Cold calling frustrations!! Guys please help!

Hi Matt,

Cold calling frustrations!

Dont worry, whether you are cold calling or whatever else, competing in business can be frustrating, thats why only winners can do it!

Sounds like you just need to tie them down a little harder on the appointment close, or maybe you are divulging too much info in the initial call .

What I mean by that is this...

If you are scheduling an appointment, what you want to do is get their tastebuds wet, then tie them down to a tight appointment before you blow it.... Say as little as possible, and save the rest for the meeting so they dont have any preconceived notions that cause them to lose interest before you can sell them.

You arent going to close them in 60 seconds, and if you give away your whole ball of wax without ample chance to sell it, they are going to get your price and blow you off most of the time.

Dont let them talk you into a quick pitch, and not give you the chance to build value before quoting price. You need an ample opportunity to create that desire and go through all the levels of selling them.

If you give them the whole jist before you have done that, then they are going to get your price and run.

I heard it said that once you have turned somebody on, the one thing that can happen to blow it is if you dont maintain that level and you say something that turns them back off.

Price before building enough value and can turn a person right back off. Many times they will be in a hurry and say "Just give me the nutshell version".

Dont do it.

If they are turned on, then you need to steadily feed them a pipeline of confirmation of that... but jumping straight to a price quote will generally turn them back off if the groundwork isnt laid.

Im repeating myself on purpose, because its that important. Repetition is mastery.

Dont let someone talk you into quoting price before you have had a chance to build perceived value. Get them interested enough to spend some time meeting with you and thats all.

If that happens..., and they ask for a quick nutshell version...

Just skip straight to the "scheduling a time part", and be as vague as possible about anything else. The only thing they need to know is that they are going to LOVE hearing what you can do for them when you get a chance to talk.

If they say "Just tell me the price real quick"

Say, "I'll tell you what Bob, I'd really prefer to do this at a time when you havent got alot of other things going on... but I can tell you that you will be blown away at what we can do for you, if you give me a few minutes...I can see you are busy now...whats a good time for you maybe this afternoon or tomorrow morning...?"

Again; if you give a "quick pitch" you wont be able to really go through the whole process of selling... dont let anyone bully you into just giving a price and getting off the phone. You need a chance to sell them.

Also,

In a face to face meeting its harder for them to just dismiss you before you have a chance to turn it around when you see interest waning, like they can on the initial introductory call..., but on the introductory call, if that happens its easy for them to say "Hey I gotta take another call...". You are a goner at that point.

Also, if you schedule a PHONE appointment, and tie it down good, get them to commit pretty tightly, then it will be harder for them to brush you off the phone too once in the meeting, because they AGREED to meet.

If you make an agreement to call back and it 's kind of tentative, it doesnt work. You have to schedule them down tight to a time, and get a firm commitment.

What are you saying to them BTW?

It sounds like you just need a small tweak... but I wouldnt know unless I knew what you were saying.

I have a feeling you are giving too much away in too short of a conversation, at first glance, instead of getting a real chance to sell them. You give away the milk, nobody buys the cow (appointment).

Then again, it may be simpler than that, you may just need to commit them harder and be more clear about the appointment commitment time.

I will let Mwind get a word in here....

Hope there is some enlightenment here.

-JD

You are calling local tradespeople.

There's your answer.

They don't pick up the phone when you call back because they're under a house. Or on a roof. Or holding a tool in each hand and balancing at the top of a ladder. Or driving their truck over to Mrs. Johnson's house, who is desperate for them to show up and fix her broken hot water tank...and it's their sixth thing of the day and they are two hours behind schedule.

Your call is simply not as important to them as what they are currently doing--which is making them money. Even IF they know who you are, which they probably do not.

They are just darn busy.

Call between 8AM - 9AM, and 5PM - 6PM. You'll get much better results. And you are going to have to call back more than once to get these guys on the phone. They are just too busy.

I was a credit manager for a national electrical wholesaler for 4 years. That meant calling a lot of electricians and builders. Took me a year to figure out why they were so hard to get ahold of--and then I went and worked in trades myself, which really rubbed it in.

These posts will help you:

http://www.warriorforum.com/offline-...beginners.html

http://www.warriorforum.com/offline-...ml#post6298956

Be politely persistent. That's what the contractors used to call me, and it paid off.

Have you tried other marketing methods besides the dog n bone ?, and do not sell on price alone or as a major part of the sale.

I am surprised why so many people peddle the phone as the only way to get sales, water torture would be better than that.

I am lost as to why with the so called pro's here in calling why there is not a warrior for hire / wso where people can hire these pro's and then use skype as a training tool, surly in 1 day or even an hours training you could pitch a pro and they could over skype tell you exactly whats gone wrong and where to fix it.

That would leave you 29 and a bit days to do it right with some results. spending the full month before even working out whats wrong is not good.

John,

Your feedback is always valued thank you very much

No problem , I just happened to be up emailing Ken Michaels, and I felt fortunate to catch your question. glad to help.

Matt, there are alot of different ways to approach this... I have canned ways that work...verbatim pitches... and you have read some in the TM report...

Im going to go ahead and answer this one in the way that I myself would do it, if I were in your headphones. and try to give you some insight instead of just a set of magic words here.

I'm pretty much doing whats set out in your "The Great Telemarketing Report" to start with.

It's a good one. A TON of Warriors have gotten their first sales with it.

After the initial intro these guys have said "yea I've been thinking about it" or "yes I'm interested" so from that point I ask them when are they looking to have one done.

Okay, dont ask them when they are looking to have it done yet, rather say "Great! What kind of project did you have in mind....You guys are a furniture store there right?" (Get them talking about their idea instead of the time deadline, because making them think of their deadlines can be a turn off..., and you havent turned them on enough yet to withstand any kind of emotional resistance...

Also "When were you looking to do that?" at this point is the wrong kind of question because they can easily say "Im not going to do it for about six months..." you are already setting up neg scenarios instead of positives for yourself. They are already affirming to themselves that they arent ready yet, before you have had a chance to make them want it YESTERDAY!

If you are going to ask a question, ask one that will take them deeper into interest... which I will show you in a sec.

You want to be subtle, and feel them out without divulging too much yet. Your goal at this point is to "engage" them... because the more they talk about the idea, the more they emotionally commit themselves into wanting a quote. You are looking for the right moment to close them on the appointment...while not giving away the cow....

Try this:

GREAT! You folk sell furniture there right?

Super, there is a great market for that online... What kind of furniture do you sell?

Awesome This is sounding good already... (Get them anticipating).

(Now start acting concerned, as if you are thinking about the keyword possibilities or something...asking concerned questions)

Let me ask , what are you looking to do, get people into your store? or have them purchase right there on your site?

(Get them deeper...dont sell them anything yet, you are feeling them out for the right moment to close the appointment).

Oh! Okay, Well that shouldnt be any problem at all, honestly with those kinds of brand names the possibilites are really endless...tell you what Bob, Im thinking there is some good potential here for you... especially since you have a TON of great keywords we can capitalize on working with those kinds of brand names, its almost like a built in market...

Let me ask are you going to be around later this afternoon?

Okay great.

Now, unless you have a half hour or so to spend with me now, and we can just do it together...Which Im totally open to, why dont you let me do some research on this real quick, and check out your competition..., and maybe meet up later this afternoon and I will give you a better idea of what we could do for you.., I know I kind of caught you off guard anyway, is say 2:00 good for you?

( If they say yes or commit to a time, NOW you need to tell them what you are going to do in the meantime, so they will know you are investing in them and take your appointment seriously as well as anticipate it)

Okay great, in the meantime, Im going to go ahead and check out the statistics on google for your main keywords and see what kind of competition you have... usually for something like this it shouldnt be too much trouble to get you on the first page fairly easily... in the mean time if you get a chance to generate any specific ideas of things you would like to see on your website, go ahead and try to jot those down, and I think we will be able to do something great here. Sound fair enough?

(Now tighten it up) Okay so I have you down for 2:00 this afternoon correct? Okay, and just call you back on this same number? (Get them to commit)

Alright, Great! Sounds like we met each other at just about the right time... lol.

Alright, well, again, it's great to meet you Bob, we will be just looking forward to speaking again a 2:00 then!

(See, now you have planted some seeds...there is a better opportunity to close a tighter meeting that they will anticipate, as opposed to when the interest was small and hadnt been nurtured yet)

Alot have said in the New year so I ask them when in the New Year should I call them back then put that in the diary.

Yes, but they are mostly saying that because you havent drawn them into the sales process far enough yet. Ask questions, get them into the conversation, get them anticipating. Then you will get a chance to have a real meeting and pitch them. When they really want to do it they will...they wont put it off.

Dont worry you CAN sell them... you just have to take it easy, and draw them in, and dont give away your pitch before you have done that. "I may be interested" is tentative....you dont close on that right away, you rather take it as a chance to draw them in further.

Although, in some cases, larger companies do tend to have certain times of the year when they budget for certain things. If you sense that is really the case, then schedule another call back for a later time and get them to let you send some materials in the meanwhile, which you will issue a no pressure follow up call on ion the interim just to touch base and see if they got it or had any questions...which may also result in an earlier pitch.

From the initial interest it normally leads to them asking price or what they get which I explain in terms of benefits and then tell them the cost.

I would use price as an opportunity to wet their tastebuds even more.... "As far as price Bob, it really depends on what we do, however I can tell you that we usually do beat all of our competitors pretty significantly .. mostly because we are flexible and can work with just about any budget, whats more important to me is that the project itself is right, and this one sounds prime so far. Like I said, let me do some research and see what kind of possibilities we can come up with... Im pretty sure we could work something out for you that you would be happy with, fair enough?

Can you give me some example of what you'd say to get their tastebuds wet?

Just what I did above, I would ask them questions like "You sell furniture there right? COOL! ... this is sounding good already!

And I would let them see my OWN enthusiasm about their project, and THAT would get them excited. Instead of telling them how great I am, I would tell them what a great project this would be...that gets them anticipating ...they think that if Im so excited, then they must really have something on their hands to be excited about.

I'm all open to learning and getting this to work - I have to!

I suppose because this is all still new to me and I have to take it a step at a time.

It wont be hard if you learn to easily do what I showed you above...dont push on them- DRAW THEM IN... pay attention to the energy, waiting for your chance to close the appointment. It shouldnt take much to learn. Honestly the law of numbers itself should be doing alot of work for you...if not, then you arent delivering something properly, but if you follow the general example Im giving here and draw them into it a bit before closing, it should smooth out for you. Its not really a timeline, learning this; its more a curriculum.

Making calls was the first big step and then getting someone interested, I presumed with lack of experience that it would be enough, so I suppose wasn't as tactful as I should be, thinking they would sell themselves and my work is now done lol.

Yes! Now you just have to learn to draw them in and pay attention for the moment when the energy is right to go ahead and casually close. Just dont try to close until you sense they are engaged a little more. Take the slight interest, and dont try to jump it, but rather try to use it to increase energy to a level where it feels even more "jumpable".

After doing it for over a month with no sales it would be easy to say it doesn't work, but my mindset is "why isn't it working" lets try and fix that and then go full steam ahead.

Here's a biggie Matt, if you have only made 500 calls in a month, then you arent giving yourself much momentum. That should be about two half days worth of calling. If you spread it out over weeks, then you arent having intense enough sessions to really feel that groove... You gotta give yourself a chance to warm up in your sessions and go for 2-300 numbers at a time and concentrate the sessions more.

500 numbers spread out over a month means you really havent had much quality time in a booth. If it were spread over just a day or two then you should have closed an appointment. There is something to be said for momentum in a session.

However, I love your attitude about it!

If you need any more info please let me know.

Look forward to yours and others thoughts...

Matt

Hope this helped.

JD

Late to the party...migraine is not helping anything today. I believe JD has this one covered completely!

If you need any help feel free to PM some questions over and I'll get to them, I promise, just might not be today!

@ Mwind,

Cool. Mine come from a dentist poking a hole in my sinuses. I should sue him but I havent. Never had them before that.

True dat.

It's not dehydration (thanks though!)...I've had these since I was 8...normally it's Imitrex, phenerghan and bed for a day, but this one is just weather related so I can actually sit up and somewhat function. I fell on my head out of a chair backwards when I was 8, they did all kinds of scans and stuff and it was just a side effect. No bueno.

I've got to say thank you to all of you because this discussion is awesome!

If it were me or a client, there are a few things I would do. Mind you there IS a time to give up...but I don't think you are there yet.

If you got an email address and sent an email (if you didn't send an email DO IT NOW) - CALL THEM BACK. If you don't get them LVM and say "Bob, this is Jim, we spoke the other day and I sent over an email, give me a call at ______" and hang up. Don't worry about him calling you back...he most likely won't. Call him again in 2 days and if you catch the receptionist say "I left Bob a VM the other day, wanted to catch him in the office since he didn't reply yet." She'll say that he's not in and offer to send you to VM or she'll say hang on and put you to him. IF she offers VM, say "that's ok, I don't want to leave another one, when do you expect him in?" IF you get him on the phone "Bob, this is Jim, we spoke on the phone and I sent you an email the other day, did you get a chance to review it?" If he says No you say "that's fine, I'll give you a rundown" and go into your pitch. If he says yes, "I figured you did and were just busy, I'd like to set up a time to talk more in depth about it, how does tomorrow afternoon look for you?"

If you didn't get an email - call back, and get one...then do ^^^^that. You can ask the reception "I spoke with Bob the other day about _____ he was in a bit of a rush and I didn't get his email to send over the information we discussed, can you help me out?" If you get him you can ask for his email, or re-pitch him with your new advice "Bob, we spoke your furniture the other day, I didn't recall discussing what brands you sell - could you fill me in?" Just bring the conversation back to where it needs to be (per JD's reply to you up there).

Bottom line is that you just need to work a little to get them back on the phone, or get contact again. I'd treat it like a warm lead that's just hard to reach. They talked to you once, and THIS time when you track them down, you'll know a little more about them and be able to work the conversation to your benefit.

I would NOT discuss price, just go with building interest again. If they ask pricing tell them you will work up a deal and call them back Tuesday at 3 (or whenever). Then ask them MORE questions to get them invested.

When calling, we sometimes have to do 1 call to get the DM or 8 calls. It all depends on how busy they are and what type of business it is. If you've never talked to them and ALWAYS get VM, then I go with 3 calls and we're done. If they are in and out, or you get them but they are busy or something else like that, I will keep trying, but it's more of a secondary lead.


Hope that helps

Or you could pay attention to the people you researched and asked originally since you know that they ARE successful and have worked for years (and currently) in your niche.

Hopefully cold calling is not your main method?

One of the obvious reasons you're not getting the results you want is because cold-calling s not easy and isn't the most effective way to get noticed and get hired. Your results speak for themselves.

If you're not already doing so I would recommend investigating other methods such as going where your ideal potential / future customers are for starters. It could be online or offline.

There you get to understand from them (not based on what you might have read somewhere) what their frustrations are, what they might have tried unsuccessfully and what they're looking for n regards to growing their business.

Does it take a bit more effort than sitting safely behind a computer screen and not directly interacting with real people? Yes it does, but other approaches such as the simple one stated above work far better for the 'average' person than cold-calling.

BAYO

YES The easiest way to get rid of a cold call is to ask them to call you later, another time etc. Then you just ignore them, that is why the best approach is actually to have people calling you then in the 1st call you will attempt to close over the phone with them at least two times, get their details and then chase them down.. Better if you can process their CC's over the phone since that is far more common with most Co's selling over the phone.

Not easy but it is always more profitable this way than the other way around, when you just call out of the black.
In order to get calls you can hire agencies to redirect lead calls your way

Mauri

Why do this yourself when you can hire someone to cold call and close sales for you?
Check out MyPhoneRoom.com

informative thered

http://thepakistantv.blogspot.com/p/geo-tv.html

In the week or so that the thread has been up...

...there's been some excellent advice, hints and tips shared by many of your fellow warriors.

What have been the results from implementing some of these ideas, what's been the progress you've gained, and whats been the valuable lessons gained since posting?

would be good to find out, as i think its been quite an active thread and some of the advice is excellent.

regards


Fraser

Ok, I'll let you guys have your circle jerk here. I'm sure he's as good as he says he is. Difference is, I know I am and don't need to prove it to him.

I'm not "selling" anything, and you cannot make a DM show up when they are not in. This is completely a matter of who wants to bill people for calls that aren't going anywhere. We don't do that. We make calls when people are going to be in the office. He apparently calls come hell or high water...which is great for him.

Corporate America was off last week too, so my clients were just fine and back again week after week, month after month.

We also work for ourselves, I'm not working in a room of robots, nor do I care to work 365 days a year. I work for myself so I CAN take a week off when I want to...seems that you can't.

Do what works for you.