Handle Sales Objections The Smart Way With Diplomatic Transition Phrases

Writen by Dr. Gary S. Goodman

You've contacted someone and opened the sales call with these words:

"Hello, this is Gary Goodman with Customersatisfaction.com…"

And right at this moment the prospect replies, "I'm not interested!"

Rude, don't you think?

Here you are, at the very beginning of what you hope will be a pleasant give-and-take, and they cut you off before you can give anything!

So, how can you respond, presuming they haven't hung-up?

You can do the intuitive thing, which is also the most defensive, and that is to argue with the prospect:

"How can you BE interested; I haven't even said anything, yet!" This is guaranteed to earn that hang-up, for you.

You can try to ignore it. This was my Aunt Cecelia's approach. When you hear something you don't want to hear, pretend you didn't hear it.

She swore by that one, but I assure you, it won't work on the phone in a selling situation.

Or, you can reply, diplomatically. This is the way to go, believe me.

A transition is a word bridge that enables you to gracefully travel from their interruption back to your presentation. Here are some examples:

(1) Well, I understand that, but…

(2) Well, I respect that, but…

(3) Well, I appreciate that, however…

(4) Well, I'd be surprised if you were at this point, but…

So, let's revisit the dialogue at the top of the page, adding a timely transition phrase:

"Hello, this is Gary Goodman with Customersatisfaction.com…"

"I'm not interested!"

"Well, I appreciate that, but the reason I'm calling is recently we sent out some letters and brochures, and I was wondering, do you recall seeing one of those by any chance?"

This is an after-mailing opener, if you were wondering, and it works quite well.

But my point is you can't get to this opener unless you have a diplomatic bridge.

Try them, and tell me how you do!

Dr. Gary S. Goodman, President of Customersatisfaction.com, is a popular keynote speaker, management consultant, and seminar leader and the best-selling author of 12 books, including Reach Out & Sell Someone® and Monitoring, Measuring & Managing Customer Service, and the audio program, "The Law of Large Numbers: How To Make Success Inevitable," published by Nightingale-Conant. He is a frequent guest on radio and television, worldwide. A Ph.D. from USC's Annenberg School, a Loyola lawyer, and an MBA from the Peter F. Drucker School at Claremont Graduate University, Gary offers programs through UCLA Extension and numerous universities, trade associations, and other organizations in the United States and abroad. He holds the rank of Shodan, 1st Degree Black Belt in Kenpo Karate. He is headquartered in Glendale, California, and he can be reached at (818) 243-7338 or at: gary@customersatisfaction.com.

Cold Calling Just Dont Do It

Writen by Tino Buntic

Cold Calling is dead. That's right, it is dead. It is interruption marketing to the highest degree. Consumers are tuning out interruption marketing and the advertising message is not getting through.

So why do you continue to cold call? It is probably because your sales manager tells you that you should. And why does he tell you to cold call? It is probably because the sales consultant that your company spent thousands of dollars on advised that the staff should increase their cold calls to increase their sales. Of course, your company needs to see a return on this investment so they advise the sales manager to advise the sales staff to follow the recommendations and increase the amount of cold calls.

"More cold calls equals more appointments made equals more sales presentations equals more closed sales." This is the general thinking. So sales leads lists are purchased from companies such as InfoUsa and the troops hunker down in the "boiler room" and call business executives and decision makers hoping to set appointments. The generally accepted rule is 15 cold calls should translate into 3 appointments made which should result in 1 completed sale. This rule usually ends up being 150 (or more) cold calls equals 3 appointments made equals 1 completed sale. The reason? Have you ever tried calling a business executive? Then you know that it takes about 10 tries before you actually get through on the phone. So the intial 15 calls turns into 150 calls. Executives, by nature, are busy… appointments, meetings, travel, planning… they don't have time for unsolicited phone calls. And, if you do manage to find them with some free time, it takes a lot of skill to get through the secretary (the gatekeeper); they are trained to filter out unimportant phone calls. And guess what? Your call is NOT IMPORTANT!

Let's go back to the sales consultant that your company hired. How did your company decide that they needed to hire a sales consultant? Did the sales consultant cold call your company to advise that your company's sales are not as high as they could be and that, therefore, they should hire a sales consultant to provide some recommendations? No he didn't. The scenario was something along the following lines: The CEO of your company noticed that sales are decreasing and did a search on the internet for a sales consultant to potentially hire to help the company increase sales. The CEO called the consultant, they met, the consultant made his sales presentation, and he was hired. The sales consultant, already with a contract, just regurgitated old school sales principals, basically more cold calls. Perhaps he even drafted a few cold calling scripts. This is almost foolproof. If sales increase the consultant will say it was because of his cold calling training. If sales don't increase he'll say it is because the company wasn't following his recommendations… they did not make enough cold calls.

The bottom line is this "sales expert" did not need to make a cold call to earn his income. The company CEO found him on the internet. He has a website and he lets his website do the selling for him. If the "sales expert" doesn't need to make cold calls, then neither do you. Rather than spending thousands of dollars on sales consultants and sales lead lists, sell the way that these pros sell. Instead, spend that money on internet marketing. People that need your services are searching the internet to find somebody to provide it to them. If they are not finding you then your competitors are getting the business. If you don't have a website, you can create a professional profile on other sites, such as trade-pals.com for free. Just remember, if you disturb somebody with a sales message it is interruption marketing. If someone finds you through searches it is permission marketing. People just don't respond to interruption marketing anymore. If they find you, they have already made the conscious decision to use your services; half of your sales work will already have been done!

Tino Buntic is a former cold caller but is presently retired from cold calling. He now gets his sales leads through other means. His website, trade-pals.com, provides sales leads without cold calling to sales professionals across North America

Does Cold Calling Really Work Three Ways To Know The Truth

Writen by Daegan Smith

This belief has long been the contention of many people, especially those who believe that man, being a rational being, is always accountable for his action. They know that they will be rewarded for every good action that they make, and they will be punished for every bad action they did otherwise.

This belief has also been applied to many activities like cold calling.

Basically, people do cold calls if they want to market their product even without knowing who they will call, And as applied, cold calling works on some people, and to some, they just sucks.

In many instances, cold calling really works. However, it is not simply based on trying something because they know they will benefit something from it; and they would continue on believing that it will really do them good even if they did not even tried hard enough.

In some areas, some people would contend that the effectiveness of cold calling really depends on the situation and on the skills of the person doing the job.

Maybe, some people are just lucky. Maybe, some people are born cold callers or sales person. Maybe, it was their day, when they were able to close a sale through the phone. Maybe, just maybe, everything is dependent on your knowledge about what you are doing and on what strategies to use, don't you think?

This goes to show that the reason why cold calling does not work with other people is because they do not just know how to make cold calls, the true concept of cold calling, and the things that need to be considered before make a cold call.

Therefore, for people who are not yet convinced that cold calling really works and it is just based on some circumstances that cold calling does not work for some people; here is a list of some conditions that will tell you that cold calling really does work:

1. It works when the person who does cold calling knows who your customer or company is.

This does not necessarily mean that you personally know your customer or the company. What is truly being pointed out here is that you should know the pertinent details of your customer or the company. You should know the customer's background, the company profile, and the nature of the company or the customer so that you will have an insight how great is the probability that they will listen to your sales pitch.

For example, a person who works for a certain direct selling company but does cold calls on the wrong market. What sense does it make talking to people whom you know will not work on you?

Simply put, people will not listen to your sales pitch if you they are not interested on your product. In addition, the reason why they are not interested is that they know that they have nothing to benefit from it.

See the point? It is really important to know your target market before making cold calls.

2. It is important to know that cold calling will be very effective if the person will target on the right person in the company. The higher the position of the person is, the greater the possibilities that you will get where you are heading at.

This means that aside from knowing the target market, people who do cold calling should also know that they have to aim higher. This goes to show that you should not just call people whom you think are connected with your idea or product. It is best if you will talk to the person who is in the authority to decide if ever he will be interested on what you are selling.

For example, a person who is a sales person in a staffing company. According to his analysis, his target market will be interested on his services because he knows that the nature of the company can be associated to what he is selling.

Then, he thought of targeting a certain department in the company, whom he thought would entail the "decision makers." The problem is, he called on the department who is responsible for the recruitment of their company. This means that if he will provide them feasible means of getting employees or staff, which would make the department sound inefficient on their work. In turn, it will only make matters worst.

The important thing is to call the highest position in the company like the CEO's. IN this way, you can get hold of the real decision maker. The point is, when cold calling, you should start from the highest position and not on the lower rank.

3. Cold calling really works if your product will reveal unseen opportunities.

This means that people, who does cold calling, should make it a point that their services and products will reveal some hidden chances or opportunities and would make the company realize that they need it.

It is relatively based on timing. As most sales expert say, the reason why people say no to you is that it is that you are in the wrong time. What matter most is that you have to call again and expect that you will close the sale on that day.

It is the persistence and the knowledge about cold calling that would really attest that it really does work. As most people say, cold calling reflects your passion for the business.

Indeed, there is no other way that would best describe the selling characteristic of a person that what cold calling can do.

Daegan Smith the owner of Net MLM Articles and the leader of the fastest growing team of successful home business enterpernuers on the net. Find out how we're creating financial freedom all across the globe and how to get in on the action FREE =>http://www.comlev.com

What Is The Secret Cold Calling Formula In Reaching Executives

Writen by D.M. Arenzon

The answer is simple and it's called PERSISTENCE! If your prospect does not call you back, guess what? You keep calling them! If they have not returned your telephone call after the second, third or even fourth attempt, guess what? You keep calling them! According to the National Sales Executive Association, 80% of sales occur between the fifth through twelfth contact and 20% of sales occur between the first through the fourth contact. What do these statistics tell us?

These statistics reveal that the most successful sales reps are those who choose not to give up on their prospects! They understand that those prospects who respond with the "not interested objection" are really asking for more product or service information. They understand the importance of consistent follow-up with their sales prospects. They understand that their prospects will respect their enduring persistence. They understand that their "enduring persistence" may act as a catalyst in their prospect's buying decisions. What exactly do I mean here?

These prospects (i.e. C-Level Execs, Senior-Level Execs, Directors and Business Owners) that are being contacted are successful for one reason and that reason is due to their "enduring persistence." Many times our buying decisions are based on more than just the price, features and benefits of a product or service. Our buying decisions can also be based on the person from whom we are buying the product or service. In this case, a prospect who is dealing with a sales rep who has demonstrated "enduring persistence" can quickly identify with this winning personality trait. They will perceive the sales rep as having something in common with them and as a result, they may factor this information into their purchasing decisions.

Now that I have demonstrated that being persistent helps to bridge the gap between you and your sales prospect, now what? You need to constantly remind your prospect of your "enduring persistence" because by doing so increases their awareness of you! This means that if you are leaving a message for them you need to let them know that you are not giving up and that you are not a quitter! Let your prospect know (either on a cold call or by voicemail) that you have been trying to reach them for six months, a year or even something crazy like two years!

Below I've included a few lines that you can incorporate into your cold calls and/or voicemail messages. These examples of persistence include the following:

"(FIRST NAME OF PROSPECT), Can you believe that I've been trying to reach you for (LENGTH OF TIME) now? Talk about persistence, right?" (pause)

"(FIRST NAME OF PROSPECT), I think I've left at least ten messages for you, do you respect my persistence here?" (pause)

"(FIRST NAME OF PROSPECT), You gotta respect my persistence here, I've called you so many times that I have no more room in my ACT database." (laugh a little and then pause)

"(FIRST NAME OF PROSPECT), I hope that you appreciate my persistence here, I'm not one to give up so easily." (pause)

Copyright 2006 MR. COLD CALL SEMINARS - All rights reserved.

Mr. Cold Call is the author of "How To Have Fun Cold Calling" and "114 Common Sales Objections, 153 Clever And Savvy Responses." According to Mr. Cold Call, "Your cold call success is dependent on 11 winning personality traits (known as your Telephone Persona Of Success! )." Collectively, these traits allow you to uniquely market yourself over the telephone so that you can inspire your prospect's curiosity and reduce their resistance. Are you interested in finding out more about Mr. Cold Call? Then sign-up for his weekly cold calling tips at http://www.mrcoldcall.com

How To End Your Cold Calling Fears For Good

Writen by Nick Arrizza, M.D.

If you're in your own business and one of the major challenges you have getting clients is picking up the phone and making that important first call then you're likely struggling with what many cold callers suffer with, the fear of rejection.

This fear can manifest within as some of the following:

1. Avoidance of picking up the phone.

2. Excuses as to why doing less productive things is more important.

3. Belief that what you are offering is not wanted by anyone.

4. Fear or dread of that proverbial hangup in your ear.

5. Anxiety or nervousness while you are trying to deliver your prepared message to the callee.

6. Conveying a lack of self confidence thereby sabotaging your efforts during the call.

An so on.

What does all of this have in common? Well pure and simple it is the fact that you are in failure mode. In other words your sales are going to suffer.

One of the most destructive aspects of this is that in itself it is traumatizing to you. That means that the fear of failing again just becomes greater and more entrenched in your mind and body. If allowed to continue it ultimately undermines one's self confidence, self esteem, sense of adequacy, and one's chances of success.

It also undermines one's overall emotional and physical health in the long run. That is what trauma does to individuals you see.

I think you know that sales calls can be very stressful and therefore traumatizing. That is why so few individuals are able to persist at it for too long.

What if you could not only rid yourself of such fears but also build up a sense of resilience that would make your calls pleasurable, effective, get you the results you desire, and make you successful?

Is that too hard to believe? Well it is possible with a new modality that I developed over 10 years ago which helps individuals achieve all of that and more. It is called the Mind Resonance Process(TM) (MRP) and it is available through the web link below at no risk to you.

Dr. Nick Arrizza is trained in Chemical Engineering, Business Management & Leadership, Medicine and Psychiatry. He is an Energy Psychiatrist, Healer, Key Note Speaker,Editor of a New Ezine Called "Spirituality And Science" (which is requesting high quality article submissions) Author of "Esteem for the Self: A Manual for Personal Transformation" (available in ebook format on his web site), Stress Management Coach, Peak Performance Coach & Energy Medicine Researcher, Specializes in Life and Executive Performance Coaching, is the Developer of a powerful new tool called the Mind Resonance Process(TM) that helps build physical, emotional, mental and spiritual well being by helping to permanently release negative beliefs, emotions, perceptions and memories. He holds live workshops, international telephone coaching sessions and international teleconference workshops on Physical. Emotional, Mental and Spiritual Well Being.

Web Site: http://www.telecoaching4u.com/IntroConsult.htm