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Cold Calling Mistakes: Top Tips To Avoid
| Guest post by: Alen Majer |
Article Overview: When done correctly, cold calling can be an effective sales tool for a business. However, many companies either do not use cold calling, or attempt it ineffectively.
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Cold Calling Mistakes: Top Tips To Avoid
When done correctly, cold calling can be an effective sales tool for a business. However, many companies either do not use cold calling, or attempt it ineffectively. This is due to certain mistakes; here are a few of them:
■ Reading From A Script. There is nothing more boring to a prospective customer than to pick up the phone and hear the caller (after usually miss-pronouncing their name) to launch into a written script. This screams of a complete lack of professionalism, as well as making the customer feel like just another name on the list, rather than as someone special.
■ "You have been selected". This dreaded cliché sounds as phoney as it is. Think about it. Why in the world would the customer be selected by a company that has probably never done business with them before? Is it the customer's lucky day? They usually don't think so.
■ Lack of Passion. This is related to script reading. Many callers sound like they are human zombies, just going through the motions. If there is anything to cause the customer to hang up, this is it, and this leads us to the next mistake.
■ Failing to connect emotionally with the customer. If the caller sounds bored and mechanical, the listener will pick it up. After all, if the caller is not excited about the offering, why in the world should the potential customer be?
■ Giving opportunity to say "no". Anytime the caller asks the prospective customer a question, there should never be the opportunity for the customer to say "no". For example, instead of: "Would you like to have one of our sales reps come out next week?", the correct question should be: "Our reps will be in your area on Tuesday and Thursday. Which day is more convenient for you?". This gives the customer a choice, and produces far superior results.
■ Not targeting the calling prospects. Working off a random list should be avoided if at all possible. If the target list can be narrowed to customers who have bought similar products/services in the past, the calling campaign will be more successful.
■ Not doing it. This speaks for itself. To succeed, the callers must make the calls. It is really that simple.
Avoiding these mistakes will make cold calling a profitable activity for your business.
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Article Tags: cold calling, cold calling scripts, cold calling techniques, sales scripts, what to avoid when cold calling
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About the Author: Alen Majer RSS for Alen's articles - Visit Alen's website Alen Mayer, Canadian Sales Expert, is fiercely committed to guiding Entrepreneurs and Sales Professionals to improve their sales knowledge and skills so they can achieve extraordinary sales results, close more sales effectively, and learn more to earn more. If you are looking for a proven Sales Expert who will show you new ways of getting more clients in less time, how to book more appointments by fighting phone resistance, and learn new ways of handling excuses and objections to excel in sales, you've come to the right place. With 20 years in sales and 10 years of experience working with amazing clients with similar worries and concerns and guiding them to achieve remarkable success, my mission and commitment is to help sales people achieve their goals faster than they would without my guidance. I am living proof that you don't need to be a natural-born salesperson to be successful in sales. What lights me up about this work and what sets me apart from other service providers is that I believe that sales is a process and that process can be taught. You always need training. A great salesperson is always trying to make him or herself better. Alen is author of these books: ■ Selling IS Better Than Sex - www.SellingIsBetter.com Sales Training Programs: ■ Get More Appointments TM Summary: - 20+ years in international sales and business development, 10+ years in sales management, coaching and training Alen has inspired audiences from St. John's to Vancouver, and across North America and Europe. Whether a business conference, association meeting, or other event, every aspect is planned and coordinated to maximize attendee value. As keynote speaker, Alen achieves your objectives. To book Alen Majer, one of Canada's top sales experts, please send an email to alen@alenmajer.com.
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Related Forum Posts
Re: What to avoid when cold calling?
- At the time of Cold Calling we should avoid price increases for products and unavailability.
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
Business Tips
- How about:
Tips for managers to handle employees more effectively?
Tips on how to deal with difficult customers?
Tips on how to deal more effectively with suppliers?
The only three I have in mind right now, but will try to come up with something else.
Chris
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