A story from my old rugby club

As a teenager, I played rugby in a local club called Bristol Saracens RFC. As with many sports clubs, it was a great place to socialise, to exercise and as my mum used to put it “Keep me out of trouble”. I’m sure the vast majority of adults who was a member of a sports club as a kid would agree that it teaches you a lot. One phrases I remember from my old rugby coach Lindsay;

“Sometimes you win by just showing up. Sometimes you win by just being more ready than the other team”

The time that we won just by showing up

I’ll be the first to admit, we weren’t the best team out there. I mean, we weren’t the worst but not the best either. We’d turn up to a game, car by car. Some of us had always forgotten our rugby shirt or water or rugby boots so there was always a scramble to put all the pieces together before a game.

But we always showed up. Even if we weren’t feeling up to it. Our rugby coach wouldn’t let slip by an opportunity to win. just because we weren’t ready for it.

It was really cold and muddy and the team we were playing usually beat us so we weren’t looking forward to it. But the team we were playing were hungover or just couldn’t be bothered.

We weren’t great, but we were consistent. Our team communicated to each other, our forwards hit the lines, we rucked over and passed the ball out to the backs. As we scored try after try, the other team were yelling at each other.  Even though we didn’t feel like playing that day we actually won, just by being more prepared than the other team.

With SME Telemarketing, consistency is everything

“What a lovely story Owen, but how’s that relevant to my SME Telemarketing campaign?”

I imagine there are a lot of big providers in your industry with huge marketing budgets and low prices. Now some SME’s lose sales because the big companies can offer something you can’t. But thats not always true!

Some companies people lose maybe bigger companies but sometimes they lose just because they didn’t follow up with the same consistency that the bigger companies did.

“In SME Telemarketing here’s strategy that should underpin all your others, show up. You’d be surprised how many sales are lost because the salesperson is afraid of getting a ‘No’. Ask questions about what they need and offer solutions. Always follow up and explore every opportunity to it’s full extent.”

You don’t necessarily have to be the biggest provider. What will win business is the fact that you are consistent in delivering on your promises.

Don’t just assume you lost the quote, find out

I’ll rephrase my above quote; In SME Telemarketing you’d be surprised how many sales are lost because the salesperson is afraid of getting a ‘No’.

Not enough people talk about the emotional quality of sales. It sucks getting told ‘No’. It’s like a genetic thing we all have where it’s really unpleasant being told ‘No’. For experienced salespeople, that never goes away. Experienced salespeople just feel the discomfort and then do it anyway. 

This is what my old rugby coach meant by showing up. Being prepared to win, even if you are playing against some bigger (and maybe better) players.

Examples of this include;

• Phoning them on time, as promised
• Providing information that you promised to provide them with
• Actually asking for their business, “Are you happy to sign the agreement?”
• Following up consistently “How’s it going? Did you help figure out XYZ?”
• Getting an answer even if you haven’t heard from them “e.g I haven’t heard from you is this definitely something you want to still talk about or are you sorted?”

You know what’s great about this? That same fear of rejection doesn’t just apply to SME sales teams, it applies to the sales team of every single organization out there. As such, use this to your advantage by being prepared and being ready to win the sale.

The power of mindset is especially important with SME Telemarketing. Why? Because a handful of new sales can make so much difference, you need to make the most out of what you have

We can help with new opportunities and your mindset

I hope you found this to be useful. We can find you new opportunities by providing web chat leads on a pay-per-lead basis & then helping you build your mindset to close the sale with our sales coaching. What’s more, we help create a positive social impact by planting trees as we grow your business. We’d love to chat to you more about how this could help your small business