Cold Calling – How Do You Make It Work?

Cold Calling Is Dead?

Cold calling – “Is it really dead?” I am frequently asked this question, and my answer is a resounding “NO”. However, processes have changed and cold calling is simply practiced in a slightly different way than it used to be.

My trainings have always advocated techniques to make a cold call a warm call by starting with :

A referral
Something you know about them, e.g. I understand you have ……. is that correct?
Commenting on an action they made that you saw
Noticing a comment they made on social media
Having a connection with them on linked in
Commenting on an article they wrote in Google News

There is so much information about companies now online, that there is no excuse not to find out something of interest about your prospect before you call.

What Is The Most Popular Way To Get Leads Nowadays?

Better Words For Sales Conversations

**1. Never use the word “BUT” to counter an objection in Sales Conversations**

This one little word is often used when responding to an objection and it can spoil everything else you say. “But” negates everything you say before it so disagreement is all the customer hears in sales conversations.

If a customer comes up with an objection, acknowledge it and follow with the word “and” not “but“.

Customer: This software sounds like it would take a long time to install.

Salesperson: Yes, it does take a long time to install and that challenge is taken care of by our own expert consultants who set the whole thing up for you as part of the service.

Customer: It’s very expensive

Salesperson: I understand you thinking that and that’s why I would like to include a free service contract in the price for you for 5 years. How does that sound?

by Jenny Cartwright in Articles, Sales, Sales Tips, Telemarketing Tips, Telemarketing tips/telephone sales tips, Telesales Tips 0 Comments

Why Some Appointments No-Show?

Why do some Appointments no-show? I have had a couple of interesting in-house consulting and training jobs just recently. In both, the telephone sales team were cold calling to make appointments for the salesperson. The first company were making appointments for a face to face sales presentation and the second were making appointments for a teleconference by phone.

First Scenario

In the first scenario, the telemarketers were saying they wanted to make an appointment for a sales consultant to say “Hi and drop off some samples”. Was that a compelling reason for anyone to feel they had to keep an appointment? If the prospect had something important to do at the time set, I am sure they would have felt it unnecessary to keep the appointment. After all, the sales consultant could just leave samples at reception.

Second Scenario

In the second scenario, the prospect was not turning up for the teleconference call,. I believe this was because the telemarketer, on the initial cold call,had not given enough compelling reasons for the prospect to make sure he kept the appointment; He had not created enough pain for them telling them what they were missing out on if they did not attend. In some cases, he had not reconfirmed the appointment the day before or even given the prospect a number they could call in case they had to reschedule. There is considerable cost in having salespeople scheduled to do presentations to prospects. It is beyond my comprehension why Managers are not watching what is going on with their telesales team. Perhaps the telesales team needs to be rewarded for making the appointment only when the appointment shows up?

Third Scenario

Today I had a call from someone wanting to make an appointment with me to help me with my IT. He told me he wanted an appointment so he could spend just 15 minutes telling me what his company could do for small business owners. What the heck would I waste 15 minutes of my time when I already have IT help? He never told me once what he could do for me which was all I was interested in . He just talked about him and his company without asking me a single question. Then at the end,to add insult to injury, he asked me what the name of my company was! Didn’t he know whom he was calling? Why do Managers waste their time employing people like this without training them?

Ten Ways To Ensure Appointments Show Up

by Jenny Cartwright in Appointment Setting, Articles, Sales, Sales Tips, Sales/telesales Management, Telemarketing Tips, Telemarketing tips/telephone sales tips, Telemarketing/Lead Generation, Telesales Tips, Telesales/Cold Calling, Uncategorized 0 Comments

Building Rapport Technique For Sales Success

This building rapport technique requires you to listen for your customer’s language patterns. This is a challenging skill to acquire but if you can start to be aware of your own communication style and that of others, you will quickly become a great rapport builder. When we use our customer’s preferred language style, we become like them, and we all know that people buy from people they know like and trust.

We communicate in 3 ways but we generally have a preference for one or a combination of 2 of the following ways.

1. Building Rapport Technique with Auditory People

These people communicate through their ears. They use language like “I hear what you are saying”, “Tell me more about it”, “Explain to me how it works”, “It sounds good”, “That rings a bell”, “I hear what you are saying”.

2. Building Rapport Technique with Visual People

These people communicate through their eyes. They use language like “I see what you mean”, “Can you show me how to do that”, “It looks like I will be going ahead with that appointment” , “I see what you mean”.

3. Building Rapport Technique with Kinaesthetic People

These people communicate through their feelings. They use language like, “I get the feeling this is not the right product for us”, “I would have to experience it to get to grips with what it is about”, “I need to grasp the concept”, “How do you feel about that?”.

by Jenny Cartwright in Building Rapport, Sales, Sales Tips, Telemarketing Tips, Telesales Tips 0 Comments

Great Questions On A Telephone Sales Call

Why Ask Questions?

It is important to ask great questions on a telephone sales call to build rapport early. That way you find out people’s needs before you start telling them what you have to offer. Ideally they should begin with What, Why, Where, When, How, Which and Who so that the customer has to expand on what they want and they cannot answer “no”. They should create pain with the customer or give them pleasure because those are the two reasons people want your services.

by Jenny Cartwright in Building Rapport, Sales, Sales Tips, Telemarketing Tips, Telemarketing tips/telephone sales tips, Telesales Tips, Telesales/Cold Calling 0 Comments

Calling Inactive Customers Creates Sales

Inactive customers are people who may have bought only once from you or placed a small order. Never think they are not worth calling. It is a vital sales strategy to stay in touch with these customers as well as with your existing customers because you will be able to make more sales from them. Here’s how …

Maybe at the moment inactive customers might not justify a face to face call but you can certainly pick up a phone to stay in touch. You might be afraid to call them because they might tell you that they have gone to another supplier or they had a bad experience with you.

by Jenny Cartwright in Sales, Sales Tips, Sales/telesales Management, Telemarketing Tips, Telemarketing tips/telephone sales tips, Telemarketing/Lead Generation, Telesales Tips 0 Comments

Making Sales by Phone Can Be Marred By One Mannerism

Making sales by phone requires skill. One of the main reasons some staff (particularly new staff) fail at prospecting is that they do not sound confident . Well, if you are new, understandably you may not feel confident so you might need to be trained in some simple techniques how to sound confident. You might have to fake it till you make it. This is so important as no-one is going to buy from someone who is not sounding confident in themselves or their product or service. Your job is to generate such confidence in your product or service and transfer your energy to the prospect on the other end of the phone.

When making sales by phone, here are 5 simple techniques to sound confident

by Jenny Cartwright in Appointment Setting, Articles, Building Rapport, Business Management Tips, Call Reluctance, Coaching, Mindset and motivation, Sales, Sales Tips, Sales/telesales Management, Telemarketing Tips, Telemarketing tips/telephone sales tips, Telemarketing/Lead Generation, Telesales Tips, Telesales/Cold Calling 3 Comments

8 Lessons From A Horrible Retail Sales Experience

1. When you call someone with an offer and they say “NO,” you can call them again because the next time they might be in a different space. Persistence does work if you do it in a nice, non pushy way.

2. When negotiating, don’t drop the price too dramatically just to get the sale. It makes it look like you were trying to rip the client off in the first place and makes the client suspicious that the products have much less value.

3. Do not lie to get a sale. Offer the client the right option for them even if you lose a bit of commission.

4. Pay the client a compliment when you first meet them . Comments and criticism do not build rapport.

5. People like to know the name of the person they are dealing with so provide it.

6. Do not be too familiar with new clients. Not everyone likes hugs and kisses from a stranger.

7. Do not make the customer call you about an error on delivery. You call them as soon as you find out.

8. If a client complains, acknowledge the client straight away before they tell thousands of people .

Here’s the full story of what happened

by Jenny Cartwright in Appointment Setting, Articles, Building Rapport, Coaching, Mindset and motivation, Sales, Sales Tips, Telemarketing Tips, Telemarketing tips/telephone sales tips, Telemarketing/Lead Generation, Telesales Tips, Telesales/Cold Calling 0 Comments

Lead Generation Email

A great Lead generation tool is LinkedIn but so often when people want to connect with new prospects on LinkedIn, they send the standard request “I’d like to connect with you on linkedIn.”

Prospecting Emails must create curiosity and interest

The prospect has not got the faintest idea “why”, so I recommend you make it more personal and give a reason to create curiosity and interest with the prospect. Just writing the above requires the prospect to look up who you are and take time out from their busy day. Make it easy for them and write an email like you write a script for a cold call.

1. (Flatter the prospect with something you noticed about them) e.g. “I read your article in the Sydney Morning Herald yesterday and noticed you are moving to Melbourne soon.”

2. (How you can help them personally) “We can offer you a reliable removal service between Sydney and Melbourne. (Get the word “you” in there)

What sets us apart is __________ (or)

What you get from us that no-one else offers is………

I would firstly suggest we connect on linkedin. Please feel free to accept and do let me know when and how I can best assist you when you are ready to move.”

It’s easy to find something out about prospects nowadays to accommodate Point 1

by Jenny Cartwright in Appointment Setting, Articles, Sales, Sales Tips, Telemarketing Tips, Telemarketing tips/telephone sales tips, Telemarketing/Lead Generation, Telesales Tips, Telesales/Cold Calling, Uncategorized 0 Comments

How To Overcome Call Reluctance

I would like to invite you to download a free e-book “Motivating Your Mind, Inspiring Your Spirit” and check out page 25 for my tips on “How to Overcome Call Reluctance”.

The E-book is the brainchild of one of my long term colleagues, Rob Salisbury, who has invited a number of speakers and trainers in our community to contribute. There are some great articles for salespeople in here so don’t keep it to yourself, pass it on to your colleagues and enjoy your own read.

JENNY CARTWRIGHT – Motivating your Mind – Inspiring your Spirit for 2015-Jan2015 (2)

by Jenny Cartwright in Call Reluctance, Mindset and motivation, Sales, Sales Tips, Telemarketing Tips, Telemarketing tips/telephone sales tips, Telesales Tips, Telesales/Cold Calling 0 Comments

Telesales Tips