Peady’s Selling Engagement sponsored by IRD Prospector
Welcome to this week’s post on sales and selling success.
So, is the phone really dead for media sales people?
Here’s what well known sales improvement consultant, Tony J Hughes thinks: “It’s actually more critical than ever to use the phone at every stage of the sales funnel – call reluctance is a pandemic!”
My take?
It seems to me that whenever I work with younger sales people there’s a clear avoidance for using the phone to prospect, make appointments or follow up on meetings. The default seems to be social media for prospecting (LinkedIn particularly) and then email or text for appointment setting and follow up. The explanation is “my clients/prospects are too busy to talk on the phone” however I suspect the real explanation is a fear of personal rejection.
“No!” is a tough thing to be told.
Too many salespeople simply fail to bring the channels together. Whether it be a mentality of only selling via “new” strategies that primarily embrace social media and email and a desire to avoid the “old way” and solely using the telephone or fear. This strategy will only do one thing – damage your ability to close more sales.
Isn’t it time we bring social media, emails, texting and the telephone together?
All four are hugely valuable sales tools but the goal is simple – use them in combination to warrant and secure a face-to-face conversation.
Social media, emails and texts are all a means to an end; it is not an end to the selling process, as some salespeople believe it to be.
Check this out
Let me finish by referring you to a terrific post I recently uncovered on the power of using the telephone as a core sales skill. It was written by Marylou Tyler “7 Healthy Phone Habits To Get You More meetings”
Until next week good selling!
About the author
Stephen Pead is a media industry veteran of 30 years with significant experience in direct sales, sales management and general management. He is based in Sydney and specialises in helping SME’s market their businesses more effectively and providing training for salespeople and sales managers.
He can be contacted at [email protected]
