Whether it’s a personal call to your friend or an owner of a business, the phone call is always an interruption. The problem is NOT the interruption; it is what you DO with the interruption. Most sales reps, when the decision maker comes to the phone, immediately introduce themselves and move right into the reason they’re calling. TWO main things that start to happen with the decision maker is his resistance level starts to increase rapidly, and worse, his chance of actually listening to what the salesperson has to say becomes almost non-existent.
When the decision maker comes to the phone and you introduce yourself and your company, the next step should be something to the order of, “Did I catch you at a bad time, or do you have a moment?” Some would argue this gives the decision maker an “out”, but doesn’t the “out” exist regardless? There are three main responses to your question and each give you the permission to proceed. First she may say, “I’m kind of busy, but what is it?” GREENLIGHT! Second she may say, “I’m too busy to talk right now.” Your next response is “WHEN is a better time to call you back?” It’s either rescheduled or, even better, she may ask what the call is reference to and you get to proceed! GREENLIGHT! Third she may say, “I’m not busy.” GREENLIGHT.
This simple acknowledgement that you’re interrupting them does three positive things for you: 1) It shows you have plain common courtesy 2) Most other sales reps DON’T do it, so it sets you apart 3) It gets the decision maker LISTENING to what it is you have to say!
Chris Lovett