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Cold
Calling Goal: Appointments Not Sales
When
making cold calls, remember that the goal is to set appointments,
not to sell you, or your services. Your goal is to get a meeting
date and time on his calendar before you hang up the phone.
Keep
Focused
When
making your cold call and speaking with your prospect, remind
yourself to be interested in your potential client rather than
just advocating for him to buy your products or services.
Selling
is not giving a speech about your services. Instead, selling is
about inquiring about your prospect, honestly expressing an interest
in him, and remembering that you are there to be of service, or,
if you can't be of service, getting out of the way so his day
can move forward.
Listen
For Clues
The
most important thing to listen for, when talking with a prospect,
is pain. Pain consists of: ? Things that are going wrong for the
prospect today. ? Things that have gone wrong for him in the past.
? Things that may go wrong for him in the future, or ? Things
that he thinks may go wrong or have happened to colleagues in
similar circumstances.
When
you hear the indication of pain, ask a question about it, especially
if it is in an area that can be helped by your services or product.
Regardless
of how the prospect responds, make sure he knows you have heard
him, even if what he said is negative.
Source:
Lenann McGookey Gardner
is an internationally known sales consultant and author of the
upcoming book, Got Sales? The Complete Guide to Today's Proven
Methods for Selling Services. She is a winner of the American
Marketing Association's Professional Services Marketer of the
Year award.
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