Sales Credibility is #1

The decision-makers and influencers you are calling receive quite possibly 50 inbound calls each week – perhaps more.  That’s in addition to emails and direct mail.  With all forms of media approaching you articulating their message about technology or other topics, how can an executive possibly decide whom to speak with? Do they display immediate credibility?

Is it the sound of the caller’s voice?   The message itself?   If it is scripted or peer-to-peer dialog?  The level of confidence expressed?  The form of a question or declarative statement to stir interest?

Credibility from the first word.

Your time is valuable. You are pressured from multiple angles.  You must multi-task. Your goals are ambitious and any wasted time diverts you from your mission. But these calls may bring in a solution or suggestion that can be the ultimate panacea you need to achieve and exceed the goals set for you and by you.

The caller you will select is the one with the right message and with credibility. As in your personal life, you will prefer to deal with a peer, an intellectual equal, a professional who has been ‘around the block’ and appreciates your situation and set of challenges. Someone who does not want to waste your time, but wants you invest a ‘time-slice’ to learn about the offering, discuss if it may be a fit, and set an action plan to learn more.

You will select a caller who can field a question without sugarcoating the answer. Someone who speaks, not reads scripts.  Someone who has confidence but not arrogance.  In short, a professional with credibility.

Credibility = trust.  Credibility = someone worth the time.

Someone who will not mislead you to get a sale.  Someone who speaks from experience, not guesswork. Someone you can quote at a management meeting and secure respect and concurrence.

If your voice conveys this credibility, in a crowded field you will be selected for a conversation, an appointment, a meeting, and hopefully a decision.  Credibility must be backed by preparation, fact, anticipation of questions, gravitas of response. Credibility comes with both intellect and experience. It is a tone of voice.  It is content of writing.  It is something everyone in business seeks to be known for. Credibility matters.