By Ed Avis
You probably encounter this situation every day: You reach a new prospect on the phone, he dodges your questions, then hangs up as quickly as he can. Or a call comes into your shop, the caller nervously asks your prices, and then says “Maybe I’ll call back later.”
The solution? A simple “cough, cough, cough…pardon me….I think I caught a little bug while I was walking the dog this weekend.”
Sounds bizarre, but that little act humanizes you. The caller learns that he’s not talking to a robot or a high-pressure sales machine…just some normal guy with a pet dog.
“When you do that, the customer realizes he’s talking to another regular human and relaxes,” says Dave Cook, author of How to Be a Great Salesperson by Monday Morning. “Uptight people don’t buy. Relaxed people buy.”
Cook, who has been in sales since in the 1970s and is routinely the top seller wherever he works, says the “cough, cough” routine is so effective that he does it on every sales call now. And his colleagues copy it: “I have people all around me coughing!” he laughs.
But Cook has more advice. After the coughing bit, you need to get your prospect laughing.
“Laughing releases endorphins, which makes people happy,” Cook says. “And happy people buy. I have a million jokes I use, and when I get my prospect laughing, they’re even more on my side.”
Finally, use your customer’s name frequently during the sales call. It makes the call personal.
“The sweetest sound to anybody’s ears is their own name. You can never say their name enough times,” Cook says. “And another thing: When you say someone’s name, you get their attention. So if you’re doing a demonstration and there’s a particularly important point, say ‘Tom, another point here…’ They have to listen to that.”
For more sales wisdom from Cook, consider buying his book by clicking here.