In a prior article I explained how important "flow" is to achieving positive results in our sales activities.
I mentioned that in cold calling, prospecting by phone, and tele-selling we fail to achieve flow, that effortless, "in the zone" feeling for a number of reasons.
For one thing, if our lists are patchy or not ready for calling, we waste time and have a jagged experience, somewhat like driving a stick shift and continuously popping the clutch.
That jerky, ragged, on and off again routine is the opposite of flow.
Another contributor to flow in telephone conversations is how you choose to handle interruptions, questions, and objections.
If you perceive them as threats to your sales talk, then you'll either over react or under react to them, causing a staccato performance to result, with fewer sales accruing than if you find a way of smoothly handling them.
I train sellers to use transition phrases, which are bridges through objections.
For example, let's say you just phoned someone and he says right at the beginning of the chat: "Well, I'm pretty busy right now," what should you do: 1.
Apologize and try to set a future date to talk; 2.
Continue talking, ignoring his interruption; or 3.
Use a transition phrase? Obviously, I want you to choose the last option because the first two will probably fail.
"I'm pretty busy right now" is an excuse to terminate the call.
The prospect has zero interest in being called back, plus you haven't said enough to get him involved in the topic.
And of course if you simply pave over what he has said, he'll get angry and hang-up or repeat his excuse with more vigor, upsetting him and you.
But if you reply, "Well I appreciate that, and I'll make it brief," you have responded exactly to the content of what he said, and created a bridge to the next part of your conversation.
Transition phrases buy you time to get a prospect to hear something valuable in your offer.
Equally important, they help you to maintain poise and conversational control; in a word, FLOW.
There are several other transitions that work very effectively, and we'll discuss them in a future article as well as other vital ways to establish and maintain flow in selling.