There are two types of bad sales calls.  The ones you shouldn’t have made in the first place or calls that should have been terminated before they got as bad as they did.  The second category is the ones that you had the opportunity to impact in a positive way and you didn’t.

Today we are going to talk about the first category–those calls you should never have made in the first place. Selling takes time, energy, focus, and skills. Don’t waste the only resource you have, time, on calls that you should have never made in the first place.

Which are the calls you shouldn’t make?

1.  Calling on the wrong prospects

Wrong prospects are people who have no intention of ever buying. Maybe they won’t buy because they don’t have a need for your product or service. Or maybe they do have a need but it is so infrequent that spending time with them isn’t a good use of your time. Perhaps they actually have a need but have a long-time trusted vendor they are using and the chance of changing their minds is low.

One of the challenges for salespeople is determining who can be a potential prospect and who will never be one. Yesterday I received an email from someone who wanted to arrange a time to speak with me about my needs for application development, especially in the mobile arena. Had he done any research about me, instead of just connecting with me on LinkedIn, he would have realized I was never going to be a client. Take the time to do some research before contacting the prospect.

2.  Contacting the wrong person

You have to reach a decision-maker to turn any sales prospecting into a potential opportunity. Too often salespeople spend time talking to the wrong person. It could be someone who has no authority to make the decision or simply the wrong person altogether, but they don’t tell you this.

This may require some research before picking up the phone or sending an email. Who should you be speaking with at a particular company? It certainly requires you to know who at a company would generally have the title of the person you should contact. Do you want to speak to the head of R&D, marketing, the COO, the VP of HR…you get the picture. Before calling if you don’t know the name of a person to ask for at least know the title of the person you want to speak with. And don’t simply say, “may I speak to the head of marketing?”. Find out their name and then ask to be transferred to them.

3. Making calls when there isn’t enough time

You have five minutes before a meeting or ten minutes before you need to leave for an appointment. Making a call to anyone with just a few minutes available to you is a bad idea. What if they actually want to talk or show some interest?

I’m not suggesting you don’t use those five or ten-minute windows of time. I’m suggesting you figure out how to use those time slots wisely, and making a cold call isn’t a good use of your time.

4.  Not knowing your value proposition

This includes not knowing enough about your product or service to answer the prospect’s questions intelligently. It includes not knowing your value proposition, why, and what you are offering. You never want to lead with this and it’s still important to know this information.

Last week I got a call from someone trying to sell me accounting services. I asked why they chose to call me. She didn’t know but said so. I asked her what her firm offered that would make me want to change accounting firms. Her response: “we’ve been around for 20 years and work in your area all the time.” Worthless information to me. Did she know her firm’s value proposition? If so, she didn’t share it with me. Nor did she impress me as someone who really knew her firm. It didn’t leave me feeling warm and cozy about using them as my accounting firm when the person calling me wasn’t knowledgeable.

5.  Already having pissed off the prospect

I get it that you want to talk to someone and you are likely to have to leave a voice mail. But if you’ve left half a dozen voice mails without a return call it should tell you something. And calling again likely isn’t going to get you anywhere.

Recently I was considering buying a new phone system. I sent an email to a number of companies requesting information. In the email, I indicated I was at the information-gathering stage and likely wasn’t going to consider a new system, if at all, for another 3-6 months. One person called me literally ten times and left me an equal number of voice mail messages. She also emailed me at least 6 times, even though I responded to the first email and said ‘don’t call me again till…when I might be ready’. I haven’t yet decided on the phone system, but I promise you I won’t contact her or her firm. She has already pissed me off.

What’s a salesperson to do?

Time is the single biggest resource you have that you don’t want to waste. Do not confuse activity with results. Contacting 20 people that are bad prospects or speaking to someone who is not in a decision-making position is a complete waste of your time. Activity is great, but only if it’s focused on serious potential prospects.

I talked about planning as one of the key things successful salespeople do that separates them from the masses. Take the time to plan who you are going to call and know why you are calling them. Do some research! The internet is a tool that is full of information. You can’t find out everything about every company or person who works there, but you can find out a whole lot. Don’t go in blind.

I’ve learned a few key secrets in my 30+ years of selling and training thousands of sales professionals.  It’s all in a shortlist, titled Finkles Secrets on Selling, and you can access at the link below.