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Part of the battle for rookies or close-minded individuals is to open their minds to the concept of using names. I once trained a ‘seasoned’ insurance sales person in our company. She had literally received little prior training and was under the old ‘cold-call, right proposal, present, and do a million call-backs’ system. We went out one day in her territory to conduct “in-person calls”.
I watched her repeatedly lead with her name, company name, and ‘brief summary’ of her product and why she was there. Several times, after she was closed to being shut-down (I.e. escorted back to the exit,) I would jump in and start making conversation relating to the names of people we were already working with in the area, or names of people we had just visited. I turned things around quickly.
Wrong Way
“Hi, my name is Michelle Howard with Best Company. How are you? Great. I just wanted to stop by and show you our new line of products we use to help your business save money. Are you interested in saving money?”
DM Response: “Sorry, I’m busy and not interested, but thanks for your time. The door is that way.”
Right Way
“Hi- are you Bill? Great! My name’s Chris Anderson and we were just over talking with Howard next door at Best Insurance. Do you know Howard? Anyway, I work with Howard, and also Brock Tillet at Anderson Retail, Steve Palmer over at Safe Time, and Delbert Smith at Johnson Heating. Sorry I’m kind of in a rush, but I have to head over to Indy to see Mike Hornsby so I only have a few minutes. Do you have a spot we can sit down?”
DM Response: “Sure- what’s this about?”
Now two very big differences occurred from when Michelle would lead versus when I would lead. First, I had confidence and really did have a ‘sense of urgency’ to get in and out. If you’ve ever seen me making sales calls, I DON’T WASTE ANYTIME and I really believe my prospects can sense this. Second, I really do use a ton of names. I have had rookies count how many names I use in an approach and I’ve had them count as many as 7 to 10 names EVEN IN THE APPROACH! I’m all about establishing trust with my prospects. The simplest way to do this is by mentioning (casually) people I already know or work with that my prospect will most likely know and trust for the right reasons.
But with my example of Michelle, this was a girl who had been in sales for a pretty long time, doing it the HARD WAY. Luckily, after a few days, she started to get it. I’m serious- we would walk into a business and ‘cold-call’ a manager or director. She would go first and do it the wrong way (and only occasionally get luck and sit down with someone if they just happened to be very friendly,) and normally she would start getting shut-down. I would then step around from behind her and start ‘building rapport’ with the d.m. by saying ANYTHING to give me the opportunity to pull in names. One time, Michelle got TOTALLY shut down. I mean this one prospect was RUDE to her. As he started to get up from his desk to ‘see us out,’ I started my usual magic and within 30 seconds, he was INVITING US TO SIT DOWN. As Michelle started to catch on, she actually found out this same guy who was going to kick her out, even had connections with some of her direct family members! So after about 10 minutes of building rapport, she took the presentation back over and did a great job! (She would have NEVER GAINED THE OPPORTUNITY TO PROCEED WITH THE PRESENTATION IF I HADN’T STEPPED IN AND STARTED USE THE RIGHT NAMES!)
Another key is that you don’t have to use JUST current or past customer’s names. You can build rapport with any positive name you have. Many times when I’m cold calling, I’ll use the names of all the people I just talked with to build rapport. I’ll say “I was just over talking with Bill Donelly, and he said they’re going to take you guys to the cleaners tonight in the bowling tournament,” or “Bill Smith’s considering doing this at Best Dry Cleaning- didn’t you go to school with Bill?” or “After here, I’m booking over to Sign Mania to try to catch Dillion Thompson so I only have a few minutes.”
By using tons of names, you make yourself ‘fit-in’ like you’re REALLY supposed to be there! AND, aren’t you supposed to be there? I hope you think so!
Differences between a Professional Sales Person and a Peddler
Anyone considering entering into or excelling at a sales career should quickly understand and ‘buy-in’ to mastering some essentials to separate yourself from all the ‘peddlers’ out there who call themselves sales people. Here’s a list of differences:
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