The first ten seconds of your first call with someone will determine the rest of your relationship with your client. Those ten seconds determine whether you will ultimately succeed or fail. You may get a subsequent appointment, but if you fail to capitalize on those ten seconds then you are going to face harsh negotiation and the psychological chess games.

So use those precious ten seconds to show your prospect that you care more about them than about your sale. It is critical in building a strong and trusting relationship with someone. There are no shortcuts or magic tricks here; you simply need to show your client that you care.

One way you can show you care is to  stop selling and start becoming a problem solver. Stop creating sales pitches and start creating conversations. Begin focusing on your clients’ issues, and not yours.

But most of all, avoid making assumptions.

As part of my coaching program I often host role-play calls during which other salespeople can practice the techniques they have learned. Of all the issues we address during these sessions, one of the most frequent mistakes they make is that they assume.

If you are doing a cold call, you don’t know your client. You are unaware of their particular situation or their specific problems, so you can’t tell them that virtualization or deduplication will solve all their IT problems. Stop making assumptions.

Instead, simply forget about the sale (momentarily) and stop pushing or trying to persuade people. Not everyone you call will become your customer, so stop acting desperate to make that next sale.

Your call is going to be an interruption in someone’s day there is no way around it. So I suggest,  Be the welcome guest, not the annoying pest. Use your time to build trust with your prospects and to develop this into a foundation for furthering the relationship. You should be calling them with the mindset that you are going to share intellectual capital, share ideas and have a pleasant dialogue, not race to ram your sales pitch down their throat.

Let me know what you think.

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