It’s the final week of our eight week series on pitching different “decision makers” for managed services. We saved this one for last, of course. Pitching the President or CEO. Some of you will agree with our approach, and others will not. We don’t maintain for a minute that our way is the only way. There are as many ways to cold call as there are cold callers, so take what you like and leave the rest. With that in mind, here we go…
So, you have used all your charm and skill (or you just lucked into them picking up their phone when you dialed in direct) and have the President on the phone. You’ve got a minute to get their attention, what now?
I always introduce myself quickly and acknowledge that it’s a sales call before I launch in to why I’m calling; it’s just respectful. People appreciate the direct approach, and they don’t spend your elevator pitch first trying to figure out how they know you and then feeling a little put off when they realize it’s a sales call. Want to avoid the “Look, I’m on the other line right now, can you call me back” cut off? Be direct, be honest and be quick.
“Good morning Joe. Thanks for taking my call. My name is Carrie Simpson, I’m calling from ABC IT in Atlanta. We haven’t met before, this is a sales call. Is now a good time for a quick chat?”
When you receive permission to continue, keep your pitch simple, and free of unquantifiable filler words like “the best”, “the greatest”, etc.
“Joe, we work with small business owners to help them use technology better, plan for change, prepare for a disaster, decrease their overhead, and increase their productivity. I’m calling to learn how we might help COMPANY NAME. Of the things I’ve just mentioned, which jumps out at you as the highest priority there today?”
We ask the question like this for a reason. One, it’s open ended. It requires an answer that isn’t “yes” or “no”. Two, they will think about their response and come back to you with a starting point for the sales process. If they want to talk continuity, your conversation becomes laser focused on continuity only. If they want to talk cost savings, don’t bother talking about continuity. You don’t have to sell everything in your toolkit on this call – you just need to get to the next step in the sales process. You don’t even need to mention managed services – that will come later. The term ‘managed services’ means something to you and I, but to most buyers, it’s just another technology term they don’t understand and throwing it in there needlessly muddies the conversation.
If they won’t answer the question, ask if you can send them information and move on.
If they genuinely don’t know the answer to the question, my guess is this company is not technology dependent enough to see value in managed services yet. When there’s no pain, there’s no opportunity and it’s very difficult to create pain. Don’t spend a lot of your time educating your prospects. Focus your attention on the people who “get it”.
If their response is “We already have someone who does this for us” you can try my favorite approach:
“Look, Joe – the worst time to go looking for a new IT firm is when you desperately need a new IT firm. When a company calls us with their house on fire, if something goes wrong that their current provider didn’t expect or couldn’t handle, they are going to pay a premium for us to come in there and resolve it right away. It never hurts to have an established relationship with another company you trust.
Let us come in and chat with you, you can throw your biggest technology challenges at us, and let’s see if we can find a solution that makes sense for you. If we can, great, we get the opportunity to win your business. If we can’t, you lose nothing and you stay with the firm you’re working with now. We need about an hour on-site with you to review your network. When can you give me an hour this month?”
Now, shut up. I mean it. Do not say another word until they answer you. They will come back to you with a suggestion, or they will come back to you with an objection.
If it’s a suggestion, open up your calendar and get that outlook invite onto their calendar while they are still on the phone with you. After they have clicked “accept”, ask the questions that will help you better prepare for your meeting. If you can, you should start to turn the conversation personal – by that I mean, spend a few minutes engaging if they aren’t rushing you off the phone. Talk about your kids or ask about their interest in golf or hockey or whatever – you just want one minute where they see you as a real person, a person they might like to have a chat with again sometime, and not a nameless faceless sales guy.
A good way to do this is during the calendaring process – if you don’t take meetings before nine because you run your kids to daycare every day, you can bring that up. If you aren’t taking meetings on Thursdays because you’re leaving on vacation, mention that. It’s a great way to encourage them to also open up a little. People don’t buy technology, they buy interesting ideas from people they like and trust.
If it’s an objection, which one was it?
“We’re really not interested.”
This could mean “We’re not going to leave our current provider” or “We just made a huge investment in new infrastructure” or “We’re shutting down our company next month”.
There’s only one really good counter to this:
“Look, Joe. What would we have to do to win your business? I’m curious. Be as specific as you can.”
This approach is non-confrontational and non-manipulative. It’s disarming. It gives them one more opportunity to tell you what’s really going on there. This is where we usually learn things like their wife’s brother owns the company that does their IT support.
I like this approach better than trying to slowly poke holes in the support they are currently receiving. This allows them to tell you where they think the holes are and keeps you framed as the guy who really wants to earn their business, not the pushy know-it-all criticizing a decision they made.
We use multiple approaches here at Managed Sales Pros. If one doesn’t work, we wait 90 days and try another one. When you’ve got a great approach that works for you, we’d love to hear from you and feature it here.
If you’d like to learn more about cold calling to sell managed services, we offer training programs for both business owners and sales teams. If you’re not interested in learning how to do it, we’ll do it for you! Call us at 204-572-5072 to learn more about how we help MSPs grow their businesses through cold call prospecting.
Thanks for sticking with us for the last eight weeks, and as always, Happy Selling!