Why Greeting Strangers Like Friends Kills Your Sales

Is it a good idea to say I hope you're doing well when you are in the middle of a sales call or when you're trying to get somebody to buy something from you? This is a question that I had to tackle with someone recently that I am currently coaching. Now she's in the habit of starting off our conversations that way. Hello. Hello, Sir. I hope you're doing well and OK. Let me call straight, straight to the chase. It's not a good idea at all.

And this is the reason why there are lots of things that are tells that are obvious signs that when people receive the call, they know that you're a salesperson. And one of them is, I hope you're doing well now because lots of sales people say that. It's not a good idea for you to say that because it's a dead giveaway the moment you pick up a call that number one, this person doesn't know me #2 this is a sales call. Now, the reason why we're talking this was because she had gotten to the point where in her calls, I think about two out of 10 people while cutting calls on her, hello, I hope you're doing well.

This is an FM. They caught the call. They caught the call because they know that, look, this is a sales call. Now for her, it was confusing because she was calling leads back from an advertising campaign that is people who have already responded to the lead. So she didn't understand that look, this person clicked and indicated that they were interested. So why, why are they cutting the phone on me? That's the reason why you sound like every other salesperson.

So don't say hello. This is so, so, so. I hope you're doing well. No. Or Happy Sunday, Happy Easter. No, none of that. We already have customary salutations that we use in this part of the world, you know. Good morning. Hi. Good day. Hello, Sir. Good morning, Ma. Good evening. You know, stick to the customary stuff. And then from there go straight to your intentions that I hope you're doing well. What you're trying to do is you're trying to build rapport with someone and that is good.

But The thing is you can't manufacture rapport at the beginning of the conversation. You can't. There is no rapport to be built because it's the early stage. I don't know you, you don't know me. After you have had a conversation a little bit and you have got to learn one or two things about the person, OK, then yes, you can start creating rapport or start deepening rapport. But even then, if you're going to do it, I hope you're doing well.

That sounds disingenuous. It sounds inauthentic. Even if you're going to do that, the more particular the better. So when people call us and they're generally concerned about us, you know, they ask questions like, oh, how is mumsy or how are things that work or, you know, how is she there? You know, how are the kids? You know, things like that. You can't do that at the beginning. That comes later. This is the first time you're calling the person.

Your primary concern when you're calling back leads at this stage is you're just trying to figure out if they're interested. So good morning, Sir. Am I speaking to Chief Emeka? Yes, this is Chief Emeka who is speaking. My name is Kemi. I got your number because you responded to our advert for blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And I was calling to see if you're still in the market for this. Is this. I was calling to see if you're still interested in blah, blah,

blah. Do you have a few moments to talk, Sir? And therefore look just like that. Hello. Am I talking to the right person? OK, Sir, this is who I am. This is the reason why I'm calling. You know, can we continue? It's that simple. So quite out this. I hope you're doing well the moment you're going to. I hope you're doing well. Happy Sunday, Happy Easter, Happy new month. They just know that it's a sales call. I will try not to sound like sales people.

So let's stop it. If you don't, you're going to keep running through those situations where you call someone and say hello, who is this? We say, I hope you're doing well. Then they just got the call as far as they're concerned, Nacio's call on a 419 and they don't want to get involved in both in either. So you have, you've made this call, this is the first call. Worst case scenario, you have a couple of seconds. Best case scenario, maybe half,

two or three minutes, make a count, just call, politely identify the person, be sure you're talking to the right person, state your intention, and let's see how far we can take this call to see if they're interested and see if we can do some lead analysis. So let me leave it like that. So if you've been saying I hope you're doing well, cut that out. It's disingenuous and it's inauthentic. The time will come for I hope you're doing well, but it's not now.

It's not on this first call. It's after you guys have been talking for a bit and after you know some more about about the person. OK, so let me leave it like that. Apologies for the noise in the background. You know I'm out and about. I'm sure you can't tell. So yeah, that's it. If you'd love to connect with me, you can call, send me a text message or WhatsApp message on 08064662140. I'll catch you all some other time.