5 Quick Cold Calling Tips that Get Results!

Written by Art Sobczak, President of Business By Phone Inc.
Featured Author in the new book, Mastering the World of Selling

Sales Tip One: Never place a cold call. Always know something about the person/organization you call so that you can customize your call to their world, therefore sparking interest, and setting you apart from most other prospectors.

Sales Tip Two: Never talk about products or services in your opening statement or voice mail message. People buy RESULTS, so hint at the results you might be able to provide.

Sales Tip Three: Get information before you give it. Otherwise you are giving a “pitch” that actually creates objections, rather than a recommendation that is tailored to their needs, desires, problems and pains.

Sales Tip Four: If you schedule a follow-up call or visit, be sure you have a commitment from them that they will DO something between now and the next call or visit, therefore moving the process forward. Why would you agree to speak with them otherwise?

Sales Tip Five: Prepare what you will say on opening statements and voice mail messages word-for-word, and then practice them until they sound silky smooth. “Winging it” ensures you will talk too much, probably about irrelevant things.

This post is an excerpt from the NEW book, Mastering the World of Selling, by Eric Taylor and David Riklan.  It’s an INCREDIBLY valuable resource for ANYONE working in Sales.  You can take absolutely ANY nugget from within this book’s 385 pages, and IMMEDIATELY apply it to solving your most pressing real-life sales challenges.  Buy the book and receive over $2,600 worth of FREE sales tools and resources!  Visit http://www.masteringtheworld.com/ to learn more.

You Need More Mojo.

More Mojo.

We all want it.  No matter how much of it you have, you want more.

And the kicker is that you really need it.  You need more mojo.

You do.

If you just lost that big deal yesterday then that’s all you’re thinking about today.  And if you’re smirking right now because you just landed the big fish, then rest up for tomorrow.

Guess What?

You’re going to need more mojo then.

From landing a hot date on Friday night to getting past the gatekeeper for the decision maker that lands you a huge commission check — life runs a lot more smoothly with more mojo.

But what is mojo and why do you need it?

(Better yet, why is mojo the missing ingredient to realizing your outrageous goals for sales success?)

Because it’s Just Magic.

Not in the “Harry Potter out for a game of quidditch” type of magic .  It’s more like that mysteriously charming ability to have all the right info at all the right times.

It’s that extra degree.

It’s the difference between “Even Steven” and “Even Steven Plus One”.  (And even that’s a healthy dose of vagary.)

Where does that “extra degree of awesome” come from?  And how can you call it up when you need it most?

You’re in Luck.

Because it’s not one thing.  It’s not one talent. Not one degree you can learn your way through.

It’s a perspective. A belief system.  A religion.

It’s part karmic, part discipline.

But it’s entirely magical.

And You Need More Of It.

So that’s what this sales column will be all about.

Sales mojo.

Subject by subject. Tip by tip.

We are going to talk candidly about what is ridiculous (that you need to stop doing) and what you need to start doing that will add that extra mojo to your sales game.

Just think — what will you do with your extra mojo?

It’s The Message Not the Medium Contest!

Written by Tibor Shanto, Renbor Sales Solutions
[Contributing Author]

Last week I did a piece on texting as a form of cold calling.  As I anticipated there was a lot of reaction to it, and as predicted most of it was negative.  Can’t say I blame people, it is intrusive, intimate and personal; but one can argue that’s the very point that makes it so tempting to sellers.

The responses seem to fall into three groups:

• The smallest group saw it as inevitable, and were resigned to its arrival
• Another small group felt it had potential
• The majority opposed it

Some felt it was just wrong, others said it was illegal and threatened to call the FCC, and then there were morally and religiously wrong and dammed my soul to hell.  Don’t worry I did not take it personally.

There were a couple of other interesting sidebars.  One was just a curiosity for a Canadian… I was surprised to find out that many in the USA seem to pay for incoming text messages.  I always thought Canadian carriers were ruthless and mercenary, but even they don’t charge for incoming texts, and for a nominal fee you can get unlimited in and out bound texting.  Now please don’t jump all over this, but a crafty marketer may see an opportunity to subsidize the costs related to texting for those who opt in to receive commercial texts.

Another was the suggestion that while it was immoral and abhorrent to prospect via text, it was all right to prospect via Twitter, tweeting seem to be OK, go figure.

This got me to reflect on the quote from my fellow Canadian Marshall McLuhan, “The medium is the message”.  It may have been different back in his day, but with all due respect to Marshall, selling today it is the Message not the Medium.

It is always risky when I think because I come up with ideas, and here is what I came up with (it was late on the weekend night), a contest!  Can you construct an effective, enticing and engaging prospecting message in 140 characters or less?  Here is how it works:

Click here to enter the contest
Complete the entry form, and give us your best approach for a new prospect in 140 characters or less.
Now we know you all sell different things, so we give you choice, just select one –

1. Software sales either CRM or Document Management
2. Services – Consulting, Sales training, HR/Recruitment, Outsourcing, etc.
3. Transportation service – either 3PL or asset based
4. Retail

We will review all submissions, collect the best ones, present the best five and put them up for a vote.  The contestant with the winning message will win a copy of my new book Shift!: Harness The Trigger Events That Turn Prospects Into Customers.

So jump on and submit that winning tweet, feel free to enter multiple time for multiple chances to win.

Good luck!

Results-Driven Words (Part 9 of 10)

Written by Hal Alpiar
[Contributing Author]

THE WORDS YOU SELL

Even though the boss may not like to admit it, when people buy your products and services, they also buy you!

Prospects and customers need to feel they can “connect” with a sales rep. Not every purchase satisfies this need, but most do. You are, after all, viewed and thought of by the customer as if you (personally) ARE the business and the business reputation that you represent.

So with all that on the line, you ready yourself every day to get in the spotlight. You shower, brush your teeth, fix your hair, dress up, straighten up, and practice your smile and handshake with everyone in your path.

But what about the words you use? You use words to sell, but you also –like selling yourself—sell the words themselves! You do this by virtue of the exact words you choose to use, and the ways that you use and express them. You also do it by virtue of the words you do not use . . . er, um, uh, expletives (no matter how mild), and any words of a derogatory nature (about anything!)

“The difference between the almost right word and the right word is really a large matter—‘tis the difference between the lightning-bug and the lightning.”

—MARK TWAIN

Seems unfair. All that training and all that daily preparation, and now you have to “mind your P’s and Q’s” as well? Reality is that the true purpose of all that other preparation stuff is nothing more than to present an acceptable and legitimate looking stage for the words and accompanying facial, vocal, and body gesture expressions you use to do the job of selling.

Like picking fruit at the moment of ripeness, the specific words you choose must vary according to the circumstances you’re in and the nature of the prospect or customer you’re phoning, emailing or visiting.

Some warm-up small talk about the weather may help you get a fix on the situation when you’re walking into someone’s office, but generally has no place in an email. Avoid temperature and storm cloud chatter on the phone unless it originates with the prospect or customer, or unless you know the area you’re calling has been experiencing severe weather.

Speaking of storms, don’t be a storm trooper. Some companies you would think should know better are defeating their own efforts by sending out sales teams that make a practice of charging head down into conference rooms, delivering their spiels without looking up or asking questions, checking their watches and abruptly packing up and leaving for “our next appointment.” (HA! At that rate, their next appointment will be with a bankruptcy judge!)

Personal selling is the most exciting and challenging profession in the world. It requires great patience, instinct, knowledge, awareness, spontaneity, humility, judgment, self-esteem, self-confidence, humor, ability to think like a shrink, and an on-the-spot command of engaging and persuasive words.

Like a walking billboard, professional salespeople must be great, quick-to-the-point, storytellers. Both salespros and billboards need to be able to communicate a complete story with an attention-getting beginning, an interest-creating and desire-stimulating middle, and a call-to-action ending . . . and be persuasive.

The difference is that billboards typically have all of 7 words or less to accomplish their goal, and really can’t respond to prospects and customers, or ask essential qualifying and closing questions. In between responding and questioning, most good salespeople should be able to get their basic pitch done in 100 words or less!

What hundred words are you going to choose? Haven’t thought about it? Maybe you should. The words you use are the words you sell with, and that need to sell themselves. In case you thought one word isn’t worth a thousand pictures, take a run through the following list and notice the images they conjure up in your mind . . . then pick some fresh ones to boost your message. If the words in your basic message don’t work, not much else is likely to work.

Here’s a starter kit to get you thinking: Benefits, Hot, Free, Guaranteed, New, You, Now, Once-in-a-lifetime, Special, Extend, Save, Family, Home, Friends, Thank You, Please, Efficient, Convenient, Grateful, Educate, Green, Quality, First,  Economical, Your/Yours, Health, Fun, Opportunity, Challenge, Test, Competition . . . add your own here:

Thanks for visiting! Go for your goals! Make today a great day for someone!

Texting as a Form of Cold Calling!

Written by Tibor Shanto, Renbor Sales Solutions
[Contributing Author]

“The medium is the message.”

-Marshall McLuhan

A while back I wrote a piece about e-mail as a form of cold calling.  We had some interesting reactions… This was top of mind as I was listening to a recorded webcast by a former CMO of a large company who suggested texting a potential prospect.  Not only would he recommend it as a means of ongoing communications, but as an initial, first approach.

“That’ll blow some minds,” I thought. Thinking back to some of the reactions to e-mail as a first shot, I know some would see texting as heresy. The individual who suggested it pointed out a couple of things worth considering…

First, he acknowledge that he may be at the tip of the spear… he carries multiple devices and embraces “new technologies” like web 2.0 and social media to a greater degree than some of his peers.

With a bit of research you can easily ascertain which individuals are active in social media.  A number of companies have created a “presence” for their executives, but they are hardly “active.”  When you identify someone who is active and interactive, you can decide to use an alternative mode of approach.

If you are able engage someone on Twitter, do you think that person would be open to communicating via text message?

The second thing he pointed out was that he was always on the move, as a result, mobile messaging was a much more effective means of contact.

Some of you are thinking, “With a BlackBerry or iPhone, mobile messaging can simply be e-mail.”  But think about the volume of e-mails coming in on these devices… SMS (text) is a way to stand out!  If you are one of 200 e-mails versus a handful of test messages, your odds should increase.  The question becomes… increased success or increased failure?  Frankly, if you don’t get shot or lose a limb, I see little downside.

The other consideration in using text is the quality and focus of the message.  It has to hit them between the eyes, elicit an instant and visceral reaction that says, “I need to respond to this!”

There is no room for long narratives… quickly explain, “why them, why this, why now,” and let’s be clear… it’s not about you, your product, or your company.  My goal is to hit the bull’s eye in 100 characters or less… it’s not easy!

Having said all this, there is still the question of how acceptable it is to use text as a “cold call.” My sales training clients and prospects I have spoken to have not reacted well, saying text is “private.”  I’m not sure what that means specifically, but I get where they are coming from.

I believe it is part of the evolving landscape.  Initially people thought the same way about e-mail, and that evolved.  Think back to when voice mail was first introduced, similar reactions were expressed.  I think there is a generational thing to it as well, and just as younger people now tend to communicate more via Facebook than e-mail, who is to say that young buyers and sellers won’t see text as an acceptable means of interaction.

One last thing to consider, we have our e-mail address on our business cards.  We don’t get hung up on whether our e-mails are delivered to our desktop or handheld.  We also have our mobile number on our business cards, so why get hung up on the difference between a voice delivered message or text… same number… same device!  Contrary to the opening quote, I say… It’s the message, not the medium.

P.S. – I recently published a case study of the success we had with a major wireless dealer in Canada, click here to download.

How to Develop a Great List of Target Accounts!

Written by Silvia Quintanilla, CEO, Industry Gems
[Contributing Author]

The best sales results come from having a laser like focus on specific “target” companies.  Here are a few tips to help you develop a great list!

Focus vs. Scattered

Developing a targeted list helps you spend time on the most important activities.  Instead of just responding to inquiries from any company or prospect, you will also have your own target account list to work.

I took about 5 hours to develop my list in excel.  It includes about 90 different leading companies in the U.S.

Your list doesn’t have to take this long, or even be complex. It could be as simple as jotting down your “Top 10″ and taping it to your wall!

Prioritize

Do you have a To-Do list to accomplish every day? If you do, you probably prioritize your most important daily tasks. For example, there might be 10 items on your To-Do list, but you’ve highlighted 2 that are critical.

The process for developing your own targeted list follows the same idea. There might be hundreds of companies that could buy from you, but new business from 1 or 2 top-tier companies could make your whole year!

Identify Your Ideal Customer Criteria

What types of companies make the best customers for your service or product?  Come up with a list of 5 to 10 criteria.  When I developed my Ideal Customer Criteria, it contained these top elements:

• The company is focused on B2B sales
• Pursues Fortune 500 accounts
• Average new sale exceeds six figures (100K+)
• The company has an elite, direct, enterprise B2B sales force
• The company is involved in complex sale
• Sales cycles are typically long

Develop Your List

Use your Ideal Customer Criteria as the foundation to develop your list.  Here are some ideas.

• A list of accounts in a specific vertical
• A list of accounts in a specific geography
• A nationwide list of the best and largest companies (i.e. Fortune 500)

Where to Start

If you’re not sure where or how to start compiling your list, send me an email at silvia@industrygems.com and I will send you a Special Report that points to over 40 top “lists” that recognize leading companies in their class. The lists are divided between:

• General Business Lists
• Specific Industry Lists
• Regional Lists
• Specialized and Niche Lists

The report is FREE to SalesBlogcast readers!

Keep it Simple

If your process or list becomes too complicated, you’ll stop following it. By keeping it simple and easy to accomplish, it will help you make continual and consistent progress.

See if you can do at least one prospecting activity every day that will get you closer to attaining business from an important account on your list. It could be an email, it could be a phone call, it could be a voice mail. Do it every day and don’t go home until it’s done. Then, congratulate yourself for taking action!

Do you work a targeted list? How did you develop it? Has it helped you gain new business in your top accounts?

Luck has nothing to do with it…

Results-Driven Words (Part 8 of 10)

Written by Hal Alpiar
[Contributing Author]

Sales Killers Strike Again.

_______________________________________________________

“Religion, Sex, and Politics” On Rampage

Prospects and Customers Turned Away in Droves

While you’re busy choosing the best words to use for your next prospect or customer, be careful. Sliding into controversial topic zones that detract from the guts of your sales message can be a one-way trip over the edge of the cliff!

Untold millions of sales have gone south as a result of one single, inappropriate, miscalculated, or insensitive word – something typically uttered in innocence, naiveté, ignorance or plain old-fashioned stupidity.

We all have protected topic “No-Fly” zones that we steer clear of and save for special occasions or special audiences (or for yelling out car windows!). If you’re not selling religion, sex and/or politics, keep away! Odds are excellent, that by entering any (even fringe) language territories that support or bridge these topics, you will be offending someone.

Now don’t go run off into neuroticsville. Just be aware that the tendency to blow a sale by sidetracking off onto some religious path, or by making some off-color, sexist, or racial remark (even one Judge Judy wouldn’t rule as derogatory), is much greater today than ever before.

Religion, sex and politics are the mainstay of Hollywood, television, and the news media. The three explosive topics constitute the lifeblood of vast tracts of land in Twitterdom and Facebook City, as well as every bar (and many parties) in every town. When others approach these topics in a sales setting, there are some words you can say . . . and not say.

Even a mixed message like, “Wow! That project turned out perfect; you did a really great job on it . . . for a woman!” even diluted and delivered with a smile and a friendly wink, can still be a colossal insult!

No matter how much you love or don’t love a political leader or platform or piece of legislation, save it for arguing with your brother-in-law. Even when you happen to know that your prospect or customer weighs in on your side of an issue, you never know who may be listening, or to whom your comments might later be relayed.

The words you choose to use need to focus on helping the prospect or customer to define and solve a problem with the benefits of using your product or service. Stay on topic. When your prospect or customer strays, lead her gently back to your deal or the image she has of her problem being solved or her need being met.

“Good Golly, Miss Molly!” works as well as “OMG!” and “I’ll be happy to discuss religious ideas with you in a social setting at some point, but I don’t think we could do justice to the subject with the time we have left… and I’m not really comfortable with that topic as part of a business discussion.”

So, don’t gallop off in a cloud of dust any time a touchy subject surfaces. You don’t want to discount or gloss over a prospect or customer’s interests. Simply have a set or two of words handy to gracefully extract yourself from a sensitive subject discussion.

It’s also a generally good practice to not give your tacit (head-nodding, for example) approval to edgy comments made or inappropriate questions raised by others. Some over-zealous types will take that as meaning you’re in the boat with them and then they’ll really unload a barrage of chatter.

It’s okay to be non-committal. It doesn’t make you a prude. It puts you on the high integrity road, and implies that you’re a thinker. It gives you a certain mystique and reduces your threat level in the other person’s mind.

The bottom line: make a list of “go to” key words you can have ready in your mental pocket that can be used to keep sales efforts on target. You need to make this list for yourself because they have to be words that you are comfortable with, but don’t wing it! Take the time and trouble to look up the meaning of each word. You might even surprise yourself. Practice what you come up with. Practice and replace those that seem inflammatory.

You ARE, after all is said and done,

the words that you use.

Make Yours count!

Going Vertical to Reach the C-Level

Written by Silvia Quintanilla, CEO, Industry Gems
[Contributing Author]

Do you want to take your sales career to the next level?  Become an industry specialist.  You will…

• Attain C level and SVP level appointments
• Increase the size of your deals
• Be seen as a trusted advisor rather than a typical salesperson
• Shorten your sales cycle

It’s a good idea to know some of the major vertical markets for B2B sales. The big one’s include…

• Financial Services (banks, insurance, etc)
• Healthcare (hospitals, biotech, insurers, etc)
• Manufacturing (consumer goods, auto, etc)
• Retail (stores, hospitality, restaurant, etc.)
• Telecommunications (cable operators, mobile, wireline)

Notice the sub-vertical markets tied to each one major vertical.

Study your vertical market.  Learn to speak to and get the attention of higher level executives.

The Telecommunications Market

Let’s use telecommunications as an example.  The telecommunications market has very specific hot buttons and needs. Three top areas include:

• ARPU (average revenue per user/unit) – This metric is key and you better know it when you approach a Telco executive. Even more important is to relay how your solution can help increase this metric.
• The Bundle – Many telecommunication companies sell their services in bundles called Triple Play (phone, TV, Internet) or Quad Play (phone, TV, Internet, Mobile). Know how your solution can help increase the number of bundle subscribers.
• Churn – This is another key metric you should know. It’s the rate at which customers leave or disconnect a service. Know how your solution can help decrease their “churn rate” and you’ve got their attention.

Start Here: Industry Reports

The above just scratches the surface when it comes to the telecommunications industry. Do your homework and find ways to engage  executives with intelligent, targeted, industry specific conversations.

Here are some helpful resources to get you started:

Ernst & Young’s Industry Reports – Ernst and Young has created many industry reports you can access on their website. For example, following our telecommunication example, we found this report: Top 10 Risks in Telecommunications: 2010.

Deloitte Touche’s Industry Reports – Similar to Ernst and Young, Deloitte also has many in-depth reports on specific industries. We liked this report for education on the Financial Services vertical: Positioning for a new financial landscape.

It’s also a good idea to learn an industry’s most used terminology (like ARPU for the Telco example above). To do so, simply type the industry name along with “Glossary of Terms” into a search engine and you’ll find some good resources.

A Success Story

To summarize, I like this story Jill Konrath tells of a real life salesperson who chose to specialize in the Restaurant industry – and saw his sales soar as a result! Read about it at:  How One Failing Salesperson Became iNvaluable.

Have you specialized in a Vertical Market? How has your sales and income changed as a result? Share your story with our community so we can all learn from best practices!

Don’t Let August Dog You

Written by Tibor Shanto, Renbor Sales Solutions
[Contributing Author]

I was working with a group of sales people earlier this week.  The big complaint was the number of prospects who were on vacation.  Everyone is entitled to a vacation.  In fact they should be required to take one.  A break might have your prospect come back with a fresh outlook that could open the door for you!

That does not mean you can sit back and take time off.  It means you need to focus on something productive… something that can long term results.  I’ll share two ideas…

First, spread out wider within your target organizations.
Second, concentrate on planning.

The summer is usually a more relaxed time, and while decision makers may be gone, there are others who could be of value to an enterprising sales pro.  Not everyone goes on vacation the same time.  Think about other influencers within an organization who will be impacted by your product or service.  While their boss is out, these influencers have an opportunity to think about projects and plans in greater detail.  It is a great opportunity to reach out and learn about their priorities and objectives.  Later, when you connect with the decision maker, you have some great intel!

This works especially well when you approach it as building exercise (instead of a sales exercise)…  to build knowledge and relationships within the organization.  Establish yourself as a subject matter expert, and learn what specifically will satisfy the needs of different camps in the target company.

Say you are selling an A/R solution.  It obviously impacts the A/R staff, who has specific needs and concerns. The CFO may be the final decision maker, but in this case, you learn the IT Director also has great influence.  Armed with this knowledge you will be better prepared to engage with the decision maker when (s)he returns, enabling you to capture their attention, and execute the discovery phase faster and more effectively.  Your competition will be looking in from the outside!

As for planning, it is about aligning your goals and activities.  While Q4 may not start until October 1st, it is also true that most people and companies see Labor Day as the beginning of the last part of the year.  I call it “harvest time.”
Plant seeds during vacation season… turn the relaxed nature of the season in your favor… then hit the ground running on September 7th and maintain momentum through December 31!

Those who wait until October to take stock and realign will trail behind you. The clock is ticking… it’s time for you to capture a strategic advantage and take the lead!

What’s in Your Pipeline?