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Prospecting and Making Cold Calls©

Guest post by: Bill Truax

Article Overview: We all hate to Prospect, but know we need to. Here is a simple system that will get you all the Prospects you need for the rest of your career.

Prospecting and Making Cold Calls©

Prospecting and Making Cold Calls©

The one aspect of selling that all of us seem to hate is Prospecting. It is easy to visit with customers or even with folks with whom we have a relationship other than that of a customer. But when it comes to Prospecting, we come up with the greatest reasons as to why we don’t have time.

Yet, the only way to significantly grow our business, increase our incomes, grow our customer base, is by Prospecting. That is “calling on people and companies we don’t know with the intent of making them customers.”

So we know we need to Prospect, but we hate to do it. As a salesman for 35 years I have come up with many ways to Prospect without really prospecting. One way is mailings. That is actually an effort to get more customers, but it seldom yields any benefit.

Another way is networking. What a great buzzword. Networking can actually yield results, but when you look at it, networkingis really Prospecting, just done another, more indirect way.

It is much easier to simply make what I call BLITZ CALL®s. Our system for Prospecting addresses several basic facts about selling in the commercial/industrial market place.
First, prospects don’t buy on the first call, so don’t try to make it a sales call, it should be for introductory purposes only.
Second, it will take a minimum of 4 calls to make a sale on a Prospect, so you must establish a follow up system for each one.
Third, since most sales are made after the 4th call and most sales people quit after 2, you will quickly outperform your competitors.

Now here is one thing I have found to be most effective, even in the 21st century. Face to face Blitz Calling is still the best method for the field sales professional.

If you are in the field and driving past a Prospect, stop in and make a Blitz Call. You may actually get to meet the Prospect. If not, you can do some “field intelligence” on the company. (If you simply make a phone call and get voice mail, what have you learned?)

Look at their facility, what condition is the parking lot, the lobby, the grounds? What kind of vehicles are in the lot and is there the right number for the size of the facility. (A big plant with only a few cars may mean they are in trouble). Is there lobby welcoming, clean, up to date? Is there a receptionist, if so, she/he may be a good source of information about the company if you can’t get to your Prospect.

If they have a phone in the lobby, make a Blitz Call over the phone to the Prospect, he may come out to meet you. We get this a lot.

These things can tell you a lot about the company and people with whom you will be dealing.

I spend a lot of time in the field working with salesman one on one making Blitz Calls. We make a lot of calls in a day. Some get us only information, but we get to see Prospects more often than you would think. But that only happens because we actually stop and make the calls.

A Blitz Call should only take about 4 minutes. If you make 3 a day that is 12 minutes, we should all have time for that.

If you make 3 Blitz Calls on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, that is 9 per week. If you work 40 weeks a year then you will make 360 Prospecting this year. How would 360 Prospecting calls change your life this year?

You can see how simple it is, if you are making 360 Prospecting calls, then there is no pressure on you, since no one call is that important. If you are only making 10 Prospecting calls this year or are making them all in one month, then every one is critical.

Take the pressure off and enjoy selling, start Blitz Calling.

Sell Well and Often,

Bill Truax

© Copyright 2007 WJ Truax

Bill Truax is a sales and sales management consultant from Cleveland, Oh. He has 3 books, 2 CD’s, seminars, and workshops on Prospecting and Making Cold Calls for the commercial/industrial sales professional. Visit www.BlitzCall.com for more information.

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