by Team Lyne | Aug 29, 2022 | LinkedIn, Sales
Not only is LinkedIn a great platform for building professional relationships, but it also is a valuable resource for B2B companies. LinkedIn increases the value that it provides with the LinkedIn Sales Navigator.
Social selling is critical for any B2B business and can be taken care of by LinkedIn Sales Navigator. The tool supports plenty of filters and tools to narrow the search result, which helps create a customer profile and lead list.
Before understanding how to generate leads from LinkedIn Sales Navigator, let us first focus on the tool itself.
What Is a LinkedIn Sales Navigator?
LinkedIn Sales Navigator is a powerful tool with potent search capabilities. It helps improve the visibility of the extended network and comes with a personalized algorithm that enables you to make the right decision. This is what LinkedIn Sales Navigator is, according to LinkedIn.
This tool benefits sales professionals who need to engage with LinkedIn contacts often. Basically, LinkedIn Sales Navigator is a social selling platform by LinkedIn.
The tool is intended for salespeople, sales managers, sales specialists, and sales executives. It makes relationship-based selling easy by helping you connect with the right people. Other benefits of the tools include acquiring new businesses and rapport building.
Usages Of LinkedIn Sales Navigator
You can use LinkedIn Sales Navigator to create a list of highly targeted people, and we are talking about a huge list. It also helps identify and differentiate between the active and the inactive targets.
Also, you can use the tool with other private software to automate connection with the prospect, which helps save time, effort, and energy.
To sum it up, with LinkedIn Sales Navigator, you can find, connect and further build relationships with prospects who are within the network data of LinkedIn.
Now that we know what LinkedIn Sales Navigator is and how it can help you let us dive deeper to understand how to generate leads from this tool.
How To Generate Leads From LinkedIn Sales Navigator?
Here is a mini-guide to help you get started with LinkedIn Sales Navigator. You can complete the entire process of using LinkedIn Sales Navigator to generate leads in two simple steps.
1. Use advanced search filters
LinkedIn Sales Navigator provides 30 search criteria in its advanced search engine. A few examples of the criteria are company headcount, job title, seniority level, years in the current company, and years of experience.
Using this search feature, you carry an unlimited number of searches. A few of the basic criteria that the filters work on are: company, function, personal, workflow, and spotlight. By selecting the required criteria in the advanced search filter, you can narrow or broaden your search result as much as possible.
Also, the search filter comes with plenty of additional valuable features. For instance, you can use the spotlight category to include dynamic filters that include news mentions and job changes.
The LinkedIn Sales Navigator’s search filter result not only helps you find the right prospect but also provides you with relevant content that you might need to send a personalized message.
2. Create A Lead List
Once you have identified the prospect with the LinkedIn Sales Navigator’s search filter, you can proceed to create a lead list.
To create a lead list on LinkedIn Sales Navigator, follow these steps:
- Select the leads by ticking the checkbox
- Click on “Save to list.”
- Name the list by clicking on “+.”
After creating a lead list and saving the contacts, you can access the list from the “Lead List” tab.
Can I Export Leads From Sales Navigator?
Once you have a lead list ready, you might want to use it with any third-party software for better results. In such a case, you might wonder if you can export leads from LinkedIn Sales Navigator.
The answer is yes. You can export the leads from Sales Navigator to a CRM or CSV.
However, you will need additional tools to export leads from LinkedIn Sales Navigator. Thankfully, plenty of Chrome extensions are available to help you get the job done.
How To Use Lead List For Conversion?
You now have the lead list along with prospects; what’s next? From the lead list of LinkedIn Sales Navigator, you can send direct connection requests to potential customers. You can also skip the process of sending a connection request with Inmails.
Inmails are premium LinkedIn messages that allow you to send messages to a prospect in a manner that the message directly lands in the inbox. However, the number of messages you can send via Inmails is limited.
Therefore, we recommend you send a connection request first and use the Inmail message option as a last resort.
Furthermore, you can take notes on the lead list, which helps you track all the connection requests and Inmails messages.
Another handy feature of LinkedIn Sales Navigator is that it tracks the activity of all the contacts in your lead list. You can switch on this feature to stay updated on their LinkedIn activity. Again this feature is convenient for sending personalized messages to prospects.
Best Features Of LinkedIn Sales Navigator
In the previous sections, we considered the essential LinkedIn Sales Navigator features to help you generate leads. However, the tool offers many other resourceful features that you can use to improve lead generation quality. Here is a list of the other good features of LinkedIn Sales Navigator.
1. Finds People Within The Groups
The basic LinkedIn plan allows users to search for groups with the help of keywords. However, LinkedIn Sales Navigator can find people within the group. Once you have the information about the people there, you can start by sending them personal connections.
2. View Similar
Why limit yourself to a specific batch of prospects when LinkedIn Sales Navigator offers you much more than that? Using this tool, you can find an entire bunch of relevant leads similar to your prospects.
To use this feature, visit the search bar in Sales Navigator and look at your target market. Select any lead from the search result and click “View Similar.” This simple action will generate hundreds of other leads similar to your customer.
3. Boolean Searches
By combining keywords with operators like OR, NOT, and AND, you can run a Boolean search on LinkedIn Sales Navigator. You can also use parentheses and quotes to run this search. This feature helps you narrow your list to meet the specific requirements further.
Wrap Up
LinkedIn Sales Navigator is an effective tool for prospecting and outreach. The tool houses plenty of resources that help you create the perfect lead list and provides you with ways to reach them. LinkedIn Sales Navigator provides a sure-shot way to identify prospects, develop new connections, and further strengthen customer relationships.
Scrape LinkedIn Sales Navigator
Scrape & personalize cold emails without the hard work
by Team Lyne | Aug 24, 2022 | Sales
As a sales rep, you might be handed hundreds of names and phone numbers you need to contact before the day ends. The simple strategy to get the work done might look like keep dialing.
However, is things as easy as it looks?
Simply giving the contacts a cold call is not enough if you fail to bring any conversion. That’s why merely giving a cold call is not enough; one needs to understand the actual objective behind cold calls.
To understand it, let’s first start by learning more about cold calling.
What Is Cold Calling?
During a cold call, the sales rep contacts potential customers for the first time. The intent behind cold calls is to sell a product or a service.
Primarily, the sales rep uses a sales pitch script to make the conversion easier during a cold call. However, at the same time, it is essential to know that one opening line will not work for all prospective clients.
Personalizing the opening statement is the key to reaping the maximum benefits of such a call.
The Purpose Of Cold Calls
During cold calls, the sales reps talk to a prospect to help them move forward to the next step of the buying process. Basically, it is like creating a foundation for future conversation.
Previously, cold calls were guesswork. The sales rep used to call a prospect and hoped that the message or the generic opening statements would work.
With the advancement of technology, sales reps have said goodbye to guesswork in a cold call. The guesswork during the cold calls wasted the time and energy of everyone.
To eliminate the guesswork, the sales professional should study more about the prospect and the business. With this information, personalization comes easy, and chances of conversion increase.
Now that we know the prime objective of cold calls, let us see how we can craft the perfect sales call.
How To Craft The Perfect Cold Call Opening Line?
It is no secret that giving hundreds of sales calls in a day can be a daunting task. However, you can engage in a successful cold call with the right opening line.
Here are a few ways to craft the perfect opening line to make this strategy a success.
1. Greeting Is A Must
You cannot simply give prospects a cold call and start pitching your product or service. It is a rookie mistake. The first thing you need to include in your cold call opening line is a good greeting.
As soon as you greet someone on call, an immediate sense of warmth is introduced, which can help build long-term relationships.
Further, do not go for any random greeting. You are engaging with the prospect for a professional reason; therefore, go for a formal greeting.
2. A Proper Introduction Of Yourself
You need to include a perfect introduction in the opening line of the cold call. Why should the prospects give you their time? Who are you?
Therefore, craft a crisp introduction. Within a short interval of 20 seconds, you should be able to give them a solid introduction to engage them in a conversation.
Example Of Proper Introduction
Are you wondering how you can introduce yourself while creating a good impression within 20 seconds during a cold call?
Here’s an example to help you come up with a good introduction:
“I am Estella, a sales rep of ABC company.“
Yes, that’s it! You need not tell everything about yourself in the introduction. The name, position, and company you are working for would suffice.
3. Include Permission In Sales Openers
Let us consider a scenario:
Sales Rep: Good morning, ma’am. I am Estella, a sales rep for ABC company. Our company helps small businesses like yours to scale up. The companies we have worked for witnessed a 30% growth, and we would like to help you.
Prospect: Hangs up
Even after a greeting, introduction, and how the sales rep can help the prospect, the potential customer hangs the call.
What is wrong in this situation? Did the way the prospects respond wrong, or was something else at fault?
The answer is simple; the sales rep did not ask the prospect if they could take the call further. They did not consider the availability of the prospect’s time. One should avoid this mistake while making cold calls.
Try keeping yourself in the prospect’s shoes. Imagine the prospect is in the middle of an important meeting; the sales rep gives a call and starts talking without seeking permission or finding out whether the potential customer is busy or not.
Such an opening line in a cold call also indicates that the sales rep lacks empathy. One should not barge into someone’s day in such a manner.
Therefore, include permission in the cold calling opening line of the cold calls.
A simple question like, “Did I catch you at a bad time?” would suffice for most prospects and would introduce the prospect to your etiquette.
If there is a positive response, you can go ahead to talk about your services. However, if the answer is negative, you can ask them when they are free for a call.
4. Explain To Them The Reason Behind The Call
Once the prospect gives you the green light to go ahead with further discussion, thank them for their time. It will help you to keep the cold call on a positive note.
When stating the reason, focus on the elements in which the prospect will be interested.
It simply means that you must explain to the prospect how your company can prove to be beneficial to them.
Only when prospective customer realizes that you can add value to their business or company would they be interested to know more about the product or service you are selling. Drop your value proposition as soon as possible.
5. Include The Challenges Of The Prospect
After informing your prospect about the values, you can add, ask your clients about their pain points. It is only when you understand their pain points that it would be possible for you to tailor the pitch to interest the prospect further.
Keep your value proposition limited, and focus more on solving the potential customer’s problems. Subsequently, tailor the sales pitch to tell the prospect how your product or service can solve their problems.
The Correct Order Of Crafting The Perfect Cold Call Opening Lines
Let us now summarize the correct order of including different elements while crafting the cold call opening lines.
Firstly, you need to start with a greeting to create warmth. A crisp introduction of yourself should follow this. You are conversing with the client for the first time, and they need to know who you are. After introducing yourself, you need to find out whether the prospect is interested in having a call with you or not. So, in the next step, seek permission.
After getting permission from the prospective customer, you need to tell the prospect about the value proposition. However, it would be best if you did not reveal it all. Ask the prospect about their pain points, and then tailor the features of the products or services you are selling to solve their problem.
Before You Make Cold Call
Generic cold call opening lines will not work for all the prospects. Before you pick up your phone to make a cold call, it is essential to conduct primary research.
You need not know all about the client’s profile, but at the same time, you should not be clueless. A basic LinkedIn search of the client name will give you enough information to personalize your cold call,
Try to find if you have any mutual contact in common in your basic research. You can use it to your benefit to build rapport. Try to find out the products and services that they are currently using. This information will help you explain to the prospect how your product or service is better than the product or service they are currently using.
5 Things To Avoid While Making Cold Call Opening Lines
Now that we know how to craft good cold call opening lines, it’s time to shed light on the things you should avoid at all costs.
1. Beating Around The Bush
You are talking to a prospect for the first time; they don’t know you. In such a scenario, beating around the bush is not a good idea. Stay focused!
When you are making a sales call, keep everything direct and crisp. Avoid wasting time and energy on the prospect and yourself. Talk only about the things that are relevant to make a conversion and eliminate all the unnecessary conversations. However, while doing it, remember to stay empathic.
2. Not Telling About Duration Of The Call
At the beginning of the sales call, tell the prospect about the expected length of the call duration. Having this information will help your client to focus on the call better.
If you do not tell the prospects about the call’s duration, they might keep wondering how long the conversation will last.
Therefore, to increase the commitment from your prospects, tell the time duration of the call beforehand. Further, ensure that it is not a lengthy call.
Everyone has their day planned, and your call was not in their schedule. Therefore, you do not have the liberty of saying that the call will last for 30 minutes or so. It needs to be a reasonable duration, so the prospect does not mind lending you a few minutes of their day.
3. Improper Tone
During a cold call, not only do the things you say matter, but the tone you use to communicate matters too. Your tone should be warm yet professional.
Further, be polite. At this stage, you need the prospects to make a conversion; it is not the other way round.
However, avoid having an extremely amiable tone. It will eliminate the professional touch from the discussion, making you appear unprofessional. Also, remember to sound confident.
Do not be very dominating and pushy while making the pitch. Know when to listen and when to interject.
4. Focusing Only On Yourself
The prime objective of cold calls is to make a conversion. As a result, most rookie sales reps fall into the me-me-me trap where they keep talking about themselves, their company, and their products and services.
Statements like
“We offer XYZ services.”
Or
“We’re the best at … ”
The prospects are not interested in knowing how well your company is working. They are more interested in learning how you can help them. So, stay focused on understanding their pain point.
Focus More On Them Instead Of Yourself
The opening line is a part of the first step of a sales process and, therefore, should focus more on the prospect than your company. A problem solving approach is required at this stage.
Instead of talking about your company, products, and services all the time, try to know their pain points, the challenges that they are facing, and how your product or service can help them.
Shift your focus from “me” to “them” in the cold call opening lines to keep the prospect interested.
5. Not Scheduling A Follow Up Call
The chances of closing a deal on the very first call are highly slim. You need to schedule the next call too. According to reports, 63% of the prospects need to hear a pitch at least three times to come on board. Many salespeople give up at the very first rejection that they face.
Schedule a follow-up call to ensure the conversion if you think the discussion was fruitful. Also, be persistent but not pushy when you work towards building a strategic follow-up with the prospect to walk towards the next step of the sales process.
Examples Of Cold Calling Opening Lines
We have covered the dos and don’ts of creating the perfect cold-calling opening lines. Let us now understand better how to craft the ideal cold call opening lines with the help of examples.
1. “Hello! I am XYZ working for ABC company. Is it a bad time to talk?”
In this cold call opening line, as a salesperson, you immediately introduce yourself as XYZ and the ABC company you work for in one statement. The name of your company comes in handy to build trust.
Further, you show your empathic nature by asking if it is a bad time or a good time to talk. If the prospect says, they are busy, instead of being pushy, politely ask when would be a good time to get in touch with them. It is an excellent way to create a friendly tone in the opening lines.
2. “Good morning. I must have caught you in your busy schedule. I am XYZ from ABC company. The reason for my call is …”.
The above cold call opening line acknowledges that you are disrupting their busy schedule. Your prospects are busy people who already have the entire day planned. Your call is a disruption for them.
Further, it shows your empathic nature. Remember that such a call is more about how you say something than what you actually say.
Most of the time, be prepared to get a positive answer that indicates that they are busy. However, you need not get disheartened.
If the answer to the previous question is yes, you can choose two strategies. Firstly, you can tell your prospect that you will be quick in your message. The second option is that you can ask them when is the right time to get in touch with them.
So, in a way, such opening lines help you to schedule a follow-up call that the prospect has themselves scheduled.
3. “Good Morning. I hope that it is a good time to talk (pause). My name is XYZ, and I am from ABC company. I would like to take two minutes to explain why I have called you.”
In this opening line, you have specified the time duration of the cold call. Sparing two minutes won’t be a big deal for the prospect, especially if they are slightly free.
Specifying the time duration further informs the prospect that you won’t be eating much of their time, and hence, they would most probably give you the go-ahead for the call. However, do not go for a time duration that is more than five minutes.
Requesting a five-minute call is reasonable; anything more than that is a no-no. Of course, the time duration can naturally increase if the prospect is interested in buying your products or services. In that case, it won’t be a problem.
However, if you are planning to introduce yourself and your company along with the value proposition, the time duration should be short.
Success Rates Of Cold Callings
Sometimes, even after designing excellent opening lines for a cold call, you might face rejection not only from one but multiple clients. The increased failure rate of cold calls might dishearten you.
However, that will not be the case if you know the actual success rates of cold calls.
It Takes Plenty Of Time To Land A Deal
Firstly, starting a proper conversation with a prospect takes approximately eight calls. Therefore, do not give up if your potential client delays the discussion in the first few calls. It is natural.
Secondly, if you are making 100 cold calls in a day, be prepared only to get around 28 of the calls answered. Not everyone will pick up your call. In fact, 17% of the numbers will be non-working, while the other 55% of the calls will go unanswered.
Thirdly, you will get one appointment if you devote 90 minutes of cold calls for five days straight. Even though it might look like a bad outcome, it is not. Even one appointment in five days through a cold call is a good outcome of cold calls.
Disheartening Stats Can Be Good
Even though these statistics look disheartening, it is what it is. Considering the low success rate of cold calls, you can regard any positive outcome as good. Now that you know the stats do not be disheartened if you face a massive amount of rejection. It is pretty normal.
However, you can increase the success rate of cold calls with the right opening lines.
The Benefits Of Cold Calling
One cannot help but wonder if the success rate of cold calls is low, why engage in it at all? Well, there are multiple reasons why cold calling is essential for a business.
It Helps You Reach New Customers
You can use cold calls to reach new customers. Even reaching out to one right customer can boost the revenue of your business, especially if it is a good customer. Further, these customers are the ones who will bring additional business to your company. Secondly, newbie sales professionals can use cold calling to improve their pitch and confidence before getting in touch with high-profile clients.
Meaningful Insights
Cold calls are also extremely helpful in gaining the necessary insights that might come in handy in the future. For instance, cold calls can throw relevant information about what are the current requirements of your target audience and whether your product or services have them incorporated or do they need to integrate something new.
Cost-Effective Strategy To Bring Business
Also, it is a cost-effective way of bringing sales to your business. By just spending a few bucks, you might get in touch with a prospect who can bring in dollars of revenue for your sales.
In short, even though the success rate of cold calling is low, any percentage of success is good. The ultimate aim of any business is to boost sales or revenue, and cold calls help you to do that.
by Team Lyne | Aug 10, 2022 | Agencies, Guides, Sales
Building a good rapport with potential customers can do wonders for heightening the chances of making a sale. However, starting a conversation with a client is not as easy as it looks.
Engaging with a potential customer requires you to shoot the questions in a manner that gives birth to natural conversations. Therefore, generic opening questions are a big no-no.
Sales reps often have a tiny window to build a genuine rapport with potential customers. Therefore, it is indispensable to use this short opportunity to best for making a sale. This is why rapport building questions are essential.
Before discussing what sort of rapport building questions you can ask to make a sale, let us first understand what precisely these questions are.
What Is a Rapport Building Question?
The ultimate aim of giving a prospect a call is to make sales. However, making sales is only possible when there is a meaningful conversation between the salesperson and the prospect.
Rapport building questions are the questions that are useful in creating a meaningful relationship with the prospect and that too in a short interval of time. It often helps the salesperson to break the ice.
With good rapport building questions, the salesperson can intelligently and subtly tell about the sales agenda. It is only when a salesperson builds a connection with a potential client that it becomes possible for the salesperson to sell a product or service.
With the right question, you can go beyond the surface level, superficial discussions and show genuine interest in helping the client. It helps in strengthening business relationships and building rapport.
Rapport building questions, as the name suggests, help you to build a rapport with the target audience. It keeps the conversation flowing and, in turn, creates a chance for positive outcomes for the business.
However, it is essential to understand that only good rapport questions are not enough; it is also equally important to come up with better follow-up questions and satisfactory answers for the clients too. Only then does the prospect feel that they are heard and understood. It
It will increase their confidence in you and will ensure them that they can rely on your capable hands.
To sum it up, rapport building questions are the questions that help the salesperson to connect with the potential client in a personal way. These questions help the salesperson initiate the sales pitch required to sell the products or services.
Unlike surface-level questions, these questions are engaging and lead to a discussion instead of a one-way conversation.
Let us now dig deeper to know the clear advantages of these questions.
Advantages Of Using Rapport Questions With Clients
As discussed above, we already know that rapport-building questions are critical to creating a meaningful relationship with a client which can ultimately help the salesperson to make the sales. However, there are plenty of other advantages too.
It’s time to check how rapport questions with clients can be beneficial.
1. More Sales
Firstly, the most important advantage of using rapport questions with clients is that it helps boost sales. A prospect will only invest in a product or service you sell when they know you are invested in the relationship.
Questions to build rapport improve the customer experience and guarantee a positive customer experience if done rightly. With a positive experience, the prospect has a higher chance of showing interest in the product or service that you are selling.
Lead acquisition becomes easier with good rapport questions, which further helps you expand your customer base. As a result, the sales productivity increases, and the business grows.
It helps increase the chances of conversion and often attracts more sales.
2. The Selling Process Gets Easier
Rapport building questions are good for establishing trust between you and your client. Not only do you get to know more about the client, but even the client gets to know you better. This bond is helpful in sales which mainly relies on transactional relationships.
The trustworthy relationship, in turn, makes the sales process extremely easy. With perfect trust, the clients know they can rely on you to offer solutions to their problems.
With the bridge of trust, the selling process smoothens up.
3. Better Reputation
A good rapport question promotes a better reputation both for you and your brand. With this reputation, it is also possible to set the desired price on the product or service you are selling, and the client will happily agree to the price because of the reputation.
Further, if you manage to give the client the perfect product or service after building a reputation, the customer feedback would be good too. In such a case, chances are high that they will not only leave a positive review but also recommend your product and service to others.
They can also trust you with the fact that you will offer them proactive customer service too. Also, it helps you to earn respect which can benefit you in the long run.
4. Helps You Stay Ahead In The Competition
You obviously know that your company is not the only one dealing with a particular product or service. The market is filled with many other competitors who will engage in similar rapport-building efforts. It is no secret that they will even reach out to the prospect to sell your products and services.
However, you can stand out amongst your competitors by building rapport. If your competitors are going with generic questions and you, on the other hand, are shooting the perfectly personalised rapport question, it is pretty apparent that the bond you will build with your client will be much better.
Authenticity with the rapport question is the key to building that perfect relationship with the client to stay ahead in the market competition. Unique questions will make them think and you might land up with an honest answer that can be helpful.
5. It Helps Build Trust
Building trust is essential in the sales process. Why would someone buy your product or service if they cannot trust you?
Therefore, building customer rapport through trust is of utmost importance. Rapport questions help you to build that trust with your client, which is essential to increase the conversion.
Preparing yourself with all the correct answers that can follow after the initial questions is crucial. Only when you have in-depth knowledge about the products and services you sell can you give a satisfactory answer.
Therefore, such questions should always be clubbed with satisfactory answers to increase the chance of lead conversion.
3 Best Ways To Build The Perfect Rapport In Sales
A good rapport building question does much more than break the ice between the salesperson and the prospect. It helps in lead conversion, which is pretty obvious by now. However, to increase sales, it is important to ask good rapport building questions and not just any questions.
Even though coming up with the right rapport question might look like a herculean task, it is not. Thankfully, there are plenty of ways to build customer rapport perfectly in sales.
Your search ends here if you are looking for ways to build the perfect customer rapport. Let’s get started with the details now.
1. Focus On Personalization
All the prospects are different; therefore, you cannot throw the same question to everyone and expect the same answers and sales. Further, if you do not personalise the rapport question, the client will quickly identify that you are simply asking a generic question.
The result is that the prospect will end up losing interest in you very quickly.
Therefore, personalise the questions instead of generic ones to build rapport to match the prospect’s interest. You must be wondering how exactly to do this personalisation.
Well, it’s easy. All you need to do is run a quick background check and collect the relevant information about the person and company they work for.
After empowering yourself with this knowledge, it will become easy to personalise the questions to drive the prospect’s interest.
2. Throw Unpredictable Questions
Almost all the sales calls start with the same introduction and information. It is easy for a client who has heard the same thing repeatedly to lose interest in the entire process.
It is, therefore, crucial to come up with something unique that can take your prospect off guard. It is the best strategy to build the interest of the prospect.
Think about a unique statement or question and personalise it to meet the client’s requirement, and you are good to have a good conversation with the prospect. However, please note that you must surprise the prospect and now shock them while building rapport. Do not be intrusive.
3. Show Commitment Towards Your Clients
If your prospect ever had a bad experience with any sales reps, it is natural for them to be sceptical, even for you. Therefore, it is important not only to tell but also to show your commitment to them.
One way of showing your commitment to the prospect is by actively listening to their problems and queries. You can only come up with the perfect solution for them by paying attention. Further, empathising with the prospect is critical too.
It will help you to earn their trust and, further, make the sales process more manageable. Therefore, you should frame your questions to show your commitment to them. Also, feel free to add a personal touch whenever necessary.
17 Effective Rapport Building Questions To Boost Your Sales
If you are wondering, what are a few good questions to build customer rapport? Don’t worry. We have got it covered. You can try the following rapport questions to boost your sales with a prospect.
1. Is it true about what people say about your city/state?
Questions related to city/state can work as a charm to break the ice. It can be as simple as asking, “Is truly New York a city that never sleeps?” The magic of this question is that it is a pretty open-ended question. Therefore, there is a lot of scopes for your client to talk about their experience.
This question is great for establishing a personal touch with your client while building customer rapport without actually getting personal. If you think that you can build a connection with the city/state question, always go for it.
2. What are your top recommendations if I pass through your city/state?
This question is again related to city/state. A question like this suggests that the opinion of your prospect matters to you. In other words, it will make them feel valued. Further, based on their recommendation about their city/state, you will get an idea about their preferences.
With this information, it will be easier for you to personalise your questions in a manner that can interest the prospect. You can also develop other relevant city/state questions and personalise them to meet the client’s requirements.
3. Do you work from the office or remotely?
During the pandemic, many employees were forced to work remotely. It was a new experience for many; therefore, it is a safe question to know more about their office setup.
Further, it will highlight the pros and cons of their setup. If possible, pitch a solution to make things easier for them.
Such career-related questions can often come in handy in starting the sales pitch quickly. Also, it will provide more insight into their work setup and help you pitch your solution correctly.
4. I noticed previously you worked in XYZ company. How smooth was the transition?
In the present era, job switching is common, but still, it comes with its own set of problems. Raising open-ended questions about their current or former companies will allow the prospect to tell you about their experience. Further, you might also discover mutual connections, which again will build your credibility factor.
Additionally, how they elaborate the answer will help you to identify the person’s personality. This knowledge can be extremely helpful in pitching a product or service better.
5. I noticed you had earned X certification. How was the journey?
It is one of the excellent career-related questions to ask for building customer rapport on a positive note with your prospect. This question will allow the prospect to discuss their skills and achievements. In turn, it will help them feel valuable
You can check the LinkedIn profile of the prospect to see if they have earned any recent certification to shoot this question.
People love to speak about their achievements, and you can allow them to flaunt their achievements with this question.
6. Are you affected by the current situation?
Previously, the pandemic happened, and now the entire globe is facing the wrath of inflation. You can use this situation to know more about the client’s pain point. Further, you can share your experience and create a common ground between the two.
Most of the employees are currently in the same boat. Therefore, it is a clever question to build a quick rapport with the prospect.
7. What do you hope to accomplish?
It is another open-ended question designed to effectively understand your prospective customers’ challenges and what they plan to achieve. This reflective question can successfully open the floodgate of emotions and help you to connect with the client and create an emotional bond.
Even though it is a simple question, it is a personal question that effectively can build rapport with potential clients. Further, such questions make them reflect, and this, in turn, gives rise to an interesting discussion.
8. Where were you working before joining the current company?
Good rapport building questions go beyond the yes and no answers. Whenever possible, go for open-ended questions.
Further, the key to good rapport building questions is asking questions where the potential customers get to talk more and deliver an honest answer. This question will help you to know about their past experiences and the reason why they switched job.
Such career-related questions can also help you to know their roles in the company and their previous experience. It gives you more insight into them, and you can use it as a tool to create other effective rapport building questions.
9. I read your LinkedIn/Blog Post on ABC. What are your views on XYZ?
Flattery can give you plenty of opportunities, especially in the sales department. However, you do not want the flattery to sound insincere. It needs to be genuine because people usually can smell insincere flattery from miles.
Therefore, in the background check, put some effort into checking whether the prospect has written a blog post or not. Furthermore, you can check for recent company announcement or stuff like if they are participating in any future speaking events.
Such information is beneficial in building a working relationship with your prospect and shows that you are genuinely interested in them.
Also, giving the prospect a chance to share their views on a topic gives them the feeling that they are important to you. It is a great question to break down the communication barrier and give them a chance to discuss something they are passionate about.
10. What brings you here?
If a prospective customer calls you, it is a great question to ask them. Even though you might not be physically present together in the same space, this question creates a feeling of togetherness.
Also, the question indicates that you are happy to solve all their problems and questions. Additionally, it also shows that you would be happy to know about their experience. After learning the problem and its pain point, you can then work ahead to provide an effective solution to the prospect.
11. What can I do to make things easier for you?
Raising this question indicates that you are empathic toward their problem. Further, it is the perfect question to create an understanding and friendly persona.
It also implies that you are there to help your client achieve their goals and make them as smooth as possible.
12. What are the top issues you are facing right now?
This is a powerful question because it can help you with a positive outcome to pitch your sales directly. Also, this question will allow gaining more insight into the problems that they are facing.
Agree whenever required and connect with them. When listening to their answer, show empathy. Further, when they are done explaining the pain point, offer the solution in a manner that can highlight the features of your product or service that you are selling.
Only when they realise that your product or service can solve their most significant issues will they be more inclined to know more about it, leading to easy conversion.
13. How long have you been working for XYZ company?
Asking the potential clients how long they have been working in a particular company will give you information regarding their experience. Someone who has spent years with a company will have much more information than a newbie who joined.
Along with it, you can also talk about sensitive business topics if you lead the conversation in the right direction. Also, it will give the idea of whether the person with whom you are talking has the decision power for the company or not.
14. What is your vision for the business?
This is a great question entrepreneur or someone in a company’s top position. People love to talk about their dreams and the vision of their company. You can dig this question deeper further by asking about their sales goals.
Once you know their business vision, you can then pitch how your product or service can be extremely helpful in helping them accomplish this goal. When a client feels that your product can really help them achieve their vision, they will be more interested in learning more about it.
15. You went to XYZ college. How was your experience there?
Choosing a college is never easy for anyone. Also, sometimes, it is hard to land in a perfect college. Therefore, asking this question is a wonderful way to help your client open up.
Additionally, in answering this question, they might share personal details with you, which can help build the trust factor with your prospect. Most of the time, this basic information is readily available with a quick search on LinkedIn.
16. Imagine all your problems were taken care of. How would that make you feel? What would you do?
Hypothetical questions are great questions to help the prospect dream, making the discussion all the more enjoyable. Further, it allows you to know the issues that they are facing.
With this knowledge, you can customise your pitch to solve the prospect’s pain point. Further, it allows them to realise the issues that they are facing. Sometimes, the prospect doesn’t even realise that there is a problem.
Asking such questions helps the prospect to raise the issue themselves. As a result, the pain point becomes genuine, and your solutions will make more sense to them.
17. What are you hoping this will lead to?
It is a critical question to build rapport that will shed light on the prospect’s expectations. Subsequently, it shows that you are open to offering them a solution that can actually add value.
By asking this question, you give them hope and indicate that you are here to help.
You can go for any of these rapport building questions to build the rapport and break the ice. Always remember to carry warmth in your tone and nurture the conversation as much as possible. Remember, allowing the other person to talk more is the most important thing.
Rapport Building For Clients Who Don’t Like Questions
Not everyone is good at answering questions. There are both vocal and non-vocal people in the world. Rapport building questions work great for the prospect who are confident in speaking and are vocal. However, a salesperson might face a problem while building rapport with clients who don’t like questions.
It can create a problematic situation. However, it is not a problem that cannot be solved.
For the clients who do not like questions, you can begin with simple questions like how are you or how is the day going? Asking these basic questions will push them to answer and will help them open up.
You can then begin with your introduction and tell the prospect how you know them. This will create a sense of familiarity between the two and will help push the conversation forward.
Instead of asking questions, you can then go ahead with statements like, “Generally, people working in your business or your role face XYZ issues. Are you facing any of such issues?” This is a close-ended question; a yes or no will help you better understand the prospect.
If the answer is yes, you can go ahead and start your sales pitch. However, if the answer is no, perhaps, you should get creative to make them realise there is actually an issue that your product or service can solve.
Further, maintain a warm tone while talking to such a client. Instead of making the conversation look like a forced interview, creatively turn it into a friendly discussion.
Top Qualities Before Building Rapport Question
Even though the above-discussed rapport building questions are good for making a conversion, to get the real question, you need to have the following set of qualities.
1. Research
We have already discussed how personalisation can help you in landing a conversion. However, personalising the rapport building questions is possible when you conduct thorough research.
It is easier to start a conversation after researching the person’s background and the company they work for. Carrying out research will help you to create an instant connection with them. You can even use something as basic as their hometown for striking up a conversation.
2. Go For A Personal Approach
Your ultimate goal is to sell your product or service, but the thing is that you are not selling it to a robot but an actual human being. Therefore, a personal touch is essential in leading the conversation.
Instead of jumping from one rapport question to another, take an interest in their answers and see if the answer can lead to another question or conversation that can help you to pitch your ideas.
3. Quick Value Addition
You are calling your prospect to sell and not to gossip. Therefore, it is vital to add value to the conversation in the early stage.
Why would someone talk to you if they feel that you won’t be adding any value? Without the value addition in the early stage, even the perfect question will fail to bring you success.
Bring in their immediate notice how you can help them solve their pain points. This will also help fetch a quick yes from the prospect and can drive the conversation more productively. No more beating around the bush!
Bonus: Things To Avoid While Asking Rapport Questions To Your Clients
To ensure that the rapport building questions work for your clients, it is equally important to avoid a few things. There are do’s for building good rapport. Similarly, there is a list of don’ts too that needs to be avoided while asking rapport questions to your client.
Here is a list of things you should avoid while asking rapport questions to your client.
1. Do Not Rush Things
A primary objective that will run through your mind is to close the deal. However, rushing the conversation to close the deal as soon as possible is a bad idea. It is because rushing through the discussion will show that you are simply interested in selling the product or service and are not interested in genuinely helping the prospect.
Most of the time, rushing things will fail!
In fact, rushing through the conversation will make it extremely difficult for you even to start your sales pitch. Therefore, keep the conversation natural and do not think about the time duration when dealing with a potential customer.
2. Do Not Ask Many Close-Ended Questions
Close-ended questions can put your client in a tight spot as they will have to take a clear stand, which is sometimes very difficult. Instead, try to go for open-ended questions.
Firstly, open-ended questions are more comfortable to answer. Secondly, it will throw more light on the views and opinions of the clients. However, remember to ask close-ended questions whenever you find it necessary.
3. Avoid Controversial Topics
Asking about the weather is safe; however, asking about political views can be extremely risky. When you are framing the rapport building questions, avoid contentious topics.
Always go for safe topics to avoid an argument with the prospect. Remember, you are here to sell your product and service and not to engage in any kind of debate.
4. Do Not Get Too Personal.
Sometimes during a background check, you might land your hands on deeply personal things about the prospect. Avoid any kind of too personal discussions. Even though you are trying to build a friendly and meaningful connection with the client, maintain a safe boundary
You need to ask personal questions to build a rapport; however, at the same time, you also need to ensure that you are not asking too personal questions. Respect the boundaries with the clients.
5. Not Paying Enough Attention
Your job doesn’t end with just throwing a question at your client. You need to give your full attention to the prospect. Only when you are paying full attention will you be able to lead the conversation to your benefit.
Irrespective of the distractions you might face, give your prospect your full attention. If your client is even aware that you are not giving them your full attention, the deal can go out of the window.
Conclusion
The prime objective of the rapport building questions is to go beyond the generic questions to know your prospect better. Therefore, always keep a personal touch and stay open to your pitches. Further, keep personalising your pitch to meet the client’s requirements.
You can create meaningful and loyal relationships with your client with the right question. Instead of just scratching the surface that most salespersons do, you get to develop a deeper relationship with the prospect with the right question.
Rapport building questions are a great way to increase the conversion correctly, which will benefit you both the short-term and long-term.
by Team Lyne | Jul 30, 2022 | Sales
What is intent data?
Intent data, simply put, is data collected to help predict someone’s intent, whether it’s intent to buy a product or service or do something else entirely. In business terms, it’s a way to generate promising leads. When you’re attempting to sell a product, you don’t just target anyone. You target those who have already displayed interest in the product through their web usage.
Using buyer intent data, you can narrow that field even more. If the data shows that a firm is researching anti-virus software, that “intent data” would be very valuable to companies that sell anti-virus software because it’s a sale waiting to happen. Likewise, if your company specializes in IT services, you’ll want to pitch to a company that’s specifically looking for IT services.
If you’re selling a product or service and you don’t have any leads, you’re forced to cast a very wide net. You’re then doomed to waste a lot of time pitching to clients that just aren’t interested. If you have leads, the net you have to cast shrinks. With highly qualified leads, it shrinks even more. That’s what intent data provides. It reduces the number of possible clients, leaving a bigger percentage of probable clients.
How to use Intent Data
Intent data works by giving you a peek into a potential client’s web usage. By looking at what someone does on the web, the companies that gather this data can learn about that person’s interest. They’ll take into consideration their content consumption, such as what websites they go to and what pages they read. From that point, it’s just a matter of putting that information together into a coherent picture.
If a web user frequently visits a certain website, it’s safe to assume that they’re interested in whatever topic that website covers. If they specifically read articles covering a niche aspect of that topic, then their interests become even clearer.
Researching the person is just as important as researching their interests. This is because if the person is employed by a certain company, their web usage could shed light on the company’s intentions. Once you identify someone’s employer, you could shift your focus to other employees and their usage. If multiple employees are showing interest in the same thing – accounting software, for interest – it could indicate that the company they work for is looking to adopt new accounting software.
You could make the argument that these people could find their way to you eventually. After all, you are selling the product that they’re interested in. However, solid intent data can help you identify buyer interest while they’re still in the research phase, giving you a definite advantage over the competition. It also allows you to swoop in there and close the deal before they decide to go in a different direction.
Another major benefit of intent data is it allows you to tailor your product or service to the potential client. Instead of them coming to you and you trying to modify your product to fit their needs, you’re coming to them with something that already addresses every need that they have.
Of course, any hard work outlined above doesn’t apply to you, because you’re simply purchasing the intentdata after someone else has already compiled all of it.
How is it gathered?
Mentioned briefly above, content consumption is at the heart of intent data. Third-party vendors, the ones you’ll be purchasing the data from, are constantly collecting and cataloging the online research done by a myriad of companies. That data is then compiled and a baseline is determined to show how often, on average, a company reads up on a certain subject.
Thanks to the baseline, these vendors can now see when interest in a certain topic spikes. That spike likely indicates that a company is showing special interest in that topic, and if it’s a topic that relates to a certain product or service, it could indicate an intent to purchase.
A lot of different metrics factor into these baselines, including how long is spent on a page, how many individual consumers visited the page, and even how quickly they scrolled through. The amount of content consumed, such as videos being watched, is also tracked.
There are other, more straightforward means of collecting intentdata, too. For example, if you have a social media ad in place, anyone who clicks on that ad is ostensibly interested in what you’re selling. Likewise, anyone who subscribes to a newsletter that you offer, or one that’s relevant to your product or service, is probably interested in what you’re selling. This lead data is just as valuable, though it’s not as proactive and is similar to waiting for the client to come to you.
What types of intent data are there?
There are two major types of intent data: first-party and third-party.
Whether you realize it or not, if you sell something through a website, you’ve likely already taken advantage of first-party intent data. You can collect this through any analytics tool that you use to track the activity on your website. Tracking the number of IPs coming in and clicking on different products is gathering intentdata: you’re seeing what’s garnering the most attention on your website to help predict what’s going to sell.
This sort of data is easy to come by, but it’s not the most effective. For starters, without the use of IP identification software, all of this data will be anonymous. It will tell you how many people are interested in a specific product, but not who those people are, so you wouldn’t be able to pursue that sale. This sort of research is better used to determine what products are the most popular, rather than the intent of individual buyers.
The other major drawback to first-party intent data is that you’re only collecting data from people who have already come to your website when there’s a much bigger pool of buyers that might not even know your website exists.
Third-party intent data can provide you with a much bigger picture of a prospective client’s journey. Anyone who’s ever made a big purchase online likely did substantial research before finally going to the website that sells the product. If you’re researching 4K Blu-ray players, you’re going to comb through all of the tech sites and blogs before finally going to Amazon and making the purchase. With third-party intent data, all of this initial research is factored in.
The most effective way to apply intent data is to use both first-party and third-party data. There’s no reason to choose one over the other, especially when the data they provide is a bit like apples and oranges. They tell you different things, meaning you can take both and form a better profile of your buyer.
What are the best buyer intent data tools?
Leads are vital to effective sales marketing and intent data is an invaluable way to generate solid leads. That’s why it’s no surprise that several intent data tools have popped up across the Internet.
Leadfeeder
The best thing about Leadfeeder is that the basic version is free. If you want the premium version, it’s still only $63 a month, which is very affordable. Leadfeeder tells you all about companies that visit your website. The service offers a range of filters that allow you to sort companies by all sorts of criteria so you can zero in on your ideal prospect.
ZoomInfo
ZoomInfo is a database that offers up all sorts of information on prospective clients. It also integrates with several tools and features a Google Chrome browser extension. At $4,900 a year, it’s not cheap, but there is a free trial that allows you to test the waters.
KickFire
This is another service that offers first-party intent data by tracking and identifying who visits your website. The downside, as discussed earlier, is that first-party data doesn’t help you bring clients to your website. That said, it’s still useful information, and KickFire provides a lot of it. There’s no set price for the service because it’s based on volume.
DemandJump
Not only does DemandJump help you track potential customers across the Internet, but they also give you information on your competitors, so you can see exactly what you’re up against. The base plan is $99 a month and that lets you track 25 keywords and 3 competitors. The more you want to track, the more it’s going to cost you.
TechTarget Priority Engine
If you’re looking for third-party intent data, TechTarget’s Priority Engine can get you just that, as well as contact information for potential clients. Like KickFire, they don’t offer upfront prices, meaning customers need to call to get a quote.
What Is B2B Intent Data?
Above we discussed the possibility of consumers searching for products on behalf of a business. This would generate B2B intent data, with B2B meaning “business-to-business.” Think of the relationship between a manufacturer and a retailer. Intent data can also help you market towards consumers, but for companies that sell to other businesses, B2B intent data is a crucial factor.
Serious about B2B sales? Learn the 5-step framework to effectively hyper-personalizing any cold email
This sort of data is plentiful if you know where to look, which is why there are so many companies popping up that specialize in analyzing the web usage of potential clients. Opening and engaging with emails, clicking on targeted advertisements, searching for and downloading informational content, and just browsing in general all translates to quality, effective intent data.
How To Leverage Intent Data?
Companies (and really anyone selling a product) can leverage intent data by prioritizing a market that’s already itching to buy what they’re selling. Without any leads, you’re effectively cold-calling potential clients, which can be a monumental waste of time. In most businesses, lost time equals lost money.
With intent data highlighting those who are very likely to want your product, you can focus on those clients and those clients alone, making the most of your time. There’s no such thing as a sure thing in sales, but with the leads generated from intent data, sellers can get as close as possible to already done deals.
Intent data doesn’t just show you who’s interested in your product, it also shows you who has no interest whatsoever. That data can be just as useful, as it reveals a section of consumers that you don’t need to bother engaging with. This can save you valuable time, which you can devote only to customers who are more likely to turn into clients.
What Are the Types of Intent Data?
In addition to first-party and third-party intent data, which we discussed above, you can also make a distinction between known and anonymous data. Known data is when the prospect knowingly gives their data, usually through an action like filling out an online form. If the form is located on your website, that’s known first-party data. If the form in question is filled out on a different website and the information is then picked up by an intent data company, that’s known third-party data.
However, if the prospect doesn’t intentionally hand over their data, and their data is instead gathered through their IP address, that constitutes anonymous data. The prospect at some point agreed to have data collected, but it’s not “known” intent data because they didn’t hand over the data themselves.
Then there’s second-hand intent data. This is simply first-hand intent data that you’ve purchased from somebody. It’s not like third-party data, where promising leads are scraped from web usage. This is when a prospect comes to a certain website, that website collects their data, and then you buy that data from them. It’s very limited in that all the information came from a single site and doesn’t tell you anything about the prospect’s behavior anywhere else on the web.
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by Team Lyne | Jun 10, 2022 | Cold email, Sales
Sales engagement platforms, commonly referred to as SEPs, are powerful tools designed to help your sales team achieve success. The best SEPs will integrate with your existing CRM and communication tools, allowing you to automate several of the more tedious tasks that take up valuable selling time.
These powerful automation and integration tools help to streamline the sales process, enabling your team to spend more of their time with customers. Sales engagement platforms can significantly help with lead generation, prospecting, and closing deals.
As a sales leader, you’ll have access to a robust set of analytics, providing you with valuable insight into the performance and productivity of your staff.
How to Choose Your Sales Engagement Platform
Sales engagement platforms are designed to help your sales team reach its goals faster. With so many options available, it can be challenging to decide which platform is right for you. To help you make your decision, we’ve created a list of the top 5 SEPs to consider based on the following criteria:
Innovation. To stay ahead of your competition, you want your sales team to use the most cutting-edge software available. The sales engagement platform you choose should demonstrate a commitment to launching innovative updates with new and exciting features for their customers.
Uniqueness. With so many SEPs available on the market, our top 5 needed to include unique and valuable features that set them apart from their competition.
Ease of use. Sales engagement platforms should be easy to use, with a simple, intuitive interface for salespeople of all experience levels. They should also integrate seamlessly with existing sales and customer interaction tools to ensure that they improve workflow.
Our Top 5 Sales Engagement Platforms
Here are the top five sales engagement platforms you need to consider in 2022.
Considered the fastest-growing and largest SEP available, Outreach excels in streamlining lead generation, customer relationship management, and campaign management.
The platform helps to track customer touchpoints throughout the sales cycle. Using automation tools, sales reps can map out email sequences, schedule phone calls, and use various effective email templates to improve workflow and increase sales.
Established Player
Outreach was established in 2014 and has since been a long-time leader in the SaaS sales engagement platform space. They’ve been listed on Forbes 100 best cloud companies every year since 2018 and are backed by Salesforce as well. They are the trusted SEP for 19 of the 25 fastest-growing public software companies, including Zoom, Microsoft, and DocuSign.
Constantly Innovating
Manny Medina, CEO, stated that innovation is at the heart of the Outreach.io mission. He said this as he accepted the Tech Impact innovation award from Seattle Business Magazine in 2017. In their fierce commitment to innovation, Outreach continues to acquire new companies to create an even more robust offering to their customers.
Apollo is a data-first sales platform that integrates with your existing tech stack to make it even more powerful. Sales teams can leverage precise targeting and filtering capabilities with data-based prospecting to develop the perfect list of companies and prospects. The extensive prospecting tools make outreach more efficient and effective, improving results.
Phenomenal Value
Based on their competition and robust offerings, Apollo offers some of the most attractive pricing plans in the space. There is even a Free option for users looking to experiment with the tool without ever needing to make a full commitment.
Rich in Prospecting Tools and Data
Apollo’s Chrome Extension gives sales teams the ability to not only scrape LinkedIn but any company website on the internet for verified email addresses and contact information.
This machine learning platform studies activity patterns and can intelligently suggest leads to pursue using effective hyper-targeted segmentation to improve open and response rates. Sales teams can even split tests their outreach efforts and make necessary changes to their messaging based on a broad set of analytics.
All-in-One Solution
Apollo is a powerful and affordable all-in-one solution. This data-driven platform offers:
- Precise targeting capabilities;
- Email and calling automation;
- Data-backed analytics tools for more effective prospecting;
- CRM enrichment tools.
Autoklose is an all-in-one sales engagement platform and verified B2B database all in one. It is trusted by prominent market leaders, including IBM, VMware, and PayPal. The integrated outreach tools and massive database make it easier for sales teams to scale their prospecting efforts and close deals much faster.
Rich in Features
Autoklose integrates a comprehensive set of features and tools to make the sales team’s lives easier. Sales reps can quickly find potential customers through the outreach platform, improve their messaging with the email-automation tool, and better manage their email campaigns using highly targeted email sequences.
The comprehensive dashboard gives sales leaders the ability to monitor the performance of their teams, both at a high level and an individual level.
Helpful Tools to Make Life Easier
In addition to the rich set of features, there are also built-in tools to help sales professionals work more effectively. These tools include but are not limited to built-in email verification, spam checkers, email volume throttling, and message writing assistance.
Affordable Pricing
Autoklose is affordable and trusted by sales teams of all sizes. Sales reps can get started right away with a $59.99 monthly plan, which includes unlimited contact uploads, campaign creation, tracking, and follow-ups. For those looking to test the tool, no credit card is required for the 14-day trial.
Woodpecker is an intuitive cold email tool that facilitates client outreach and business partner relationship nurturing for B2B companies. Email campaign sequences can be tailored to the recipients’ responses and behavior, using basic script templates and elements of personalization.
Email Deliverability
Woodpecker uses a unique algorithm that ensures maximum deliverability to the intended prospect’s primary inbox. Email addresses are verified in real-time, reducing bouncebacks.
Advanced Campaign Features
Woodpecker’s software learns from past email sends and can intelligently suggest the correct recipients to pitch by understanding which companies are most likely to respond. Sales professionals can create an outreach campaign in just a few minutes, customizing it with their own messaging and integrations along the way.
Great Agency Features
Woodpecker provides a number of lead generation agency features, including one-click logins to each of your different client accounts and an easy-to-use client dashboard. Woodpecker’s email management and sequence capabilities make it possible to manage various email campaigns for several different agency clients at once, with ease.
Outplayhq is a sales engagement platform that enables multi-channel sales engagement across various platforms, including LinkedIn, chat, SMS, Email, Phone, and even Twitter. Using smart sales sequences, the sales team can constantly stay connected with their leads, improving their ability to book meetings and increase sales. This best-in-class platform has won awards for Best Support, Easiest to do Business With and High Performer in the Small and Mid-Market business sectors.
Advanced Personalization Options for Email Campaigns
With a mix of automation and personalization, sales reps can customize email templates with customer information to increase their likelihood of engagement. The platform also sends customizable follow-ups that are triggered by the prospect’s behavior, giving sales teams an edge when it comes to reaching leads at scale.
Magic Outbound Chat
Sales teams will receive an instant notification the moment one of their outbound sequence prospects lands on your company website. Sales reps can then engage the prospect via a real-time chat while the prospect is the most interested.
Advanced-Data & Insights Into Campaigns
Sales reps can make informed business decisions based on the real-time data of each of their outbound campaigns. The reporting and analytics provide clear insight into what moves the sales needle forward and the recommended next steps to drive revenue growth.
Bonus: Salesgear
Salesgear is a multi-channel sales engagement platform that helps SDRs engage prospects via email, LinkedIn and phone calls. Sales teams can create highly personalized playbooks and execute them without having to leave the Salesgear platform. With strong integrations across CRM solutions and also with Gmail, Outlook and Slack, Salesgear lives where your team lives.
AI based Writing Assistant
The Salesgear Writing Assistant helps users create compelling email content and subject lines. It helps create multiple versions of the copy automatically, which can then be used in A/B testing
campaigns to arrive at the best working content.
Multiple inboxes
The biggest challenge for outbound campaigns is scale. With multiple inboxes, your outbound email campaigns can be scaled exponentially. With auto, smart assignment of inboxes, sequences are executed at great speed without impacting the email deliverability and domain reputation.
Email deliverability
Even when you create the greatest content, it matters only if the email gets delivered to the inbox. When you send 100 emails and only 25 land in the inbox, you lose 75% of the business right there. Salesgear’s algorithms ensure that you get more than 90% emails delivered to your prospects’ inboxes.
Best Sales Engagement Platforms: the Conclusion
Sales engagement platforms are becoming an integral part of sales teams’ ongoing success. With so many options to choose from, it’s important to consider the features and functionality that will be most helpful for your own business needs. When evaluating each platform, focus on what makes them unique and how they can help improve your team’s ability to drive revenue growth.
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by Team Lyne | Dec 15, 2021 | Sales
Are you finding it hard to find rebuttals for common sales objections? Keep reading to find the best rebuttals for the 8 most common sales objections.
Many sales reps find themselves in the difficult position of having to deal with objections on sales calls. While it can feel demorsalizing in the moment, it’s important to remember that rejection is simply a part of the sales process. However, any sales professional can turn an objection into an opportunity with the right attitude and a little preparation.
What are Sales Objections?
Sales objections are the reasons that buyers give for not wanting to buy a product or service. They can be anything from concerns about the price to doubts about the product’s quality or suitability for their needs.
Objections aren’t exclusive to any particular part of the sales cycle either. You could be met with an objection during any of the following stages of the sales process:
Lead Generation: Cold calling campaigns to generate new leads
Lead Nurturing: The process of qualifying and scoring warm leads
Deal-Closing: Guiding the prospect towards a sale
Post-Sale: Attempts to bring the prospect back through the sales funnel after a purchase
While some objections are warranted, others may just be bad timing or based on misunderstandings about your product or service. In either case, a well-crafted rebuttal can help you maintain control of the conversation – ensuring that you don’t miss any opportunities to re-engage your prospect.
To help you prepare for future sales objections, we’ve compiled a list of the most common ones you’re likely to encounter, along with the best rebuttals to overcome them.
8 Common Sales Objections and the Best Rebuttals to Use
Objection: “I’m not interested.”
Salespeople across every industry have become accustomed to hearing this common sales objection. You may have even used this yourself when getting spammy sales calls for student debt relief or extended warranties on cars that you don’t even own.
This first objection is often an impulsive reaction to a sales pitch. It typically has anything to do with you, so don’t take it personally.
Rebuttals:
The best way to deal with this type of objection is not to contradict your prospect. Instead, empathize with how they feel, share an example of someone who felt the same way they do, and then offer them a solution.
Response option #1
“I understand, (name). My client XYZ felt the same way when I first gave them a call, and now they’re using our solution to improve X within their business. If you’re too busy right now, would tomorrow at X or Y time be a better time to reconnect?”
Response option #2
“(name), I completely understand why you wouldn’t be interested; you sound like you’re quite busy today. My client X from (business name) was buried in work as well when I first reached out to them, but today they’ve seen a huge improvement in their productivity since using our product. What is your availability this week so we can continue this conversation at a time that’s better for you?”
Objection: “We’re already working with your competitor.”
This objection is common, especially when selling a service, product, or enterprise software in a competitive market. The critical thing to note is that there is still an opportunity for you here. They’ve already invested in a similar solution which means they do have a need for the type of product or service you’re offering.
Although overcoming this objection is challenging, it isn’t impossible. They may be using a competing product, but they haven’t revealed whether or not they’re happy with their current provider.
Rebuttals:
In this case, you’ll want to identify the competitor and any existing pain points in their current solution. Ask questions that will enable you to share some of the highlights of your products while getting them to consider whether or not their existing solution was the correct choice. It helps to be an expert in your competitors’ products as well as your own.
Response option #1
“That’s great to hear! Many of our happy customers were using that solution in the past as well. In your experience, has (competitor’s) lack of (list 2 features) made it challenging to perform (task) and achieve your desired results?”
Response options #2
“That’s great – they’re definitely a top-rated company in this space. Many of our customers were using them as well before they switched to our product for the added benefits of (unique feature 1) and (unique feature 2).”
Objection: “It’s too expensive” / “Your price is too high.”
This objection is to be expected when you’re selling a high-ticket item or service. The prospect may feel like they’re overpaying for something if they don’t fully understand its value to their time and business. It’s important to remember that the price objection is usually a negotiating tactic or a failure to fully grasp your solution’s benefits. It’s not often a reflection of someone’s actual ability to pay for your product or service.
Rebuttals:
The best way to respond is to focus on the value that they’ll be getting in return for the price they’re paying. While money is important, it isn’t everything, so be sure to highlight any time savings or growth opportunities that they’ll gain from using your product or service.
Response option #1
“I understand where you’re coming from, (name). Ultimately, it really comes down to how you value your time. For example, how much time do you lose each week doing X, Y, and Z tasks? How could you better use that time if our solution reduced those hours to a few short minutes? Could you increase your sales, achieve faster growth, or even improve your work-life balance? I’d love to show you how!”
Response option #2
“I’m glad you mentioned that, (name). If you feel that way, I probably should have done a better job of explaining our solution’s incredible benefits. What if I could show you how our product will save you X hours per week, with the help of Y feature? What if it helped eliminate the pain points in (task) and (task)? Would that make a difference?”
Objection: “Can you just send me the information in an email?”
Prospects will resort to this clever tactic when they’re trying to get you off the phone. At this point, they’ve likely already decided that they don’t have a use for your product, but they’re trying to spare your feelings.
Rebuttals:
Now that you’ve read this helpful guide, you’ll be able to see right through this kind of objection. By sending them some sales whitepapers of your products, there’s a good chance your email will end up right in their inbox trash bin. Before sending any information their way, try to further qualify them as a prospect by getting them talking with some open-ended questions.
Response option #1
“Sure, I’d love to send you some information. However, since I don’t want to waste your time by sending you information that you don’t need, could I ask you a few quick questions? I want to make sure you’ll only get information that interests you and is relevant to your business.”
Response option #2
“No problem, (name). I’ve got some great documents that I’d be happy to send your way. Before I do, I want to make sure you only receive information that is relevant and helpful to your business. Are there any specific things that you look for when evaluating a new solution like ours?”
Objection: “Is this a sales call?”
This objection can quickly stop you in your tracks, but don’t let it catch you off guard. While this is technically a sales call, an expert salesperson like you shouldn’t make the call feel that way at all. Instead, shift your response by reassuring them that you’re only trying to learn more about their business and want to help them achieve their goals.
Rebuttals:
The best way to overcome this objection is to get the prospect talking about themselves and their business. You don’t want to come off as just another spammy sales pitch. Instead, focus on building a relationship with them rather than selling them something. Once you’ve established some rapport, you can start to incorporate your pitch into the conversation more organically.
Response option #1
“My intention isn’t to try and sell you anything today, (name). I want to learn more about your goals and to see what aspects of your business are preventing you from achieving success. Would you consider answering a few quick questions about your business goals?”
Response option #2
“I understand why you feel that way, but I assure you that I don’t know enough about you or your business to try and sell you anything today. Truthfully, I would actually love an opportunity to learn more about your goals and get a better understanding of the struggles and pain points you’re facing. Would you mind if we talked a little more about your business?”
Objection: “This isn’t a good time.”
This objection is common among busy professionals who don’t want to take time out of their day for a sales call. While they may be in the process of a reorganization or have maxed out their quarterly spend, odds are they’re just trying to get you off the phone.
Rebuttals:
To overcome this objection, you’ll need to be very understanding and show genuine interest in their business. Try scheduling a follow-up call or ask if there’s a better time for them to talk.
Response option #1
“I completely understand. I don’t want to take up too much of your time, so why don’t we schedule a more convenient time for you. When would be the best time this week?”
Response option #2
“No problem, (name). Is the bad timing due to a stressful business transition or something else? I’d be happy to put some time on my calendar on a day that’s more convenient for you.”
Objection: “I’m the wrong person to talk to about this.”
This objection typically comes from a prospect who doesn’t have the authority to sign off on a purchase. Don’t be afraid to use this as an opportunity to try and get in touch with a decision-maker in the business.
Rebuttals:
Your first instinct may be to apologize and thank them for their time. You may also consider asking them for the contact information of the appropriate person. In reality, the best rebuttal is to try and get them to introduce then transfer you directly to the decision-maker, increasing your chances of getting in touch with them.
Response option #1
“I completely understand, (name). Would you help me by giving me the name of the decision-maker in your organization? I’d appreciate it if you could transfer me to them.”
Response option #2
“I’m sorry for the inconvenience, (name). Would you be able to put me in touch with the decision-maker? I would love an introduction if you’d be able to facilitate that.”
Objection: “I need to get more quotes first.”
When you get this objection, your prospect could be brushing you off, or they could very well be shopping around with your competitors. If they are pricing out their options, it’s your job to find out what their top priorities are in the decision-making process.
Take the time to ask questions, and be sure to probe a little deeper. Find out their budget and see if you can work within those constraints. You may also want to ask them their timeline for making a decision. Additionally, you’ll want to determine whether they’re looking for the best price, customer service and support, unique features, ease of use, or another key factor.
Rebuttals:
It’s common for prospects to want to shop around and get more quotes before moving forward with a purchase. Your best bet is to provide as many compelling reasons as possible as to why your product or service would be preferable over your competitors.
Response option #1
“I completely understand, (name). If I were in your shoes, I’d probably feel the same way. Can we discuss what your top priorities are in the decision-making process? It will help me ensure that I’m providing you with the best value possible while making sure that our solution will be able to meet your needs.”
Response option #2
“I completely understand your hesitation to make a decision without considering all of your options. Would you mind sharing your top priorities when it comes to making this purchase? Is it the best price, the customer service, support, unique features, or something else? I want to make sure that the solution we’ve quoted meets your needs and aligns with your other options.”
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Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
How do you handle rebuttals in sales?
To handle sales rebuttals, involve yourself in active listening. Give your prospect all the time to speak and internalise the problem. After understanding the problem, paraphrase the issue and confirm it to ensure you understand the objection correctly. Provide solutions whenever possible, and if not possible, simply acknowledge the objection.
How do you respond to sales objections?
To respond to the sales objections, listen carefully without interrupting. After listening to the objection, ask the required questions to understand the objections in detail. It will also buy you some time to think about whether you have a solution or not. If you can provide a solution, explain it to the prospect in detail to help them understand the value that the solution brings.
What are common sales objections?
The most common sales objections are lack of budget, lack of priority and lack of trust, especially if your company is a small business or a start-up. A prospect also often raises objections citing that they do not have a problem.
How do you respond to a no in sales?
A good salesperson should know that rejection is part and parcel of life. Respect the decision of the prospect and understand the reason behind their rejection. Acknowledge their point of view to make them feel valued, and finally, let go of the prospect calmly and without taking anything personally.
Why are rebuttals important in sales?
Rebuttals are necessary in sales to convert a “no” or “maybe” to a “yes. With rebuttals, you help the prospect to understand more about the value that the product or service brings to the table.
Rebuttals: the Conclusion
There you have it, the best rebuttals for the 8 most common sales objections. Keep these rebuttals in mind when you’re faced with any of these objections, and you’ll be able to overcome them with ease. Take some time to rework these rebuttals to suit your particular solution and industry. The more time you invest in crafting your rebuttals, the more effortless it will be to use them in your customer calls.
Source: Salesforce
Remember to focus on building a relationship with your prospect and always put their needs first. They’ll start to see you as a true partner rather than just another salesperson. It’s a common misconception that sales is all about pitching and closing, but the best sales reps know that it’s really just one major relationship-building exercise.
If you’re looking for more sales inspiration, consider listening to some of these top sales podcasts from industry professionals that were once in your shoes.
Good luck out there, and happy selling!
