Allow me to introduce you to the amazing and fabulous Laura Posey – Founder and CEO of Simple Success Plans (www.simplesuccessplans.com). She wrote this post on Cold-Calling. And, frankly, I think it’s the best I’ve ever seen on this topic! So, I asked if I could steal it and she said “GO FOR IT!”
So, thanks to the wild generosity of Laura Posey, I give you: My Mom Is The Best Cold Caller I Know. Enjoy!
“She’s retired now but she was so good at cold calling she lost her job. That’s because she sold the entire inventory her company had available. (It was cemetery plots that time)
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Seriously, she has sold everything from burglar alarms to siding to charitable donations starting with cold calls. And she was the top performer in every company she worked for.
So what is her secret?
It is so simple you’re going to wonder why you didn’t think of it. Here it is:
She never tries to convince anyone to set an appointment when she calls.
What???
Isn’t that the point of the call?
Not according to Mom.
You see, she views calling as a survey. The purpose of the call is to sort people into three lists:
- People who are curious about what you are selling
- People who are not ready to talk about what you are selling
- People who are too dumb to be curious about what you are selling
As she tells it, when you cold call someone who isn’t already curious about your product and you push to convince them to set an appointment, all you end up with is a crappy appointment.
Instead of wasting your time trying to hammer the wrong people into meeting with you, why not just call enough people and find the ones who are interested now.
Recognize that the ones who say “no” are really just saying “not now”. You can always call them back at a later time when they might be in the “yes” pile.
If you’re skeptical about how this would work, imagine this scenario.
I give you a list of 100 people to call. Your job is ask them 1) if they like chocolate ice cream and 2) if they would like a free sample if they do.
That’s it. I’ll pay you $100 to do the survey and give me the tally sheet of results.
Could you do it?
Of course you could! A survey is so simple to do because you don’t care about the outcome. You aren’t trying to convince people to like chocolate ice cream; you are just seeing who does and who doesn’t. And you only offer the free sample to people you know want it.
That is all that cold calling is – a survey.
Your job is to dial enough numbers to fill in your ‘’yes” column with quality appointments.
That’s it.
No more freaking out about…
- “What if they hate me?”
- “What if they hang up on me?”
- “What if they are mean to me?”
- “What if I don’t know what to say?”
- “What if I can’t get the appointment?”
You are just doing a survey – there is nothing to hate.
(And, while we are on the subject, even if they did hate you, they would forget about you the moment you hung up the phone.
Seriously, can you remember the name of the last person who cold called you?)
Your job now is to grab a sheet of paper and make four columns like this:
Write your list of prospect names in the first column. Then just start your survey calls, making tick marks in the appropriate column after each name.
That’s it.
I can tell you this technique saved my butt when I first got into sales.
And it has saved countless other entrepreneurs and salespeople over the years.
It requires no fancy software, no automatic dialers and no manipulative call sheets.
Give it a shot and let me know how it goes. I’m willing to bet you are making more appointments than ever by the end of next week.
For more ideas on how to generate consistent, profitable sales, check out our 144 other strategies for making more sales and growing your business.”
Did you love this advice? Check out Laura’s Simple Sales Magnetism Plan! http://bit.ly/29r10Xd
Love ‘em ALL UP!
The Irreverent Sales Girl
And go here to get the Truly Irreverent Tuesday Newsletter from me! http://bit.ly/IrreverentTuesday
As we conclude the week of “Gatekeeper Relations/Ethics/Methods”, Thanks to Tom Tenseth 
But, many of you have asked for more insights about how to deal with this role in your sales efforts, so I will share with you what I have learned and the approaches that have been successful for me.
While I have a lot of opinions about working with gatekeepers – which I will share in Wednesday and Thursday’s blog articles, I thought I’d do a bit of research before I weighed in.
Last week, I was watching the Katie Couric interview with Tom Hanks, Clint Eastwood, and Aaron Eckhart about the making of the movie Sully.
Prospecting.