By: Eric Young, Director of Sales & Sales Trainer
One of the often-used clichés in sales is “it’s not what you say, it’s how you say it.” This cliché has actually been so overused that people have forgotten how true it really is. At Vorsight, I often hear BDAs trying to copy the effective talking points that their peers use, but end up failing because each BDA has a different “voice.“ The importance of finding your voice really hit me during a recent vacation with my family in Florida.
My mom is a woman of many talents; however confidence and salesmanship are not two of her stronger abilities. Unfortunately, as someone who frequently injures himself while on vacation, I often need to leverage her chief “ability:” her medical license, so she can patch me up when I invariably fall down a flight of stairs, or whatever.
Sure enough, halfway through my trip in Florida I got injured and was suffering. My mom, tired of my incessant whining, agreed to try to call in a prescription for me. In her first attempt, she said something along the lines of, “Ummmmm this is Mary and I’m down in Florida annnnnnd my son needs a prescription so can you write him one pretty please???” The pharmacist was immediately sketched out and wouldn’t fill the prescription.
My mom thought that there was a problem with the pharmacy, but I suggested she call another pharmacy and try again. When she called the new pharmacy she was relaxed and confident and said, “This is Mary; I’m a Nurse Practitioner in Baltimore and I need to call in a prescription for my patient Eric Young, who is down in Florida.” Surprise, surprise her confidence came through and the prescription sailed through—even though the words she used weren’t different; it was all about her state of mind and comfort level.
The lesson: Tone matters. Approaching your prospects in a relaxed and confident way is much more important than what you are actually saying.
Nice post and i totally agree with Ingrid.
Tricycle Telemarketing
Amsterdam
So true - one of the organizations I worked at used to get sales reps to use a “voice” as if they were talking to someone they knew - What a difference in the prospect’s reaction much more open and relaxed.
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