The Salesperson’s Purpose

Why do we make sales calls?

Careful, it’s a trick question. Why do we make sales calls?

If you answered, “To make a sale,” you didn’t think hard enough.

The late Earl Nightingale once gave a now-famous speech entitled “The Strangest Secret in the World.” While he did not specifically address sales in his address, allow me to borrow from Mr. Nightingale’s title and suggest that the answer to “why do we makes sales calls?” is perhaps selling’s “strangest secret.” It’s strange because it’s simple; it’s a secret because few of us sell as if we know it.

The purpose of every sales call isn’t to make a sale. It is to benefit the buyer. The more you believe and practice this, the greater your chances for making a sale.

Picture you and your colleagues being summoned to the conference room. As people enter, a prospect’s name and background information is written on the white board. Everyone is wondering what it all means when your manager enters and announces, “Hello, team. Thanks for coming. We are not leaving this room until we can come up with several ways our product or service can benefit the person whose name is on the board.”

As a group, you begin to assess the prospect’s particulars and come up with meaningful ways to legitimately benefit them. The manager then points your direction and says, “You! On behalf of our team, go call on this prospect and share with them our conviction that we can benefit them.”

Can you imagine the feelings of responsibility such an assignment would produce if this happened with every prospect’s name? It’s how every call must be treated – like it’s the one and only call you are making today.

Game Face-trained professionals know that developing a library of Benefit Statements is the absolute best way to prepare for and enter any sales call. A Benefit Statement doesn’t say a thing about you – it completely focuses on the prospect. It is a simple statement at the outset of the sales call that suggests, “Our sole intent is to benefit you.”

Benefit Statements, which vary depending on the prospect, make the client feel as if no one else matters right now. Effective Benefit Statements contain many necessary components. Here are just three:

1) Consider it a service call. You must truly believe your product will benefit the prospect. If, after all you can do, they don’t agree, pity them – not yourself. Your mindset should be that this is as much a service call as a sales call. Think and say something like, “I felt it would have been a disservice had I not reached out to provide you this helpful information.” Immediately, you are looked on as a service-provider, not a salesperson. It helps them trust you, and raises your confidence going into the call. How can anyone reject a call founded on service?

2) Begin with a compliment. As Mark Twain once said, “I can go an entire day on one compliment.” Don’t attempt shallow charm or insincere flattery. Instead, if you can begin the call with a genuine compliment (“I really appreciated the service I received at your restaurant last weekend,” or “Your new social media campaign is unlike any I’ve seen…,” you not only are making a friend, you’re making possible more conversation. How can anyone swiftly reject a caller who just paid them a sincere compliment?

3) Single them out. When cold-calling, awake people from their preoccupations. Let them know they’ve been specially selected for this outreach. You might say, “I was visiting your store, and noticed…,” or “Our firm has used your product and we are intrigued by…”

Similarly, make it known to prospects that your team has carefully selected their market (or region, or type of company) to start a business relationship, and you would appreciate the chance to get their thoughts on the merits of such. Or, you can approach a current customer by saying you’re “calling on some of our valued customers due to our past association...” There are many ways to single out prospects. This is not scripted tele-marketing, so be creative – and sincere.

By adhering to the Salesperson’s Purpose, “making a sale” will no longer be the purpose of your calls, it will be the result!

Rob Cornilles is the Founder & CEO of Game Face, Inc., the original “sales coach for sports.” Over two decades, Game Face’s sales training influence has grown with hundreds of corporations and sports franchises worldwide. For more information, contact him at ryc@gamefaceinc.com.