They Can’t See You. But They Can Feel You

For inside salespeople, your voice is your handshake.

I run a team of cold-calling SDRs, so I spend part of almost every week listening to people prospect for a living. Our reps represent clients in several industries, including veterinary.

Within about 10 seconds, I can usually tell whether a call has a chance. I don’t need to hear the prospect. I just listen to the rep.

Some sound like they’re calling to interrupt you. Others sound like you were expecting their call. Same phone. Same product. Sometimes the exact same script. Completely different result.

I have a sales rep named Janine. Today, she’s my No. 1 SDR. But she wasn’t always that confident on the phone. Early on, Janine had a strong opener. On the phone, she was getting brushed off before she could get into the conversation. I listened to some of her calls, and the problem didn’t take long to find.

It wasn’t the words. She sounded like she was apologizing for using them.

That’s the strange thing about inside sales. Field reps get body language, eye contact, a handshake and the ability to read the room. Inside reps get a headset and a voice. That’s it.

Your tone gets there before your message

Most inside salespeople spend too much time worrying about the exact words. They tweak the opener, rewrite the hook, rehearse the value story. Good. Words matter. But buyers don’t hear words in a vacuum. They hear confidence, hesitation, fake enthusiasm, curiosity
and preparation.

That matters when you’re calling a veterinary practice. A practice manager may be juggling staffing, inventory, a client at the front desk and a veterinarian who needs something five minutes ago. If your tone says, “Sorry to bother you,” you’ve made it easy for them to get rid of you.

Trying too hard isn’t any better. If you sound like you just drank three energy drinks and won a cruise on a gameshow, they’ll wonder what is wrong with you.

The goal is not to sound excited. The goal is to sound interested.

Slow down when you want to speed up

The easiest way to spot a nervous inside rep is speed. They get a practice manager on the phone and the first 30 seconds comes out like the legal disclaimer at the end of a pharmaceutical commercial.

They’re trying to get the words out before the buyer can stop them. Unfortunately, that speed communicates exactly what they’re trying to hide: I know you probably don’t want this call.

Strong reps slow down, sound comfortable being there and leave a little space between thoughts instead of treating silence like an emergency.

Confidence has a pace.

You can use a script without sounding scripted

I’m a big believer in scripts and playbooks. Winging it is not a strategy. But a script should help you know what you want to say. It should not make you sound like you’ve lost access to your own personality.

Here’s a simple drill. Before your first dial, say your opener out loud 20 times. Stand up. Full volume. Say it to a wall if you have to. The point isn’t memorization. It’s getting the words far enough out of your head that you can listen to the buyer instead of yourself.

Can you hear hesitation in a practice manager’s voice? Can you recognize that “we’re actually reviewing our flea and tick line this spring” isn’t a throwaway comment but the start of the real conversation? If you’re busy trying to remember line four, you’ll miss it.

Call No. 37 deserves a fresh rep

Inside sales can be brutal because rejection stacks fast. You can get brushed off, hung up on, ignored, transferred into voicemail oblivion and told “not interested” 36 times before lunch. Then call No. 37 answers.

That practice manager doesn’t know what happened on the 36 prior calls. She shouldn’t have to hear it in your voice.

Great inside reps build a reset button. Stand up for 30 seconds. Take a drink of water. Read the next account’s notes. Whatever works, as long as it clears the board.

Because rejection has a sound. So does frustration. Buyers hear both.

Your voice is the room

A field rep walks into a veterinary clinic and reads the room. An inside rep doesn’t get a room. You get a few seconds and a headset, which means you have to build one.

Your prospect can’t see your preparation or the 36 calls you made before hers. But she can hear whether you’re nervous, whether you’re reading, whether you believe what you’re saying and whether you’re actually listening.

Janine never needed some magical new opener. She needed to grow into the one she already had. She slowed down, dropped the upward lilt that turned statements into questions and stopped sounding like she needed permission to be on the phone.

Today she’s on the phone every day, and nobody on my team books more meetings.

Same rep. More confidence.

For an inside salesperson, your voice isn’t part of the presentation.

It is the presentation.

Photo Credit:

istockphoto.com/Jacob Wackerhausen