How to Stay Laser-Focused and Motivated During Sales Calls

Imagine this: You’re on a sales call with a prospective customer asking you question after question. Your mind starts to wander, and soon, you’re thinking about the last time you had an argument with your partner or what’s going to happen when the kids get home from school. All of these thoughts distract you from what should be your number one priority – closing the sale!

Don’t get us wrong, but I love sales calls as much as you do. Sometimes, it feels like we’re in a perpetual battle with our minds to focus on the work when there’s an essential prospect on the other end of the phone.

It might be the nervousness to close the deal or any outside work issue that might be distracting you. But at the end of the day, how efficiently you win over the prospect makes all the difference.

This article will help you with the proven steps to double your sales and make the most of your sales calls by staying focused on the one thing that matters the most – conversion!

Let’s get started!

1. Don’t Let Your Mind Wander

When you’re on a sales call, don’t let your mind wander. You are there to get the job done and make money for yourself or the company that employs you!

A routine of making sales calls every day might get monotonous and take away the energy, but it is up to you to bring your attention back to the call and help the prospect make their decision.

Doing this routinely will help you develop a deeper control of your distractions.

Don’t lose focus when making calls; it will shape how people perceive you and what they see of your product/service, leading to losing out on potential customers!

2. Do Your Homework Before the Call

Review your notes and talking points before you call the potential client so you’re comfortable answering their questions.

Some of the most successful salespeople go into a call with an outcome in mind they would like to achieve. Setting these types of goals increases the probability of reaching the desired target. Without prior planning, you could miss the most important subject on a call.

An example of a goal could be setting up a second meeting before the call is over or get an agreement on testing a product. This can be anything that counts as an essential step of the sale process. Tactics like these help you keep the potential client in the funnel.

A great way to prepare for the call in advance is by practising the call in advance. Use tools like time blocking to make sure you’re able to deliver relevant info in a specific time over a call. With practice, your ability to focus for longer will improve.

You can prepare for the sales call by reviewing notes and talking points. Have some clever responses in mind, but don’t overthink it too much – just be yourself! You’ll do great!

3. Keep a Positive Attitude

It is easier said than done, but salespeople need to find ways to maintain a positive attitude through the entire sales call and even between calls. Rejections can upset you, while a negative phone call can result in the following call being even worse.

Especially during COVID and the times of uncertainty, succeeding at virtual sales has become difficult and you might lose hope if you don’t convert your prospects.

It is easy to be discouraged at the first rejection, but the essence of a successful sales process lies in persevering through the rejections.

Here are some tips to help you stay positive during a sales call:

• Become solution-oriented: You have to keep your focus on solutions to change from a negative frame of mind to a positive one. Thinking only about the problem will make the situation even worse. But, training yourself to think only in terms of solutions will put you at a place of success.
• Exercise control over your mind: Learn to control your mind from wandering into negative thoughts. Surrounding yourself with positive quotes and positive people can help control your thoughts and mind.
• Increase your skills and knowledge: Training yourself and learning new skills will increase your success rates through sales calls. The more confident you are, the more positive you will be.

Following these simple rules will allow you to shift to a positive attitude.

4. Be Prepared to Handle Objections

If you are prepared to handle objections calmly and professionally, you will have more chances to keep the focus and not be thrown out or startled by a customer complaint.

You cannot keep hoping to avoid objections. Your product or service can’t make everyone happy, and today or tomorrow, you will receive complaints. But, if you have a plan, you don’t have to think about it and respond immediately. Most objections to a product or service are common.

Try to learn the most common objections potential customers have voiced previously and figure out standard responses to answer them. You can avoid outdated sales tactics by focusing on the proven objections coming up from past calls.

The following tips will help you efficiently respond to complaints and objections over sales calls:

• Create a list of the most common and most voiced objections
• Work a plan on how to resolve each objection
• Work out a cross-selling or downselling plan if the initial strategy is failing
• Develop an outline script to have at hand when you are on the call

Staying calm when encountering sales objections helps to focus and increase the success rate in closing a prospect. When you receive a complaint, it is vital to remain calm and listen to the customer.

Successful salespeople usually pause a bit longer after an objection than other parts of the call. Instead of defending the products or yourself, keep calm and resolve the objection by solving it for the customer.

5. Stay Focused on the Task at Hand

Learning to focus on a task or essential work is not easy, but the good news is that it is a skill that you can quickly learn. It takes a bit of patience, persistence, and practice.

The skill of concentrating attention on a single task or interest in any given moment will take you far. Most people can focus on an activity for only a few minutes before distractions interrupt them.

Here are some things that can help you practice the skill of staying focused:

• Figure out the next important task and its completion state: What is the next important job, and how do you plan to complete it? Maybe calling the next client and making a sale is the next task. The important thing is to visualize what it is and plan for it.
• Eliminate all distractions that can prevent accomplishing that task: You might have a lot of things on your plate, but you need to eliminate distractions and focus only on the most result-driven tasks at hand.

Remove everything that can take your attention off your next task. Another essential step for staying focused is to ensure your workspace contributes to your job’s success.

For example:

• Do you have a working headphone that will not cause you problems during a phone call?
• Do you have the CRM software handy?
• Do you have pens available or something to take notes on (for example, a note-taking app or piece of paper)?
• Do you have your script ready?

If you are using a business VoIP phone service, make sure you can make seamless calls and have a reliable service. RingCentral is one of the market leaders providing reliable services. You can consider some of the best alternatives to RingCentral for improved reliability, security, and improved customer interaction.

However, if you are working from home and looking for a reliable phone system that will help you keep focused on the customer, consider Vonage. It can help provide that extra technological advance you need to stay completely focused on your work and not on its technicalities.

If you connect through a WI-FI and are concerned that the calls might drop or get interference, then consider Ooma as an alternative phone system. The worst thing that can happen when doing a sales call is not hearing the customer or the phone call dropping because of a weak connection.

The market is full of advanced communication ways like unified communications as a service (UCaaS). Companies are even leveraging advanced AI to boost sales. Staying up-to date with the latest tools and using them to aid your communication streamlines processes and builds your confidence on the call. These tools will help you hit the right pain points on your sales call, if used correctly.

For example, if you employ any of the best live chat software available online to chat with your customers, you can refer to the past chats of the specific potential customer you are making the call with for a better context on their needs.

Once you have a workplace and the right tools in place, you can start your task, being sure you will stay focused.

6. Ask Questions to Learn About the Prospect’s Needs

If you can’t understand your customer’s needs and provide solutions for the problems they want to solve, you might not be fully able to focus on reaching the goal of your phone call. You should know about the prospect as much as possible in advance.

Use the tone of voice that matches what your prospects are feeling. Maintain a steady and calm pitch, understand, and ask questions to learn about their needs during your sales call.

There are three main questions to ask during a sales call. These include asking about the prospect’s needs, goals, and expectations.

First, try to establish rapport and make the customer feel comfortable. You could ask additional questions to figure out what their needs are.

For example:

• Are there any problems you would like to solve?
• If you could change or fix one thing, what would this be?
• Why are you looking at this particular product?
• What are your top priorities, and what is your priority for now?

Once you’ve collected this information, you can translate it into an effective strategy when presenting your product and answering any objections the prospect might have!

7. Share Your Value Proposition in the Most Relevant Way

When describing a product or service, it is essential to reduce the number of options and features you want the potential customer to focus on. It helps you stay focused on your target and helps the customer to make a decision faster. The customer can conclude faster and feel more confident that they’re not missing out on anything.

However, if there are objections, you could present the rest of the features and options.

Follow these simple steps to be relevant to your customers when you share your value proposition:

• Mention the research you have done about their company (if applicable): They will be less likely to end the call and stop you if you enter this level of personalization.
• Mention mutual connections: Mentioning a mutual connection can give instant credibility.
• Bring up pain points and possible issues they want to solve: If you mention potential problems your product and service can solve, they are more likely to listen and pay attention to what you are saying.

The more relevant is the proposition to them, and the more you can focus on the task at hand.

8. Keep it Short, Sweet, and Simple!

Phone sales shouldn’t last long; the key to success is brevity. Keep the talk short, simple, and straightforward so you can get through your presentation quickly without losing your potential client’s attention or interest.

In most business interactions, people want to keep interactions short, not only because they are busy but they’re usually not interested if the proposition on the other side of the call is in their favour.

The best sales personnel contact the customers, make the pitch, ask for the order, get the sale, and close the conversation. They don’t engage in small talk apart from the basic interaction that breaks the ice.

This will make the customer feel at ease to buy from you without any pressure or awkwardness.

Sometimes it is necessary to force yourself to sit and do what you have to do instead of procrastinating and letting distractions get into your way. But, let’s face it, it is not always easy. The steps above will help you stay motivated throughout your sales journey and close more sales.

Make sure you prepare the call, remove distractions, set-up the work environment, know how to handle objections, and learn the skills to stay focused. Good luck!