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Is Calling Your Prospects A Chore

Written by: Donald F. Pooley

Article Overview: Do you constantly find something else to do besides calling your prospects or spend endless time “preparing” to make your calls? If this sounds familiar, read on and you'll find out how to not only do effective prospecting, but also how to enjoy it. You'll be having fun talking to prospects -- and you won't believe the results of your efforts!

Is Calling Your Prospects A Chore

Do you constantly find something else to do besides calling your prospects or spend endless time “preparing” to make your calls? If this sounds familiar, read on and you'll find out how to not only do effective prospecting, but also how to enjoy it. You'll be having fun talking to prospects -- and you won't believe the results of your efforts!
The number one secret to success in calling your prospects is making the call about them, and never, never, never about you! Ask them a series of “can opener” questions that keeps the focus on them. Examples of questions to ask them may include:
* Tell me about yourself.
* What are your goals and aspirations?
* Why are you interested in this particular business or product?
* Is your spouse involved in your decision?
* What kind of money would you like to make?
Keeping the focus on them puts everyone at ease (and takes the strain off you). Your prospect won't feel pressured and will begin to open up. Everyone has a story. Listen to theirs and you'll be surprised at how much information you can gather. Then use this knowledge to qualify, sort, and later close them!
The next secret is to concentrate on making some sort of connection. Find a common denominator. Do they have children? If yes, talk about yours as well. What are they doing for work now and do they like it? Then find another connecting point. Get inside their line of defense and your job is 75% done! They'll sense and know that you have an interest in them and begin to trust you. Again, use this information to sort, qualify and later close them.
Third, make sure they realize that you are there to assist them and be of service—every step of the way. People can sense very quickly when you are just using them for your own gain. You may have some success with a “hit and run approach” but you may hit a dead end yourself.
Fourth, help them regard the business opportunity or product you're presenting as the vehicle that will make their vision a reality. Never forget that you have something they need. If they are to attain the level of financial success they are looking for, they'll need you on their team. Don't push or pressure. If you've done everything right to this point, they'll want to come to you.
The last secret to prospecting success is choosing a product or business opportunity that you believe in. If you don't truly believe in what you are doing, how can you expect your prospects to? They will instantly sense your reservations and lack of confidence. The result will manifest itself into no sales.
Remember—it's all about connecting with people. As many approaches as there are to sales and prospecting, people are still individuals. If you believe you are helping people and providing them with a service, they in turn will also believe. The result is that you won't need to “sell” and the phone will become as light as a feather!

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  How To Overcome the "I'm Not Interested" Objection
  How Often Should You Contact Your Prospects?
  Cold Calling in the 21st Century: The New Rules, Part II
  Make Cold Calls More Successful- Stop Focusing on the Sale

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Re: Email Etiquette - [quote="jvprosperity":24jznj58] The P.S. suggestion is good but it depends on the type of communication (e.g. Autoresponder series verses one off emails to Clients or Prospects)[/quote:24jznj58] Andy, You are right. I was mainly referring to Auto Responder emails. To end a normal email, I attach signatures. Takuya
Simple way to avoid Cold Calling - Gary, A chiropractor I work with hates cold calling (me too!) and he uses a technique to warm people up to using his services - it's so simple! In Sales your dealing with 3 pools of people: 1. Strangers 2. Prospects 3. Returning Customers You need to move people from one pool to the next. We'll concentrate on #1 and #2 as it's most relevant to your question. My Clients does the following (you just have to tailor it to your situation - be creative). My Client (we'll call him Bob) Bob leverages his time and resources to only get people that need his offer (pain relief) to put their hand up. Dealing with Strangers can get expensive and they don't like to be told what to do as they have no trust or relationship built with him. So to get Strangers to put their hands up he writes up an offer with a free report on a particular pain relief - let's say lower back pain (note: he can simply just change lower back pain to neck pain and have a new report). and uses multiple marketing vehicles to promote the Free report - magazines, newspaper, forums, postcards, private clinics etc. The only people picking up this information are the very people Bob would like as customers as they have Lower back pain. Bob's Free report ends with him stating his services and includes a Free in-house Consultation with no obligation. You'd be surprised at how easily Bob converts Strangers into Prospects. Note: They become prospects when they ask for the Free Guide and in exchange provide their contact details. This gives Bob unlimited opportunity to contact them for the Free in-house consultation with no obligation to continue using him. At this stage Bob's ability to close the sale lies in his office providing good customer service, Bob's ability to help the prospect and provide value at the free in-house consultation. Notice, he hasn't had to pick up the phone to COLD-CALL his Stranger pool or his Prospect pool. Hope that example helps to increase your prospecting!
Top sales skills - Qualifying Fast to Avoid Wasting Sales Time Do you chase after your prospects until they tell you yes or no? Do you ever tell your prospects "No", as in "No, I am not going to sell to you"? There are many things in selling that you do not and will not be able to control. The one thing that you do have control over is your time and how you choose to use it. Motivating Prospects Qualifying goes beyond budget, authority, and need. You want to sell to prospects who *want* to buy from you. Finding prospects that need our products usually is not difficult. Finding those who really want our products though can be very hard if we wait for them to come to us. Selling to People Outside Your Comfort Zone Most salespeople who are "people persons", already think that they are good at this. Let me ask you a question. When you last lost a sale, how was your rapport with the key person who decided against you?
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


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