Despite December being good for sales for many offliners and onliners, January has not been a continuation of that experience for most. I've seen a lot of posts asking, “Are your sales down, like mine are?”

The only people whose sales are not down are those with a consistent prospecting plan in place.

That plan does not have to include calling...but it sure helps.

Now when somebody calls you, it's pretty straightforward: they usually know what you do and they are asking around for help with that. We understand. But when you call them, the situation is different, isn't it? They don't know you, haven't identified you. What do you say?

The chief problem people have when making prospecting calls is they are trying to sell before they qualify. Can you sell immediately? Sure. Does it produce a lot of wear-and-tear on you? Yes. Let's find out one thing first: Do they NEED or want what you have to offer?

There's a painless way to do this. I know it looks lengthy, but it's actually straightforward and with only a few simple steps.

First, create something that tells your prospects what you do...and how you stand out. Could be an infographic. Could be a 15-page report. Could be a list of seven things they need to watch for when picking someone to help them that does what you do. Key point: this doesn't have to be fancy or long. Keeping it brief could be for the best anyway, since people don't have much time.

Now make a list of 50 suspects. These are businesses who fit a profile of those who you want to serve: size, revenue, industry, location. You do not need a contact name. We'll deal with that in a minute. All you need is a spreadsheet or even a handwritten list of the company name and their phone number. This is easy.

Call the number. When they answer, say:

“Hi, I'm not sure who I should speak with...maybe you can help me.”

Pause for a moment here. Give them a chance to say, “Sure!” or “Okay.” Whether they respond or not, continue with:

“I usually talk with the person who takes care of {whatever it is you do—eg. marketing, getting new customers, writing projects}...but I don't know who that would be there.” And trail off.

Wait for the person to reply. It may take a few seconds.

They may transfer you so quickly they don't even tell you who you're being sent to.

They may tell you, “That's {name}.” Ask to be transferred if they don't do this now.

They may ask you, “What's this about?” No problem. Expect this question, but don't give much weight to it. Don't get defensive. Do not get into long descriptions of what you do. Say, “Well, I help businesses {repeat what you said above—with their marketing, get more customers, complete writing projects, etc.}. But again, I'm not sure who takes care of that there.” And stop. The simple repeating of what you just said is almost always enough for them to send you along. They're looking for a reason to help you, to make the connection; give them this easy-to-understand reason (I did a radio interview in which the male host told me when asked this question he once told the gatekeeper, “It's his mother,” and was immediately sent through. I'm not saying to lie—I'm pointing out how little attention the gatekeeper is probably giving to their question and your answer. Give them an easy reason to send you along. Don't put so much pressure on yourself.)

Now you either have voicemail or a live suspect on the line.

If you get voicemail, you can leave a brief message:

“Hi {name, if you got it—don't worry if you didn't; sometimes you get transferred so fast and the voicemail greeting is so bad you can't hear it}, I'm not sure we should be speaking.” This makes them lean into the call. Whatdya mean, we shouldn't be speaking?! “Reception transferred me to you...I'm looking for the person who takes care of {whatever it is you do}. But I'm not sure if that's you. Could you give me a call back, and let me know whether that is you, or if there's someone else I should be talking to? It's {your local time} here in {your town}; I'll be in my office until {x-o'clock}. My number is ###-###-####.”

And that's it. Do not leave details. At least 1/3 will call back from simple curiosity.

If you get a live suspect, say:

“Hi {name, if you got it; see above}, I'm not sure we should be speaking. I'm looking for the person who takes care of {whatever it is you do}. But I'm not sure if that's you, or someone else?” And stop. Wait for them to answer. They'll confirm or direct you to someone else.

If it's someone else, ask, “Oh OK. But they aren't in, are they?” Get transferred. You can use a slight modification of the above voicemail, cutting out the “I'm not sure we should be speaking” part since you know it is the correct person now. Instead of “Could you give me a call back, and let me know,” say, “I've got a quick question for you about {whatever it is that you do}.” Then leave your local time, location and number. If they answer live, you can say the last person said to speak with them—now you have an internal referral, and that little fact gives your call more power.

If you find you're talking to the correct person, continue with:

“Great, glad to hear it. ...Is this a bad time to talk for a minute?”

You want to find out. There's no sense at all in fighting with someone who's having a bad day, and that's what you'll end up doing if it is a bad time for them. This simple act of getting permission to speak is very much appreciated by prospects, and I have had many, many business owners go out of their way to specifically tell me so.

If it is a bad time, say you'll call them back and hang up. Call them back in a day or two. Now you know their name, so you can ask for them directly.

If it's not a bad time--or the prospect has called you back from your voicemail--you can continue with:

“I appreciate that. Well, the reason I called is that I do help businesses with {whatever it is that you do}. Now I don't expect you to just drop everything and sign up with me, since we just met. What I have found, though, is that a lot of people don't really know what to look for other than price when they're picking out someone to work with like me.” Pause briefly here. They may give an “mmhmm” or something similar. “I've put together a {your giveaway document—writeup of the top seven things to make sure you cover/most important pitfalls to avoid when choosing/etc.}. I don't know if this would be helpful for you, though...” and trail off.

Wait for their answer. We used an advanced technique called a Negative Reversal here. If we asked right away, “Could I send it to you?” or tried to push them on taking it, they would likely resist.

If they answer “No,” you can say, “Didn't think so. Well, I guess there's no point in us continuing talking, is there?” Going extremely negative like this can cause prospects to respond by moving in the opposite direction—and it's a surprise even to them. (“Wait, I didn't say that!...what do you do?” and now you're starting a conversation.) And if they say “You're right,” you can hang up and it's only taken you a minute or two to get to this point. No frustration, no upset feelings. It's not rejection. They simply have no NEED for what you offer at this time. You can call them back in 3-6 months to find out if anything has changed.

Many prospects, however, will answer, “Sure!” And you can respond with, “All right. How can I send it to you?” Now you're getting their email address and permission to market to them.

At this point, they're letting you into their world (a little). This is the biggest hurdle to get over: the initial trust hurdle prospects have.You can ask if you can follow up in a few days to find out what they thought about it. Book the callback in your calenders. At that time you can discover what stood out for them, what it made them realize, and whether anything in that list made them think of something you could help out with—that's a potential sale, by the way. Now they're seeing you as an individual and are open to talking with you.

Again, this method is all about minimizing the wear-and-tear on you while getting you taking action on prospecting for new business. Could you go more directly and aggressively at getting conversions? Sure. And you could beat yourself up a lot faster and quit, too.

We want quality conversations with business owners and other decision makers. The more of these conversations we get, the more likely we are to achieving a sale. This is the most painless and quickest way I am aware of to start getting quality conversations with decision makers. Watch what happens to your calendar as you move through your dials. When you have worked through the first 50, make another list of 50 and continue. Feed the pipeline so that you always have new leads, new projects. Now when one drops out, it's no big deal—you have seven or eight more on the go.