And we are streaming live. And I think we are good. My dear Christine Harrington, joining us on the selling with dignity, sales made easy live event, live podcast. Christine, welcome to the show. What's the good word?
Hi, Harry. Thank you so much for having me back
to
talk about my favorite subject.
All right. Well, I love this subject. And. You know, and we think we'll see if this is actually streaming to the group because I've got the pop ups coming up from stream yard. But such as life. We're going to, we're going to keep going here because we've got other folks that are seeing this.
So the whole challenge, I mean, many, there are many, many challenges with making calls and we cannot have this conversation enough because people are not making calls consistently enough generally to be any good at it. So it might be good for a couple of hours, but then, you know, weeks can go by and then they're, they're facing the same stage fright again. So. The things that I think about that are pretty common work for people is we number one.
We have the stage fright right where we're we just don't do it enough to feel like we're any good at it. So we talk ourselves out of it that way. There's also the feeling of I'm interrupting the person and I can't see the person's face. So there's a lot of, yeah. Uncertainty there and then there's just the overall fear of being turned down and none of us like to be turned down. We don't like to hear the word. No. So we got that going on.
So there's all kinds of things going on in our mind, the least of which is the, the chances that something good may happen. So that's kind of what I wanted to talk about today is how we can get past the negative and start doing stuff that's on the call side. That's actually good for our business. So I know you have a ton of experience, Christine, you and I have spoken before on podcasts. And I just love the way that you approach the whole topic. So am I missing anything here on this?
I don't think so. Let's first start with distinguishing what a lead in a prospect is. Okay. Yeah. Over the years, that term has been used interchangeably. You know, people refer to prospects as leads, leads as prospects, but there is a clear definition. Between the two, a lead is a person that is coming through a website or calling the company to get more information. They're, they're coming through a process, to learn more.
Maybe they're just kicking the tires, maybe they're doing price comparison, but that's what a lead is. They're coming into a system. So now they're a lead. Okay. Which is handed off to the sales team to handle a prospect is different. A prospect is someone, let me go back, a lead knows you, they've gone through your website. They have a brief idea of who you are. A prospect is totally different. They've never heard of you. They've never heard of your company.
They don't know anything about you and they may not have a need. So let's make those 2 distinctions a prospect. Those are the people. That you're going to cold call. All right. You've developed a list of prospects that are in your niche market. Maybe your marketing team has done it and handed you off a team. Maybe you're a new employee and they've handed you a book of business and you have this group of prospects that for one reason or another.
Either just dropped off the radar or were never contacted. So those are prospects. They also, you know, are people that just don't know anything about you. So the two approaches are entirely different. The lead is a warm call, but a prospect is an absolute cold call.
Oh, this is, that clarification is so good. So what I'm hearing you say, Lead a lead knows us, right? So it's not a complete cold outreach, whereas a prospect doesn't know us. So I like that differentiation there, because like you mentioned, people interchange the two and we're missing out necessarily on how we going forward in our conversation today is there is a difference in making calls to the different parties.
Yes. And as a result of interchanging those words, salespeople have a tendency to treat leads and prospects exactly the same and they're not, they have entirely two different sales journeys.
Okay. And
I did a video about this. I think it was Tuesday on a live, just so your audience knows I do free training every Tuesday and Thursday evening. At 8 p. m. or 7 p. m. Eastern Daylight Time free training, it's usually about 20 to 30 minutes and like you, Harry I'm all about helping sales people, every way that I can basically because I didn't have any help back in the day when I was selling.
So, that's I did a podcast about this and, and Harry, sometimes people get in this habit to of, well, that last sale worked. So I'll use this on the next prospect. And there could be two entirely different situations. So you have to analyze each lead, each prospect. On its own merits and not treat them all the same.
Yeah. So good. And I know that you have this giving spirit. And one of the things that we want to do is give great volume right now. So I'm getting messages that we're having a hard time hearing you. I hear you perfectly, Christine. So in the settings, there StreamYard. I don't know if that's me. If this is a Facebook thing or not, I don't see where I can adjust it in Facebook, but I just turned up my volume. And maybe I'll get a text from someone in the group if if it changes anything.
Not the end of the world because I hear it perfectly and it's probably streaming fine to other places. But like you, what I love about what you do is that you're, you're giving and you're sharing all of this value. So people can tune in and you and I are doing very similar things. It's like our mission to make the world better and sales to drive the success of small businesses.
And which also ties into the success of their, you know, for their employees, their families, you know, it drives the economy. So there's a lot of good things that come out of this. So, so let's where do we start with this? Do you feel like 1 of the things I think about generally? Is to have some kind of script, even though we don't want to sound scripted, but even, I mean, not that I'm an expert like you cause this is what you do day in and day out.
But before I make an important call and a call to a person that is a potential buyer to me, it's an important call. I want to know what I'm going to say. I don't want to just wing it, even though I've winged it in the past. Those calls are not really good, right? So i've learned that you want to be better on the call So a script comes to mind for me. What about you?
Yes, I believe In using scripts is my volume better everyone. I absolutely believe in using scripts and As a result of that I also believe in practicing the script so many times That it becomes a natural for you to just say the script and practice, practice, practice. There's on this little phone right here, there is an app called a voice memo. Use that app and and that's the app I use to practice. So I'll practice my call opening.
And I'll play it back so that I can hear how the prospect will hear me. Now I practice 20, at least 20 times before I actually make that first call. Why do I do that? Well, I don't know any professional athlete that ever walks out onto a football. Field or whatever field he's playing on and just starts playing cold. I don't know anyone that does that. Professionals do the work and the work is you have to practice. And so you're warming up your voice.
You're warming up how you're going to present yourself over the phone. You're listening to different nuances in your tone. So I cannot encourage people enough. I have been teaching this. For a lot, well, 10 years, I've been teaching this and it was something that, you know, back in the day before the iPhones, I practiced with coworkers, you know, I wanted them to give me feedback.
Well, with the invention of the iPhone, now I use the app and you will absolutely be shocked when you hear yourself and you play it back and you're going, Oh, wow.
Oh my goodness. You're bringing back memories, but this, again, most business owners miss out on this. So like you, I used to work in a sales organization and before our outbound calling blocks. We would role play, we'd all get in a conference room and we'd go around the room and we would get the bugs out of the system, so to speak, and we would raise, you know, the objections that people would say, like, I'm busy or I already have somebody, all the things that were common back then.
And this is kind of what we did. And so that it would just get our gear brains in gear. So there's huge advantages that people who are doing this every day, it just gets to be more comfortable. But I think one of the things that you struck a chord with, especially with me on this, is this practice is that you get to slow it down because we are so rushed. And we're feeling like it's such an abnormal call. It's nothing like us having a conversation.
It would be Christine Harry's fake calling reason for my call. I know you're really busy. I just wanted to touch base with you and see where we stand because I sent you a proposal last week and it's like we want to get it out before the person says no. Now we would never have a conversation like that face to face but on the phone because sometimes we can't see the person we just want to blurt everything out in one breath. And that just messes up things even more. So I love what you're saying.
What's, what's your thought on my silliness there?
Well, that's exactly right, Harry. I have heard that on calls before. It's like they're off and running. And and as you said, You need to slow it down. You know, your call opener is your most important asset on any kind of call, whether it's a cold call, whether it's a followup call, warm call, that's your number one asset because you have four seconds in order to gain their attention. And I have seen, Oh my gosh, there's this trend going around. And I do not recommend it.
It's called tactical tone. So Harry, it would sound something like this. Hey, Harry, I bet you get, I bet she never would guess that I'd be calling today. It's a Friday afternoon. Wow. Yeah. Oh yeah. Yeah. So people are thinking this is the next. Best thing to slice bread.
Okay.
What you're doing is you're making fun of the process.
Okay.
And I would hang up immediately if someone did that to me. I am not interested in silliness. So your call opener, you know, first of all, eliminate the word, Hey, it's not Hey, Harry.
Yep.
It's Hello, Harry or Hi, Harry. I always recommend that you caution on the side of being professional. You want to be professional in your words and friendly in your tone. So it could sound something like this. Hi, Harry, this is Christine with ABC technologies. We help businesses like yours, secure their cybersecurity in a more complete fashion. Harry, are you still over IT?
Yes. Yes.
Okay. So that was just off the cuff.
Yep.
If I was going to pitch my services, I would say, hi, Harry, this is Christine with the Savvy Sales Lady Coaching Firm. We help businesses like yours, increase their cold and email outreach through sales, through training and coaching. Are you still involved in the training process with your company?
I am.
Okay. So, you know, that is short and complete. Well, you tell me how did it sound?
Yeah, it sounded very natural. Like you've done this before. It's clear. I like how you're addressing people. I know I do the hey. thing quite a bit. And I used to think the same and I said, same thing as you. So I, I do agree with you on the professionality, if that's a word, professionalism of using hi or hello and just being relaxed. So the good stuff there, and then you're giving clarity as to, you know, you're asking if I'm in the right place, what's the benefit of asking that question?
That comes to mind for you.
It could be any question frankly, so let me break down the call opening sequence. Okay so your first sequence is Addressing the prospect by their name because everyone loves to hear their name All right. So hi harry. The next part is to be completely Transparent i'm with I'm Christine Harrington with the Savvy Saleslady Coaching Firm. So they have a clear understanding that you're being transparent. Okay, why is this important? Because you want to establish trust.
If you're trying to do these little gamey salesy phone calls, you're not going to inspire trust at all. So then the next sequence is tell them what it is that you're doing. What, why are you calling? It's not, I can help you. Increase your, your, your sales by 30%. That's not what you're doing. That's selling. So you say I help businesses like yours, increase their, sales through a cold email and cold calling training. Okay. So you're just giving them an overview of what your company does.
And then you ask a closed ended question.
Okay. Closed ended. All right. Closed
ended. Why now we've all been taught to, to ask open ended questions, right? Okay. You've interrupted their day. Remember this is a prospect. They do not know you. They don't know anything about you. They did not expect your call. So they're busy working. You've called, you've interrupted their day. So ask them a simple question to get the conversation open opening up. Okay. So if you said, yeah yes, I am involved in the training, but I'm just getting ready to leave for a meeting.
Okay. That is a way to get off the phone. So they don't have to talk to you any longer. All right. I have the perfect response, no matter what they say. If they say they're not interested. No, I'm good. Not interested. It doesn't matter what it is. They say, you can always say, and it's very respectful to do this. Either that's good to know, and then ask another question immediately. That's good to know. Harry, have you used a sales coach in the past?
Excellent. Yeah. I love
it. Yeah. Okay. Or thanks for letting me know, Harry, I understand you're about ready to leave for lunch real quick. Have you ever used a sales coach before?
Okay no, I haven't.
All right. Well, can you give me briefly why you've never done coaching for your sales team?
Yeah, so you, so I see what you're doing. So you're asking a follow up question here. So the first question, you're going with a closed ended. I'm trying to get off the phone by saying, I'm preparing for a meeting. You're coming back now and asking another question.
Correct.
Right. Now, some might feel that this is, I'm being too pushy when I do this because they said they're going to a meeting. But I, I'm in agreement here because I like to hear like that first no for me or that first whatever we want to call that, right, where they're trying to get rid of it. First excuse. It is sort of like going into a store. And the clerk saying, hi, can I help you today? And we come back with no, I'm just looking, right? That's automatic for us.
So, that doesn't mean we're not going to buy and it doesn't mean that the clerk is should go away. You can still ask a follow up question and this is kind of what you're doing here is like you're acknowledging the first thing, but you're still going to ask a follow up question because that just may be an automated response. That's exactly
right. It's their brain goes. Oh, I'm going to a meeting. Yeah, right. Right. Right, and chances are they don't have a meeting. Sometimes it's legitimate and you'll know that during the course of the conversation, but you want to redirect their attention away from what they're doing now to talking to you to have a conversation with you and so be respectful and say, you know, thank you for letting me know. And this is where. Sales reps get tripped up.
What they do is they pause and you can't do that. They'll go, something like that's good to know. And then they pause and then the person will, you know, immediately go, well, see you. Right. Yeah, you've got to make it one Stream. Thank you for letting me know real quick. Harry. Have you ever used a sales coach in the past?
Nice. Yeah, so so good and because that that like you mentioned that pause You're now telling the potential buyer, the prospect, you're saying, I'm going to give you permission to leave by pausing. When you pause, just think I'm giving you permission to leave because they're going to think of, and it's nothing against you. And it doesn't tell you if they're interested or not. And so your call at that point is not being productive.
You want, if you're going to make the dial, you want the call to be productive. You do not want to get off the phone and say, Is this person a candidate or not? I still don't know.
Right. So
having some knowledge. So that's why when you pause and you're waiting for them to say, well, I really got to go, or I'm really busy or whatever. Now they have permission by your pause. They're going to start thinking on their feet. You keeping them engaged like you're doing is you're thanking that and then coming right back with a question. Now you're going to at least be able to determine more if this person is worth having additional conversations with. Am I right there?
Is that what you're thinking?
Exactly right. And here is a rule of thumb, everyone. Statement, then question. Okay, statement, then question that way. So if, if you were to say to me. Well, we've really not had a need to hire in a coach. That's why we haven't worked for coaches in the past. Our team is, is doing really well in sales. And so I'm going to do a statement than a coach. Well, that's really good to know, Harry, that your team is doing so well.
Sometimes though, it's not always about a need, but a want, you know, maybe your sales team wants Thanks. More sales training, maybe higher level sales training. Maybe they want inspiration and a new perspective to think about selling. There's a whole gamut of reasons that could occur. Have you asked your sales team what they want?
Okay, great. Nice followup. So it sounds to me based on this question. You've come across this excuse before, like we're running smooth. And then you got off the phone and say, this is where we have to think a little bit, because we want to be better on the next call, you might've said the next time I hear that, because there are salespeople out there that want motivation, want inspiration, they want to hear fresh ideas. This is what you offer.
And yet the person, so your first attempt is, well, maybe they need sales coaching, but part of that sales coaching, they might be thinking is only, sales improvement, but that whole inspiration and motivation, fresh ideas, this is what. Keeps sales exciting for the salespeople, right? Is that kind of how that evolved?
Yes. Yes. And it evolved from a workshop that I did. Oh gosh,
no,
2018, 2019. And I went, aha. And one of the people in the audience said, oh my gosh. She turned to her boss and she said, oh my gosh, we have got to have more of this.
And
it was, it was a training on mindset. So I went, okay, here, here is the, I've been focused on needs. I should be focusing on wants. What is the sales team want? Right. And then I started offering when, when they weren't sure if they would want to do it or not. I would say. You know, I'll tell you what, why don't I do this for you? So it's not taking up your time. Why don't I survey your team and find out what it is.
They want to learn what it is that they want to be, have a new perspective on selling. Let me do that survey for you. And I'll come back with the results. And and, you know, every time I would come back, well, not every time, I think maybe once or twice, they would come back and they would book a workshop and then a series of coaching for their team because they didn't think about, well, what does the team want?
All right. Yeah, I love it. And I just got a little bit distracted here. Just making sure the sound and everything is good, but you're this is where the adjustments need to happen, right? When you're making these types of calls. You have to learn from them. Otherwise, you're missing out on potential opportunities. It could be such a nuanced thing that someone with skills and is doing this day in and day out. It's going to pick up on.
But if we're doing it periodically, we might be in robot mode and not necessarily thinking, but this is where you have to start writing down what people are saying and kind of look at your notes. And I'm hearing, I'm not interested. I'm not interested. I'm not interested or whatever, right? Whatever the topic is. And, you know, sometimes you could tie that in to the conversation right where, you know, where you kind of raise a concern. That people have and you can tie that in.
I know there's a lot of people today that are making calls that are asking for 30 seconds or 60 seconds to see if this is even a potential fit. What's, do you know what I'm talking about here? I do.
I do. I'm not
saying right or wrong. I'm just curious as to what your feeling is.
Let me answer, or let me say this first on the needs versus wants. That's just reframing the objection.
Okay.
Okay. That's all that is that will work for any industry, any product or service you sell. So think that through about your own product or service. Okay. So, I, I am a person that doesn't believe in these one minute, two minute conversations. I think if you want to develop rapport and trust with a, with a prospect or a lead, you got to have more than, a few minute conversations. You know, if, if that's all you're going to do, you can send a survey. And hopefully they'll answer.
But here's my biggest emphasis on co calling. The, the co call isn't designed to sell. It's only designed to set the appointment for the sales conversation. And that's where a lot of people get derailed. They're pushing and pushing and pushing on the cold call to try to sell their product and service. I would never buy on the first call, you know,
a higher ticket item. What about when the prospect, right? Potential buyer says, well, what is this all about?
Yeah.
And then they ask, and then they go into, so how do you do that? Right. So the first question might be harmless, but it's that second question where I've heard salespeople start going into it's like, you know, 20 minutes later, they're still on the phone talking about all way too, in my opinion, way too much. What's, but what's your thought?
So, if, if you're not asking the right questions during the cold call, That question could come up. What is this all about? Okay. So, you've got to make sure you're asking the right questions, but if they do say to you and start asking you questions, well, what do you mean that you can secure, or you, you have more security for our cybersecurity team? What do you mean by that? I would say back to that person. Well, we could do this 1 or 2 ways. And I'm happy to answer this question in detail.
I don't know if this is the right time for you. If you have 20 minutes, I can go through it now, or we could book a time in the near future where you know, I can absolutely go through the whole process with you. I just want to be respectful of your time. And if they say no, I've got time, then I'll, I'll, you know, give them the information.
Okay. But that include questions as well. Would you kind of, kind of reframe, restage the place and just say, okay, now I'm going to ask some questions and I'm not just going to speak. That's right. And get full engagement. Okay.
You are still doing the statement question, statement question. Well, we first start out out by doing X, Y, Z. Is that something you do currently? And then you could go to once we have done X, Y, and Z, the next stage is. ABC. Is this something your system can do? So, you know, you're, you're leading them through the process.
Love it. All right. So now switching gears a little bit. This is a situation where we've spoken to somebody in the past. They showed interest. We're emailing, not getting any response. And I think let's, it's, it's a good time to make a call. What do we do in this type of call? Do we just pick up where, like say, say it's been weeks since we spoke to the person and I just did a video on this today. It's like. We think they've been thinking about us for the entire time.
And when they see us, they're like, I know exactly why you're calling. So what is really what's your thought on this? So it's been weeks since we spoke to the person. We haven't really gotten them. Now we want to call and just kind of see how we can get them re engaged and get back in the process would be my thinking. What's, what's yours?
Well, a couple of, couple of Nuggets here first, never get off the phone unless, until you've set the next appointment, so you should always do the next step before you end that call. All right. So let's say you set the appointment. And you go and and do the appointment and the prospect doesn't show up, whether he's not in his office, or he's not responding to your call, whatever, I would immediately send an email and, you know, and I apologize and say, I, I must have gotten the time mixed up.
I blame it on myself, right? And and then what is typical is most salespeople think they're not interested. So I'm just not going to contact them anymore, especially if they don't respond to the email. So it's been 10 weeks. You pick up the phone and chances are, I'm going to get your voicemail. Okay. So I'm going to say, hi, Harry, this is Christine Harrington with the savvy sales lady. I really owe you an apology. It's been over 10 weeks since I've last contacted you.
If you would please give me a call at. Blah, blah, blah. And then I'll say if I don't hear back from you right away, I understand you're busy. I'll give you a call tomorrow. Okay. So here's typically what sales people say. Well, nobody listens to their voicemail anymore.
Number one,
right? Yeah. Well, all voicemail systems and our smartphones now have Voice to text for a voicemail, so they may not listen to it, but they can certainly read it, which is why you want to make sure that you're articulate over the phone and that it's a short, sweet message. It's under 20 seconds. So that's the 1st thing you're going to do. So let's play this whole scenario out. You don't hear back.
Yeah, then you call back the next day and you leave another voice message a similar voice message Then you send an email Okay, and maybe you reach out you know five to ten times more which isn't typical for sales reps as we know
Yeah, right five to ten times sounds like a heck of a lot but The reality is people, it takes somewhere in the neighborhood. I've heard numbers up to like 18 and more, right? The number of times we need to touch, reach out and touch somebody before they respond.
That's right. That's right. Yeah. And because. If you don't book that initial appointment, within 48 hours, you are now no longer a priority to that prospect.
Okay.
Every hour that ticks by, you become more and more and more in the distance, not because they're not interested. It's because everyone has busy lives. That's why, and you're not the only person trying to sell to them.
Amen.
So I, I always do a final email. All right. So let's say it's, this has gone on for now two or three months and there's been. Absolutely no response. Now, I'm not going to say this happens every time, Harry, but it happens enough times that I continue to use it and teach it.
Okay.
And that is, I sent a final email. Reps never do that. Alright. They never say, well, I guess we broke up. I would never say that by the way, in an email, but you would, you would simply send an email and say, hi, Harry. It seems like you have been incredibly busy over the last 3 to 4 months. I don't want to. Be a pest. So this will be my final email. Now, in case you've been meaning to reach out to me, here are the ways that we can connect.
I do hope that we are able to connect and then sincerely, Christine Harrington. So what will what has happened to me in the past is I've had people either immediately. Email me back and say, I am so sorry, Christine, you're right. I should have reached out or I've had them call me. One man called me while he was getting on a plane and said, Christine, I am so sorry if you will call me Sunday at seven o'clock, I'll be available. To talk. And I said, no problem.
I'll give you a call seven o'clock Sunday morning. I gave him a call and we had about a 45 minute conversation. Plus it was relaxed because it was a Sunday.
Yeah. So good. I mean, the even if that works 5 percent of the time, right. One out of every 20, right. It's it's 5 percent more than you would get if you just let it go.
Well, I think it's common courtesy. You know, it's just common courtesy to let them know that, you know you don't want to continue to chase them and you are going, you know, this will be the final email and real quick, Harry, there's a, An absolute trend going around, which I do not recommend. I've received them myself. And that is, why haven't you responded to me?
Oh my God. I sent
you an email on Monday. I haven't heard back. Why not do not do that now you want to align with the prospect. Don't, don't give them guilt and shame. Good grief.
Yeah, I mean, it's, it is crazy. I've looked at it is. I mean, again, not everyone's going to buy, even though they might say, and I love what you said is like, you're telling me the reality. People do set meetings in the calendar. You can do everything right. Doesn't mean they're going to show up a hundred percent of the time, right? So get over that part and then welcome to the world of selling.
If
you give up after two calls and say, well, I called them twice. I'll let them call me back. Fine. That's the way you be. If that's the way you can be, that's your choice. But for many of us who've been doing this for a long time, 15, 20 calls later, they pick up and then we have a great conversation. That's okay. That's the world in which we live in, in sales. So for those who are not used to this.
I understand that this is a big change of thinking, but it's reality in the corporate world, especially when businesses are, they think salespeople are always going to be there. They think we're like a store so that I can call Harry whenever he'll be ready. When I'm ready, I'm not, I'm going to ignore every one of his emails and every one of his calls. And eventually the person picks up. And it just this is the way it is, folks. So I wouldn't say get discouraged.
I mean, we're trying to show here that this is reality and that sometimes it does take 15 or 20 or more outreach calls or emails. Before the person comes around. And so when you like for Christine, like when you do the we're going to call this the breakup email, but does that mean they're gone for good? Do they read their, okay. What's your thought?
Yeah, no, no, they're not gone for good. What you're going to do is maybe kick them out six months and try again. You know just to give you all some encouragement. I contacted a prospect a hundred times over a course of a year. Yeah. And, and, and I sold them. I have had VPs of sales tell me, can you teach my team to be as persistent as you are in followup? And I also have a short story to tell you this producer of a network, those people are like dogs with a hungry dogs with a bone.
He contacted. This particular person that he was trying to get on as a guest for two years straight, he would email and call every other week for two years straight and finally got him on. I have had when, you know, people that I've called, businesses over and over again. I've gotten there's their gatekeepers have become friends so friendly with me that they'll say I'll tell I'll give you a text message the minute he walks into his office.
Yeah, that's great. Yeah, because they feel bad for you, right? You're getting sympathy from people who are normally trying to keep you away. That's a really good sign.
Yeah, and you want to make the gatekeepers your friends, you know,
exactly. They're doing a job and their job is, is to keep whoever they're protecting, right? I mean, if there's an executive assistant and you're not getting to the executive, there's a reason for that. They cannot take. Every call from every salesperson, so they have to wean them through or whatever the process is, but go very, you know, they have to figure out where the value is going to come from who is worthy of having a conversation.
Someone that's stuttering, stammering and unsure or gives up after a couple of calls. That's that's that's all part of the process, right? It's the 1 that stays persistent. Has a good message that eventually the person says, you know what you earn the right and they put you through
and you you've got to have confidence in your voice. You can't call and it's like, hey hi, Harry. This is Sally with ABC technologies. I mean, you can't do that. You've got to be. Hi, Harry, this is Christine Harrington with the savvy sales lady firm. You have to exert confidence in your voice and make sure it's friendly.
All right. I got one more question that just came to mind. What about, can you help me? I was looking for some help where you kind of introduced this. I see going around quite a bit. I
use that with, so if I'm calling into a main switchboard of a company that dated me, didn't it? Main switch.
Unfortunately, I knew what you're talking about. Then I realized I dated me as well.
Yeah. So when you're calling into a main corporate phone number and you get the receptionist, That's the person I'll ask. Hey this is an, and they'll say who they are ABC technologies. Can I help you? This is Christine with a savvy sales lady coaching firm. I need your help real quick. Is the sales manager still John Smith? And they'll look and they'll go, well, we've got several sales managers. Who do you want? Specifically.
And I said, well, would you mind giving me the names of the people that I, you know, that are the sales managers? So that's the person I asked for help.
Gotcha. I want to go
into that call. I want to go into that call. With the person I want to do business with knowing he's the right person. I'm not going to ask him for help. He wants my help.
And I guess I'm going to ask, what about researching a little bit? That person before you make the call.
Yeah, I'm a big believer of doing your homework before you make that call. So here's where I'm different. Harry from a lot of people. I'm not trying to pound out 100 calls. In an hour. So when I cold call, which is every single week, cause I don't want to get out of practice. You should have it in your schedule to cold call daily. But I will cold call maybe 25 to 30 people in a two hour segment. Because I don't want to sound rush.
I want to, and I know there are some companies that don't give their sales teams. The luxury of doing that, that they're measured by how many calls they are making every hour. And that's sad, in my opinion.
Yeah.
I do not agree with that. But
correct.
Correct. Yeah. I believe in slowing down and only doing 25 to 30 calls in a two hour period.
100 percent with you. It's funny. I used to say 15 hours, 15 dials an hour. So if you're doing that, you're, you're in a good spot because not every call is rushed. It's not like you're just trying to get through a call to hit a number,
right?
Right. Cause you lose sight of that is that now if I have to do 50 dials and an hour, well, I got to get through and these people, I can't really tell if they're interested or not, but I got to hit my dial number. So I'm moving on.
Yeah. Yeah.
Without necessarily really realizing it without awareness.
So my sequence is co call. And this is in, excuse me, the handbook that I'm giving away for free on how I sold 26 deals in 9 days. Now, this is not, unusual for me. Normally, when I'm co calling for small businesses, I'll do 20 a month. So what I do is I set up 26 appointments for this one spa business, which I have a testimonial on it and they closed every one of them. So I set the appointment up. With my coaching, they closed every one of them.
And I went on to sell about 41 and they didn't have enough staff to keep up with it. So my sequences, which is in that free giveaway. And I give you my scripts and I give you everything in there, how I did that. It is, co call follow up with, email strategy. And then I worked that whole thing out to the final email. So you'll get that in that handout.
Okay. And that's not the link that's in the,
yes, in the chat box, but I think it shows. Private chat, Harry, so you may have to post it.
Yeah, okay. Yeah, so it'll be in the show notes and we'll put it on the post. In Facebook and I'll make sure we get it here. So I'm going to do that right now. But yeah, this is so good, Christine. Any final thoughts for our audience in here about, you know, doing making calls, anything that you want to end up with here.
Yeah, sure. Thank you. Harry. Most of the time, people are reluctant. To make these types of calls because they don't want to sound unprofessional. They don't want to get on that call and just goof it up and sound unprofessional. We've all left the voice messages that we wanted to delete, right?
Yeah.
So that's why using a script until it becomes a part of you. And that's why practicing so much is essential. If you, if, if you see yourself as a professional and a lot of sales reps don't sadly, they don't see themselves as a professional. They're not getting paid, you know, 50 million dollars a year to play a game. They don't see themselves on the same level. But you are on the same level. You're just in a different industry.
So good. Yeah. The being a professional, and I think for business owners, you want to start viewing yourself if you're not in the same category. It's, you may not be making the calls, but this is a skill set that is going, your business may completely depend on the success of your selling.
Well,
right. You got yeah.
So is solarpreneurs and freelancers.
Yep,
you know just because you throw up a website doesn't mean they're gonna come
exactly. Yes, great stuff Christine where can people find more of you? Thank you for the handout the we're gonna download that I'm gonna it's in the comments on facebook, but i'll make sure it's in the show notes people want to work with you. How do they do that where they find you?
Okay, I thank you harry I am most active on youtube X and LinkedIn and on my LinkedIn profile, you can subscribe to my newsletter focus drop that comes out once a week on Tuesdays, all packed full of. Tips and strategies. I do not bombard your inbox with emails every single day. You get one a week. Initially, when you sign up, you'll get a welcome and then you'll get, to confirm your subscription.
But overall, I do coaching for the very beginning, sales teams the rookie salesperson on up to the seasoned salesperson, you would be surprised how many people that are seasoned sales professionals that come to me because everybody needs a fresh perspective. So even, even as old dogs, right? Here, I'm
telling you, I learned a lot from this. So yeah, absolutely.
So anything, the savvy sales lady, you can look that up and I'm everywhere. And my website is Christine Harrington. com.
All right. Well, thank you so much. This has been awesome. Tons of value, Christine. Thank you for taking your time out of your day and helping this group. And hopefully we all get better, but you guys have a star. Coach right here in Christine Harrington. So look her up, download her guide. And yeah, I really, really appreciate what you're doing. Great stuff.
Thank you, Harry, for having me on. It's really a pleasure to be on with you. You're one of my favorites.
Awesome. All right. The check is in the mail for you and we'll get on the switchboard after and chat some more.