Performance in business development is double or nothing:

While some struggle to reach decision-makers and are turned away in 15 seconds, others make appointments without difficulty.

Yet they have the same telephone and the same level of knowledge as their contacts! So at Modjo, we analyzed thousands of prospecting interactions from our sales activity to identify what differentiated the best from the rest.

What comes out of it?

6 essential lessons your teams need to learn in order to perform and prospect effectively, thanks to targeted and relevant sales actions!

In this age ofscalability, automation tools and over-solicited decision-makers, many unaware people are neglecting good old-fashioned methods in favor of other strategies (mailing, social networking, etc.).

You know my passion for direct calls. Properly applied, and with a little practice, cold calling is one of the most formidable sales techniques!

1. Adopt the right introduction.

The famous "Am I bothering you? " vs. "Sorry to bother you."

Primero: We are always busy and systematically disturbed. If you were to disturb reallyyour interlocutor would not have taken the time to pick up. This question is therefore not necessary.

Second: Unlike many of the solicitations your prospect receives, you are soliciting him for a good reason.

• If your solution is of no use to me, yes you are.
• But if your solution can help me reach my goals, which I slave over all day, then you are welcome!

Troisiemo (yes, troisiemo): By asking this question, the 1st signal you're sending is: "I'm probably not a priority for you". However, if you allow yourself to contact someone on their direct line, it's because you consider that you should be a priority. Keep this mentality. It has to be part of you and drive your sales policy.

2. Stay focused on the objective of your prospecting.

Your objective: to make an appointment and start building the loyalty of the prospect (or who knows, future customer!) from the very first contact. That's all there is to it.

When we analyze the duration of calls that led to appointments with new customers, we can distinguish 2 things:

• Successful calls last on average 2x longer than unsuccessful calls.
  ⇒This is due to a whole host of factors that reduce the duration of unsuccessful calls: wrong callers, or already in contact with one of your colleagues, not available at the time, etc.

• Calls that last "too long" (more than 3 minutes on average) are not successful either.
  ⇒ Efficiency is lost, the caller is scattered, and the caller tells his life story. If the prospects contacted have positions of responsibility, they will often seek efficiency. The best method: be brief, concise, efficient.

3. Mastering your pitch on the fly.

Perhaps the only time in your sales cycle when salespeople should send their best monologues!

Here's an example of the structure of a prospecting call leading to an appointment to begin the famous sales process:

There are 2 phases

• A phase of exchange with the prospect (blue/green alternation) which represents the dialogues.
• Long green blocks, symbolizing the monologues of the salesman.

These blocks are pitches that you need to master at your fingertips. They can be replicated on every call and must be perfectly honed, so that you can adapt them naturally to your prospects, if only to develop the beginnings of a future effective customer relationship, who knows!

Straight to the point:

• Monologue #1: Who are you?
• Monologue #2: The benefits of your solution
• Validation : Appointment booking

💎 Tip #1: The slightest hesitation makes you lose credibility. We strongly advise sales managers to provide their teams with complete examples of these little pitches that will emerge regularly.

💎 Tip #2 : Re-listen to your pitches to understand what works and what doesn't work so well. Iterate on it until you find the formulation that hits the nail on the head! (cc: Sales analysis with Modjo).

4. Explain the purpose of the call.

"Because" - or the equivalent of the arm wrench for your interviewer's brain!

I insist on this, because many psychological studies attest to the fact that giving your interlocutor's brain a justification multiplies the acceptance rate.

❌ "I saw that you work as Head of Sales / Commercial Director, and I just ..."

✅ "I'm calling you because you work as a Head of Sales / Commercial Director, and I've just ..."

Calls that start with a reason are 2.3x more likely to result in an appointment.

5. Don't let the prospect talk (or almost).

If your prospects are monopolizing the floor ... that's not good! Once again, this point only applies to cold calls (not to other phases of the sales process).

The more your prospects talk, the more time they'll have to find and develop excuses not to accept an appointment. You need to be brief, fast and efficient. This approach is an integral part of an effective sales strategy, especially in the cold-calling phase.

6. Validate a battle plan with the team.

Concentrate your forces at the right time! This doesn't mean that cold calling doesn't work in other time slots, just that some times are better than others for reaching your targets. We've observed that the most effective time slots are those of "transition":

• In the morning before arriving at work: 8:30 - 9:15 am
• Lunch: 11:45 - 12:10 and 1:30 - 2:00
• In the evening from 6 pm

💎 Bonus: It may seem counterintuitive, but it turns out that scheduling appointments on Fridays is particularly effective. Go figure out why!

Conclusion

The early days of prospecting are difficult: a lot of effort and few results. But once you've mastered it, the number of opportunities multiplies, and your customer portfolio explodes. Your team needs to be put in the best possible conditions to stay motivated and efficient. With dedicated support and the right tools, you can ensure that your sales force stays loyal to your sales strategy!

That's the whole point of Modjo :‍

1. Enable sales managers to better manage their coaching (based on real sales negotiations with their teams) by identifying the levers of success, using highly detailed dashboards.
2. Allow salespeople to replay their own calls and iterate their pitch, while analyzing the best practices of their colleagues.
3. In a nutshell, at Modjo our aim is to perfect the execution of your strategy and continuously improve your sales performance thanks to precise insights.

Best,

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