Written by: David Light
“Hello John this is Peter Piper with The Pickled Pepper Company. Have I caught you at a bad time? <pause> I guess that depends on what I’m calling about – right?”“How can I help you Peter.”“Two minutes of your time and I’m gone.”“Okay – shoot.”“John, we work with owners who sit in your chair who have a Grenade or a Time Bomb sitting on their desk waiting to go off.”“Okay Peter, there’s a bomb on my desk, what next?”“What color is the bomb?”“It’s red with a yellow stripe around it.”“Hmmm….How big is it?”“It’s the shape and size of a loaf of bread.”“Ha ha, what have you done to defuse it or get rid of it?”“We called in the Big Name consulting firm, they started by telling us the history of explosive devices, taught our people how to ignore bombs, how to pretend they aren’t there and then charged us $100k. We’re back where we started.”“If you don’t defuse the bomb – what do you think is going to happen? To you personally? Your job, livelihood, or your career?”“Peter, (starting to sob) no pickle salesperson ever asked me that before – but it’s really all I think about every morning when I walk into my office – it’s driving me nuts. I don’t know how you fix this with pickles, and frankly I don’t care how you do it or what your pickles cost! Get in your car and get over here now! … please….”
To have an engaged conversationwith an Executive or Money Buyer you’d better be prepared to talk about a bomb that is sitting on his desk with a timer ticking steadily to zero.
When running a company there are two areas of important conversation:
Important and urgent (bombs with a fast fuse). Important and not urgent (bombs with a slow fuse).Either you are calling to talk about something that directly relates to one of these important issues sitting on the Executive or Money Buyer’s desk or you are gone.
That’s because there are only two states of business existence for a salesperson talking with the C-suite: relevant or irrelevant.
And although they may be cordial the first time, if you prove yourself to be irrelevant you will not have a second chance to encore that bad impression.Related:
Sales Faith: Getting up One More Time Than You Get Knocked Down Creating a phone conversation at this level then takes seven key components:
Intro: “name and company in a slow calm manner: elocution is huge, no nick names: Steven not Steve; David not Dave. Otherwise not a word about you until he’s asked you twice to explain what you do. Even then 5 seconds on you and back to him. Heightened respect for time: “Is this a bad time?” Or, if you prefer, “Is this a good time? – “2 minutes and I’m gone.” –“our 2 minutes are up, and I want to respect your time. “We can continue our conversation now, finish up at another time, (pause) or if you prefer, we’re done – you choose.” Attitude of concerned detachment: quell any emotion or enthusiasm, “I want to be your friend” stuff.CEO’s need funds, not friends. 10 second drill: first sixth of a minute practiced intensely with every possible retort. 170 second drill: prepared RTQ’s (reality testing questions) practiced thoroughly for any answer they might throw at you. Professional tone of voice carried throughout, try standing while talking. It drops the voice, increases timbre and steadies the breathing. Before you make the call take a deep breath and think one simple thought – “I never heard of this company before this morning and if they aren’t interested in talking to me 5 minutes after this call I won’t even remember this guy’s name.”
