SAEES

How to Sell When 97 Percent of

Business Ca lls Co to Voicema il

Byredronusz

97 percent of all business calls now go to voicemail,

to sa les strategist J ill Kon rath. Do you yea rn
for the days in sales when you could actually talk on the
phone with a person rather than with a machine?
Yes,

accord ing

Perhaps you can relate to this scenario. Recently, I was

going th rough my data base, ma king cold ca lls. For the
most part,l was leaving voicemail messages that ended
with "Call me back to set u p a 30-minute appointment so
that I ca n show you how we ca n help you im prove you r

business."

Who do you think listened to that voicemail and then

ca lled me back? No one.

Time for a Radically Different Approach

So I developed a new program, not to get into new
com pa n ies a nd give sa les pitches, but instead to
sim ply provide lunch and valuable information to their

employees. While the employees were enjoying their

meal, lwould present a session on "Time Refuses to Be
Ma naged: How to Ma nage You rself lnstead."

rocate. ln this case, the potential client (who works for

a Fortune 500 company with "Ceneral" in its name) was

falling allover himself writing a testimonial, giving me

the regiona I ma nager a nd nationa I ma nager contact
names. "But let me call them'first for yoU," he said.

Something marvelous began to happen!

For my first presentation, the CEO of a 5S+ million
defense contractor attended the session. (When do you
ever get the audience of the CEO for an hour on a first

Simply a mazing! I used his testimonial on the subseove r-sized postcards I mailed to secure additional
lu nch a nd lea rn presentations.

quent

sa les ca ll?)

Because she felt she was in a safe, relaxed, educational

enviro,nment (rather than in the midst of a high-pressure,
sla m-it-down-you r-th roat sa les pitch), she ca me u p to
me atthe end of the session to askfor my help! We had a
follow up one-on-one meeting with her that resulted in a
contract of nea rly S 50,000, a ll for the price of a few pizzasl

"99Yo lnformation and L% Promotion"

The origina I Macintosh eva ngelist C uy Kawasa ki says, in
this current economy, to be efFective,you need to provide
"99%o information a nd 7% promotion." Once customers feel
you have provided content, they will listen to a small sales
pitch. But certainly the other way around no longer works.

At the next presentation, I noticed somettring curious.

The vice presidents who attended were the sa me for
whom I had left those sa me cold ca ll voicema il messages
(that were, of cou rse, not retu rned)!

lespeople wou ld feel less stress a nd be more efFective

if they were to use a method like this: initially provide
va lue to the prospect. Cet them to trust you fi rst. Show
that you're not just a nother "Slick Willie" watch ing out for
you rself a nd you r com m ission. lnstead show how you a re
an expert and a trusted member of the community.
Sa

At the end of the presentation, they were brainstorming

ideas on how we could establish a partnership.The vice
presidents asked us to submit two proposals.

After a third presentation, I had a follow-up call. lt was

the lowest pressu re a nd most prod uctive in itia I sa les ca Il
had have been on in my 25years of sales!

ffi*'i

lt's h u ma n natu re
if som ebo dy feels you have already
done someth ng for them t hey naturally w a nt to reop-

It's a mazing how m any sales seminars and conferences

still teach the same old manipulative tricks (e.9., 'ABC
- Always Be Closin g," "f he Seven Keys to Overcoming
Objectives ," or "Th irteen Ways to Sea I the Dea l").

Customers a re now way too soph isticated to fa ll for the

Continued on page 45

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from page 78

How to Sell When 97 Percent of

Business Calls Co to Voicemail

ByTed lanusz

deliver a session not o n, say, the d ifferences between

whole life a nd term insu ra nce, but instead on "How to
Become a Millionaire by the Age of 30."Then include
in the presentation all of the steps necessary to have a
secure financial future. Rather than delivering an insurdevious manipulative tactics of the past, especially astute
members of Ceneration X and Ceneration Y.
Seth Codin, author of the marketing best seller Purple
Cow says the key to selling success is actually to cheat.
"Find somebody who has done something remarkable in

Once you've built trust and a relationship with them,

they'll wa nt to buy from you. You won't need to sell them.

an industry even more dullthan you rs," codin advises. "lt

won't take long, and then just do what they do."

what topic cou

ld you offer to benefit em ployees of a loca

organization? Here isthe key: givethem somethingof
interest from their perspective, not yours.

Since you sell insu ra nce, you cou ld give a presentation to

college students who will soon be entering the workforce
(and looking to bry insurance on their own).You could

nce "sa les pitch" to just one person, you cou ld reach
dozens or even hundreds of potentialclients
- all at the
sa me time.
a

Sa

les cou ld actua lly be fu n aga in

Janusz has been honored to contribute articles to all seven

I PIA Agency Ma rketing C u ides a nd has cond ucted
multiple webinarsfor PIA on marketing.Because Baby Boomers learn about and use social media differently from other
generations, Ted conducts his "social Media for Baby Boomers"
workshopsfor insurance agents and insurance companies who
want to use social media to produce a bottom-line impactfor
their agencies and companies.
Ted

a n n ua