Hello again! Lesson number 9 of the warm calling course focuses on how we should make a warm call. Now, I’m sure all of you are hoping that we have some magical blueprint that we can provide which will guarantee you success, and unfortunately, that isn’t the case. What we can do is identify what can increase the chances of your success rate. And you may think this is a very complex process, but it’s quite simple. The key to a successful warm call is listening.

Most people do not listen with the intent to understand, but with the intent to reply, and this is a big difference between successful salespeople and unsuccessful salespeople. Now, every single person is slightly different and every single person might have a slightly different sales technique, but the most important thing we can do as salespeople is listen to the customer.

If we understand the fundamentals of a warm call, you’ll realize that we are trying to identify a need so that we can offer a solution. We’ve already gone through a comprehensive validation process, which means during the warm call, we’re trying to build on the information that we’ve already gained. This is where the listening comes in. What we’re trying to do is identify a strong enough need that we can decide to try and close on.

Now, at this stage, it’s important to remember our warm calling values; the soft sell is the best sell. It might take 1 call, it might take 10 calls, to identify a strong enough need to try and close this customer. But it’s important that, during these calls, that we’re listening and understanding and building our knowledge on this customer.

So, the next time you’re in a meeting with a colleague, customer, or supplier, take some time to reflect on whether that individual is listening. Are there people that keep overtalking? Are there people that are missing the point? If so, this is a clear demonstration that the individuals are not listening. And once you become aware of this, it makes you a lot more conscious when talking to your potential new customers.

Before we end this particular lesson, you may have realized that we’ve only spent a short amount of time focusing on the call itself. This is because your chances of success are determined by the quality of the validation, the leads you have, and also the strategy you put in place. The only important thing to consider when calling customer is listening, and this is because we have to identify a need and then determine when to offer the customer the solution.