The reason for warmups in baseball is to gradually stretch your muscles and get ready for the big game. Jumping right out without a warmup can lead to increased possibility of injures. In comedy or music – how often do you see the main act go on without a warmup? The opening act is the warmup – getting you ready for the main performance. Sales development and prospecting is not any different. All too often aggressive salespeople call with a pushy sales pitch talking more than listening. This leads to them getting hurt! This week we will discuss a better method.

1)    The need for your product or service – With all the information available on the internet – potential customers can research their needs well before you make the first contact. With digital marketing platforms, it is becoming easier to determine who is downloading information and assets. Using this information, your first outreach can be tailored to the information they have been researching. After determining if they have true need and timeframe – warm them up. Maybe offer a limited time free trial or other way to have a way to experience on their own and continue to learn and build interest.

2)    Qualification – In the current environment with Zoom overload for events, you have two choices – keep trying to offer more expensive incentives to unqualified prospects – or narrow down to a prospect that has a business need for your product or service. If you completed step 1 – you should now have a short list of qualified prospects. You will know who pulled additional information or attempted the trial offer. Confirm they still have a need, close enough timeframe, and budget.

3)    The Pitch – As they progress through the sales journey, we are warming them up and now they will have more questions. This is the time to leverage a one to many – but not too large event. It needs to be small enough that people will ask questions to advance to a one-on-one sales call. It is a journey and requires warmup and progressing at the prospects pace. Qualify them and get this opportunity moving into your sales funnel!

Think through

Just as when we go out to be entertained – we typically experience a warmup act. Think about how you can incorporate that into your sales motion. What if only the headline comedian came out and within the first 5 minutes delivered all the “A” material? Not much material left after that and you may not even have been listening. This leaves the rest of the night on a downward spiral with B material. Sales isn’t much different – people need a warmup so that they are ready to listen.

There are many books and sales training courses available. When was the last time you invested in yourself and team with training? What is your favorite book or course?   

Feel free to post comments or email them to me. Small Business, Big Lessons ® – What is you warmup technique?

 

Small Business

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About the Author:

Gregory Woloszczuk is an entrepreneur and experienced tech executive that helps small business owners grow their top and bottom line. Gregory believes in straight talk and helping others see things they need to see but may not want to with a focus on taking responsibly for one’s own business. He and his wife, Maureen, started GMW Carolina in 2006.


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