Precall Preparation

I my previous article, I had written about precall planning and the importance of it. Since this part is being ignored by many sales people, I decided to dig deeper into the subject and to provide you with more useful information.

We know that Listening is more important than talking and that successful sales people ask a lot of questions. However we should not ask dumb questions. Our questions should help initiate a conversation and should eventually lead customer to the next stage: establishing need.

Precall planning helps avoid asking dumb questions.

Some of these dumb questions you should not ask are:
- Tell me more about your business.
How annonying this question could be deemed.

- Are you the correct person to talk to?
The answer will be yes in most cases. The correct question, therefore, will be. How the decision will be made. And perhaps your precall research could help answer that anyway.

- Who are you currently buying from?
The precall research should answer you that too. In fact the customer may think that this is none of your business.

Think about questions you may ask and try to avoid asking questions you could have answered if you had done a detailed research.

The whole point of doing a precall preparation is to help initiate a conversation.

This preparation is really a 3 steps process:
1- Precall Research.
2- Precall Objectives.
3- Postcall Analysis.

1- Precall Research:
In this stage you have to collect as much information about the prospect as ossible. Use the below list as a guide:
- Type of business
- Products and/or services
- Head office
- Branches
- Number of employees
- How many years in business
- Customers
- Competition
- Buying process
- Decision maker

Sources of information could be: Internet, Local Library, Newspapers, Magazines, Catalogues and literature, online articles and so forth. You can also ask your business contacts if they have information they can add to you knowledge.

2- Precall Objectives:
Next, you need define your precall objectives. Here you have to use the information you have gathered in the research stage in order to know what you are going to do next. Of course next step is to make the actual call, however you will need to discover

• Who you are going to call
• What you are going to ask
• What you are expecting to achieve

Write down all the questions you are going to ask. Then make the call. Start initiating a conversation and ask the right questions.

3- Postcall Analysis:
Precall research and objectives should be followed by a postcall analysis. In this stage you should write down the outcomes of the cold call you have made.
In this stage you should be able to answer the below questions:
• What did I learn?
• What’s my next follow-up step?
• Do the prospect and I agree on the next steps?
• What’s the objective of my next call in the cycle?

Enter all information in your CRM or sales database. Review the analysis before you make the second call or when you meet prospect. You will be surprised how this information could be helpful.



References:
RMA’s Young Financial Professionals Newsletter, Winter 2005
Brian Tracy, Be a Sales Superstar—21 Great Ways to Sell More, Faster, Easier in Tough Markets
J. K. Bucsko, Turning Sales Calls Into Effective Referrals