Winging It. . .

If you’re not a bird, you can’t be successful winging it!

I recently recorded a show on Questioning for Better Communication for my Sales Coaching over Coffee radio show (it will air in March), where I talk about the 5 Ps of good questioning.

1. Plan
2. Prepare
3. Practice
4. Ponder
5. Patience

I’m not going to go into that whole concept here (stay tuned for the show); however, I would like you to notice the FIRST THREE Ps…. plan – no wings here, prepare – still not winging it, and practice – certainly not winging it.

To be successful in sales we have to have objectives for our calls and a plan of how we are going to achieve our objective. This doesn’t have to be unique for each call – rather many calls we make will have a shared objective and plan.

Need an example?

• My Cold Call Objective – determine how what I do would fit into their existing sales training program.

• Prospect Objective (this is my objective for what action I want the prospect to take) – getting the prospect and one other person on their team to listen to a 15 minutes quick tip teleclass and have a conversation with me about it.

• Opening Statement – ___________, Most people I speak with are trying to increase their sales numbers YET don’t have time to spend with the people who are already good salespeople WHO with focused attention could be fantastic.

• 1st Question – May I steal three minutes of your life so we can both decide if having a conversation about sales improvement for this segment of your team makes sense?

• Crafted Qualifying Questions – I’m not going to share these here but rest assured I have them!

My questions in the conversation might never change, what makes it interesting is the prospect’s side!

This doesn’t mean I don’t tailor my objective with Trigger Events (thanks Craig Elias) or insert info I know about the company into my questions. It does mean I don’t spend hours figuring out my objective, prospect objective, opening statement, and first question for each cold call I make!

Make sure you’re ready to have a great conversation every time someone answers the phone…. or you are kicked to their voicemail. The only one’s who can soar through winging it are the birds.