When Prospects Answer The Phone -Intrigue Them With Two Sentences And A Question

By Caryn Kopp

In the past, I’ve written about how to leave a prospect a six-sentence voicemail which makes an impact. But what do you say when you get someone live on the phone? You can’t stuff a six-sentence voicemail into a conversation and expect it to work. And, you won’t get a second chance at that same conversation. You must get it right in the moment the prospect answers the phone. In fact, when you reach someone live, you have less time to get his or her attention and get your point across. So, I recommend preparing two sentences and a question to engage prospects in dialogue and start a short discussion. Here is the framework which will help you.

• Sentence 1: Your name and your company name. “Hi, this is Caryn Kopp from Kopp Consulting.”

• Sentence 2: Exactly what you do in language which is relevant and compelling to your decision maker. “We do new business development and we get our clients the initial prospect meetings they can’t get for themselves.”

• Question: A question which springboards the conversation. “How important is getting more new meetings with key prospects for you this year?”

If I’ve done a good job selecting the right prospects to call, the decision maker will answer my question by saying, “That is important to me.” Then, I would say, “Glad I caught you!” And, the conversation would continue.

Of course, it’s important to craft language that is right for your business and your target. Be sure to incorporate the concept of the “gap” which is what your prospects could gain by talking with you or meeting you versus what they have now without knowing you. In other words, how can knowing you make your prospect’s life better?

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Resolve to value the things you can’t measure—like people

by Kathleen Quinn Voltaw

In the age of the internet we think we’re pretty unique when it comes to dealing with big change. But did you know that the quote, “The only thing that is constant is change,” was first said in about 500 BC by Heraclitus of Ephesus? The reality is that from fire to Facebook, “we the people” have been successfully driving progress and managing constant change. That’s why I found one of the results from last year’s Korn Ferry Institute report of CEOs both interesting and surprising.

Korn Ferry reported that about two-thirds of the world’s CEOs believe that technology will create more value than people over the next few years. But the financial truth they discovered is the opposite: humans represent more than two times the value of a company’s tangible assets. Why is it then that business leaders tend to undervalue the things that can’t be measured—like people?

Year to year, it’s tempting to count your progress in numbers. Numbers make things clear and easily understood: income or output; profit or loss. Looking behind the numbers can be messy and uncomfortable, but that’s where you’ll find true value. You can’t count love, kindness, integrity, accountability or curiosity, but these are the qualities that move our hearts and our businesses. Looking to the colossal changes in our future, we need to understand that technology doesn’t create success. It’s people using technology that does. This year, resolve to focus more on your people who are appreciating in value every day, over technology, which begins to depreciate the minute you buy it.

An error in leadership thinking

Leaders who participated in the 2016 Korn Ferry studies say that technology now occupies 40 to 60 percent of their focus. In one study, sixty-three percent of them said they believe that within five years, technology will be their greatest source of competitive advantage. In a separate study, forty-four percent take it further and say that various technologies will make people “largely irrelevant” in the future of work. These leaders think that because they can’t measure the return on their people, the value must not be there. These studies prove them wrong.

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EDUCATIONAL OPPORTUNITIES

• June 21 & 22, 2018– 2-Day Sales & Management Success Summit – Chicago, IL
• June 21, 2018– Management Success Workshop- Chicago, IL
• June 22, 2018– Smart Selling Workshop- Chicago, IL
• Sept 20 & 21, 2018– 2-Day Sales & Management Success Summit – Washington
• September 20, 2018-Management Success Workshop- Washington, D.C.
• September 21, 2018– Smart Selling Workshop – Washington, D.C.
• Oct 25 & 26, 2018– 2-Day Sales & Management Success Summit – San Diego, CA
• October 25, 2018-Management Success Workshop- San Diego, CA
• October 26, 2018– Smart Selling Workshop – San Diego, CA

**NEW 1/2 Day Sales Workshops

After road testing the concept in Philly last month, to rave reviews, we elected to add a few more. Feedback was that companies could send several more of their team given the lower entry investment, and getting their teams out in the field with “Jack’d Up Energy” and selling tools that same afternoon.

• April 19- Washington DC– 1/2 Day Sales Workshop
• August 1- Nashville, TN– 1/2 Day Sales Workshop
  
  

**AUSTRALIA WORKSHOP DATES ANNOUNCED**

We are so excited to be coming back to Australia for my Winning Sales Strategies, Driving Sales Workshop.

Take your team to an explosive new level of growth and success with groundbreaking sales leadership tactics and strategies.Internationally renowned sales management expert, Jack Daly brings over 30 years of field-proven experience to provide essential techniques to accelerate business growth, drive sales and build a world-class sales organization. Many sales executives understand sales skills but execute them poorly. This highly interactive seminar provides proven, added-value strategies for productivity improvement while building long-term client relationships.

Cities and dates below, register today for the best, early bird pricing:

• Melbourne – 23 July 2018
• Sydney-24 July 2018
• Brisbane- 26 July 2018

These 5 Barriers Prevent You From Being a Better Leader. Here’s What to Do Differently

What your team members would tell you if you just stopped talking.

By Alison Davis

I spend a lot of time asking employees about how leaders can be more effective communicators. Just yesterday, in fact, I moderated a focus group with employees at a fast-growing consumer products company.

The people in the group provided the same feedback I hear time and time again: Leaders are pretty good at sharing information, but they’re lousy listeners.

As a leader myself, I know how hard it is to slow down and actually pay attention to what your team member is saying, especially when you’re thinking about the 87 other issues you have to address and you’re pretty sure you already know how to solve the team member’s problem.

But you can’t be a great leader if you’re a terrible listener. As Matthew McKay, Martha Davis, and Patrick Fanning write in How to Communicate, “Listening is a commitment and a compliment.”

“It’s a commitment to understanding how other people feel, how they see their world. It means putting aside your own prejudices and beliefs, your anxieties and self-interest, so that you can step behind the other person’s eyes.”

And listening is a compliment because it says to the other person, “I care about what’s happening to you; your life and experience are important.”

What’s the most effective way to become a better listener? Identify the barriers that prevent you from listening effectively–and then use one important strategy for overcoming those barriers. The 5 most common listening barriers for leaders are:

1. Mind-reading.

As McKay, Davis, and Fanning write, “The mind-reader is trying to figuring out what the other person is really thinking and feeling… (paying) less attention to words than to intonations and subtle cues in an effort to see through to the truth.”

2. Filtering.

You listen to some things and not to others. A common way that leaders filter is to avoid hearing “certain things–particularly anything threatening, negative, critical, or unpleasant. It’s as if the words were never said: You simply have no memory of them.”

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