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December 30, 2009 at 10:35 am #1005852January 4, 2010 at 10:40 am #1005853Up::0Burgo, post: 5174 wrote:You know what ‘cold calling ‘ should not be about getting the sale, it should be about making contact.
Without making contact there will never be a sale.
So we make a contact.Next call we hopefully make the sale, because the customer has met you and you have told them about your products and services so they are expecting you to call again.
Sometime this may take several visits by the salesperson but the fact that you have shown an interest in them by calling back increases the oportunities to close the sale with little effort
This approach will give you a customer for life.
the ‘hard sell’ approach may get you a sale but not necessary a customer.That’s my opinion for what its worth.
so after a short hiatus I’m back, read this and wanted to comment because its such a great point.
cold calling is great for lead generation. beginning to build a relationship/rapport/trust. Helping people get to know, like and trust you. this is a very separate activity to lead conversion – which seems to be the focus of many cold callers.
My advice is that if you really want to use cold calling, focus on lead generation (not lead conversion). in the long term the results can be fantastic.
Now I’m not saying cold calling does not work as a lead conversion tool. I’ll leave that point at that.
Get your target market to know, like and trust you and you’ll have more work than you can handle.
January 4, 2010 at 11:31 am #1005854Up::0I guess I agree in part – cold calling is good for warming leads.
I also agree in part because my philosophy is not to go for the “hard sell” on the first call – we can’t MAKE someone buy something and would be foolish to try.
The only time I become “hard” with clients is when they say yesyesyesyesyesyes no.
Then there is an obstacle to be overcome which sometimes requires my calling them on the logic gaps in their objections.
That sometimes works, and sometimes it really isn’t for them.
And that’s ok.
However I do disagree that I will get better “long term results” by omitting an attempt to convert, by asking for the order.
If I have misinterpreted (and I have a penchant for doing that) if I have please forgive me.
If I haven’t I am here to say I sure as heck ask for the order confidently – because of course you want what I am offering I mean why wouldn’t you?
If they say NO on the first call- chances are they never did want it, or they need more information which you give them, then you try again, on that call or the next and sooner or later they will buy.
The average client says no how many times? 5 / 8 or something like that?
What I see is a lot of salespeople who fail to prepare for success, I mean WHAT if they say YES – omg then you have a sale.
Wouldn’t your prospect be better off with your product or service NOW?
Don’t we owe that to them as business people to help them NOW?
And wouldn’t we all rather have a dollar today?
I know you all love money…
So let’s start asking for the card?
You might be surprised what happens…
And if you’re still not convinced – a sale is made on every call.
Either they buy what you are selling or you buy the objection.
Whether you CONVERT them on the cold call, they make the buying decision in the first 10 seconds.
This may be a personal thing, but when I get a call from a “salesperson” who can’t muster up the skill / courage / belief in the value to communicate value, and ask for the credit card on the first call….
I for one don’t respect that – it tells me they lack training / confidence in their product / service and that tells me all I need to know.
I am one of those annoying guys that seldom buy on the first call but I make the DECISION on the first call every time.
First impressions count – how are you representing when you don’t invite them to use your fantastic service / product?
The last thing you want to do is train your clients that you’re a great guy and not one of those sales types and of course no you won’t sell to them, because then it is going to come as a nasty surprise when you do…
January 4, 2010 at 12:45 pm #1005855Up::0peppie, post: 4963 wrote:Not everyone is as pushy back, like you and me, it’s a fact of life!!!!! And BTW, there are many businesses that survive very well without having to resort to Cold Calling. Personally the whole idea gives me the shivers (heh heh).Cold calling is the most difficult task a business owner can do.
There are business owners that will sit there and wait for customers to walk through the door without having to lift a finger and then there are those that refuse to go down without a fight and go looking for business.
If you are in a business that does not have to work to get clients through the door and remain profitable, good for you, but it does not make the ones that have to fight for busines beneath you.
I would like to be in a business where customers magic themselves through the door, please let me know the businesses that work this way, I want in!!!
I find cold calling not too bad now, we have a set procedure that gets a half decent amount of appointments & it does work.
I also go to at least 3 networking events a week as well as all the other standard marketing strategies small businesses use.
Its all part of business, nobody said all tasks of a small business owner are pleasant or going to make everyone happy.
Cold calling is a small but important part of doing business. I also never sell anything to anyone that will not benefit from what we offer & I have never sold on the phone although not through lack of wanting to, after all if it saves time and achieves the same result then great.
January 4, 2010 at 2:00 pm #1005856Up::0Did I say that Adam???? Must have been a while ago!
I confess that I am not totally against cold calling, but it kinda reminds me of having to talk to an audience in my younger days. It was scary but now it doesn’t bother me much at all, and largely due to practice I guess.
In my type of business though the vast majority of my initial contacts don’t come from cold calling because I am dealing with more of a retail market, individuals.
My calling them though in any sense of a cold call may come a bit later when having received an initial call from a potential client (and making sure I get contact details) I feel the need to follow up on them because they haven’t come back to me when they said they would. The response often surprises me when for example I get told they had lost my card, or, some disaster had passed through recently.
These are not delaying excuses I am sure, because the second contact will often lead to something fruitful. But I have to confess, I still hesitate sometimes to make that call, even though I know the benefits. (Sigh.)
January 4, 2010 at 9:25 pm #1005857Up::0peppie, post: 22810 wrote:, I still hesitate sometimes to make that call, even though I know the benefits. (Sigh.)Hi Paul, that certainly sounds familiar, I hesitate right around sunrise:)
I really do not like doing it and hate rejection, if there was another way to get to where I want to go, I would do it.
January 5, 2010 at 12:16 am #1005858Up::0Adam,
Whenever you are ready, I have a way to determine exactly what you need to do so that you never have to make a “cold call” again.
There IS an answer.
January 5, 2010 at 2:30 am #1005859Up::0THE SALES WARLORD, post: 22802 wrote:However I do disagree that I will get better “long term results” by omitting an attempt to convert, by asking for the order.If I have misinterpreted (and I have a penchant for doing that) if I have please forgive me.
Hi Sales Warlord, I probably should have articulated my point a little better. I deliberately didn’t say ‘better long term results’ because I didn’t want to go down that rabbit hole. My point in saying the results ‘can be fantastic’ is through this approach you can cultivate long term relationships with your target market, help them get to know, like and trust you, and then buy. These buyers typically are great repeat purchasers and great referrers. One of my main fears with trying to sell when cold calling (my definition of a cold call is the first call where they don’t know you, any call after that I’d call a warm call – my definition of this difference is important to my point) is once you burn the bridge (most cold callers I have experienced definately burn the bridge with me), thats it, often no second chance at the highly targeted prospect that you know is in your target market.
THE SALES WARLORD, post: 22802 wrote:If I haven’t I am here to say I sure as heck ask for the order confidently – because of course you want what I am offering I mean why wouldn’t you?Maybe people do need what you sell but many will not buy until they know, like and trust you. Sure you might achieve that on a first call, but for a lot of people, they just won’t be wired psychologically to get over that line with you Call 1.
THE SALES WARLORD, post: 22802 wrote:If they say NO on the first call- chances are they never did want it, or they need more information which you give them, then you try again, on that call or the next and sooner or later they will buy.A question to all you FS forum members – If you don’t mind sharing, what’s your anecdotal evidence of down the line success with people who say NO upfront.
Are they likely to be NO for ever more?
Or is the dialogue sometime (often?) NO, NO, NO, NO…..YES?
THE SALES WARLORD, post: 22802 wrote:Whether you CONVERT them on the cold call, they make the buying decision in the first 10 seconds.Not sure if you were just trying to make a point or really believe in these stats? If it’s the latter, do you have evidence to back this up? I don’t have evidence either way but my gut and experience don’t allow me to agree with this point.
This is a great discussion. Thanks folks, especially Sales Warlord.
January 5, 2010 at 3:29 am #1005860Up::0The 10 second theory has been around as long as I have been selling.
Not being a researcher I don’t have the skills or inclination to dig for the stats, but I am sure Leela could if she felt so moved.
My point is this:
Unskilled telemarketers are not salespeople.
Yes there are more of them than there are well trained professionals.
Yes they burn leads.
Yes statistics will OVERWHELMINGLY support that cold callers burn leads by trying to “pressure sell” on the first call.
Because MOST cold callers ARE unskilled poorly trained desperadoes.
I spent years AS one early in my career and I was AWFUL!
Pressure selling is for those who lack confidence, systems and a firm grasp on the value of what they offer, and these people always want to use old school technical sales and pressure techniques to bully or trick people.
That doesn’t work.
But it is how most sales is perceived because most salespeople are poorly trained and don’t last the distance to learn better.
Think about any profession if you put 100 in a room there will be varying degrees of competence.
Same goes for cold callers.
Yes the anecdotal evidence on this site and anyone you care to grab off the street will probably support this.
I am saying there is a better way.
With respect to those of us in start up’s, in fact in my experience the gross proportion of new business’s and some established business’s STILL lack the basic sales training required to operate effectively and avoid what we are discussing above.
FEAR.
Fear of rejection.
The myth that there is something better you could be doing than making sales if you run a business.
The assumption that your prospect will be offended and not want to buy if you call and present to them and ask them to.
If your customer is offended by your asking them to buy something they have agreed throughout your script that they need and want that is hardly a matter for your company – it is them having a shitty day.
But we let the 3 out of 100 people we call turn us off making sales.
All of this stops people from calling but what we all need to admit is we need more training and practice to get better at ANYTHING.
“oh I just don’t like it and will never be good at it” – well that is totally a choice but not the choice of a successful business owner.
As Jay Abraham said, “every business is a sales and marketing business”
Also “60 – 80% of your time should be spent on sales and marketing activity”
If you aren’t sales calling for 4 – 6 hours a day…
Well you aren’t going to grow as fast as you could.
You aren’t performing optimally.
It REALLY helps if you have niched and have an effective UVP to select customers intelligently and on the first call “triage” whether they are appropriate customers or not very quickly.
If they aren’t a customer I politely move on without “burning” them, who knows when they might be on my line buying in future?
Anyone who has spent any amount of time in the profession of sales (years) will know the most suspicious customers ARE those who say yes yes yes yes yes yes yes, and then rush off the phone when you ask for credit card details.
The majority of purchasers say NO several times before you close them.
Because selling is not taking orders, it is building trust and often overcoming misunderstandings objections and fear.
How can you do this if you don’t get the first NO out of them?
How can you sell to someone if you haven’t figured out what their concerns are and helped them understand the ways in which you reverse their risk?
If you DON’T ask for the order you won’t.
And you may never convert that person you call and call and call who doesn’t have the heart to say no, and whom you will never ask for the order.
When you KNOW who your customers are and you are speaking their language they are either interested or not and YOU decide based on experience and training whether to close or email, whether to take them off your list or not.
You don’t have to be at the mercy of fear, if you take the training to get better results.
You can ask for the order and get the sale on the first call.
And if you have to call the guy back he KNOWS you mean business and you waste a LOT less time.
But it is about FEAR.
It is about your COMFORT zone.
It is about recognizing you CAN overcome your OWN objections to your sales success.
Thank you for this opportunity to talk about a subject I am so passionate about, I love that you are so honest and I hope you get something out of this!
Conversions would be good!
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