If you’re in sales, likelihood is that you’ve been hung up on at some point. You’ve been THAT salesperson, the annoying one that’s bugged a prospect with a call they didn’t want. Want to know how to avoid being seen as THAT salesperson? Well, you need the three W’s and the three P’s.

First up, the three W’s

Who are you calling, what company they work for and, most importantly, why they should be interested in you. That’s right, it’s not about who you are and why you’re calling – it’s all about the prospect.

Yes, you need to know who you are calling in advance. And what they are interested in. It seems like a tough ask, but it’s not. With most company records online nowadays, it’s easy to find out who you need to call if you know where to look.

Personally, we use IP lookup to identify which companies are on our website and who their employees are. It allows us to get the contact details of the key decision maker we want to call right away. Once we have their contact and company details, we can track them across our website to identify what they are interested in about our product.

Hey presto, we’ve got a personalised pitch ready to go. You can ditch the sales script. That’s the reason prospects are hanging up and ignoring you.

Next come the three P’s

You can guess what these are. That’s right. Be personal, polite and patient. Greet them by name. Knowing who you are calling is the fastest way to get passed the gatekeeper. Indeed, even if you’re emailing them, a personalised email is far more likely to get their attention. Remember, at the end of the day, a B2B sale is still an interaction between two humans.

Be polite. Hear what your prospect has to say. Yes, sometimes what they say isn’t particularly nice and they can call you every name under the sun. But prospects need a salesperson who is going to actually listen to their needs. If they’re adamant to refuse, let them. Sometimes you have to let a lead go.

This will allow you to focus on the leads that do need your help. It’s just about establishing their needs together. This is where patience comes into it. Be polite and persevere until they are ready to open up to you. It’ll be worth it for your pipeline.