Tweet

How by Being Captain Focus It Instead of CaptainWing It Will Increase Sales Even When Cold Calling

Guest post by: Leanne Hoagland-Smith

Article Overview: Today, it happened again, another cold call disaster by a Captain Wing It who called me attempting to sell me his services. Then after his poor sales performance, he had the audacity to ask for me to make some referrals. Has this ever happened to you?

How by Being Captain Focus It Instead of CaptainWing It Will Increase Sales Even When Cold Calling

Today, it happened again, another cold call disaster by a Captain Wing It who called me attempting to sell me his services. Then after his poor sales performance, he had the audacity to ask for me to make some referrals. What is even more ironic, this simply clueless selling professional was promoting a business networking group.

When will these folks learn? Calling someone whether it is out of the blue (cold calling) or even a warm call response to an email to voicemail is an opportunity to make your first or last impression. For many folks, what usually happens is that it is indeed the last impression.

Why these selling professionals refuse to use sale scripts and to practice before making these calls is beyond my gray matter and 30 plus years in selling. And usually within sixty seconds, any trained and experienced person can detect a Captain Wing It versus a Captain Forcus It.

Today's experience went something like: Leanne, this is (so and so and he mumbled his name, but caller ID told me who he was) what type of leads do you want? I then asked for further clarification because his question was not related to his original email that he had sent me. Between his fast talking, somewhat southern accent, the excessive uhm's and oh's not to mention all the misspeakintg where he made presumptions, I was quite turned off. Wouldn't you be? The only reason I continued to listen was that it was an opportunity to hear a very bad sales presentation over the phone. And, it gave me material to write another article.

The other mistake this Captain Wing It made was revealing way too much information. He mentioned someone he thought I would not know because his location was 150 miles away from mine, but I did. After he went on about how much he had helped them, I asked if he was speaking directly with the owner as I had known him for over 5 years. This knowledge took Captain Wing It by surprise and he did some back peddling. Again, from a sales perspective, the last thing you want to do is to create any concerns within your potential customer’s thought processes. Sales Coaching Tip: Back peddling is a clear sign you are speaking with a Captain Wing It.

To shift from Captain Wing It to Captain Focus demands that the small business owner to C-Level executive invest some time up front including practice time especially when engaging in cold calling. Take your sales script and practice it with another person. Eventually, your key points will be infused into a natural conversational style and will not even sound like you rehearsed it.

Make sure that your call is in alignment with any previous calls or correspondence. Starting the call off as an inquisitor will not help you achieve your goal to increase sales. Remember, you must earn the right to proceed through the sales process and this is very important when cold calling. Until you have established trust, do not presume that you can ask for business or referrals.

Whether the economy is spiraling upward or downward, Captain Focus will always out sell Captain Wing It. Now is the time to change your sales attitudes and habits and by taking that action you will achieve your goal to increase sales.

Related Articles
  Stop By All That Business Your Are Driving By If You Want to Increase Sales
  What Cold Calling Business Lead Management Can Do For Your Business
  What to avoid when cold calling?
  Is cold calling right for my business?
  Cold Calling

Article Tags: audacity, business networking group, caller id, clarification, cold call, cold calling, disaster, email, gray matter, last impression, mistake, out of the blue, presumptions, referrals, sales performance, sales presentation, sixty seconds, southern accent, uhm, voicemail



Related Forum Posts
Re: How to develop sales contacts? - Everyone has the right idea here. Depending on your business, there are different techniques that you could use. For consultants and sales heavy businesses, there are three tactics that I have found especially useful in my business: 1. Attend Networking Events 2. Cold Calling 3. Referral Program 4. Affiliate Program (most successful) The affiliate program was successful for me, as I hooked up with a franchise consultant, and he gave multiple unit businesses that needed my credit card processing services. I highly suggest you hook up with a sales partner, and give him a cut of the monthly revenue.
Re: Direct Mail Postcards - Post cards would be really expensive to send from Japan...but one way to advertise that is not expensive from overseas is by Cold Calling using cheap VoIP equipment. I know Japan has a really good internet connection, so as long as you are willing to stay up late, it might be an option. I cold call from Thailand far, far away from any city using a CDMA wireless internet connection and have had pretty good results. I find tho, that cold calling works best for business 2 business (b2b), rather than b2c products. --matt
Re: Cold Calling - As long as people are out of jobs, you'll probably have a lot of people who say they want to work for straight commission, but if they don't get paid fairly quickly, they usually move on. We've run into that and went through about 500 people (whose resumes looked really good) until we found about 3 good resellers. People just don't want to work for anything. Or they do a good job getting the business but don't do the follow up necessary to make the sale......so they move on thinking they need money NOW. Our business requires all cold calling as well. It's really tough for people to perfect that but there are a lot of good books out there. On is Cold Calling Techniques, by Stephan Schiffman
Online Sales and Marketing vs Traditional - Hi Evan, I am noticing that many of the posts in the Sales/Marketing section deal with online marketing, SEM and and SEO and Affiliates. I was wondering if it might be a good idea to separate that section into two; 1) Online Sales and Marketing; 2) Traditional Sales and Marketing
Re: Online Sales and Marketing vs Traditional - [quote="ltrahan":31w9r2iz]Hi Evan, I am noticing that many of the posts in the Sales/Marketing section deal with online marketing, SEM and and SEO and Affiliates. I was wondering if it might be a good idea to separate that section into two; 1) Online Sales and Marketing; 2) Traditional Sales and Marketing[/quote:31w9r2iz] I second the request...


Share this article with your friends. Fund someone's dream.

Leave a comment below or share on the left and you'll help support entrepreneurs in Africa through our partnership with Kiva. Over $50,000 raised and counting - Please keep sharing! Learn more.

Tweet

Newsletter

Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!

Name:
Email:

Popular Articles

Is the iPad useful? One CEO tells all ....

Are You Listening?

Improve E-mail: Avoid the Quicksand

Suggestions

Email us your ideas on how to make our
website more valuable! Thank you Sharon
from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for
your suggestions to make the newsletter
look like the website and profile younger
entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez.