All of these time tested methods have one thing in common. They are forms of cold calling. They seek to identify other people who you do not yet have a relationship with and to initiate contact to see if there are areas of mutual benefit. It's about building relationships. That doesn't sound scary does it?
WARNING:
If you get a lot of inquiries from the internet or other forms of lead generation and think you don't need cold calling then think again. You need this more than most!! The skills you can acquire from picking up the phone and engaging someone in conversation are essentially the core skills of selling.
No other form of prospecting has such immediacy, such human contact and so much potential for winning long term business. Yes, I mean it. Google Pay Per Click (ppc), for example, is one of the greatest sales breakthroughs of the last 100 years but is only one way of prospecting and lead generation. You should never base your business on just one form of prospecting. Appointment setting largely based on cold calling has some fantastic benefits for your business:
It is instant. You can read an article about a local business in your Chamber Of Commerce magazine and be talking to the same person within 5 minutes. No other prospecting method allows this speed of contact.
You are constantly learning. A business consultant contact that I was once acquainted with, approached every call with the curiosity of a child. Even if it was immediately apparent that there was no potential for immediate business he would ask permission to have a conversation (you can't do that with ppc). He would be interested in the marketplace, the economy and how it affected their industry, environmental and legislation changes, the challenges the businesses faced - you name it, he was interested. Within the space of 1 day he could go from knowing very little about an industry to having an almost 'expert' intimate knowledge about what was going on. Did that help him 'position' himself on future calls --- You bet!
It's one of the most human forms of contact - When done professionally and properly. In this world of electronic communication it is very often the strength and quality of our human interactions that will distinguish you as a top performer.
Imagine for a minute, you have just been flicking through the trade press for your industry and a Director of an organisation has given an interview.
In that interview he talks about some of the challenges he faces over the next two years that could have a massive positive or negative impact on his business. As you read you understand because you have helped solve those challenges with other clients. You know the errors they could make that would cost them a fortune in time and money. You have the solution easily packaged up and ready to go. What would you do? Hopefully, you said something along the lines of "That's a stupid question Peter! I would be on the phone right away introducing myself." If you did - well done. Strip away all the hype and that is essentially what professional cold calling is.
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Tags: business management, sales tips, sales techniques, closing techniques, closing questions, handling objections