How to make good sales calls

Sales calls are an important part of finding clients and growing your business. But, without the correct information and sales skills, they can waste time. How can you improve your sales calls?

• Be prepared! Ask yourself, who is this prospect? What type of company is this? What services will they likely be interested in? Being knowledgeable about prospects shows your genuine interest in helping them ease pain points and create value for them.

• What are you trying to achieve? Maybe it’s an introduction call, sales call, or just checking in on a long-term prospect. By understanding your optimal outcome of the call, you’ll have an easier time achieving by focusing on the goal! Aligning your expectations with the desired outcome will help shape the call and influence the prospect.

• Know what you’re offering. If you received a sales call and the caller wasn’t knowledgeable about their offer, would you trust them? Effectively communicating your offer and tailoring it to each prospect is a must. If you offer services like janitorial, spend some time actually doing the work! It’s easier to explain what you have to offer when you have done it yourself.

• Get ready to influence. Your attitude can steer the direction of the call. The prospect will be affected if you don’t sound like you want to be calling. On the flip side, over-enthusiasm can be a turn-off. Just be you, because people buy from people at the end of the day. Professionalism is important to maintain with prospects since you represent your company, but some small talk to loosen up the conversation is a good way to show that you’re human too!

• There’s no shame in a script. A sales script helps you structure your sales call and can be tailored to the specific type of call. Even a checklist of points to cover can help, you don’t want to miss an important piece of information. Be careful, though, following a script to the T can result in sounding like a robot. A sales call shouldn’t feel like a lecture, it’s a conversation!

• Turn on your listening ears, and be ready to pivot. Like any conversation, active listening is key! If you’re only prepared to stick to a script and aren’t focused on the needs being communicated by prospects, you’re missing out. Listen to your prospect’s needs, engage with them, and ask them questions. Pivot your pitch if there’s a clear solution you can offer- even if it wasn’t part of your original plan to offer.

• Expect rejection. No matter how much preparation or tailored your script is, someone will always say no. Rejection sucks, but keeping a positive mindset is key. Don’t take it personally- they aren’t rejecting you, they're rejecting the offer.  

• Follow up. Reach back out to those who showed interest in you during a call. It will remind your prospects about the call, what you spoke about, and the next steps. By following up, you can potentially increase your chances of your prospects following through on the next steps so that you can lead to a sale.