I once was coaching two sales reps from a SaaS company on making sales calls. One was performing and the other was not. Both had a similar list of clients and industries. Also, both had a similar cold calling opener. This is what we call our 10 - 20 second hook. The compelling reason why the other person on the phone should talk to you.

When creating the sales message, we personalised the beginning of their opener based on which decicion maker/internal influencer they were speaking with. But with this opener, we included a single phrase about how this software was able to give many clients and their staff at least 8 hours of their week back. And it was the truth.

These sales coaching calls happened at least once a week with both these sales reps present. Now one rep was able to carry through many conversations for at least 2 minutes, book several 20-minute discovery calls over the month. The other sales rep was struggling.

The key difference, not a lot. They were both female, around the same age, educated, articulate and native to the city of Melbourne.

But there was one difference. The one getting all of the attention, as well as follow up consent and meetings, spoke with so much conviction and belief about those 8 hours saved a week. The other lady, not so much. She even whispered, stumbled, and rushed through her words.

When I dug deeper, it seemed that she was believing some of the many objections the prospects were giving her. The biggest one, about how their competitor is free. She internalised all their stories. This affected her belief in the product. The other lady who was doing well, wrote a list about the impact this software had made in many of their client’s lives. She carried that list with her and looked at it before making her sales calls.

Here are a few things that you can do so you can speak with certainty and conviction when selling.

1.    Work for a brand that has a good product or service.

2.    Interview happy customers and listen to what they have to say.

3.    Read testimonials of happy customers.

4.    Focus on the outcomes, rather than the dollar value.

5.    When prospects give you objections about why the competitor is better, (make notes so you’re prepared for common objections and to give internal feedback,) but don’t believe these objections. Because once you believe their story, it will affect your calls. In fact, it may even make you less motivated to pick up the phone and make sales calls.

6.    Look at the point of difference. Okay so your competitor’s software may be free/cheaper, but perhaps they don’t have a direct phone number their customers can call when they have an issue. This can be very stressful for busy business people. This can even affect their work performance and cost them more money later on.

Belief in the impact your products and services have made, and will make, are everything when it comes to booking B2B meetings and closing more deals. 

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