Tel-E Sales Tip of the Week
 

March 31, 2010

Published By Art Sobczak, Business By Phone Inc.
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This Week:
Smarten Up Your Prospecting Calls
With "Social Engineering"

Greetings!

One reason that most “cold" calls fail and result
in rejection is that sales reps start their pitch
the same way to everyone they speak with, sounding
like a talking junk mail piece.

A much better approach, one that stimulates interest,
attention, and engagement, and the basis for the Smart
Calling system, is to use personalized, customized
Smart information in your openings and voice mail,
coupled with an on-target value statement.

How? First, there is an entire wealth of information
online, found through search engines and social media
sites. The expert on this is Sam Richter, author of
"Take the Cold Out of Cold Calling." I encourage you
to go to his site, check out the free resources, and
get his book. He'll show you how to get info online
that you will not believe. http://www.TakeTheCold.com

The other way is by simply talking to people, other
than your decision maker. This is called “social
engineering."

The term “social engineering" has been most widely
used to describe unscrupulous behavior, such as
misrepresenting oneself and lying to manipulate
someone to provide sensitive information. However,
we use it positively and ethically to gather
intelligence for our Smart Calls™.

It can be done

-As a separate call before your first call to
your prospect; and,

-Every time you call your prospect.

I find this to be the most underutilized tool
available to salespeople-–and the one that has
the greatest possible payoff. All it requires
is that you take the time to do it, develop a
sense of curiosity, and cultivate some conversational
questioning techniques.

Completing all of these steps may indeed grant
you a revelation that many of us have had:

People are willing to give you amazing amounts
of quality information if you just ask them.

Kevin Mitnick was one of the most notorious
computer hackers in the world; and at the time
of his arrest in 1995, the most wanted computer
criminal in US history. After his release from
prison, he wrote the book "The Art of Deception
in which he shares precisely how he pulled off
many of his hacking jobs.

Mitnick claims that he compromised computers
solely by using passwords and codes that he gained by
social engineering; in other words, simply
talking to people. Now a speaker and security
consultant to corporations, Mitnick points out
that the weakest link in any security system is
the person holding the information. You just
need to ask for it.

The Social Engineering Process
Of course, we are using social engineering
in the positive sense: asking for information
from people that will help other people and
the organization as a whole. The social
engineering process for Smart Calling™ is
as follows.

Upon reaching a live voice, you:

1. Identify yourself and your company:
“Hi, I'm Jason Andrews with National Systems."

This immediately shows that you are not hiding
anything.

2. Ask for help. “I hope you can help me out"
or “I need some assistance." Most people have
an innate desire to be helpful to others in some way.

3. Use a Justification Statement. This is the key
that will unlock the most useful information. Some
examples are:

“I want to be sure that I'm talking to the right
person there…"

“I'm going to be speaking with your VP of Sales,
and want to be sure that I have accurate information…"

“So that I'm better prepared when I talk to your
CIO, I have a few questions you probably could answer…"

4. Ask questions. Of course you want to ask about
the basic, factual material for which you might not
have information yet. This depends both on what
you sell, and the level of person with whom you're
speaking. In general, the higher up you go, the better
the quality of information.

The theory behind the success of these Justification
Statements I suggest is discussed by Dr. Robert Cialdini--
widely considered as one of the foremost experts on
persuasion and influence — in his classic book (which
I believe should be in every serious salesperson's library)
entitled “Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion."

Cialdini cites an experiment conducted by Harvard social
psychologist Ellen Langer where students let others cut
in line in front of them at the copy machine simply
because they provided a reason for their request—
“because I'm in rush."

Direct mail copywriters also employ this technique,
often referring to it as the “Why" or the “Because."

For example, if a business is running a promotion,
they know their response will increase if they give
the reason for it. For example, “We need to make
room for next year's new models and are clearing
out the warehouse, so we are dropping prices to
move the current models."

I recommend that you take the time to create
your own Justification Statement--your “because"
reason — and use it regularly.

Smart Calling™ Exercise
1. Prepare your own script for social engineering
using the process above. Be sure you have a
justification statement you are comfortable with.

2. Brainstorm for the questions you will ask at
all levels of an organization, and write them out.
Use social engineering and you will make your
prospecting calls much smarter, and successful.
 

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Continue Having Your Best Week Ever!

Art
 

QUOTE OF THE WEEK
“Despair is most often the offspring of ill-preparedness”
Don Williams, Jr


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