Hello
This came from a training course I went on, and I’ve modified it with
personal experience. I’ve found it very useful on the occasions I’ve
had to cold call, and it helped a lot when I was just starting.
As sales people, our income probably relies on getting in front of new
prospects. Yet, many reps would rather have their fingernails removed
slowly than make "prospecting" calls. We all know of the general
public’s oft-quoted distaste of "snake-oil" salesmen, and we don’t
want ourselves associated with "the pushy geek on the phone who won’t
leave me alone when I just want to watch ER"
I’ll deal with the calls themselves first. There are several things
you can do to take the "chill" out of prospect calls. Here are some
common sense "do’s and don’ts" to help you set more quality
appointments on such calls:
1. Get "clued-up" first
The more you know about your prospect before placing a prospect call
and speaking with him, the better your chances of an appointment. It
will help you prepare a more customised opening and better questions,
plus it impresses the prospect. Conversely, if you have to ask, "Uh,
what do you do there?" you’re labelled as a time-wasting,
self-interested peddler. So do your research thoroughly first before
making any calls at all.
If you’re calling up a business, work with anyone who answers the
phone and ask questions. It can help to target someone other than your
primary target at first - I’ve often had success by going through a
PA, or a company librarian, i.e, people who are used to answering
questions.
Ask them things like: "I hope you can help me. First, I’m looking for
the name of the person there who ………" then, when they give you the
name, back it up with:
"Thank you. So I’m better prepared when I speak with him, there’s
probably some information you can help me with, first……."
This way you should be able to get a lot of your "knowledge-gathering"
questions answered by people other than the person you are ultimately
going to target. This also has the effect of making you more confident
on the call to the "decision-maker" - after all, you already know
something about the person you’re calling. Psychologically, this makes
it seem less of a "cold" call.
2. Don’t send information before the prospect call
Starting out a prospect call with, "I sent you a letter, did you get
it?" rarely elicits a response like, "Oh, yeah. I want to meet with
you!" People treat EVERYBODY’S sales material the same….it is
considered junk mail and is binned, often before even getting opened.
IT is best to offer to back up your call with information, not the
other way round.
3. Don’t expect a result.
Prospect calling for appointments is a quality game. Approach each
with a professional attitude, and hope for a result but don’t push if
there’s too much resistance. And don't burn through the list of
prospects as fast as you can with the expectancy that your number will
be drawn eventually.
4. Don’t ask for a decision early in the call.
People are resistant when faced with decisions before they see any
what they’ll get in return.. Also avoid the equally inane question,
"If I could show you a way to ……, you would, wouldn’t you?" No one
likes to be "techniqued." Always rememberhe the only way they’ll
consider investing time with you is if you can show that you’re going
to help them in some way.
5. Do have an interest-creating opening in your call.
Here’s one you might be able to adapt:
"Ms. M. Oney, I’m <your_name> with <your_company>. We specialise
in………(sell your speciality, highlighting how it will improve your
customer’s business/life/prospects).and end the build up with "I’d
like to ask a few questions to see if you’d like more information."
6. Do ask questions on the call.
You can make your customer curious and pre-sell him on what you’ll
speak about when you arrive. For example: "Based on what you told me,
it looks like you could show quite a significant saving with our
product. The best thing to do would be for us to get together so I can
ask a few more questions and show you some of our options to see if we
have a fit. How about next week?" Then narrow down a convenient time
for both of you.
7. Do make a confirmation call after the call.
Some prospects might cancel, but it’s a risk you have to take….you
need to know you won’t be wasting your time in turning up, and it
reinforces their memory of the original call
8. Don’t give up
And don’t let a "no" get you down. The last call has nothing to do
with the next unless you let negative feelings affect your attitude.
Talking to people generates income, but avoiding the phone, stuffing
envelopes and walking around do not. Set a secondary objective, one
you can accomplish on every call, such as simply qualifying someone as
a prospect or not, so you can have a success of sorts on every call.
All of the items above will help you once you’re actually on the
phone, but getting to the phone and actually picking it up can be just
as difficult. You have to develop the mindset that what you are
selling is of benefit to the people you’re selling too….so much of
benefit that they really have to know about it,…..and you’re just the
person to tell them.
Also, you’ve got to realise that the general public are wary. It’s
worth perusing this site - it tells you the kinds of things the public
are warned about from "Cold Callers", and will give you plenty of
ideas on things to avoid. (
http://www.crimes-of-persuasion.com/Crimes/leads.htm ) If you can come
up with a call script that reassures your prospect that you’re not
involved in anything like the activities mentioned here, then you’ll
be well on the way to earning trust.
When I was starting I wrote up a script, and tried it out, first on
myself in the mirror, then on my family, then on friends, always
asking for feedback, and refining it s I went along. You get used to
saying the words, and it becomes a lot more fluent and less
embarrassing.
In this response I’ve concentrated on the phone call, but most of the
advice is equally applicable to direct mailing. The trouble with
direct mailing from a salesman’s point of view is that it is
impersonal, and you know that 99.9% of it is going straight in the
bin. But it is easier than prospect calling, and that’s why it is used
in a lot of cases.
Personally I always had much more success on the phone, and the
techniques listed above actually work. I should know - I was too shy
to speak to anybody when I started, but these notes helped a lot.
If you develop the right mindset, and remember that your prospects are
real people with real lives and treat them professionally and
courteously, you are already more than halfway there.
Hope this is of help.
Willie
There a great book on the subject
Cold Calling Techniques: That Really Work by Stephan Schiffman
Paperback, 4th ed., 160pp. ISBN: 1580620760
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbninquiry.asp?endeca=1&ean=9781580620765
Mark Sanford gives away free mini courses at
Cold Calling.com
http://www.coldcalling.com/
Google Search terms
"prospect calling" techniques
"cold calling" techniques |
Clarification of Answer by
willie-ga
on
14 Oct 2002 01:00 PDT
Hi again
Most prospecting reluctance comes from fear - fear of failure, fear of
attack, fear of rejection. This is all perfectly natural - no normal
human being likes to be in conflict with other people any more than is
necessary.
And there are techniques that will help you overcome this. Knowledge
is power, and the more you know, the less you will fear.
These are areas in which you can increase your knowledge, empower
yourself, and improve your prospecting skills
- Increase your knowledge of your potential prospects
Prospecting is like fishing. You don't want to turn up at a prime
fishing river only to find that your competitors are all there already
in a feeding frenzy, or that they've already been and gone, and all
the fish are taken. You have to know who you are trying to sell to.
Make a list of which kind of company will buy your product. Do some
research on them, find out who they are, what they do, how they are
doing financially, what their plans are etc, etc. The more you know,
the better your chances of making a sale will be. In this way you are
personalising your possible leads. At this stage you haven't even
started prospecting, but you already know something about who you need
to target.
-Increase your product knowledge
A lot of prospecting fear is down to not knowing what the prospect
will ask you. You need to arm yourself with your product knowledge.
Again this should be geared to the customer. What I've done in the
past is made a list, two columns.
In the first column I list all the reasons why a customer would want
the product, and all the ways I could help them do that, with
examples.
In the second column I list reasons why the customer might not want
the product, and things they could say to divert me from selling to
them. I then find strategies to overcome these objections.
This list grows with each prospect as you find either new ways you can
sell the product, or new ways to defend it.
And you've got to believe in the product. Imagine yourself as its
champion, bringing good news to the uneducated.
-Increase your self confidence
The fear of personal failure looms large, but it can be overcome. As I
said in the last answer, I practiced selling in front of mirrors for a
while - I even had to overcome reluctance to do that. The other thing
I did was to watch other, successful, salesmen in their job. Watching
someone like Bill Clinton or Tony Blair "working a room" gave me some
great tips on how I could improve my contacts with strangers.
And all of the three things above can be improved by training. If you
are working in a corporation, you should investigate their training
structure, and if you're on your own, you can pick up books, videos,
even on-line courses on making your prospecting better.
Recently psychologists have started to look at prospecting reluctance,
and have identified how your personality type can affect your
prospecting. If this area interests you, there is a good overview at
"Inner Game of Prospecting" (
http://www.exceptionalsales.com/innergame.html )
The same writer has a good starter article on eliminating call
reluctance at (
http://www.exceptionalsales.com/eliminate.html )
The important things are knowledge, product confidence and
self-confidence. Armed with these three you might even start looking
forward to prospecting
Hope that helps
Willie
A good book
Million Dollar Prospecting techniques
$16.95 Publisher: John Wiley & Sons (09/01/1999)ISBN: 0471325503
http://shopping.yahoo.com/shop?d=b&id=1976556602&cf=product&pf=&clink=
Fear Free Prospecting: Sales workshops
http://www.sales-academy.com/Call_Reluctance_Programs/CR_Program_--_Fear_Free_Prospe/cr_program_--_fear_free_prospe.html
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