Sing Like Sinatra“ Top Consultant Advises Sales Amp Customer Service Script Users

The Amazingly Simple Secret For Successful Cold Calls To Company Presidents

Writen by Leslie Buterin

Your colleagues are extremely interested in cold calling company presidents—like you, everybody with business savvy wants to reach the executives, quickly, to close top dollar sales.

In this business environment with collapsed organizational structures, the elimination of middle management, and the increased workload for executive assistants—it's even more challenging to break through to the inner circle of decision-makers.

So consider this--stop making the cold-calling process more complicated (and considerably more painful) than it needs to be. Quit agonizing over the writing of pre-approach letters and searching out friends who can provide warm introductions that'll break you through, and get you into the hallowed halls of the executive suites.

Sure, pre-approach letters and warm introductions are a good mix to add to any sales strategy—but even big time local and long distance phone companies are finally catching on to the fact that the product they market, the telephone, is the most direct, effective tool for increasing sales by leaps and bounds. Now, you don't wanna miss out on use of a proven, effective sales tool, do you?

Of course not!

Here's What Sales Pros Attempt

Now, this is interesting … a recent client survey revealed that most sales professionals feel pressed to accomplish a lot during a prospecting call. With each executive-level cold call, most professionals take a big breath and in one, great big, run on sentence try to 1)establish rapport by being friendly, 2)gain credibility by giving company history, 3)learn about the prospect with probing questions, and 4)introduce and sell products/services, all within the parameters of one brief make-it-or-break-it telephone call to the executive suite.

You'll Never See It Coming, Here's Why

Here's a news flash … it can't be done! Even bigger news … this kind of approach actually signals executive assistants that you don't belong in the president's office. The assistant will simply smile, refer you down to a lower level—and you'll never know why or how you got booted down the ladder so quickly.

So, let's go to the heart of the matter and take a close look at the structure of the phone call itself. In the 35 to 90 seconds that you'll have to spend on the telephone at the president's level, you've gotta be prepared to take the call down the straight and very narrow path in which you want it to go. And there is one absolute, positive, no doubt about it, purpose of your call. Any hint of a deviation from this purpose will result in fewer executive-level appointments.

So here's the secret ... cherish it and know it's extremely valuable.

THE amazingly simple secret to successful cold calls to the offices of presidents is to be certain that every single one of your prospecting calls has one crystal clear purpose and one purpose only. Each word you speak during your prospecting phone calls directs and redirects the conversation toward that one goal, scheduling an executive-level sales call. It doesn't matter whether you schedule a meeting in person, or schedule a phone meeting—every word of the initial phone call must direct the conversation toward getting that meeting booked on the calendar. Period.

Write Down the Words of a Successful Call

A technique that'll catapult you forward is to write down the words exchanged during your cold call. Identify what words, statements, and questions keep the conversation on track toward an appointment and what words cause you to lose the appointment.

You'll become consciously aware of the words that flow between you and your prospect—and their impact. Won't be long 'til you realize that your words either get you what you want or take your cold calls way off the path down some obscure rabbit trail.

I guarantee your competition doesn't have a single-minded focus on high level calls and is, unwittingly, forfeiting a whole lot of potentially lucrative business. Yet they hold onto their ill-advised, accomplish-a-lot-in-a-little bit-of-time approach to prospecting at the top. You, on the other hand, will find that keeping your prospecting calls on one laser-like focus will bring in more executive- level sales calls than you ever imagined possible. Now, go get 'em.

Forward this article to friends—they'll thank you for it!

For your FREE mini-course "Jealously Guarded Secrets to Cold Calling Company Presidents" visit http://www.ColdCallingExecutives.com! Or call Your Sales Coach for Extreme Profitability, author/speaker Leslie Buterin (like butterin' bread) at (816) 554-3674 9-3 CST (that's Kansas City/Chicago Time).

I Hate Cold Calling But Will It Really Help My Small Business

Writen by Brandt Stohr

I hate cold-calling. In fact, there are a lot of horrible pains I would suffer before cold-calling someone. And I think that many small business owners feel the way I do.

It's true that there are a number of means of small business marketing – direct mail, personal letters, advertising, networking, public relations, internet marketing – and alas, cold calling is one of them. When it comes to small business marketing – any business activity, really – at some point you just have to buckle down and do what you gotta' do if you want to succeed. But is cold-calling one of those small business marketing activities that small business owners simply have to suffer through in order to succeed in business?

Some experts say, loudly and with vigor: "Yes!" Others say, "Absolutely not."

The truth about the value of cold-calling as part of your small business marketing strategy is that it's somewhere in between, and it depends on your particular business. If, for example, you retail small-dollar items through a catalog and on the Internet, cold-calling your potential customers probably isn't cost-effective: if each customer might spend $10 with you, spending 20 minutes or more on the phone with that prospect doesn't make sense. If, on the other hand, you're a manufacturer of small-dollar items that you sell to retailers who may spend $1,000 or more buying your products in bulk, then picking up the phone and making a call may well be worth your while.

If you decide to make cold-calling a part of your small business marketing strategy, there are a few things you can do to maximize the chances that your cold call will turn into a new client:

Cold-calling small business marketing tip #1: Take initiative. When you ask the potential client at the other end of the line "When would be a good time to meet?" you open the door for them to say "Never!" Instead, ask "How would next Tuesday at 11:00 work for you to meet?"

Cold-calling small business marketing tip #2: Approach the call with the idea that your goal is to help your prospective customer. Resist the urge to make the call about you – what you do, what you want. Instead, make the call about the prospect at the other end of the line. Ask the prospect about his needs and wants. Then suggest that you can help – and if he meets you next Tuesday at 11:00 you'll tell him how.

Cold-calling small business marketing tip #3: Get to the point. The prospect at the other end of the line is going to feel, right off the bat, that you're wasting her time. So, by all means, be brief. Be clear and concise. Avoid saying "um."

Cold-calling small business marketing tip #4: Ask questions. This tip reflects back to small business marketing tip #2, making the call about the prospect, not about you. Asking questions also helps steer you to the right information and will help you tailor your sales pitch – for you to deliver at the appointment.

Cold-calling small business marketing tip #5: Save the sales pitch. Effective cold-calling isn't about selling your product or service. It's about getting an appointment so that you can sell your product or service in person.

As with any small business marketing strategy, the best way to figure out if it works is to try it. Make enough cold calls so that you can accurately measure their effectiveness. Then compare that measurement to your other small business marketing tools.

Brandt Stohr, The Small Business Marketing Genius has brought startup one man operations to billion dollar corporations by using creative marketing techniques rather then investors and capital. Brandt Stohr has been helped hundreds of entrepreneurs to get their small businesses exploding with sales without the use of expensive traditional marketing techniques. For more information and a free report on the ten deadly mistakes most small businesses are still making visit Brandt Stohr's site at http://www.smallbusinessmktng.com or http://www.brandtstohr.com

The New Telemarketing Part Iii Say Goodbye To Sprayingandpraying

Writen by Dr. Gary S. Goodman

Third in a series of articles, we'll discuss various issues and practices associated with modern ways of selling over the phone.

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The New Telemarketing™ is a set of selling practices designed to accomplish several things:

(1) To sell more goods and services than its predecessor, the "traditional" style;

(2) To be less offensive than its predecessor to buyers;

(3) To be consistent with a customer service style of communicating;

(4) To help in recruiting and retaining qualified phone representatives and managers; and

(5) To repair and reform the image of telemarketers in business and consumer communities.
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One of the main problems with traditional telemarketing is that it is designed as a one-way communications medium.

Scripts, which are commonly used, and by the way, which are necessary, are monologues. They operate from an authoritarian premise that says:

"Me talk, you listen!"

Of course, if that sounds primitive, it is. Modern folks don't want to be talked down to, or even to be talked at.

They crave participation, and their generation, being the best educated ever, has been weaned on participative communication.

They were asked their opinions at home and in countless classrooms, by indulgent parents and teachers, and they expect to be conferred with, and their advice solicited, during calls.

Getting them to sit still to hear and then respond to a phone lecture that can last two minutes or more is fruitless. Hey, they can't turn off their cell phones without remorse, or shut up at the movies, an official one-way medium, so why are they going to kick back and allow us to have all of the fun?

They aren't, and the spray-and-pray format, where callers spray their features and benefits, praying some of them will resonate with listeners, is less and less attractive to fewer and fewer people.

So, a conversational model of telemarketing is required.

But how do you craft one that is efficient, where all control isn't ceded to the prospect?

That's where The New Telemarketing™ comes in. It is designed differently, from the ground up, to appeal to buyers and sellers.

And we'll explore this more intelligent and effective design in future articles.

Dr. Gary S. Goodman, President of www.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®, You Can Sell Anything By Telephone! 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

Have A Good Day Today And A Better One Tomorrow

Writen by Dr. Gary S. Goodman

There used to be a recorded phone line we could call when I was selling for Time-Life Books that would give us a quick injection of motivation.

It was sponsored by Jack Schwartz, a former insurance agent who became one of telephone selling's first authors and consultants.

These messages would last about a minute, and they'd be changed once or twice a week.

I have to say they were a little corny, but heck, they were free, accessible, and actually uplifting.

Jack would sign-off from every one with this line:

"Have a good day today, and a BETTER one tomorrow!"

You couldn't help liking this guy, even if you had a beard and he was fond of saying: "Selling is like shaving; if you don't do it every day, you're a BUM!"

Call it tough-love, but we got the point.

It was just great to know someone thought enough of our craft to dedicate his life to inspiring us, one little phone message at a time.

Moreover, each one of us who called Jack's line felt he was making a special discovery, finding a source of hidden power.

Although I've gone on to write a number of best-sellers on telephone selling and other subjects, I always get a kick out of gazing at Jack's book, which never enjoyed nearly the kind of distribution mine got.

Though dated, you can still pick up pointers here and there, and it's humbling to see a copyright date that goes back fifty years.

Do yourself a favor. Go to one of the online used bookstores such as Powell's and see if you can pick up a copy of an out of print book in your field.

You'll be amazed at what you can discover.

One of my favorites is a little gem called "Selling By Telephone."

It dates back to the 1920's!

Oh, one more thing.

Have a good day today, and a better one tomorrow!

Best-selling author of 12 books and more than 900 articles, Dr. Gary S. Goodman is considered "The Gold Standard"--the foremost expert in sales development, customer service, and telephone effectiveness. Top-rated as a speaker, seminar leader, and consultant, his clients extend across the globe and the organizational spectrum, from the Fortune 1000 to small businesses. He can be reached at: gary@customersatisfaction.com.