Cold Calling Businesses In Person - Need Some Advice

I personally can tell you the difference is night and day. Even cold walk in.. I about never try to close on the 1st visit.

When you are calling for appointments there is a series of pre-qualifications you can run through. THAT is where the success rate goes up considerably. The same holds true with Cold walkins. if you walk in and meet and greet get the pre-qualifying out of the way. you then have an idea of what they are looking for or not looking for. The second touch is then the sales process.

And to be honest.. I was just looking, my close rate on visit 2 isn't that great. its visit 3 and 4 that it kicks into high gear. BUT that is me, and my process.

That's a very smart question. And I have a good answer. It doesn't change at all.

When I was starting out in selling, I sold life insurance. the standard practice was;
1) call for an appointment.
2) fact gathering meeting. then you left....
3) presentation meeting.
4) delivering the policy meeting. (some guys just mailed the policies.)

And I did that sequence for maybe 6 months. It seemed like a lot of time for one sale. And by then, I had already begun to record my sales results for each day. My closing percentage, how many calls, how any sales, how much earned.

So....I shortened it to;
1) Call for appointment.
2) Gather information and sell.
3) Deliver policy. (I liked delivering the policy in person, because there was a 50% chance of an additional sale at that meeting....and additional referrals. If they bought a second policy, I would mail it to them, along with a very nice folder to keep it in)

My closing didn't go down at all. In fact, it went up a little. Why? Because they were still interested..while I was there.

Think of selling as a date. You go out to eat, dance, maybe a movie...you come back to the apartment....drink a little wine, kiss and maybe more...and then you say, "Well, Now I know a lot about you. When would be a good time for me to return, and take up, where we left off? How about a week from today?"

When you go back, they seem like a different person. Why? All the momentum is gone. You killed it.

If they buy a week later, on a second trip...they would have bought the day you were there the first time....In my experience, nearly always.

I know this post will make me many new friends.

We all have different approaches. You are obviously successful using your method. And I understand the multiple call approach.

Maybe the difference is that I do quite a lot, before they see me. I may send one of my books, a DVD, let them go to a website.....before I ever show up. And I've done some qualifying on the phone already. When I get there, I'm pretty much hitting the ground running.

It also matters how complex the sale is. I don't offer 50 services, just one. And from "Hello to Goodbye" it may only take an hour or so. I ask lots of qualifying questions at first, but that entire process is less than 15 minutes.

The more complex the sale (and the more decision makers) the more visits it takes.

I don't make call backs. It's just my nature. And I've had poor results, per visit, making call backs. I'm talking about in person sales. Not phone sales or internet sales.