Four Things To Do Before Cold Calling

Writen by Tom Richard

"I hate cold calling!"

Of course you do. It's the worst way to generate qualified business leads, it's the hardest form of selling, and it's often tasked to those who are least qualified to do it. It usually leaves you disheartened with its minimal results. But, unfortunately, there's no way around it: sometimes it must be done.

"So how can I make the most of a cold call?"

Determine your objective

Salespeople cold call for all sorts of reasons:

To gain information about the decision maker

To qualify the prospect

To gain an appointment

To make a sale

Before picking up the phone or stepping into your prospect's place of business, have a clear understanding of what YOU hope to gain from the cold call experience. But make sure your expectations are realistic!

Usually, the only realistic expectation of a cold call is to gather the information needed for a successful next attempt. The purpose of the experience is NOT necessarily to sell your product, but to sell the next step toward purchasing that product.

Research your prospect

Always take the time to get to know your prospect before you contact them. Cold calling should NOT be used for research. Search for your prospect on the internet or read articles about their business. Don't waste their (and your) time by asking your prospect simple questions that could be answered within five minutes of looking at their website.

Knowing the basics about your prospect will show them that you respect their company and their time. It will also help you tailor your comments and questions to match their individual qualities and needs. This will easily distinguish you from all those other salespeople who hope to learn about that prospect after calling them.

Find value

After research, you should gain an idea of the types of business problems your prospect may face. Use this knowledge to prepare information that is relevant and valuable to their company.

Any salesperson can ask qualifying questions during a cold call to uncover the business problems of their prospect, but a great salesperson will already know their prospect's problems, and have a solution before calling.

Create a customized document with their business name and tips to improve a specific situation, or give them an article that they may find useful in their industry. Whatever it is, make sure it is something that your prospect will see as valuable, and be ready to present this material immediately in the cold call.

Giving them value first will grab your prospect's attention and will change the tone of the entire experience. Your prospect will see you as a resource, rather than just a salesperson.

After all, people don't want products, they want solutions. If you can't help them solve their problem, then they won't listen to you!

Know how to make a friend

In sales, it is all about who remembers you.

Who will remember you enough to call you back?

Who will remember to refer you to others?

People remember friends, not strangers who try to persuade them to purchase their products. Creating a relationship with your prospects will ensure a memorable experience that will lead to more communication and potential sales.

Combine friendliness and value by giving your prospect a joke or cartoon that is sure to get a chuckle. Make them laugh and feel relaxed around you. If they feel at ease with you, they will feel comfortable discussing business matters and problems with you.

Be enthusiastic and friendly to everyone you come in contact with. (Not just those you think are important). If you aren't speaking with the decision maker, you may be speaking with someone who will determine whether or not you ever speak to him/her.

Although cold calling is a difficult way to generate leads, there are ways of making this initial contact enjoyable. Have a clear objective and determine what needs to be done to achieve it before calling. Being prepared will make the experience enjoyable for you and your prospect and will set you and your company apart.

Tom Richard publishes a weekly ezine entitled Sales Muscle. to subscribe to this free weekly ezine on selling skills, send a blank email to subscribe@tomrichard.com

Teleselling And Acting Like A Human Who Actually Cares

Writen by Lance Winslow

If you are engaged in any type of selling career then you know that using the phone during the sales process is necessary. How you use the phone can indeed make or break the sale. These days with CRM machines, Voice Technologies and push 1 if or push 2 if automated machines, a real human voice is a plus. But not if you do not act like a human, a human that really cares that is. In Teleselling you must not only act like you are human, but Acting Like a Human who actually cares is the key.

Too many people act like order takers during the sales process the minute they get on the phone they go into rapid fire prepared sentence speech. They talk over the other person, do not hear what they said. If the client or prospect wanted that they could call the phone company, American Express or their Cell phone provider and not have to talk to the likes of you.

Would you please do your self a favor and act like a human, with real live human emotion? Emotions like empathy, caring and honest listening. And not just act like you mean it, truly caring. Because if you do the customer will respond in kind and you will be able to move the sales process forward without them hanging up on you or making an excuse to get off the line. Trust me on this in 2006.

By Lance Winslow

Telephone Sales For Group Vacations

Writen by Lance Winslow

One of the tactics that telephone salespeople use when selling group vacations is they try to use the friends and family program. They will call someone up and discuss how they can get a group rate if they go with five friends or family on a vacation. Then they ask if they can name five friends who might be interested in going and ask if it is okay if they call them so they can explain it all and then all the group can talk together later and the salesperson will call back to confirm.

This allows the salesperson one-on-one with all the parties or several different people and then allow them to talk amongst themselves. Then they leave the door open by asking permission to call back later and attempt to close the sale. This is one way that telephone salespeople try to book group vacations and it is a tactic that works very well.

Many people who go on group vacations and are sold these vacations over the phone are actually quite happy that they went on a vacation even though they don't like telephone salespeople. Usually telephone sales of this type are against the law however, if you have done business with a cruise line, travel agency or specific credit card companies they may have got your name from a list and are now calling you because you are already a previous customer and that is allowed by law. Please consider all this in 2006.

"Lance Winslow" - Online Think Tank forum board. If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance; http://www.WorldThinkTank.net/wttbbs/

Is Cold Calling Accepted In Your Industry

Writen by Lance Winslow

The first thing a marketing campaign planning team should consider when going into Virgin Territory to expand their business; is cold calling accepted in this industry? If it is then it pays to make large lists of the most potential prospects and which are best for your company.

Then cluster these accounts and consider the servicing or delivering to that area. Many customers all together make a lot of sense and keep your deliveries or service units efficient in routing. It just makes everything so much better to cluster and think like that from the very beginning of a marketing campaign.

If cold calling is acceptable in your industry, then by all means pick up that phone and start dialing and attempt to get a Yes or No from the decision maker. It saves both your company's sales team time from calling rather than wasting a visit and the companies you are trying to sell to from having their time wasted as well.

By doing this you can get to people who make decisions that your other marketing may not have. For instance advertising on the radio on the way to work, well that may be heard by their employees but not the boss who is listening to his favorite CDs or already on his cell phone on the way into the office.

Cold Calling may seem like a horrible job, but it is also the most efficient and makes the most sense from a business standpoint. Keep it simple, get to the decision maker, open the door to a sales call, or written proposal by fax, drop off or mail. Please consider all this in 2006.

Lance Winslow

Telemarketing Selling Fleet Oil Change Services By Phone

Writen by Lance Winslow

Mobil oil change businesses need to sign up fleet customers in order to make money. It is very hard to make high profits on service operations in a Mobile oil change business if you are constantly doing personal cars only.

However, when doing fleet oil change services all the vehicles are lined up in a row and therefore you can make more money faster and most of the vehicles are the same type and therefore use the same oil filters. This cuts down on inventory and speeds up the service and therefore such efficiencies mean greater profits.

The easiest way to sell fleet oil change services is by telephone and the best place to get lists of customers is to go to business directories to find them. It is also a good idea to co-brand with another local company that does other Fleet services such as tires, signage or mobile fleet watching to get phone lists and contact names to call.

When calling fleet oil change customers on the telephone is important to have a prepared two sentence speech explaining what you do. For instance you might say; we do fleet oil changing services, while all your vehicles are parked in a row and they're not being used and then we conveniently bill you once a month, are you interested?

Why is important to keep it so simple? Because when you are a cold calling customers of this type they are generally very busy and do not have time to talk. But because they are so busy this is one reason why they need your service so much. I hope you will consider this when doing telephone sales for fleet oil change services in the future. Please consider all this in 2006.

"Lance Winslow" - Online Think Tank forum board. If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance; http://www.WorldThinkTank.net/wttbbs/