Be eager to discuss your client’s background, pain points, and goals. Your prospect can sense when you sound bored or uninterested and will be less willing to open up. So, become more enthusiastic until you’re both excited to find a solution.

Be prepared to listen. Don’t rush your prospect through the conversation because you never know what may lead to valuable insights that will help you close. Be firm in guiding the conversation, but allow enough time for the prospect to share information openly.

If you don’t love what you’re talking about, how can you expect anyone else to? Passion is critical to selling. Of course, it’s not easy to sell, so we have to find an angle that does make us excited. Tell yourself a story that motivates and inspires you, and you’ll have the same effect on others.

Be comfortable sharing your views. Everyone, including prospects, respects honesty. If you think a prospect might not be a good fit for your product/service, tell them. If you don’t have a feature your prospect wants, be honest about it and propose solutions or product roadmaps that prove you’re proactively thinking about alternative ways to move forward. Your confidence sets the tone of the call, so be authoritative and proactive.

Never dial any number without being prepared. Whether you’re making your first or your 400th call, there are a few things to do before you pick up the phone:

1. Define your purpose: Ask yourself what you want to achieve from this call and how you’ll get it.
2. Prepare questions in advance: What questions do you need to ask to achieve your goal?
3. Brainstorm answers: What are the possible excuses your prospect will have to your questions? By thinking these through in advance, you’ll be more prepared to handle them.
4. Practice: Whether pitching a new product or giving the same line a hundred times, check-in every few months to see how you’re doing. Record yourself giving a practice presentation and conduct your call review to tune up your demo.

You can sense when someone’s smiling on the phone, right? It’s not just your imagination. Talking with a grin creates a higher frequency in your mouth which changes the tone of your voice and reassures the listener.

To practice this technique, record a sentence when you’re not smiling. Then, record the same sentence again but, this time, with a smile and notice the difference. You can get a relaxed and persuasive tone by putting your voice’s most powerful tools to work. Here’s how:

1. Pace: If you speak too slow, your listener might get bored or frustrated. If you speak too fast, they may miss something. An expert caller will mirror the pace of the person they’re speaking with, and remember: It takes 10-30 seconds to adjust to a new voice, so give your listener time to adjust to you before diving into the most important part of your presentation.
2. Volume: A drawn-out, high-pitched voice says, “I don’t believe what I’m hearing,” while a low-and-slow pitch says, “I want to be left alone.” Aim for an emphatic, high-pitched volume telling your listener you’re enthusiastic. Avoid sounding loud and abrupt because that indicates that you’re angry and not open to discussion.
3. Tone: Don’t apologise for “interrupting” with your call. This sounds like you’ve done something wrong, which you haven’t. Instead, act as if this call is doing your listener a favour.
4. Clarity: Be clear and concise in what you stress in your presentation. Consider the meaning of a sentence and how important the stress of each word can be. Take these examples:
•Apathetic: “What would you like us to do about it?”
•Defensive: “What would you like me to do about it?”
•Curious: “What would you like me to do about it?”

The best time to conduct outreach is on Thursdays between 8:00 am and 10:00 am and again between 4:00 pm and 5:00 pm. The worse time to call someone is on Tuesdays between 11:00 am and 2:00 pm. You can also use timing to be one step ahead of your competitors. If you know they’re calling prospects between 9:00 am and 5:00 pm, try phoning them beyond this timeframe to stand out and maybe reach high-level prospects who normally have a gatekeeper screening their calls.

Don’t overwhelm prospects with your intense enthusiasm. Starting sales calls with an eager “Hey! How are you [prospect name]?!” might sound pushy and fake. Maintain a genuine tone and mirror your prospect’s behaviour. Sprinkle some positive words/phrases into your call, like:

• “Brilliant”
• “Certainly”
• “You’re welcome”
• “Fantastic”
• “It’s my pleasure”
• “Of course”
• “Immediately”
• “It’s no trouble”
• “I will find out for you”
• “Absolutely”
• “Rest assured”
• “Wonderful”
• “Please”
• “Thank you”
• “That’s great”

And don’t forget to establish rapport. The best way to start on a positive note is to be polite, honest, and personalised with your prospect. Use their name, give them your full attention, and take ownership of follow-ups and next steps.

All of this is worth nothing unless you close the call well. Be clear, recap what you’ve discussed, and always thank your prospect for their time.

1. Give verbal signs the call is ending: A common way to do this is by giving a summary of the discussion and explaining the next steps.
2. Make sure you’ve covered it all: Ask your prospect, “Is there anything we didn’t cover that I can tell you about before we end the call?”
3. Always be thankful: Never end a call without thanking your prospect for their time and attention. They didn’t have to take your call, so acknowledging their busy schedules is always appreciated.

Successful phone calls are an art. Master these techniques and see more deals move forward and your peers and managers will take notice.