Tactics To Prevent Rejection in Sales

Posted by ImageWorks Creative Team August 31, 2012

Manta, one of the top citation sites out there, and one that you definitely NEED (not want - NEED) to get your company listed in, recently released an amazing article about how you should handle cold calling potential clients while prospecting.

The article is written by Manta's Larry Prevost and titled "7 Ways to Deal With Rejection Before It Happens."

Manta does an amazing job with capturing clients, mainly well, because their service works, but also because their sales reps are very knowledgeable and very good at their job. There are many different perks to signing up with manta (Here is our manta page) and any sales rep that you talk to will gladly take the time to tell you about them. Here are some of the perks.

  • Citation sites like Manta are great for search engine optimization (SEO). Especially local SEO and online brand verification
  • Citation sites like this have many users and their own little communities of people that rely on these type of sites to deliver the information they are looking for about potential service providers or companies that they are working with.
  • These citation sites are also absolutely EVERYWHERE in the search engine results pages (SERPs). They can bring you tons of traffic just because people will be visiting your Manta profile page via the SERPs.
  • Manta delivers you metrics on how your profile page is performing, including the most important thing: Visits to your site from Manta. They also offer a variety of packages that will help gain online visibility.

If you are only going to go with a few citation sites, then we highly recommend using Manta as one of them, and we always make sure you are properly set up in the citation site whenever clients sign up for our Business Visibility Booster package. It's just an absolute must (even if you are only going to go with the free listing option).

More about the article...

Like I've been saying, Manta has a terrific sales team, which is very impressive since cold calling and outreach is one of the toughest things to do in the sales world (especially when online tactics seem to be shifting towards more inbound strategies). And it’s no surprise why after reading some of the outreach advice given in the article:

  • Always Know Whom You Are Calling. This is different when it comes to B2B calls versus B2C. Unlike B2B business calls, you never know who is going to answer the phone when it comes to B2C (this is because in B2B you can actually dial a person's exact extension number, where in B2C, anyone at the home can pick up the phone. In the case of the latter, find out your potential customer's name and hold a conversation with them. In the case of the B2B sales call, there is no excuse not to know the person's name and really everything about them that you can find out.
  • Always Mind Your Surroundings. It might sound a little odd that you should mind your customer's surroundings when you can't even see them, but it is something that you should definitely do! Use your ears and listen to see if they are in their car, out buzzing about, or for anything that might distract the phone call, and address it.
  • Always Ask a Question Bearing on Time. When working at a restaurant, one of the first things a server might ask you is “if you are on time constraints.” The same would be for the sales call. You want to make sure you let it be known that your message and what you have to say is important, but you do not want to make them feel like they are subjected to having to drop everything just hear what you have to say.
  • Always Show Respect for Your Prospect's Resources. “Remember that your product or service will live in their environment. And in their environment, they are king.." - I think this is all you need to say when talking about showing respect for your prospects.
  • Always Tell Your Prospect That You Appreciate Their Perspective. Respecting your prospects opinion is another part of respecting your prospect. On top of that, you might actually learn something from your prospect if you do some of the listening to the prospect yourself - which coincides with the next point...
  • Always Listen To What Your Prospect Is Saying. "Do not just substitute the appearance of listening for actual listening." Shifts in posture and voice can reflect a change of thought. You need to know if these changes in thought are either good or bad, and you can only do this by being very attentive and very observant.
  • Always Be Aware of the Results You Are Getting Back. Look for signs that your prospect might be disinterested and try to adjust to get them engaged. If you are using tactics that regularly call for rejections, adjust your tactics and adapt. Those that cannot change or adapt well to customer behavior are the sales reps that aren't going to make it. Your approach must constantly be evolving.

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