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Cold Calling - Tips to make it easier

Written by: David Acheson

Article Overview: An article giving ways to motivate yourself to make cold calls.

Cold Calling - Tips to make it easier

Cold Calling is hated by many, loved by few but does find great opportunities for usually uncontested deals.

Why do people dislike doing it?

Is it Rejection? Is it getting a Bad Response? Is it making yourself look silly if you cannot answer a question? Is it because they are using bad Initial Benefit Statement? Or is it the thought of getting hold of Nasty people?

I believe, it is not about if people are nasty or nice, but it is all about timing. If somebody rings me when I am just about to go into a meeting, I am going to be short with them, if I have just finished a task and the phone rings I am more likely to give that person time. It is exactly the same at home in the evenings, if I am in the middle of watching a Grand Prix then if I do answer the phone at all, I am going to be short with the person, if they ring when my wife is telling me about these lovely new curtains she has seen today, I am more likely to be responsive to the caller.

Then if you have a short response if you think wrong time, instead of nasty person you will be more motivated to ring again another time.

The quality of a cold call is all to do with the quality of the Initial Benefit Statement if it is generic or does not give either precise details of cost saving or detail on how and how much your solution will improve productivity you are wasting your time and with a generic IBS you will have to talk to up to 5 times as many decision makers to make an appointment.

You can easily work out how much you earn every time you make a cold call. I.e. if you have to make 100 cold calls to get hold of 25 decision makers and for every 5 decision makers you speak to you make 1 appointment and you close 1 in 3 of your appointments and your average commission from a sale is £500. So every time you pick up the phone and make a call you have made £8.33.

The worst thing that can happen to you whilst cold calling is that somebody hangs up, and if you think about it, it is not that bad and you have earned £8.33 very quickly.

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Article Tags: appointment, appointments, benefit statement, cold call, cold calling, cold calls, curtains, decision makers, evenings, grand prix, ibs, nasty person, nbsp, person time, phone rings, precise details, productivity, rejection, wasting your time, wrong time



Related Forum Posts
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
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
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
Re: Who hates cold calling? - Cold calling is aways hard, but I think you definitely have to put yourself into the right frame of mind before making them and it will help you muscle through them. If you just ask yourself, "What do I have to lose?" before making each call, I think you have a pre-set attitude that this "no" is just going to get me that much closer to my next "yes". Look at it as a stepping stone rather than a road block and it makes it so much easier to pick up the phone. Since cold calling is almost a necessity for survival in business today, it's crucial to make an effort to do some of it every day. You should have a goal to hit each day, then when you get really good, up the goal just like you would a strength training goal. It's a good comparison. It's just that one makes you have more courage and one makes you have more physical strength. The concept is similar.


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