Overcoming your fear of sales is a key goal for entrepreneurs, new business founders, and people transitioning to the sales field.
The only way to combat fear is through repetition – and in the context of sales, this equates to cold calls or emails.
According to Salesforce, 92% of all interactions with customers happen over a phone call. While an introductory email can warm up a lead ahead of time, avoiding calls and scheduled meetings is almost inevitable, yet it has to be approached professionally and respectfully to your prospect.
According to a survey led by HubSpot, there’s a dramatic disconnect between consumers’ needs and what sales reps tend to plan during the first call:
Over the past decade, I’ve had the unpleasant opportunity to hang up or click “spam” almost instantaneously in the presence of specific sales triggers. Here’s my top list of most impactful sales phrases and marketing words to avoid in your first interaction with customers.
1. Avoid Pushing for Calls Too Early in the Sales Process
I wrote an entire essay on 16 reasons why I don’t pick up my phone.
Again, finalizing a deal, discussing contracts, billing options, refund, SLAs, and all that requires a longer conversation (which is suitable for a meeting).
Request a call prematurely is intrusive in most industries.
Chances are, you’re pitching the product to a very busy decision-maker working demanding schedule anyway. Unless you can communicate the value proposition in the first pitch, the chances to directly push for a call are miniscule.
What’s more important is, even if the prospect has additional qualification questions, you’ve limited the opportunity to respond asynchronously unless a call is in order.
2. Avoid Weak or Apologetic Sales Openers
The stipulation that you bother your lead creates negative context.
Sales reps have to introduce a solution or enable consumers to learn more about a product or service they’ve already seen previously. An unnecessary apology ahead of time means that:
- You don’t see value in the conversation (but rather see it as creating friction)
- You realize that and yet still push forward
Avoid this approach and communicate directly.
3. Provide Relevant Information Upfront
Send the most important details in a structured, concise format straight to the initial outreach.
In practice, there are two alternative scenarios:
- The prospect will indeed be interested (and you should have sent the details already anyway)
- The prospect is not interested and won’t respond to your question anyway
Additionally, omitting essential information won’t convince prospective customers early on and you will be losing opportunities.
And during a outbound sales call, if you offer relevant information too quickly, odds are leads will agree only to disengage from the conversation and never read this email you have promised to send.
4. Avoid Leading With Budget Qualification
Even the most risk-conscious executives will generously pay as much as needed for products and solutions that streamline complex operations (saving tons of money) or drive customer acquisition in no time.
Budget allocation is loosely applied across the board. Sure, departments have their budgets, and certain initiatives are allotted based on previous experience and what worked so far.
But expecting to qualify a lead on budget allocation instead of communicating business value is the ineffective sales approach.
5. Avoid Withholding Critical Information Before Meetings
Two months ago, I got connected (a warm intro) to a business in the content marketing space I’m potentially interested in working with. After several emails back-and-forth, I was refused any details whatsoever (pricing, packages, even delivery workflows) unless we schedule a meeting.
Due to the COVID lockdown and schools being closed, I’m spending a lot more time at home and my scheduling availability is limited.
In the meantime, we’ve signed two other vendors who presented their offering immediately and work with us at the time.
I’m still interested in collaborating with this vendor as well, but making the process so restrictive simply does not make it any easier for me as a prospective client.
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6. Avoid Presumptive Brand Positioning
According to a Forbes overview, 78% of salespeople who use social media outsell their peers.
The ability to convert opportunities grows rapidly with a established brand presence, positive market reputation, and competitive pricing for the target audience.
Then again, the assumption that the product is so popular poses another question:
If the consumer is well-aware of your offer, why haven’t they moved forward yet?
It also sounds presumptuous more often than it helps. Referencing recognizable clients a short case study with a top brand or listing down some of the top customers is more effective in this case.
7. Avoid Poor Stakeholder Qualification
Asking this may actually work if you’re approaching an assistant, but hardly when you approach senior leadership.
My comprehensive guide on discovering the right key stakeholders covers some of the groundwork you need to put in. The worst mistake you can do is to contact the CEO directly without qualification.
CEOs are both highly occupied and the most common target for sales outreach. Especially founders, they often top the visibility rank while doing research:
- CEOs are the most prominent role in any PR or media campaign
- Odds are, you’ll find most interviews or podcasts with them
- It’s likely that hosting services or domain registrations are under their name
That’s why most email/phone research tools often include the CEO first and foremost, overloading them on a daily basis.
And instead of doing your own stakeholder research and finding the actual department that may be in charge (or a suitable assistant), executives will dismiss the outreach right away.
8. Avoid Generic Icebreakers in Initial Outreach
While originally designed as an generic opener, it’s a ineffective opener for an initial outreach.
First, it’s an actual question that would anticipate an answer and weaken the intended call-to-action.
Second, you wouldn’t care about a new contact. Newcomers are unfamiliar. “Things” are unknown. There’s no existing state you’re familiar with that you can compare with, nor a life situation that would have changed, or anything that justifies asking this early in your sales outreach email.
9. Avoid Premature Demo Requests
Similarly to #1, pushing for a demo early on can come off as premature.
A demo often takes 30-60 minutes and requires multiple stakeholders.
If you fail to engage the appropriate stakeholders, you’re creating operational inefficiencies. And if you demo for an assistant or a non-decision maker, there are several other steps you have to take to get closer to a qualified sales discussion (or probably do multiple demos for the same company).
Without answering the preliminary (first-level) initial qualification questions, a demo is unnecessary.
Even if your product is really engaging, just don’t apply excessive pressure for a demo right away. Coordinating a video meeting in a quiet environment with several people (especially decision-makers) is operationally difficult for a business.
10. Avoid Infomercial-Style Sales Language
“Hypothetical promotional language ALSO book straight to your website???”
“Hypothetical promotional language cancel right away, no questions asked???”
“Hypothetical promotional language invite 2 other members for free???”
Whatever you say that starts like this should have been conveyed early on in a clear and structured format.
Not like an overly promotional messaging, mind you.
If your sales communication includes anything you can hear in a advertising-style messaging or during a YouTube unboxing video, it’s likely ineffective.
Improving the Modern Sales Experience
HubSpot’s extensive study covered an integral question on how to make sales work:
How to improve the sales experience?
Aggressive sales representatives are among the most negative perception consumers have in mind before they engage in sales conversations. Instead, what prospects expect from a salesperson are:
- Understands customer needs (69% of all respondents)
- Provides contextual information (61%, “relevant” being the key)
- Responds efficiently information (51%)
- Provides a range of options even beyond the business offering (49%)
- Supports business outcomes of the business/project (45%)
- Details the way they can directly support business growth (37%)
Instead of recycling traditional sales approaches, realize that consumers in this era depend a lot more on digital information, reviews, testimonials, comparison sites, brand awareness, and a lot more. What’s usually not apparent is pricing – one of the reasons most startups strive to provide transparent pricing straight on their sites.
Even when customized plans are not trivial to sort out, make the most out of a sales pitch and help your prospect take the next step of the buyer journey.
