Know-How Exchange : Strategy

Lauren,

Never lie.

You are making sales calls. Don't say "This is not a sales call" or "This is just a courtesy call". It's a sales call. You want to sell your services.

Give your first name, the name of your company; BRIEF discription what you do (IT consulting or whatever); reason for your call (make an appointment or find name of person to address packet to); verify address and spelling; thank you.

Michael

If you are sold on mail, I'd suggest "call, mail and call again". If you mail and your opening line is "did you get my letter", its a common stall to just say "no". So plan ahead-- with a comeback that describes the contents of the mailing. Or you'll be mailing again and again. Another disadvantage with mailing too soon is the stall "I know what you do and will call". Or "I know what you do and I don't need you". In most cases they don't know what they are saying "no" to. Good salespeople know mail can hinder.

You are not pushy at all by prequalifying your suspects. In fact, put the word pushy out of your vocabulary. You want to make sure you are a match for the client and not waste either of your time. You are a professional with a valuable service and smart enough to know its not for everyone. And don't be so quick to write off those with an existing provider. At least you know they buy your services-- it might as well be you. People make changes in vendors all the time.

My best advice is to try and prequal on the phone. If you will be visiting them f2f, break your list down by zip code, and work the area a territory at a time. When you call, sell an appointment, not the mailing of literature. That is the purpose of your call. You can sell an e-appointment, but geography isn't important.

Does you list give you types of business? I am sure some types are more inclined to purchase than others. Start the conversation -- and treat it as a conversation, reminding them how you've helped businesses like theirs-- the more personal the better- ideally reletive to their specific business. There are universal points you should cover. Start with a script, or semi script but don't read it. Pre- record yourself if necessary-- do you sound like a telemarketer? (you know the type)

This is a big question, and I have only addressed 1/4 of it.

Sell Well and Prosper tm

Lauren -

Don't say mail...no one likes more paper these days...you need to have your info in a PDF that can be emailed or linked to a powerpoint review of what you are offering. Today more and more folks are cold calling companies for their business and there are 2 factors that a lot of times go ignored by the "sales" teams making the calls -
1. That just like you we are looking to increase business in challenging times. Most of us are dealing with budget cuts and trading of priorities - figure out how to truly make it speak to what I am faced with. Too many times I get a generic call from someone with no knowledge of what I am faced with - therefore they can not even begin to offer enticing language that would make me want to speak with them further.
2. be sure to be brief and specific.

I’m sold on Carol’s advice. The only problem for you is that because she is very professional, she makes it sound easy. It is a lot harder to do introductory calls and handle objections (particularly the latter) than most people realise which is why it is often contracted out to companies staffed by skilled telemarketers. I also agree that this is a big question where a full answer is going to take up a lot of pages of advice. In reality, you might be better placed getting some training either attending a day’s telesales course as a delegate or hiring a trainer for a couple of sessions.

Despite the difficulty of the task, if hiring someone to train you is not an option, then it is worth taking your time over getting it right and to learn from your mistakes. The difference between someone making a stab at calling and a professional doing it according to their training can be as much as securing 10 times the number of appointments an untrained person could obtain. More if you are negative or impatient on the phone!

Even the superstars start off being pretty ineffective but here’s a big difference. They don’t make up for a lack of appointments by doing a greater volume of calls to compensate. Instead, they strive to improve their effectiveness.

It is commonly felt that during difficult economic times, that good sales and telesales people will all up their call rate and make more cold-calls regardless of the number of negative outcomes they encounter. Recent research by Jim Dickie for Dow Jones provides fairly convincing evidence that in this climate, it is not the way to succeed. In fact he goes so far as to say that sales organisations which resort to blunderbuss tactics and volumes of calls will fail.

With 1000 names newly identified companies to your name; you do not want to spoil your future chances with a sizeable percentage of them because you went for volume.

Again, your modus-opperandi usually comes down to what you are comfortable with, and that is usually not the best strategy. Many people engage in mailing or emailing, not because it is the most effective use of their time and resources, but because it easier on your ego than potentially being told to get lost several times a day. As Carol has identified, if you mail someone and then phone them, it is an open invitation for them to resist your overtures, so why give them the opportunity to object? If instead you call to introduce your services you can start to both develop your own telephone skills whilst gaining some early appointments and forging useful relationships within the target company.

I would not recommend a script, but I would recommend writing out the things you want to achieve in a call and for when you get through to a decision maker to list the questions you want to ask. Asking questions and listening to the answers is one mark of a good sales person. It’s better to aim high – for an appointment in order to explain what you offer than the have a primary aim of identifying a contact and then sending literature.

Gatekeepers in the target companies can, if handled properly can become allies in securing an introduction. To avoid having them use the catch all put-offs mentioned above, be ready to have a Unique Selling Proposition which can be as simply as stating what you do and adding something along the lines of “We are unusual for a local IT company in the services that we offer, that’s why I’m hoping to create the opportunity for a brief meeting” never explain your case to an office junior and expect him or her to be your champion – they can’t get you an appointment with the boss and indeed, if they listen to you and then relay the call, they risk getting into trouble for stepping outside their work remit without good reason to do so.

Where you can’t get through to a decision maker, get as much information as possible about the company and the contacts. Sure, mail them if you want to, but don’t expect the response rate to be any better than for mailing a commercial list, which is about 0.3% for general IT services. I make a point of getting everyone to carry out this type of relationship building and to add the information you glean to a CRM system. As the weeks go by, some relationships will deepen and as your telephone skills get better, the number of positive outcomes will increase. By using the CRM system, after a suitable break, you can go back and try again to speak to the senior people. Polite persistence and a professional attitude towards whoever you speak to will result in further appointments in the future.



Best wishes

Steve Alker
Xspirt