Overcoming Call Reluctance, Part Four


By Kathy Sisk

In the last issue we discussed the first fear prospects have (the approach) and ways to overcome it. We’ll conclude with how to overcome your prospect’s last two fears.

Pre-Purchase Insecurity

The second fear is pre-purchase insecurity. This is where you probe to qualify your prospects, establish their wants, and create the need for your offering. Use open-ended questions to draw out their wants and needs. The more you know about your prospects, the stronger your presentation will be.

After asking the right questions, go to your selling step and fulfill your prospect’s needs. An effective selling step has four key elements to it: first, what is it? (Even if it is an appointment, you need to sell it.) The second element is what it does (the education part). The third element is what the prospect will gain. And the last element is the money made or time saved. 

Once you complete a strong selling step, get the prospect’s reaction by encouraging a positive response. Finally, do a trial close to summarize the benefits and ask for a commitment.

Post-Purchase Remorse

The final fear is post-purchase remorse. Having all the essential elements in your presentation will decrease this third fear from surfacing. However, there is one more element. 

You need to post-close. Trained for speed, many agents close quickly, get off the phone, and move to the next call before the prospect changes their mind. Because the post-close was not part of the presentation, once the call ends, prospects begin talking themselves out of their commitment. Not post-closing is a major reason why many companies experience cancellations as high as 60 percent.

Conclusion

Addressing your prospect’s three fears takes three to five minutes in a full presentation. However, the length of presentation depends on your prospecting activity, how long each prospect takes to respond to your questions, and if the prospect has objections. By incorporating these scripting elements into your presentation, you have the tools to give you greater control. 

As you study, design, and implement these elements into your outbound campaigns, you will conquer their call reluctance and experience better results while increasing production. Moreover, this will impress prospects.

Kathy Sisk Enterprises Inc. has forty years of experience providing call center setup, reengineering, assessments, training, script development, and project management services to centers globally.