Outbound Sales Competition Tips

This week during the general meeting we went over some tips and strategies for the AMA Outbound Sales Competition that will be happening during November. The case this year is presented by Sherwin Williams. In the first round, contestants will have 1-3 minutes to set a time to meet with a local contractor, Sam, to discuss the benefits that Sherwin Williams can provide to the client’s painting and decorating company. As shown in our workshop, there are sources all over the internet and YouTube that can give you points to focus on during an outbound sales call. Before making the call, we discussed that you should familiarize yourself with the client and their profile. The client information can be found on the Sherman Williams website and the customer profile can be found under Scenario 1 on the AMA website. By looking at the scenario, it will give you the relevant information about what the purpose of the case is. 

We mentioned that it would be beneficial for participants to go onto the Sherwin Williams Website and do some research on the company and the ways that they can offer values to Sam (the potential buyer). Such things that we saw would be 15% off of painting supplies and the ability of the company to track colors for certain projects. We would suggest going through and making a list of a few of these items and writing them on a sticky note to use as a quick reference during the phone call. Preparation and having as much information on the client you are trying to serve and the products and services that you can provide is the most critical part of B2B outbound sales. 

Once you have all the relevant information and have familiarized yourself with Sherwin Williams and the case, we have compiled a list of strategies that might help you to be successful in your phone call:

    • Introduce yourself by name, your position, and the company you work for 
    • Use client’s name in your introduction to create a level of familiarity
    • Express to the client that you will be brief (we know that Sam is busy and does not have time to field calls)
    • Express to Sam that you noticed that he was in the store looking for a color match and that his account has been inactive in the system
    • After this it would be a good idea to ask Sam what his reasons for his lack of business (we know his last sales rep moved positions)
    • Propose your value that the company can provide even though his last rep left and that we would be happy to work with him and attempt to create an even better relationship than the one he had before
    • Handle objections honestly and humbly
    • When it gets close to the 2.5 minute mark, ask Sam if he would be willing to stop in the store whenever he was in the vicinity for a quick 10 minute conversation
    • If he objects to this, a potential solution would be to meet him at one of his work sites so that he does not have to go out of his way.
    • Regardless of the outcome, it is worth thanking Sam for his time. If a meeting is not scheduled, open up the possibility to do future business with him. 

We all hope that you will all do well. This competition is great practice regardless of your future career interests. Talking on the phone and having quick-witted conversation skills is crucial in today’s business environment. Please take these tips and practice as much as you can before the competition. If anyone has any questions please feel free to contact us in the AMA group chat. We would like to wish everyone the best of luck. You will all do an AMAzing job! 

 

Posted in Art of Selling, Business, Career advice, Competition, SJFC, SJFCAMA, Uncategorized.

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