The second call of a 3 call selling system

The Second Call of a Three Call Selling Process—Building Trust
By Bob Berting, Berting Communications

Let’s think about some strategy before we get into the second call. The assumption is that you are talking with the person who makes the buying decision for the prospect company. We notice that some popular columnists use magic phrases to quickly sell a prospect, but when it comes to the real world of selling, it is actually a process. That process begins with the reality that customers buy improvement. They also buy solutions to their problems. But before they buy improvement and solutions to their problems, the salesperson has to establish credibility and now in the second call—build trust.

A Fact Finding Approach

This session begins with a needs analysis by the advertising salesperson which includes matter of fact questions—not progressive interview style questioning.
The sharp salesperson has already looked at the prospect’s website, so they should have insights about the prospect’s business to help them with their questioning. There is a natural flow of discussion where the salesperson needs to listen intently to the prospect because listening builds trust. The more the prospect believes and trusts you, the quicker they’ll accept your ideas.

Do Rough Layout Sketches

As the needs analysis begins to wind down, ask the prospect if it’s OK to do some rough ad sketches. The whole strategy now is to get them involved in the ad content. This is a creative way of personalizing an ad layout with a message from the prospect. Don’t worry if you are not artistic—simple stick figures and circles and squares will be sufficient. The BIG IDEA is to get their ego involved. Ask for the reasons why customers shop their business. These reasons can be the headlines of the rough layouts you do. Next ask what special services they offer. This information can go into the boxes you’ve drawn in your rough sketch.

A Real Life Story About Rough Sketches

I once had a paint company owner who was questioning a campaign proposal by me. We were in his shipping department so I pulled off a roll of brown wrapping paper and drew 4 squares left to right. I then began to ask him what services he might advertise. As he related the services I printed each one as the heading of each ad. Soon all 4 squares were filled with his copy ideas. We also discussed the image he wanted to project, Soon he began to realize that a campaign could be very effective. He then gave me permission to convert the rough layouts to comprehensive ad layouts. This approval is important, because there is no need to proceed with further layouts without it.

The Second Call of a Three Call Selling Process—Page 2

Let’s Analyze Why We Did The Rough Layouts

1. If you get the prospect’s ego involved in the planning process, they are more receptive to not only seeing your comprehensive layouts, but understanding the need for a campaign to tell the story of their business.
2. The prospect can see the salesperson understands good layout design—will respect the salesperson—and consider them in a more professional light.
3. The salesperson takes the rough layouts and gives them to the staff graphic artist who is able to produce comprehensive layouts that actually reflect the needs of the prospect and a clear understanding of the image to be projected.

Ask about their budget

If you have shown them how effective an ad campaign can be and how much improvement there will be in their business as well as solutions to many of their problems, the prospect should be receptive to a budget discussion. Even without a rough layout exposure, this would be a process of telling them you want to bring them an advertising plan ( not proposal), and you need some guidelines to decide how much the plan will cost. Explain that the national average for an advertising budget is 5 % of yearly gross sales. If the prospect will agree to that premise, ask how much of their budget is committed to other media. Of course commitments to other media can be changed ( as any ad agency knows), but as least you’ll have a figure to work with regarding an advertising plan that will put you in their media mix.

The final step

At this point, ask permission to bring an advertising plan and some comprehensive layouts to the third meeting. The ad layout size will be determined by the salespersons estimate of how much of the prospect’s budget can be allocated to their publication. When the prospect agrees to do so, set the appointment. This process is based on trust and belief in the advertising salesperson who will show how improvement and solutions to their problems can be achieved. Now the stage is set for the third call which will be discussed in the next issue.

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