Cold Call Selling: When You Have to Make the Sale by Michael Veloff
If you caught fish every time you went fishing, they'd call it "catching" and not "fishing" so if your going to cold call either on the phone or in person, be prepared for a lot of nibbles but Oh Boy! when you hook that big one, it'll be worth every "No" you've heard from the last 30 prospects you talked to...
Have you ever experienced the perfect & ultimate cold call sale? There's nothing like it and no amount of rejection will kill the high you get from success... It may be a numbers game, but you can put the odds more in your favor... My experience is primarily with Busines to Consumer sales, but holds for all cold sales calls... This has worked for me in the past and the present:
* Break the ice - make small talk & don't jump to a sales pitch too early... People tend to buy from friends (if they're given the opportunity) so make your prospect feel at home as if they were your friend...
* Pay attention to your prospect's posture and the way they are sitting or standing if you are doing a person to person cold call and try to assume a similar posture or stance... This builds a subconscious bridge of intimacy with your prospect and may well make the diffrence between success or failure...
* If there arms are crossed, make a gesture to try to loosen them up... Be forward and pat them on the shoulder or offer a handshake... Crossed arms are a sure sign of an uphill sales battle...
* Learn to read your prospect's cues to know when it is appropriate to broach your sales pitch to them... If they don't press you for your purpose in contacting them, don't small talk past a potential sale - don't become so involved with your prospect that you don't want to make a sale...
* Begin feeling out your prospect with sales HINTS and again follow their cue - if they don't respond don't follow your instinct to pressure them into a sale, just let them know you are making a courtesy call... BUT do follow up, they may be ready to hear your offer on a second call... People who have been pressured for a sale feel more buyer remorse and are generally less satisfied...
* Continue to build empathy and build a sense of trust in your judgment when making your sales pitch AND get them started in the right direction by asking them leading questions that get them in the habit of saying "YES"...
* This is a crucial part for success: Don't sell past the close... If you get bogged down in an unending sales pitch, your prospect will likely walk away or hang up without your making your bid for a sale or consultation...
* Ask for the sale - CLOSE your prospect at the peak of their enthusiasm no matter where you are in your presentation... You can come back with the followup information on your product or service after you have closed the sale...
* Follow up the closing of the sale with a request for referrals and even go so far as enlisting your new customer to get on the phone or internet and conatct people on your behalf... You can not get a better prospect or endorsement than a direct referral from a sale and if you're not in the habit of asking, you're leaving money on the table... But don't ask, "Do you know anybody who could use my service/product?" but rather "Who do you know that could benefit from my service/product?" The subtle shift in assuming your new sale knows others that would benefit jogs their memories and they will reply with more prospects with the second approach rather than the first...
I hope that you have found my suggestions useful and prosper in all your sales endeavors and I would like to share the following brief anecdote on one of my favorite cold call sales...
It was 1987, sometime during the summer... I was working as a hearing aid specialist for my mother's company and we had received many prospect signups from the county fair... I wanted a small fishing boat, so my mom said she would help me buy it if we followed up with these leads by going out in the county and cold call door knocking...
We got lost trying to find a prospect's home when we drove through the tiny little burgh of Nevada OH (Not on most maps) and we saw an elderly gentleman watering his lawn... My mother asked me if I thought he might be approachable as he fit the profile for a person with a hearing loss... I suggested that she pull over and ask him for directions to our next cold call...
She asked the man how to get to so-and-so's house and the man replied that she would have to speak up as he was a little hard of hearing... My mother and I made a bid for an impromptu consultation and two hours later, he was writing us a check for $1400, a lot of money for hearing aids sold at that time... Hubert became a lifelong customer and bought several sets of hearing aids as his hearing loss progressed... Believe me, you can do it!
Peace & Happiness,
Michael Veloff
hamsterpatrol_27@excite.com
copyright 2005
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