Cold calling is described by some as the ‘necessary evil’ to sales success.  Yes, it is necessary, but ‘evil’?  It is evil if you handle it like those telemarketers who call you at dinner time and jump into their sales pitch.  We all know why they do this – they get some form of credit for having delivered their sales pitch or ‘script’.  Their entire sales process is within that one call. 

For sales professionals, cold calling is just the first contact, not the only one.  It is an introduction into an organization from which there may be an interest from both parties to work together. 

I call it “records.” Well, actually the executive coach that introduced the concept to me called it “records,” and it was one of the most valuable relationship tools I have learned.  I was guilty (of creating "records" on people), and everyone I have shared the teachings with has admitted to such as well.

Let me play it out for you, so humor me on the character setting. Salesperson Sarah is calling on Prospect Jane, and it is Sarah’s third follow-up call. In the first two calls, Sarah began to formulate an opinion on how Jane would act or respond throughout the discussion. From the introduction to conclusion, Sarah felt she now had Jane figured out.

 

I am an early riser which means that I am normally the first one in the office. I am also a lurker. Every so often I watch a rep as they come into the office and get settled for the day. What have I noticed? The poorest performing reps have the following habits

• they sit down (normally for a minute or two) and then turn on their computer
• they get up and get a cup of coffee
• once back to their desk, they check their personal email account
• from there, they check out ESPN, MSN or Yahoo to find out what's going on in the world (News flash - companies are reducing staff and the stock market is in the toilet)
• and finally, an hour after they walked through the door, they pull up their CRM and gaze at their screen with a very perplexed look.

Why the perplexed look?  Simple - they have no plan.

At least twice a week, I get a call from someone trying to sell me on their sales training program. Most recently, the gentlemen who called me suggested that he could help me increase revenue by 25-50% if I sent all my sales people to his seminar. Sounds good to me I thought...maybe too good. When I asked how he could get these results from people after a two day seminar, he told me it was simple - he'll teach them state of the art negotiation techniques. I politely told him to call me in 6 months when he could show me a few case studies.  

He pressed a little further and I explained that I am growing tired of people over complicating the sales process. You see, I firmly believe that 90% of the time success in sales is predicated by how well a sales person does with the basics.  For example:  Are they making enough cold calls? Are they logging activity in the CRM? Are they asking the right questions at the beginning of the sales process? Negotiation is a key part of the process; however, unless you get enough qualified prospects to that stage, you have nothing to negotiate.

I do not know one person who enjoys cold calling. It is awkward, frustrating, and emotional. Most people are just plain bad at it. For those of you in this group, here are a few simple tips that you can use to improve your success rate. 

1.       Do Your Homework – Know who you are calling, both the person and the company. This will help you avoid the most common ailment afflicting sales reps today - foot in mouth disease.

Sales leads are generated in a large number of ways, employing a huge range of techniques, trick, and tactics to discover the most valuable leads. Some of these are tried and tested, some are unique methods used by a particular organization or business, and all of them have varying degrees of success.

One of the most effective ways of generating sales leads is through word of mouth. Once word is spreading of a popular product or service, there is no saying how much can be achieved. However, it is getting word of mouth started that is the tricky part.

The opt-in list generation method allows leads to be generated and customers can be targeted specifically through their interests. The most common opt-in method in use today is through Web sites and emails, whereby after visiting a Web site, users can choose to receive information either directly related to that product or from third parties with similar products.

This is also known as permission-based marketing, and is an incredibly useful way to target potential customers more specifically. However, the technique is not limited to internet marketing. After making an order for a product by mail, there will often be an option to check a box that allows the customer's information to be used for marketing purposes.

A further method of ensuring that the person is interested in a particular product or service is by using the double opt-in method. This is very common with email newsletters, whereby an email is sent to the user's email address, and the user must then click on a link to confirm that they want to be on the list. This is a protective method to prevent people receiving too much spam mail, but it is also a good marketing tool as it means the people on the list are genuinely interested in receiving it.