SALES IDEA: BEFORE MAKING THE CALL

Take the time to prepare to talk on the phone.  Know your prospect.   Review relevant notes you’ve taken in the past.  Check out LinkedIn or Facebook or other social media on which the person you are calling might have posted their latest activities or a change in the company that they work for.  Be prepared with a message if you get voice mail.  Here are some other ideas to make your call a quality relationship-builder:

1. If you have a history with the prospect or client, use that to your advantage. Like attracts  like.  Be confident and comfortable with the fact that you are known and that objectives and challenges of the person you call are roughly the same as your other contacts, policy owners, and clients. For example, many of our people may be looking for value and safety right now.  Use language that conveys empathy on those issues.
2. If you typically sell to certain to certain professions, get involved.  Joining professional and advocacy associations such as the local Estate Planning Council, the National Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors (NAIFA), or the National Association of Health Underwriters(NAHU), will show that you care about what they care about.    Subscribe to their newsletters and trade magazines.   Read their blog.  Offer to make presentations on topics of interest to the group.    
3. Be prepared to “talk shop” by knowing current industry issues, breaking news, and specific areas of interest.   Staying current with what’s going on in your prospect’s and client’s world is essential to establish and maintain credibility.  Add value to your conversation.  That means a lot.  In fact, it’s a lot more important than the number of capital letters after your name.
4. ASSUME NOTHING.   Don’t guess or pretend to know something that you have no knowledge about.  While your prospects may sound like they expect you to know everything, there is no way that you can.  Changes in financial services today are happening daily and keeping up is a sprint.  No one really expects you to know everything, but they do expect that you will find the answer and get back to them with dispatch.  
5. Always be prepared to do what you promise to do and that you  do it in the time frame that you promise to do it.  Know your calendar.  This is one of the most important things to do because you must maintain credibility, but you never know when a “fire” is going to start that you are going to have to put out.  Allow for that.  Use language that indicates that your prospect or client is extremely important to you, but be realistic in your promises of fulfillment.  “As soon as possible” is a good phrase to remember, but don’t wear it out.  If you’ve been late before getting back to a particular person begfore, acknowledge it, apologize, and make sure that doesn’t happen the next time.  If you’re swamped and have the ability to do so, delegate.  If not, be prepared to burn the midnight oil in order to keep your people happy and your prospects interested.  Call or email a status update.  At least they will know you are working on it and haven’t flaked out on them. 

Sure, you can text, email, and send cards, but there is no substitute for personal contact.  Preparing to make a quality contact via phone can be one of your most effective ways to communicate with the important people in your business life.