Are We A Fit? Calls

Realizing that I have been spoiled as a salesperson by having a full calendar of meetings, I've been reading up on ways to improve my prospecting skills. Here are three great tips from Nicola Brooks as seen on  Predictable Revenue:

1) Have a plan. It’s essential to have a plan for your call, even if it’s just a rough outline of some basic questions. It will give your conversation a direction and help you determine if there is a need for what you offer. Having some questions prepared in advance will also help you structure your call to find out some key factors:

• Are you speaking with a relevant decision maker or influencer, or is it someone with no authority or relevance?  “Can you please tell how you’re involved with  ____?”
• What is their current process?  “How are you currently handling ____?”
• Is there pain?  Is there a need or urgency for what you offer?  “If you could fix ____, where would that fall on your list of priorities?”
• Is there a decision-making process or project yet – or not?  If there IS one, what’s the timing of it?  If there is NOT one, how would it get started?  “Have you and your team discussed this, if and when it’ll be a priority?  Who’d be involved in figuring that out or implementing it?”
• Have a best next step to suggest. “Usually teams like to see a demo next.  At it, who should attend, so you can see it and decide in one go whether there’s something here or not?”

2) Connect with your prospect. Take a couple minutes to build some rapport with your prospect. It will give you some common ground and make the conversation flow. Even if it’s just talking about something as basic as the weather it will help you build a connection.  For example: what are you authentically curious to learn about them as a person or their work?  Or do you have something going on you can share with them that is interesting?