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Results for: Cold Calling (Prospecting)
Be Thankful Customers Don’t Call You with Orders The most loyal customers are those found through cold calling. Why? Because they hate to cold call. When a customer wants to buy a new service or product they do a “reverse cold call”, contacting several vendors. They’re as uncomfortable making these calls as salespeople are cold calling. It’s the people who call up out of the blue, take the “next available salesperson”, and give you a quick order that you need to be wary of. Since they have no fear of “cold calling”, when the slightest thing goes wrong they will pick up the phone and call your competitor. They have no loyalty. Bonus: those you cold call will rarely call in the competition to compete with you. Even if they do, since you are the first in the door, you set the parameters and rules. Your competitor has an uphill battle. Thu, 27 May 2010 13:00:58 +0000 Sales Posse Blog |
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Prospecting on the Phone: Say It's a Sales Call On a first prospecting call, help people decide how to buy. Begin with, "My name is John Smith from X company. This is a sales call. Is this a good time to speak?" That sentence introduces you as respectful, non-manipulative, and in rapport. People won't remember your name, but they'll be immediately engaged. Then help them determine how their decision team would be ready to use your solution. “Needing” it isn't the issue, or you'd close a lot more sales. "How are you currently adding new X to your current software?" "How would you and your decision team know if it were time to consider an additional vendor?" Think about a cold call like “speed dating”: is this a prospect you can serve? Can this prospect's team choose a new solution? Stop trying to uncover need; it's not a good enough focus.
Sharon Drew Morgen is the visionary and thought leader behind Buying Facilitation® the new sales paradigm that focuses on helping buyers manage their buying decision. She is the author of the NYTimes Business Bestseller Selling with Integrity and the recent Dirty Little Secrets. She is a keynote speaker, trainer and consultant focusing on buy-in and decision making. Email: sdm@austin.rr.com Site: www.newsalesparadigm.com Twitter: www.twitter.com/sharondrew Blog: www.sharondrewmorgen.com Tue, 18 May 2010 13:01:00 +0000 Sales Posse Blog |
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Anyone who has played competitive sports and been popped in the mouth or ridiculed by the opponent gets angry. Good. The next football game you watch, key in on the sidelines before the kickoff. You’ll see the players working up a lather of anger as they pound each others’ pads and knock helmets together. Why is anger good in certain situations? It takes your game to another level. Your adrenalin pumps you up so much that you can’t wait to take action. Harvard psychologist Jennifer Lerner says that the emotion of anger gives someone a sense of certainty and control. You’ll take more risks. Be more focused. More aggressive. Anger gets you to act. Anger applied to sales? The next time you have to make cold calls, get angry about your fear of rejection. Keep repeating, “I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take it (fear) any longer!” Mon, 17 May 2010 13:01:06 +0000 Sales Posse Blog |
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Send This to People You Cold Call Given a choice to make a cold call or to call someone who’s been referred to you, which call would you make? Easy choice. Referred leads are more fun and comfortable to talk with. Try this. From now on, every call you make is going to be a referred lead. From your sales manager. Cold call every person you can find a name and number for. Start the call with “(Your manager’s name) referred me to you and....” If they ask who (manager’s name) is, tell them, then send this: “Hi. It’s me. (Manager’s name.) I gave (your name) permission to give you a call to see if we could be of any help in growing your business. I accept full blame if the call didn’t work out. I’m sure you wish all your salespeople were making more cold calls too. Well, that’s it. I wish you continued success. Thanks.” Thu, 13 May 2010 13:00:02 +0000 Sales Posse Blog |
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Patients going into the hospital for surgery expect to be in pain. Then they’ll need medication for that pain. Researchers wanted to know if they could change patients’ pain expectations, thus cutting down on their medications. They told the experimental group to imagine playing a game of football where bruises and cuts and pain were the expected norm. As a result, the group recovered from surgery with less pain, taking less medication. No big deal. What do you expect when cold calling? Poor outcomes? No sales? No appointments? Now imagine a situation where you expect poor outcomes yet continue on. Playing the lottery or the slots. Fishing. What about scientists looking for the cancer cure? Thomas Edison inventing the light bulb. You don’t expect success with every effort. But you press on because of the fun or because of your belief in the cause. No biggie. Fri, 16 Apr 2010 13:00:28 +0000 Sales Posse Blog |
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Change Your Behavior in 21 Days A smart COO asked me how she could change the behaviors of her salespeople to create a habit of cold calling. This is based upon Ben Franklin’s “Thirteen Virtues”, Maxwell Maltz’s Psycho-Cybernetics, Og Mandino’s The Greatest Secret in the World, and the verification of psychologists. The habit the COO wants to replace is not cold calling with the habit of cold calling. It takes 21 days to form a new habit. She wants her people making fifteen quality cold calls each day. To create the habit, she needs to have her people make one call every 30 minutes. After each call, the salesperson has a “diary” seen only by him or her where a quick one or two sentence note is made as to what happened on the call or how he or she felt. Try it for 21 working days and see if you don’t change your behavior. Thu, 08 Apr 2010 13:00:52 +0000 Sales Posse Blog |
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If you’re making cold calls, here are three quick ways to make it fun.
These techniques set attainable goals by establishing necessary processes to reach them. When you reach your goals, you achieve success. Success breeds success. Also, your subconscious mind won’t let you stop until you reach that goal. Best of all, you’ll find customers because you’re calling. ? Tue, 06 Apr 2010 13:01:00 +0000 Sales Posse Blog |
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X-box. Tennis. Golf. Play. If what you’re doing can be seen as play, you’ll do it with joy – win or lose. Make cold calling play. How? Trust your talent. Trusting yourself is where your confidence comes from and is the basis for having fun. How do you acquire the talent for cold calling if you don’t have it? When calling, try to identify which of the four personalities is at the other end of the phone. That’s fun and its’ a skill that turns into a talent. Identifying personalities teaches you how to “talk their language”. Another skill to add to your talent base. Knowing their personality teaches you how much or how little information to give to them to move the deal forward. Another skill. More talent. The more skills you master, the more talent you acquire. The more talent you acquire, the more fun you have. Wii! Thu, 01 Apr 2010 13:00:23 +0000 Sales Posse Blog |
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Whether you’re cold calling or playing a sport, the person who initiates the action has the advantage. You’re working on your timetable, you know what you’re going to do, and you make the other person have to react. As the initiator you get to choose to go with your strengths and not be forced into your weaknesses. Because you’re prepared with your game plan, you are also prepared to make the necessary adjustments. Learn as much as you can about the customer. Adapt your approach to attack his needs. Have your proofs at your fingertips. Know what objections you’ll encounter. When you’re prepared, you won’t over-exaggerate the strength or position of the customer. You’ll respect him, but you won’t cower in front of him. Cold calling, like sports, depends on you being more pro-active rather than re-active. Wed, 31 Mar 2010 13:00:57 +0000 Sales Posse Blog |
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Cold calling is like being a baseball pitcher – the only thing you can control is yourself. You can throw your best stuff and still get knocked out of the park. But that’s okay. Because you’re throwing your best stuff. That’s all you can control. Rejection discourages cold calling. The more no’s you get, the more discouraged you get, the sooner you quit calling. Why? Because you’re dwelling on the no’s instead of trying to make the next call better. Pitcher Kevin Brown said that, “I’ve brainwashed myself to remember that you can’t control your last pitch. It’s already been thrown. So get over it. All you can do is control the next pitch you’re going to throw.” If you want to get in front of more customers, focus on controlling your mind. Control your actions. Control the next call, not the results. You can and you can’t. Wed, 31 Mar 2010 13:00:57 +0000 Sales Posse Blog |
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Warm Calling? Who Do You Think You’re Kidding?
During a break in our Cleveland seminar, an owner told me I should change the name of our seminar from Cold Calling for Cowards® to “How to Make Warm Calls”. He stresses to his salespeople to think of their calls as being warm calls and not cold calls to make the process more fun. Uh-huh. Couple of things. One, I registered the trademarked name of our seminars for a reason: it’s brought us in over 150,000 business people to our public seminars. How many does he think his new title would appeal to? But this is less important than the next point. Cold calling sucks and by changing the name it’s not going to take away the dread salespeople have about the process. Like a rose is a rose, cold calling is cold calling by any other name. Those who actually do it know what I’m talking about. Wed, 17 Mar 2010 13:01:54 +0000 Sales Posse Blog |
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Tweak Your Questions So the Hard Ones are Last
Research was done with some brokers in Los Angeles to determine if the sequence of asking questions was important. The brokers were to make their cold calls with lists given to them by their sales manager. The second question, the test question, was, “Do you have $10,000 you’d like to invest?” The brokers made several hundred calls and got no appointments, and of course, no sales. Typical responses: “It’s none of your business.” “Invest? I never invest.” “10,000? Are you nuts?” The sales manager drove his brokers through the areas they were calling. Beverly Hills and Bel Air. These people don’t have $10,000? They don’t invest? That was too tough a question to ask that early in the call. Right question, wrong sequence. They re-positioned the $10,000 question as question number six the next day and made their calls. They got appointments leading to sales. Asking questions. Timing is everything. Wed, 10 Mar 2010 14:00:11 +0000 Sales Posse Blog |
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