Cold Calling Without Fear

Cold calling techniques are ways to “open” and “qualify” a prospect who is not particularly familiar with the product or service being offered.

Unlike a customer coming into a showroom, who is already at least somewhat familiar with the product or service he is seeking, a “cold prospect” may never have heard of the product or service, and even if he has, he may have no awareness of his own need or desire to buy it.

When dealing with “cold prospects”, the salesperson needs one set of cold calling techniquesto establish the prospect’s initial willingness to even communicate with the salesperson, and another whole set of cold calling techniquesto get the prospect’s awareness up high enough of his own potential need or desire for the product, before the salesperson can further interest the prospect in acquiring the product or service.

All successful “opening” techniques have one basic quality in common. When the salesperson convincingly and sufficiently demonstrates himself to have this particular quality, the prospect will trust the salesperson sufficiently and will be willing to communicate with him openly. If the salesperson doesn’t demonstrate a sufficient amount of this quality, and fails to win the prospect’s basic trust, the salesperson will be on very shaky ground as he tries to take the sale forward. The quality in question is that of being Helpful and Caring. And the way to demonstrate yourself as helpful and caring is by showing sincere Interest in the prospect.

Once the salesman has applied sufficient amounts of this “opening” cold calling technique, and the prospect trusts the salesperson enough to be willing to openly communicate with him, it is time to unroll the next set of cold calling techniques: those designed to elevate the prospect’s awareness that he has some need and/or desire to own the product or service that the salesman is offering.

This is commonly called the “qualifying” step. But the emphasis here is not on the salesperson discovering how ready and able the prospect is to make a purchase. The emphasis is on the salesperson discovering the potential needs and wants the prospect has for the product or service being offered, as well as on elevating the prospect’s awareness of his own needs and wants for what is being offered.

In Chapter 4, Opening, in the sales training manual, HOW TO SELL – Clear and Simple (www.HowToSellClearAndSimple.com one gets a thorough understanding of how to go about getting the prospect into open communication. And in Chapter 5, Qualifying, there is not only a step-by-step layout of how to go about effectively discovering the prospect’s needs and wants, there is additionally a section, The Cold Call Qualification, which goes into the specific cold calling techniques which effectively raise the prospect’s awareness of his own needs and wants for what the salesman is offering.

“Opening” is another name for “How to earn the prospect’s trust” and ”Qualifying” is another way of saying “The art of how and when to ask the right questions”. There are an enormous number of sales techniques which a salesman needs to be familiar with if he is to be consistently successful, but it is in the areas of opening and qualifying that he is in the most need for workable tools, when it comes to the search for cold calling techniques.

(c) 2004, 2005, 2006, Harry Frisch, STI Publishing. All Rights Reserved.

Cold Calling Without Fear - To learn more about this author, visit Harry Frisch's Website.

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