The Perfect Phone Call

Many an old seller considers cold-calling an essential rite of passage for the budding rep.  Most of us can remember one time being sat down and talked through how to dial someone that we neither knew nor was expecting our call.

In my couple of decades of selling, one of the top three changes I’ve notice occur since my starting day, is the attitude towards how this call is made.  Training and effort going into call number one is enormous.  Yet what about subsequent calls?

As rapport is established, relationships built, little guidance is passed on about how to maximise these conversations.  Yet help may be at hand.  Apparently, a survey of 2,000 people sheds light on what the component parts of the perfect phone call entail.

Although this does of course relate to individual, personal calls, there are some striking selling takeaways.  When you call up a client, how close to 9 minutes 36 seconds do you spend on the line with them?  Is roughly 15% of the call given over to laughter?  Is there a minute on current affairs and the weather?  The 5-minute half for news on family/friends, work/school and personal issues have clear parallels with our business calls, but do we cover them?