How to Lose a Sales Lead’s Attention Right Out of the Gate.

How to Lose a Sales Lead’s Attention Right Out of the Gate.:

You have invested time in securing your leads. You have your call sheet ready. You have PipeJump open and are ready to enter new deals, contacts, and notes into your CRM and sales pipeline tool.

You have less than a minute or two to capture your prospect’s attention especially if you are making a cold call or meeting them for the first time. Unfortunately, many sales people make different mistakes that cause their prospect to lose interest in the first five to fifteen seconds of the conversation.

Here are eight things you can do to lose your prospect’s attention right out of the gate.

1. Start the cold call by saying, “Hi, how are you?”

If you want to keep your prospect’s attention you need to capture their attention and this question screams, “Salesperson!” Your prospect will automatically begin dismissing the call if the first thing they hear are those words.

Skip this and get to the point of your call. This applies to cold calls and face-to-face meetings.

2. Jump into your pitch right away.

Your product or service might be the best thing since sliced bread but leaping into a sales pitch right away seldom works because you will likely end up discussing aspects of your solution that have little or no relevance to your prospect’s situation.

The key is to ask a few high-quality questions then present your solution once you have a better understanding of their situation.

3. Open the call by talking about your company.

People don’t care about you or your company—they really don’t. They only thing they care about is solving a business problem.

If you want to capture their attention present a potential problem they might be facing and indicate that you might be able to help them solve that concern.

4. Tell them everything about all of your products or services.

Too many sales people think that reviewing EVERY, SINGLE product in their catalog will compel someone to buy SOMETHING. But your prospects and customer don’t have time to flip through a fifty pages catalog.

People expect you to make a suggestion based on your knowledge of their situation.

5. Build rapport with social chit-chat.

I’m surprised how many sales people still believe that this is an important step in the sales process. In fact, I suspect that you might open your sales conversation by making small talk.

A faster way to develop rapport is to show your prospect that you respect their time by getting to the point quickly.

Then, if time permits and only if the prospect initiates it, you can invest time on social chit-chat.

6. Review your brochure.

You might find this difficult to digest but brochures don’t sell. Although your marketing department wants you to get a brochure into your prospect’s hands, doing this too early in a sales conversation is a fast way to lose their attention and cause them to look for an excuse to end the meeting or sales call.

Contrary to popular belief, most people don’t read those expensive brochures.

7. Name-drop your big-name customers.

Many people think that mentioning your Fortune 500 clients will impress a prospect. But most decision makers don’t care who else you have worked with.

Just because you worked with a big name company does not mean you can help them solve that burning business problem they have been struggling with.

8. Discuss the awards your company has been awarded.

I still can’t believe how many companies think this information is relevant. Yeah, I get it from a product perspective, let’s say a new car.

But very few decision makers are going to make an important buying decision because your company won an industry award.

You only have a few moments to capture a prospect’s attention. If you waste it or use it incorrectly, you will lose their attention AND your opportunity to capture the sale.