The success of a sales call is almost completely determined by the quality of the research you conduct before you even pick up the phone. According to an article on SellingPower by Jim Cathcart and Tony Alessandra, here is how to make a sales call effective by searching for a few things you need to look into for every call.

How to Make a Sales Call Effective: Learn 2 Things

Potential Needs

There is so much information on just about every person you can think of on the internet. So, it should not be too difficult to piece together what needs your prospective client may have based on what you find on them online. Cathcart and Alessandra also say to keep the prospect’s position in mind when determining their needs and values. “The chief executive, for instance, will be interested in the long-​term goals of the company or in overall sales and profits,” they say. “Middle managers, however, will base opinions on cost effectiveness. Frontline supervisors will be concerned with installation and operation.”

If you can’t find a noticeable need of the prospect's online, you can still use your research to discover a need quickly over the phone. Did you find an article detailing the company’s efforts to branch into a new field? Ask about that to find out their difficulties. That's how to make a sales call effective.

How the Prospect Makes Decisions

You will rarely find the exact answer to how a prospect makes decisions online or know it offhand if you have never done business with the person you are calling on before. However, there are details you can look for during your research that can give you helpful insight into their decision-​making process. Look at the prospects’ posts on sites such as LinkedIn or in other posts they have made. What is the prospect's personal style? Do they put much emotion into their posts? Or do they seem to focus strictly on facts and keep their wording concise? 

Do not forget to look into other aspects that will impact your potential sale as well when crafting how to make a sales call effective. Is there a new trend in the prospect’s industry that will sway their needs one way or the other or cause them to need solutions more quickly? Has your competition been openly reaching out to this person? If so, you need to be prepared with reasoning that you offer the better deal.

The more time you put into research, the less time you’ll waste making fruitless sales calls.