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Has cold-calling ever worked for you?

Written by: Trent Leyshan

Article Overview: Many salespeople make the mistake of treating in-bound calls as easy wins or a guaranteed sale. However, my experience suggests you need to engage customers in the same way, don't skip steps in y0ur sales-process, and never assume they have buy-in just because they called you, as they may also have called three of your competitors.

Has cold-calling ever worked for you?

I have made thousands of cold-calls both face and phone over the years, more so in the early part of my career.

One of my first jobs was selling life insurance door-to-door in the western suburbs. I didn't really enjoy this experience, however I learned about the power of sales-process and overcoming rejection, which put me in good stead for later in life.

I then worked spruiking at shopping centres and tradeshows armed only with cleaning products, a microphone, and the sound of my own voice to keep me company - this was cold-contact selling, but with leverage from marketing via television.

In one of my businesses prior to BOOM Sales!we created one of Australia's largest web marketing companies, using a combination of outbound telemarketing and other lead generation activities. We had in-bound and outbound telemarketing that was supported with process and a sales team.

We had search engine marketing and backward links driving in-bound enquiries, and although these types of in-bound calls are considered warm, they need to be treated with the same support and process as a cold-call.

Many salespeople make the mistake of treating in-bound calls as easy wins or a guaranteed sale. However, my experience suggests you need to engage customers in the same way, don't skip steps in y0ur sales-process, and never assume they have buy-in just because they called you, as they may also have called three of your competitors.

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Article Tags: backward links, cleaning products, cold call, cold calls, generation activities, lead generation, leverage, marketing companies, microphone, mistake, nbsp, outbound telemarketing, overcoming rejection, salespeople, search engine marketing, selling life insurance, shopping centres, stead, tradeshows, western suburbs



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