We met with two of the most successful ASI sales whizzes to get you insight and advice on how to win every sales call with your prospects. Here’s a little info about Ava and Stefenie:

Ava has been a successful member of the ASI distributor sales team for the last six years. She has nine years of sales experience and plenty of wisdom to impart to those new to sales or new to the promotional products industry. She also became a first-time mom when her daughter Ellie was born in March of 2021.

Stefenie has been with ASI since 2017, starting as an account manager and moving into a senior account manager position in 2020. Her love of sales started early; at 16, she spent her weekends making cold calls for her mother’s mortgage company. Outside of ASI, Stefenie spends her spare time with her 2-year-old son and cooking amazing meals for friends and family.

 

1. Do you prepare to respond to common objections during your sales calls? If so, how?

Ava: I typically prepare to respond to common objections by making sure I am up to date on relevant information in the industry. Common objections that I hear are normally based on finances (and lack thereof), and I use sources like ASI’s State of the Industry report for hard statistics on sales in the industry, popular products and new market leaders to help my prospects see the opportunities that they may be missing out on.

Stefenie: Preparing for common objections on sales calls is an important first step before you make the leap and call a prospect. Research your customer. Have some knowledge about them before calling. This will help with having an educated conversation, but also helping the customer at the same time. Know that there will most likely be an objection when making a sales call. Selling isn’t easy, but if you can make the call more consultive yet still having a goal to sell a product is a win for everyone. Before making the call, think about what some objections from the customer or prospect might be and be prepared for a backup answer! You can always overcome any objection. Just stay cool and calm and let the customer know that you are just trying to help them increase their revenue in the long run.

 

2. If a prospect has an objection to your sales pitch, how do you approach it?

Ava: If a prospect objects to part (or all) of my sales pitch, I almost always follow up with an open-ended question. The goal is always to discover more information about the prospect so I can get a better understanding of how I can help.

Stefenie: Having a customer object to your sales pitch is going to happen, let’s face it. Not everyone is going to want to buy what you are selling on the first call. Staying calm, having a friendly tone and just trying to be more consultive always helps. Educate your customer on why they need what you are selling to help them grow. If you hear any hesitation or if there is any intuition that the customer might be interested, but just might be having a bad day, remember there is always an opportunity for follow-up. Persistence is key.

 

3. When trying to upsell a client, are there any techniques you would recommend?

 Ava: I prefer to think about “upselling” in the frame of adding value for my client. I never recommend products or services that I don’t genuinely think my prospect would benefit from. That being said, there are so many tools in our arsenal, so it’s easy to see how additional products would help a prospect reach their end goal. From the perspective of a promotional products distributor, adding on products to diversify the way a client is marketing themselves and the audience they reach, or recommending imprinting additional information on the products they are already purchasing is a sure way to add value to orders.

Stefenie: Get to know your customer. Research and have reasons why they need what you are selling or upgrading them to. Probe and ask the customer questions. Find out what their obstacles are and have a solution. Offer to spend more time walking them through a solution, set up a meeting. Put together a presentation. Provide them with an informative follow-up email that will bullet point your product or solution for their need. Sometimes customers are busy running a business or with life in general. Following up with a detailed email or presentation will help with a visual for the customer and allow them to absorb the information. Follow-up is key. Believe it or not, customers will appreciate your persistence.

 

4. How would you suggest a distributor helps end-buyers to see the value of promotional products?

Ava: I suggest a distributor helps end-buyers to see the value of promotional products by taking the time to educate them on the benefits of using promo items to market their business versus other marketing techniques. ASI makes this seemingly daunting task easy by giving you tools like promoendbuyer.com, where key factors like “cost per impression” and “brand recall” are explained in layman’s terms. By taking the time to educate your customers on the immense value of promo, you create customers-for-life.

Stefenie: Have a plan on what industry or company you want to target. Look them up online, or if they are a local business, visit their shop. See what they are lacking in a sense of promoting, marketing/advertising or thanking customers for business. Be observant. Are their workers wearing branded gear? Promotional products are walking billboards and have a higher “cost per impression” versus other forms of advertising. Educate the business. Let them know that you would like to give them a “free consultation” on how using promotional products can help them grow. Everyone likes a free product being handed to them. Let the customer know that people will constantly look at this product with their logo over and over every time they use the item. Other people will see the product that someone is using and your logo gets passed around over and over again.

 

5. Do you have any tips for conveying confidence during sales calls?

Ava: My biggest tip for conveying confidence during sales calls is being genuine. If you genuinely believe in everything you are saying, the products you are recommending and the strategies you are suggesting, confidence comes naturally. There is no need to be falsely confident in an industry like promo because the evidence of success speaks for itself.

Stefenie: A couple of years into my sales career, I read an article about confidence during sales calls. A lot of that resonated with me and I still use some of the tactics to this day. Try to smile on every call. It really comes across over the phone. To help with this, put a mirror in front of your computer so that you can see your facial expressions. It will really positively change your tone, I promise! Treat every customer like a friend or a relative that you are trying to help. This will help with giving you more of a relaxed and friendly approach, and also help with calming some nerves you might have going into the call.