully, it’s mostly good and if people have questions, just be transparent. Don’t try to hide bad things because it will literally come back to bite you in the end.

And this goes into the third part, which is honesty. Just be honest. At all times, be honest, go with that, it’s always the easiest thing to do because it’s the easiest thing to remember. It’s hard to remember that the lies you say or the things that you avoid or the games that you play with people, if you’re just honest all the time, especially if you’re doing it as your process and you’re consistent, then there’s nothing for you to worry about.

And you don’t have anything different that you have to remember other than just the truth. And so go with that. And that’s really the one key strategy that I have for success and sales is those three buckets.

Next question, how can a shy person become a great salesperson?

If you’ve been listening to any of my episodes or read anything I posted online, you know that my first response to this is probably going to be self awareness, and that’s important. And I’m not going to hammer on that. But even beyond self awareness, how can a shy person be great at sales?

Well, I think it goes back into the things I talked about in week one, which was being open and being willing. So, you really need to be open to new experiences, open to feedback, and you got to be willing to use and trust what other people are giving you and run with it.

Shy people are hiding and they’re going to put up kind of the shy person’s version of the ego, where they’re using that as kind of the buffer to stay safe. And you really got to kind of let that go, you got to be willing to take some chances and roll with a system.

If you’re being hired by a company, put in a sales role, you got to trust that they know what they’re doing. They’re giving you the tools that are going to make you successful and you kind of got to let go a little bit and trust a little bit and go into it with an open mind and a willingness to just run with what they give you. Just trying to do that and trust the process.

The other big strategy and tip that I will suggest and I tell everybody this, and I know for me, it made a huge difference and kind of shifted my mindset. And I talked about this before is joining Toastmasters. If you’re a shy person and you’re kind of concerned about how that affects you in a sales role or in life in general, go to Toastmasters.

Now, what’s Toastmasters? I’ve talked about this before. It is a voluntary club where people practice public speaking in front of other people for fun on a regular basis. Now, I know that combination doesn’t make sense. It seems like most people’s worst nightmares. It’s like why the hell would I go to do public speaking voluntarily and not at gunpoint or not because I’m required to for school or class or work, and I would do that with other people and might see that as fun?

But I’ll tell you Toastmasters, every club I’ve ever been to, every meeting I’ve ever been to, everybody is super supportive, everyone is so nice. They’re all there with the same goal, which is to improve confidence, public speaking, effectiveness, and really communication. It’s all about communication.

And that’s why a lot of people I tell go to Toastmasters. I suggest that to everybody, literally everybody I can, especially if you’re in a sales role management role, a training role. Because what most people don’t put together as they think Toastmasters or public speaking is all about giving speeches, and doing presentations but it’s not, it’s about communication.

There’s so many things that you learn about how to communicate effectively, how to put together your thoughts into statements, into presentations. And when you step back, and you look at a sales career, you’re doing presentations and public speaking every single time you talk to that prospect. Even if it doesn’t feel like it, even if you’re not sitting there with three by five cards, with your topic in front of you and you’re doing a presentation, you’re standing up in front of the group.

Maybe it’s just you over the phone with that prospect. But you have a process, you have a script, you have a goal, you have a journey of where you want them to go from here to there. It’s same thing as it would be in a presentation, same thing with a movie or a play; your goal is to go from here to that point. Toastmasters is huge, it will also build a lot of confidence.

When you go there and you feel the support and love from a group that’s helping you communicate better, and speak in public and are there for you and giving you feedback that says we’re open and willing. Because they’re going to give you some feedback. At first, they’re going to be nice and as you go more and more, they’re going to get a little more in depth.

They’re going to tell you all the little things that you do wrong, all the things that are keeping you from being a better communicator, all the strategies and tips you could use and things that you could be doing to help out. They want you to be successful. And it’s amazing how much that will help your confidence in life in general, but then also in sales. Because you now feel like hey, I can communicate, I’ve got the skills, I know what I can do, I know what it’s like.

And fundamentally, I’ll tell you, most people’s worst fear in life is not death, it’s public speaking. And when you go to something like Toastmasters or any club or have any opportunity to do public speaking, and you conquer that and you get past that, which most people would rather die than do, that gives you this confidence that will then translate into so many different things.

So that’s my suggestion. Always, if you want to build confidence, you want to build effectiveness. If you’re a sales manager, if you’re a sales trainer, all of that is presentations, all of that is communication and all of that can be benefited by going to Toastmasters or a club like that or having opportunities to speak; recording yourself listening to it. Even though that’s painful and no one likes to hear themselves speak, or watching yourself on video and then just learning how to be more effective.

Well, that’s it for this episode. I got through two questions today so that’s pretty amazing. Make sure again to subscribe rate review, let me know any comments, any questions you have. I love to hear people’s input their feedback.

And if you have any suggestions for future topics, not just questions, but themes for different weeks or something that you want to hear about or that you think would be interesting for you or your organization to share, make sure to send me a message you can do it through the CutterConsultingGroup.com website. You can do it through LinkedIn, just hit me up. Let me know your thoughts because if it’s something you’re looking to hear more about, I’m sure other people would find value from it as well. And until next time, always remember that everything in life is sales and people will remember the experience you gave them