Calling Prospects Flashcards

1
Q

As a sales professional, calling prospects is a big part of your job. It’s important to lay some ground rules that will set you up for success:

A
  1. Begin with a greeting. Asking somehow “how’ve you been?” Is a warm greeting that implies you know the person. It’s a pattern and an unexpected intro that tends to lead to success on the call.
  2. Open all calls with clarity. State your first name and saying that you are calling from HubSpot.
  3. Ask open-ended questions. This allows for the dialogue to flow.
  4. Then PAUSE! It’s important to give space for the listener to think and respond.
  • It’s the quality, not the quantity of your connect calls that will have a drastic impact on your success.
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2
Q

After your introduction, immediately provide context on your reason for calling. This is where information you’ve gathered from sourcing comes into play.

A

Examples:
- Does LinkedIn show that they’re growing rapidly in one Department? (i.e. sales, marketing, support). You can ask about this and how’re they’re supporting the growth.

  • Did they take recent action on our site or download content that you can help provide information on?
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3
Q

Transition to Pain

A

You’ll ask questions and listen for details that clarify their role in the organization and identify their challenges.

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4
Q

Develop Pain

A

Develop Pain: Once you’ve identified their pain or challenge, you will work to develop it into a problem worth exploring in more detail.

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5
Q

Transition to next call

A

Transition to next call: once you’ve gathered the necessary information, it’s all about positioning the next meeting (The Discovery Call).

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6
Q

A connect call is likely to have 1 of the following outcomes:

A
  1. They did not answer, were not interested in talking, or asked you to call back.
  2. You ran the Connect Call and they do not seem like a good fit to enter the sales process.
  3. You ran the Connect Call and they are a strong fit and ready for a Discovery Call. Then run the Discovery Call.
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7
Q
  1. They did not answer, were not interested in talking, or asked you to call back.
A
  • They did not answer: This one is simple. In this case, you should make a task in portal 53 to call this person back.
  • Said they were not interested: make sure you leave a note on the company record about your conversation. Depending on their reason you may take one of the following actions. Place them back in your sourcing queue and begin nurturing them again OR recycle this lead back into your territory.
  • Asked to call you back: Create a task and mark your calendar with the right time to call a contact back.
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8
Q
  1. You ran the Connect Call and they do not seem like a good fit to enter the sales process.
A
  • If someone does not seem like a good fit, we want to follow up in a way that leaves the door open for a potential future relationship.
  • A quote you can use: “I will forward you along some resources that will help to answer some of the challenges we spoke about today. I would also encourage you to get Inbound Certified (for free at HubSpot academy) and download our free Marketing & Sales products to get started with generating more leads/increasing efficiency in your sales process”.
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9
Q
  1. You ran the Connect Call and they are a strong fit and ready for a Discovery Call. Then run the Discovery Call.
A
  • Send over a calendar invite with a Zoom for them with all relevant stakeholders.
  • Ensure there are good notes in 53 for the Discovery Call.
  • Make a deal in 53
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10
Q

Different Question Types

A
  • Open-ended
  • Closed-ended
  • Probing
  • Funneling
  • Leading
  • Reflective
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11
Q

Open-Ended

A
  • These questions elicit long answers and get the customer talking about their business. Open-ended questions are purposely vague, which encourages them to fill in the details.
  • What are your top priorities?
  • Where do you see your business in 12 months?
  • Would you tell me a bit about your business?
  • What steps have you already tried?
  • What are your goals?
  • What do you hope to achieve?
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12
Q

Close-ended

A
  • to confirm or agree on a piece of information. This type of question usually receives a single word or a concise, factual answer. We typically use close-ended questions when we already know the answer.
  • Is that a challenge?
  • Is that a priority?
  • Do you agree?
  • Do you want help with this challenge?
  • Which is more important, x or y?
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13
Q

Probing

A
  • To get our customer to share more, use probing questions. Like an iceberg, the bigger picture is usually beneath the surface, and probing questions help dig deeper and better SFTC.
  • What tools or softwares are you currently using to manage your sales and marketing efforts?
  • What are your main priorities when it comes to improving your sales and marketing performance?
  • What specific challenges are you facing in generating leads and converting them into customers?
  • When are you capturing data?
  • What are you encountering these specific challenges?
  • Would this be an issue for the whole company/team?
  • Would things run smoother if this was solved?
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14
Q

Funneling

A
  • the idea of funneling questions is to ask broad, very general questions at the beginning and continue to narrow the focus of questions with more specificity. The goal is to draw out and capture the customers actual wants, hopes, and needs.
  • What are your top priorities?
  • How does your website support these priorities?
  • How are you driving traffic to your website?
  • From the issues you have mentioned, what specifically would you like me to help you achieve today?
  • Have you experienced anything similar to this issue recently?
  • Is that a challenge?
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15
Q

Leading

A
  • to direct a conversation, use leading questions. The goal of these questions is to get the customer to move toward a specific objective and get the answer we are looking for.
  • Do you agree that having a CRM is essential for your business?
  • Getting leads is a challenge for you, right?
  • So we’re ready to move on to look at the next step, right?
  • Thats a good thing to do, isn’t it?
  • How soon do you want that?
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16
Q

Reflective

A
  • There are 2 kinds of reflective questions.
  • Confirmation: Questions that repeat back what the customer has said to confirm understanding of thoughts, emotions, or facts. We reflect back to the customer.
  • Prompting: Questions that promote the customer to reflect back on the conversation and expand on their thoughts. The customer reflects back on the conversation.
  • You think you’re not getting enough visitors because you haven’t invested in Google Ads, correct? (Confirmation)
  • Based on the information I’ve collected, it sounds like you want to achieve x, but you are unable to because of y, is that right? (Confirmation)
  • It sounds like you’re feeling frustrated. What’s making you feel that way? (Prompting)
  • What was the most useful thing you learned in this conversation? (Prompting)
17
Q

Be inclusive with words

A

Meaning instead of asking “How many leads are you getting per month?”. Ask “How many leads are you getting from marketing each month? Is that enough for your team to hit your targets?”

18
Q

Manage talk time

A
  • To keep the pace of a conversation going, lean into the 70:20:10 rule.
  • 70% of the time, we should be listening.
  • 20% of the time, we should be asking questions.
  • 10% of the time, we should be responding.
  • Remember the purpose of a conversation is to identify the customers needs and find the best ways to solve them. Allowing the customer to speak freely and share information about their business or challenge will help us get there.
19
Q

Be authentic

A
  • Avoid approaching question asking as a checklist. You might have questions you want to ask, but that does not mean we restrict ourselves to those questions.
  • It’s best to ask one question. Then…
  • Listen
  • Acknowledge
  • Discover
  • Identify a solution before moving on to the next question.
20
Q

The word “Why?”

A
  • the word “why” is remarkably powerful. Done right, asking 5-why’s can lead us to the root of any problem.
  • It’s possible to uncover the Why without using the actual word.
  • “Why is your business unable to achieve its goals?” could be “What are some roadblocks hindering your business from achieving its goals?”