This week I wanted to do something different - as part of my strategy on helping people improve their sales by increasing their pipeline, I am going to pick one topic and discuss it for the week in bite size chunks. Hopefully this should make the reading a lot more easier to digest!
Starting off this week, I would like to share tips on how to prevent hang-ups with cold-calling. Sounds far-fetched? Of course! But over the years, I have noticed that I no longer get hang-ups that frequently and while self-reflecting, I wanted to share a tip each day of this week on how I've been able to overcome this. Comments of course welcome (you are welcome to agree or disagree) and am sure most people know these methods, but let's summarize some.
ASSUME ALWAYS - DON'T ASK FOR PERMISSION!
In many cold-calling trainings I have taken, trainers have insisted that this is the way you start a conversion:
"Good morning/afternoon________, my name is _______ from __[XYZ]___ Company, do you have a few minutes to speak?"
Errrrr, I get so frustrated when that is asked to initiate a sales call. Why do we ask for permission to speak - yes I realize people are busy, but you are immediately giving away power to the other person, a chance of denying you the opportunity to pitch. After trying this tactic out and experiencing failure upon failure, I decided to change MY mindset to the call and assumed they wanted to speak with me.
But before I share this with you, it's important to note, don't approach the call from an angle of mentioning your product name or service or telling them the value of it. Instead, start with a pitch like this:
"Good morning/afternoon ______, my name is_______ from ____[XYZ]___ Company, calling in regards to discussing ____[what the product/service actual does do, don't go into a detailed conversation on the savings, efficiencies, or what you call your product]____. Are you or have you looked into implementing that in your organization?"
I feel this is a much better starting point of a conversation. Comments/opinions?
I like even going more extreme and get the purpose out as early as possible. "hello ... I am calling about ..., ". You can either throw in your name right afterwards or you can save it for later: " oh, I'm sorry, did I not introduce myself? I'm ... From ..."
ReplyDeleteGreat advice - thanks! I had never thought of that myself! specifically for someone like me it's helpful as I have a hard to pronounce more ethnic name.
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