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Cold Calling/Prospecting
Last Updated: Jan 9th, 2006 - 16:26:29
Cold Calling/Prospecting
How To Pry Open The Gatekeeper's Gate
How come everything difficult about selling has a dreadful label?
Words like prospecting, cold calling, gatekeepers, and even the word closing seldom inspire inspiration, motivation or initiative.
I’d like to share some ideas on how you can get a better reception with the gatekeepers you meet in your territory.
Gatekeepers aren't really gatekeepers. They are people like you and me. A lot of salespeople get off to a poor start with gatekeepers because they don't treat them like people - ordinary people.
When you walk into an office and approach the gatekeeper you have one thing in mind. "How can I get past the gatekeeper and get to the decision-maker." The gatekeeper has radar that goes on quickly, especially when salespeople are approaching.
The gatekeeper has multiple responsibilities. I'm guessing that one of them is to keep babbling, unprepared, disorganized, unfriendly, and self-centered salespeople from pestering and possibly annoying senior managers.
I'm also guessing that most gatekeepers are . . .
Jan 9, 2006, 16:24
Cold Calling/Prospecting
Avoiding Sales Call Accidents
A sales call shouldn't be something that happens by accident; it should be a planned event. When sales calls aren't planned, they often result in wasted time and effort, resulting in a no sale. No matter how hard you try, you can't make a sale on every call but, as a minimum, you should be either starting a sale, moving a sale along, or trying to close one.
I'm talking about sales calls here, not social calls where you drop in to chat with someone you like and who likes you. Those are called comfort calls, not sales calls. They're usually unproductive but comforting.
Setting Sales Call Goals
Before you pick up the telephone to make a sales call or approach a prospect, you should be setting a sales call goal. Each call should have a specific purpose, desired outcome, or intended result. Before making a sales call, ask yourself, "What do I want to accomplish or have happen as a result of this call?" If you can't come up with a good answer, perhaps you shouldn't be wasting your time or your prospect's time.
Beware of unrealistic call goals. There's little chance of "getting an order" or "making a sale" on an initial cold call. The best you can probably hope for is to get the name of the person you should be talking with. Just getting a future appointment with that individual would be considered a very successful conclusion to a cold call.
A sales call goal should answer one of these questions: "What do I want to happen as result of this call?" or "What do I want the prospect to do as a result of this call?"
Typical sales call goals might be: . . .
Sep 5, 2005, 19:34
Cold Calling/Prospecting
How Essential Are Prospecting Skills to Your Sales Organization's Success?
Has the way you prospect for new business changed? The answer to that is probably dependent upon what you sell, where you sell it, who your customers are, the nature of your competition, how your prospects and customers have been traditionally contacted, the budget allocated for winning new business and lots more.
However, it has been my observation that one thing has never changed. Somehow, somewhere you will be expected to develop strategies to get you and your message in front of qualified prospects. That will never change for salespeople. You included!
I was recently working with a sales organization that had such a strong backlog of existing customers and long term accounts that they had made several potentially fatal mistakes. First, they hired salespeople who were excellent at managing accounts but lousy at finding new ones. Secondly, they started to miss key delivery dates and then quality dropped. You can guess the result – too many salespeople dependent upon impossible customer retention and insufficient revenues as disenchanted customers left by the handful.
Another mistake was that their . . .
Jul 25, 2005, 12:27
Cold Calling/Prospecting
The Intrigue Syndrome Getting a Response to Your Voice Mail
Have you read any novels by John Grisham, Tom Clancy, Anne Perry, Nelson DeMille or perhaps Patricia Cornell? They have the uncanny ability to draw you in, to get you to read the next paragraph, the next page and the chapter beyond even though it is well past midnight.
Why?
Because they are masters at intrigue. Intrigue is defined as “mystery, suspense; to arose interest or curiosity.” At the end of every chapter, these authors leave you with an unanswered question, a moment of suspense, a sense of expectation. You can’t help but read on.
Voice Mail Novelists
When prospects pick up /access their voice mail, they are, in effect, picking up a ‘book’ and leafing through the pages. Something must catch their eye…er…ear. In a way, you must become a master of intrigue when it comes to leaving a voice mail. You must become the Grisham or Cornell of voice mail! You must leave your prospect hungry for more. He or she must want to pick up that phone in the telephony equivalent of turning to the next page.
How do you do this? . . .
Jul 25, 2005, 12:26
Cold Calling/Prospecting
9 Voice Mail Blunders - Strategies and Tactics to Tackle Voice Mail
It is not surprising that so many sales reps complain about not having their voice mail messages returned. Judging by the dozen and half voice mails I have received from sales people over the past couple of weeks the reason is obvious: they are lousy.
Sales reps complain about the impact of voice mail on their selling success but often they are their own worst enemies. Here is a list of common voice mail blunders and how you can manage them.
Blunder #1: Leaving a VM too Soon
The first tip in managing voice mail is NOT to leave a voice mail message.
The trick is to get a live prospect and that often means trying different times. Prepare a list of at least fifty or so prospects. Try calling them earlier (e.g., start at 7:30) or later (after 5:00) in the day. Don’t leave a message, simply dial. If there is no answer hang up and move to the next name on the list. Cycle the list for about an hour with the objective of getting a live prospect. Try doing this every day for about two weeks.
Blunder #2: Not . . .
May 23, 2005, 16:12
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