The Master Sales Strategies for Business Funding Pros
What does it sound like?
“Call me after the first of the year.”
Where does it typically tend to show up?
Prospecting Call: making contact with a lead for the first time (around the holidays).
What do we do with it?
Turn around. Key Objective: to turn around the objection, engage the lead further, and continue to guide the lead through the sales process to ultimately close and fund!
How do we turn it around?
“Absolutely. What do you have planned for Q1?”
Why do we say it?
What is CHAMP?
Simply put, its known as BANT 2.0. Many have objected to prioritizing Budget first in the sequence and believe leading with the Need is much more effective. Some have reordered it to NATB, bringing Need up to the front and sliding Budget out to the back – but what has resonated best with sales teams is converting it over to CHAMP.
This framework leads with the needs, pain points, and Challenges the prospect/business faces.
CHAMP stands for:
CHallenges – What challenges is the buyer currently facing?
Authority – Is the decision-maker for buying your solution, and if not, who is and how do we get in touch?
Money – Does the buyer have financial capacity to buy your solution?
Prioritization – What is the buyer’s specific timeframe for implementing a solution?
Here are examples of CHAMP questions that have routinely used:
Number one professional fear people carry is the fear of failure. To fail, however vague that may be, is what strikes the most fear in the higest number of people in the professional setting.
Behind that fear of failure is the fear of rejection. If they fail, they won’t be accepted, they won’t be liked, they’ll be cast out in the cold…goes the subconscious thread.
Sales addresses failure and rejection head-on, which when met with perseverance, bestows almost a superpower of immunity of these fears to the Funding Pro.
We currently live in a world of negative conditioning. Fear mostly drives the American sales process.
Our society has come to prey on the fear factor. It’s in about 50% of the ads we see: ads about life insurance, disability, stolen credit cards, tires that grip the road in the rain, brakes that avoid hitting children riding bikes, security systems that prevent your home from being robbed, etc.
We are constantly reminded how hostile our environment is, and now with Covid and everything its brought, even more so.
Once society conditions you with fear, its only natural you bring it with you everywhere, including sales.
According the Jeffrey Gitomer there are degrees of failure in sales:
Recap:
On our Sales Process map, if each Stage is a mile marker on the highway to Funding, the roadways in between the markers are the Phases.
Here are all the Phases:
Each one of these Phases has specific steps to complete to get to the next Stage, and there are Key Steps to take in each Stage to accelerate your sales cycles and closings.
This is what it looks like when we put it all together:
How do I know for sure I am at this Stage?
Next: Phase 1 – The Prospecting Phase
How do I know for sure I am at this Stage?
Next: Phase 2 – The Consulting Phase
How do I know for sure I am at this Stage?
Next: Phase 3 – The Application Sending Phase
How do I know for sure I am at this Stage?
Next: Phase 4 – The Application Reeling-in Phase
How do I know for sure I am at this Stage?
Next: Phase 5 – The Submitting Phase
How do I know for sure I am at this Stage?
Next: Phase 6 – The Closing Phase
How do I know for sure I am at this Stage?
Next: Phase 7 – The Contracting Phase
How do I know for sure I am at this Stage?
Next: Phase 8 – The Contract Reeling-in Phase
How do I know for sure I am at this Stage?
Next: Phase 9 – The Closing Stip Reeling-in Phase
How do I know for sure I am at this Stage?
Next: Phase 10 – The Funding Phase
How do I know for sure I am at this Stage?
*Phase 6 – The Closing Phase*
In Zachary Ramirez’ video, Cold Call Basics! What you need to know, he does a great job explaining how to greatly improve the effectiveness of every cold call.
From the first second of the video to the 4 minute mark you can see him deliver the first key takeaway from this talk.
Zach outlines his 3 Main Goals of a Cold Call:
In the spirit of starting with the end in mind, he is doing a great job separating out the tactics from the key objectives meant to be achieved on this call.
If you know exactly what specific result you are trying to accomplish with every single conversation you have, you will speed up sales cycles, maximize time, get to more deals, and fund more deals.
If you get stuck on tactics but aimlessly talk your way through calls, at best, you will waste time, and at worst you’ll lose deals.
Time kills deals.
At the 4:11 mark, Zach launches his first tip for a successful cold call:
When opening a call and introducing yourself, use the merchant’s name, your full name and the full company name.
Ex.
“Hey John, this is Zachary Ramirez from Select Funding.”
What not to do:
“Hey John, this is Zach from Select, what’s up?”
Why do it this way?
Zach’s internal analytics have this opening phrase associated with a 2.1x higher likelihood of success in your cold call.
What’s at work here?
“Very important people introduce themselves using their full name.”
-Zach
This is spot on.
Important people – people/professionals who value who they are and what they do tend to state their full name when you meet them.
If you think of the alternative, customer service reps in call centers all around the world are often those who will call, only give a first name and even sometimes withhold where they’re calling from.
Nothing against call centers or customer service reps, but you are Funding Pro. Its different.
Your mortgage loan specialist gave his full name and commanded your respect. It’s an important and established process mostly owned by banks, deeply entrenched and well respected institutions.
You can use the same principle to your favor, business funding is just as important and worthy of respect.
When you don’t take this approach you will often be asked:
“Who is this?”
“What company are you with?”
Now you’re on your heels and things typically go downhill from here.
Own what you bring to the table and introduce yourself confidently.
At the 5:33 mark, Zach dives into the second tip: