I lied a little to my LinkedIn Network and told them that I hate cold calling when I really don’t. But I know a lot of people who do – so I wondered what my LinkedIn Social Network would tell people.
So I asked them – “What are the THREE key things I should do to ensure I get called every day by customers demanding that I help them?
If you need to do some outbound calls - read here my Outbound calling Tips To LinkedIn Contacts.
Click here to find the original question and answer on LinkedIn Answers
The Success Stories series provides case studies from people about what it takes to become successful. Each of us is unique in our goals and aspirations, but we have things in common with others. Through the 10,000,000 people in my LinkedIn network we can share ideas and solutions that will help you achieve your goals. While I don’t always agree with all the comments I receive, I include all that are presented coherently and could help at least one of my readers.
The questions have been slightly edited for grammar and presentation. Comments and Kudos, while always appreciated, have been edited out.
1. HELP OTHERS
2. CONNECT OTHERS
3. NETWORK OTHERS
Instead of cold-calling, try networking in key venues, with your friends and associates in mind.
When I network for business, it’s for business I can share – instead of only just for my own needs.
Sending your client, supplier or networking peer a solid lead for their own business will leave them surprised, happy and ready to reciprocate.
Not only will you then be on the top of their mind, but you will have also proven that you are a serious and valued business partner – which all helps to break down the barriers to sharing business…
Unfortunately in this business I have learned that there is no other way. Although I wish my perfect candidate would just call or email me his resume, most of the time, I am the one with the bigger interest in mind. I think it helps if you keep a smile on your face when you call people, this completely changes the way you sound to the potential client and may help with your own attitude towards the call. It works for me.
I’m currently reading Jeffrey Gitomer’s “Little Black Book of Connections”. I also hate cold calling, but learned years ago how to use some of the ideas that Jeffrey describes in this book and have learned even more since I started reading this.
Key aspects that I agree with and have used in the past from Gitomer’s book are:
- Add value PRO-ACTIVELY to your network. Do stuff for those in your network before you need something from them. Target those that can do the most for you from a sales lead perspective. (Sounds easy, hard in practice…but worth the time and effort)
- Leverage the web to advertise your expertise…Blogging and sharing high level aspects and success stories becomes extremely valuable. Share your blog via email and on your business card.
- Leverage your network of successful clients to help you gain new clients (see numbers 1 and 2). Most people forget their customers as soon as they “close a deal”. Those that don’t, though, build a network of referrers who work for them.
I suggest you approach the cold calling strategically and then they will call you.
- Target a small segment of the market first.
- Obtain correct contact names at key accounts.
- Either mail that contact literature, or drop-off information for them.
- Call them and follow-up on the literature.
- Leave a second follow-up voicemail or call and tell them when you will be in the area next, and say you would like to stop by and introduce yourself.
By this time, if they feel you have any opportunity they will probably meet you, or refer you to the correct person, or tell you why they won’t meet you.
If they refuse to meet and tell why, it gives you a chance to brush up your brochures, or style in order to change erroneous perceptions, etc.
Someone in your business should think one word – “referrals”. If you are increasing your client’s revenues by 25%, they must have lots of people in their network that could sure use your help. Make sure you are preparing your successful clients to tap their network for you.
If cold calling is definitely part of your marketing plan – identify the real reasons you hate it – if one of the reasons is that you are getting very limited results – invest in yourself and get some training.
Cold calling is only very uncomfortable when you are venturing into the unknown. This happens when you are ill informed and unprepared. You end up getting out of your & your prospects “CZ” (comfort zone).
To get back into the CZ and make good cold calls you do two things:
- Clearly understand what it is you are selling, the profile of your typical customer and knowing how to serve up your value proposition. (I will leave tactics for others who have written good books on this aspect).
- Research prospects that fit your profile by doing intensive (but do not over analysis) research for the right customer. By knowing which people within the target company fit your profile, then you start developing a script for direct cold calls. Also utilize your network to make you smarter about the prospective customer.
When you have sales process rolling off the end of your tongue in a natural way, understand your customer – you create a repetitive process that will make both you and your prospect feel more comfortable.
There are two words that I teach many business owners, executives and sales people that are the most important:
1. QUALIFY – always being doing this in dynamic environment
2. CONFIDENCE – you need to gain the confidence of your prospect to move them into a being good customer.
Luck is when preparation meets opportunity – that is cold calling defined.
Cold calling is a waste of time. I’ve worked with thousands of top sales pros, been a top sales pro myself, and I can tell you that only amateurs cold call. Here are the major problems with cold calling:
- It fails to find very well-qualified leads. An appointment you set through cold calling will never be as good as with someone who calls YOU.
- There aren’t enough hours in the day to really make a high income if you’re cold calling. If you are honest with yourself about how many calls it takes to get a qualified appointment, then add up how much time it takes to do all of your other work, you’ll see that you’ll never make a lot of money cold calling.
- Prospects want to buy from successful salespeople, which requires you to have an image of success. Cold calling destroys any successful aura you might have otherwise had and creates the impression that you’re desperate.
Of course you need to generate leads and prospect, but the most highly paid salespeople do it through intelligent, efficient self-marketing, not cold calling, which is a shotgun approach. Calling strangers at random and hoping that one of them will want to buy is a one-way ticket to failure. Use your head instead. Like others here, I recommend Tony Parinello and Jeffrey Gitomer’s books – they are both opposed to cold calling.
I just did a new 5-minute video podcast last week that explains, in greater detail, why cold calling doesn’t work on my blog at nevercoldcall.typepad.com
[ZT - I disagree and so do some of the experts. Click here to understand how to use Cold Call 2.0]
The three key things that I recommend you do to ensure you get called every day by customers demanding that you help them are:
1. Evangelise
2. Edify
3. Encore
Evangelise
You already know what you do. You know you do it better than your competitors – so tell the world! You say you help companies increase revenue by 25%. Everyone wants that. So what do you do? Increase you own revenue by 25% or more for your own company using Evangelism. Set yourself (and/or your company) up as experts in your field, promote your expertise, and use testimonials and case studies where appropriate.
Edify
This is the best form of word of mouth. Edification is effective because it is communicating your positive experience with someone else’s product. This shows you are connected to your clients’ needs, and not pushing or selling your own service. That being said, how does promoting someone else’s products benefit you? Set up two-way edification with a partner. You promote them. They promote you. Get referrals. Profit share. Mutual edification is best done with your own customers, because it gives your customers more business, so they make more money, which they can use to employ your services again; and, your customers already have a positive testimony to tell about your business when they recommend you to others.
Encore
Come back for a second piece of pie. Offer complimentary services to your existing customers. You can generate more sales from selling a new product to an existing customer than marketing to a non-customer. The Encore step can also be used to re-establish connections with past clients that have not bought from you recently. And third, Encore can be not just meeting your clients needs, but exceeding them. This third part of Encore alone, can be the best investment in your own business development.
Find out more about Escape The Rat Race and expanding your income streams at www.RatRaceBook.com
1) Exposure
2) Exposure
3) Exposure
I’ve been in the same situation. Sure you can get someone else to sell for you but sometimes… it’s not the best solution.
I got calls left and right once I started to expose my company to the markets. Well-placed ads are good. Internet jokes that people pass around worked wonders for me. And now I’ve got some work I’m going to put on Youtube.
When people are attracted to it… they will come
I love cold calling! I would rather target and contact the appropriate person than market to thousands and obtain a small percentage of inquiries.
1. Get over it. Make the calls. Buy a tally counter and commit to 10 calls the first day, 15 the next. Use cognitive therapy and the relaxation response to make it easier.
2. Read and apply ‘Question Based Selling’ by Thomas Freese
1- Ask your friends and entourage to introduce you to potential customers (decision makers) in their own companies.
2- Be sure to work on your relationship with your existing customers. (Surveys show that existing customers are the biggest source of income)
3- Organize a (free) seminar, evening, information event and invite (potential) customers to attend. Drinks on the house!
If you want to stay in sales as a career, learn to do what is hard. Make the calls. Nothing often comes for free in sales. You could hire a low cost cold caller and pay them 10 bucks an hour or 50 bucks a lead, or whatever… Otherwise DIY!!
You’ve got to be kidding me. How would anyone in sales or in their personal life ever expect to meet new people if they didn’t “cold call”?
Cold calling is not a bad word – most people are scared to death – but people fear rejection because they take it personally. During the dot com we lost our way, forgot how to do business and give good customer service. So, have a good product, know your product, give great service and your customers will refer – it will take a little longer than most expect, but it will and you should make at least 5 new calls a day, send 10 articles out to customers with their interest and you will have 70% of what you want. Never give up cold calling – you will lose your edge, and become “cold” yourself.
Use the secret that will increase your revenue by 25%?
If you offer a niche service, perhaps you could partner with another service provider whose services could be complemented by your expertise (e.g. partner with auditors or accountants). They could then drive customers to you.
Watch the “Pursuit of Happyness” and learn from it. It has some great lessons.
- Sell something that is clearly better than what is currently being offered.
- Network your way into meeting people that are your potential clients (Hmmm… sounds like LinkedIn).
- Study everything you can get your hands on about your product and sales (Customer Centric Selling is a GREAT book).
- Get the appropriate licenses and certifications to let your potential clients know that you have been through some sort of peer review process.
- At least act like you are having fun. Eventually you will.
- No matter what, don’t sell yourself short. Don’t “settle” for small potatoes. Go for it!
[ZT - I agree totally - see my article about why I believe the pursuit of Happyness is the Napoleon Hill story.
You may be in the wrong role. There will always be a component of cold calling in Business Development (BD). Like some of our colleagues, I love cold calling.
But that is irrelevant in a way. Just because I don't mind cold calling and can open doors, does not mean that it is the best and most economic way to generate new leads and business. There are simple ways to get people to knock on your door by raising awareness through marketing activity. Only coldcalling is ok for door to door sales - but will not work for solution sales and BD. Business Development in solution sales environment needs to be supported by marketing activity like interviews in industry publications your prospects read, small group seminars where you can share knowledge and establish credibility(make sure to have the right ratio sales-prospects), a touch point program (rss or email newsletter) and if there is budget, get a tech service telemarketer to make calls for you. BD Executives and their associated wages make for unaffordable telemarketers. BD Execs will return most value in prospect facing activity - not over the phone or behind a desktop.
How you get potential customers to call you depends in a large way on what kind of business you are in. For example, if you are in a network marketing business that offers Internet Security to home and small business users (like I do), and you want potential business partners to contact you, then there are many ways begin. I recommend Veretekk as the best online marketing system I have found online.
However, if you sell chrome piston return springs for nuclear submarines, then your marketing strategy needs to be a tad bit different.
For online marketing, I recommend a serious look at Veretekk. You can also start a Blog, begin email marketing, AdSense, and more. Veretekk offers free training and a free Silver-level account so you can see how the system works and get some excellent free training. I do training classes on SEO Marketing for Veretekk users. You are welcome to attend my classes to learn more about Search Engine Marketing.
I am having a difficult time understanding how active users of this site are suggesting that there is no alternative to cold calling. Isn't that the point of networking in the first place? It isn't going to change the dynamics of new business efforts right away, but networking is the only way to garner introductions and referrals - the most effective way to find new business. If Gitomer's book is useful, fine, but use it to augment Keith Ferrazzi's ‘Never Eat Alone.’ Either way, both networking and cold calling involves projecting yourself and stepping up, something introverts cannot do - but networking comes with the added benefit that it is both more rewarding and far more effective. Six months of hard work to jump-start your network is likely required, and it gets progressively easier.
Learn to love Cold-calling. It really is the most effective way to establish relationships and win business.
I know how it feels but as you get into it, you begin to like it - if you believe in your product or your service, then you will overcome it sooner than later. Cold calling is essential to increase your sales - you target your customer as oppose to wasting time and energy (not to forget money) generically targeting 1000s and hoping one or two may drop in your lap.
Its not to say that you shouldn't forget other avenues suggested in previous answers - cold call but complement this with other sales and marketing activities.
Remember, "fortune favours the brave!”
As others have already mentioned, if you in fact are able to increase revenues by 25%, you should be doing very little "cold calling", but rather many "warm calls". But you do have to make the calls. Also worth mentioning is most people to not like to be sold but do like to buy. Make it easy to buy by visualizing in concrete terms your 25% revenue increases.
Share insights with your contacts instead of cold calling. Insights such as for whom and where you increased revenues. Get a testimonial from a client and share that information with your network or your clients. Ask for referrals! Communicate what you do in terms of outcomes which are relevant to your prospect. A good primer, if a bit outdated, is "Selling to VITO" by Anthony Perinello. It describes the art of the communicating value rather than selling.
1. Send a similar question to this one to your customers telling them that you have the answers.
2. You mention they "are demanding you help them". I presume, therefore, that they are posing a problem. Solve it for them.
3. Employ telephone sales people - commission-only, profit share, performance based pay etc.
- Stay in touch with your network. Send them a newsletter, call, meet, keep people updated on all of the great success you are having for your clients. Update your linkedin profile so that it works for you. See Guy Kawasaki's blog on how he has redone his profile. It works. I get leads/contacts from people that find me on linkedin regularly.
- Go to industry events where you will find prospects/people that are interested in increasing sales. Talk to the speakers, talk to the people next to you. Make sure that you ask for what you want -- "if you know of anyone that would like to increase their sales, here is what I can do for them."
- Get over the cold calling thing! Read the industry pubs/newsletters etc where you will find companies whose sales are not what they could be, or where you know that you can help. Do research on them, find them on web etc. Then write a much tailored email to that person that speaks to them, their company and entices them to call you. People have real problems they are trying to solve everyday and looking for people who can solve them.
Read "Selling to VITO". Random calling/emaling without insight is a waste. We all hit the "delete" button. But if someone actually understands what it is that I need, then the chances of getting a response are pretty high.
Get an outbound calling service to do it for you.
Work out your success rate (say to win a sale you have to make 10 sales calls.)
Every time you get a rejection tell yourself that that rejection is taking you to that tenth successful call.
This will maintain your momentum and self esteem. It works - believe me - I have used it for years.
Staffing Consultant at < ?xml:namespace prefix = st1 />
go to www.nevercoldcall.com
Entrepreneur and Culture Creation Consultant
I think you need to stop thinking of it as "cold calling". The term "cold calling" has such negative connotations.
If you truly have something valuable to provide potential customers, you should be excited about getting on the phone and telling people what you provide.
Unless you provide a commodity product that all of your potential customers already know about, there is no better way to reach those people than via the phone. It is efficient, inexpensive, and it works.
Don't worry too much about the exact things you say. I have had many people ask me over the years about my "call script". Effectiveness in prospecting on the phone has everything to do with confidence (not false confidence) rather than the exact words that you use.
President, Opportunity Management Inc.
Create a cold calling script and process that works then delegate it to an employee or an outside service.
"Successful Salespeople do what unsuccessful sales people do not like to do".
To be successful, you gotta cold call !! Don't let others talk you out of it, if your competitors are cold calling, they will eat your lunch, they will get the marketshare.
MBA / CISSP / IT Pro / Link2Don: hdmc101@gmail.com
I hate cold calling, too. That is why I am not in sales.
No pun intended, but isn't Sales a key aspect of Business Growth and cold calling if I am not mistaken is a key aspect of Sales.
So in my opinion, no way around it. Either you do it yourself or hire someone who will do it for you.
Senior Advisor at CresaPartners and Corporate Real Estate Consultant
First, you need to position yourself as an expert in your field. Join trade groups or your local chamber of commerce and offer to hold seminars. Don't sell your product or service at these seminars, but provide valuable information. Set up a panel with customers and allies and be the moderator. People will find you if you come across as knowledgeable in your field.
The second thing to do it to make sure you are asking your clients for referrals. If you truly add value, your clients will be happy to introduce you to their clients to help build their client relationships.
Third, join a networking group of business peers selling complimentary services to the same type of decision makers ie CFO's There is also a book that I got some helpful pointers from called "Never Cold Call again" check Amazon
VP Associate Director, Strategy and Analysis
Cross sell services at the call center. Why should anybody listen to hold music, when they could be pitched something? (Let them have a choice of course.)
Channel Manager and Sr. Sales Representative at Broadlook Technologies
Find your next customers by asking your current and past ones!!!
In the spirit of my homey, Gitomer...here's 2.5 ideas.
1) Do some breakfast, baby! Invite your previous customers out for coffee, bagels, whatever (ask them what they like, and splurge a little.) Bring a brand new notepad, and ask them who might also benefit from your services. If you did a great job...they'll each come up with a few names. If not...well use the pad to write them a 'I'm sorry." letter, because you screwed up.
2) Get invited to THEIR networking events. Ask your clients if they are part of an association, a local Rotary Club, whatever. Chances are, they can bring a friend (sometimes for a fee - BE SURE TO PICK UP THE TAB, FOR BOTH OF YOU IF NECESSARY!).
2.5) Give leads - freely! Call every prospect with something to give them today - a lead! Do it over and over again...then call and ask for the person who receives your leads...they'll take your call!
[Graeme Nichol] Closing the strategy – gap, thru management systems (Netsuite) implementation (gdnichol$gmail.com)
I hate it too but since using Tony Parinello’s Getting to VITO approach it’s been a whole lot easier. It’s targeted and your call is warm! VITO awaits
Sales Trainer and Consultant
My company deals with this kind of thing all the time – if you are interested to learn more, please visit www.directcontact.ca. I provide training onsite or online for effective telephone sales skills and focus on cold calling.
Entrepreneur | Performance Marketing Consultant
Easy. You can do ONE thing.
That one thing is:
Setup a pay-per-click advertising program on a major search engine that connects you with people searching for what you sell.
Transaction pricing and billing solutions for Banking and financial services vertical
On the opposite side, I love cold calling. Cold calling no matter how much looked down or up upon, is the best way to learn and earn in sales.
The first thing cold calling instantly does to you is make you a better human being, you always tend to return calls when you have a request in your voicemail.
I do not know any other career in which you can have such an instant improvement in your personality once you embrace the job as it is and that is sales.
Sales guys are the most vital part of any company. Love your sales job and have fun with whatever comes with it!
Software Systems Engineer
I hate it too. Perry Marshall has an alternative. Basically, prepare and market yourself as an information source and expert in your field, including providing free periodic wisdom to others. This will get them talking to you.
Entrepreneur and Software Engineer
1. So don’t cold call. That’s sales. Don’t do sales.
Instead, warm call. Choose a few prime candidate companies, and research them. Identify problems that you know you can solve. Approach them as a consultant, rather than a salesman, with solutions to their problems.
2. Your question is overly quantitative. Why do you say you help companies increase revenue by 25%? Surely there are some that you can increase by 100% and others who are already doing what you would recommend whom you can’t help at all. Why do you ask for three things? Some of us may have only one answer. Some may have five. Why limit yourself by quantifying the unquantifiable? I have a feeling this may be a habit that you have; you might want to reconsider it.
3. As a consultant, if you’re good at what you do, then you’re already on the way. Just do a great job and exceed your clients’ expectations, and soon your biggest problem will be how to choose strategically which potential clients to turn down.
4. Be visible. Be an active member of professional community and offer free advice without hawking your services. At the most, include a soft-sell blurb in your signature stating that you consult on business growth. If you are seen as an expert, people will ask you for help.
Don’t sell.
Customer Training Manager at Rhiag spa [cperfetto (at) alice.it]
· Let customers try your services (put a simulator on your website)
· Let customers talk about your services (forums…)
· Promote your services with google
Business Development Director at RR Donnelley; Owner at Interim BizNet :: TopLinked.com :: LION 3100+
Repeat this for 3 or four times and see the difference:
1. E-Mail marketing to some 50-60 selected companies
2. Follow-up by calling each one that did not respond after 5 working days
3. Make the appointment/Close the deal
Delivery Head at Techprocess Solutions ltd.
I can think of following three things to be done for making your customers to call you:
- Customer should be tempted by your value proposition to call you: Hence create your service / product offerings which do that
- Use Network like LinkedIn to create awareness and references
- Serve your present customers well and promote sales thru them by providing them various forms of incentives.
Anonymous
I hate cold-calling too – and I’ve really never made a cold call. The answers to your questions are quite varied and I might add, helpful to me. I already do the bit where I have a website and I network [albeit passively] on LinkedIn. I am also starting an e-newsletter – am more comfortable with the interactions on the web or even meeting face-to-face but never could get around to using the phone with the same effectiveness.
I think an interesting point that is demonstrated by all the all the answers you received on this question is that you don’t have to make cold calls by asking the right question of your network.
There is a great book called “The Referral of a Lifetime” by Tim Templeton that is subtitled “Never Make a Cold Call Again”. It’s really all about building and managing a network so the referrals just come without having to make cold calls. It’s part of the Ken Blanchard Series and definitely worth a read! I’ve found it surprisingly easy to implement and quite effective in delivering results.
Online Networking Strategist, CEO OpenNetworkers.info < feel free to invite me to connect >>> openstrategy@gmail.com
Show yourself and what you are capable off, starting with answering some questions in your network.
CEO, Web Promotion and Search Marketing Company
Absolutely quitting cold calling, and wanting to receive prospects call you requires time and work and is not instantaneous as cold calling is.
You may want to network with people in your industry, offer free help and tips and build a rapport. Same can be done online using forums, blogs, as well as with “Search Marketing” strategies.
So basically what you are looking for pays in the long run, but is a lot of hard work initially.
Erno Hannink; ik help MKB bedrijven om internet toe te passen zodat ze meer klanten kunnen krijgen
Don’t let the answers fool you. You can live without. I do.
Starting my business I told myself I do not want to cold call. I hate receiving cold calls from bad sales people, so why should the people that I call love it?
So now I run my business without cold calling. How I did this?
I make myself visible on the internet. Start online networking, discuss, talk online, connect online in social networks like LinkedIn and others.
Have a website were you clearly explain what you do. So when potential
customers visit your site, they can find what to expect from you.
Than blog. Start a professional blog. Write about your professional interests. Write, open and fair. Respond to questions.
And visit off-line networking events. Meet people. Do not exchange business cards. Make true contact.
In due time you will get the clients you deserve. Read some interesting blogs about this issue. Church of the customer, Duct tape marketing, Small Business Branding, creating passionate users, steve pavlina, seth godin, copy blogger, ….. (looking for more? Just send me a mail.)
My site and blog are in Dutch www.ernohannink.nl, www.enthousiasmeren.nl.
President, Green Leads
Change our understanding of what “Cold Calling” is and it will change our desire to want to do it. People inherently believe that cold calling is about dialling people we don’t have a warm introduction to. That is a misinterpretation and leads to timid-ness and a lack of desire to want to do the task. The person is not in control of the activity.
“Cold Calling” is about catching someone COLD. You are then in control of the call. Make this minor change in philosophy and dial for dollars.
Vice President, Sales at beeweeb
Seriously, have you considered a career change? Any salesperson expecting customers to call them is going to spend a long time waiting for the phone to ring. And, while you’re not making the call, your competitor is.
As much as most people dislike cold-calling, it usually comes as part of the job, and you need to get over it. Perhaps you could take a course to improve your approach to cold calling……
Territory Technology Sales
You have to start off doing a lot of cold calls but I always liked to break it up by dropping off goodies for clients sometimes. After you’ve been in a certain market for a little while, you won’t have to do as much cold calling.
Head of Business Development and Programme Delivery
Network – here for starters, speak or get in contact with at least 10 to 15 people per week, start with people you already know and then get them to give you names of people they know. If you then speak to those people with the reference from your previous contact then it’s not so much a cold call as a warm call 
Marketing Communications Problem Solver
- Position yourself as an expert. Make people want what you have.
- Get testimonies from your satisfied clients, compile them, and then make them visible in your marketing material.
- Ask for referrals.
Chief Marketing Officer and Director at Salmon; Founder and MD at Raw Stylus Ltd
· Be remarkable
· Be approachable
· Be relevant
Mktg.Dir -The Norwegian Computer Society, Sales, Marketing & Networking Professional, MyLink500.com, (1600+)
Getting customers to call you is a long way to go. Sort of the other end of the scale from cold-calling. The mid-range solution is to join a Business Network International(BNI.com)-group. I’m a member of two groups here in
I make your Internets go
Maybe you could post questions in LinkedIn that are thinly veiled advertisements for your business.
Sales Manager
Attend the newest seminar of Zale Tabakman, read his articles ; with so far 57 answers, he’s an expert on the subject !
This is what makes the new LinkedIn service quite interesting !
Training and Development Professional
As an outside salesperson or account executive, this goes with the territory.
-Confront your fears and attack them with vigour by motivating yourself to conquer your “perceived” weaknesses.
-Increase your public profile by giving speeches.
-Sign up for and sponsor chamber of commerce networking events.
-Find other events or associations that your industry is part of and get involved.
-Make the calls. Set daily goals. The laws of probability work. Don’t decrease you sample size. Remember, even successful baseball hitters succeed 3 out of 10 times.
First Vice President – Wachovia Securities
Do a Seminar with people you do business with, i.e. clients, those who support your business (like wholesalers) and a local retailer to have a large audience with multiple presentations and cross selling opportunities.
Invite clients, take an add or flyer out in a circular the week before, and have the ad posted at the retailer.
Another idea is to mail every single client, even mid and low level clients, a referral card or letter.
Take your top clients out to dinner once in a while, and ask them to bring a friend or 2.
Account Executive at USi an AT&T Company
- Craft a powerful message on the web
- Make sure that your web presence is optimized on google so that people find you first via searching
- Hire someone to cold call for you
VP Sales – Advanced Data Centers
Find a new career path. Something not in sales.
Information Technology & Business Expert [TopLinked.com; MyLink500.com; 17,700+; EMAIL TO: romualdas.maciulis@gmail.com]
Remember WHY exactly last three times YOU called a company asking for a price/service. Think: WHY? How did you know their number?
Do the same thing that company did to attract you.
Simple!
Executive coach. Behavioural change specialist.
I don’t have any answers, but I can suggest some questions you may wish to ask of yourself. Questions which may be helpful for working out what’s ‘best’ for you.
- How effective are you in your current role? (from 0 to 10 where 0 is useless and 10 is perfect)
- Whatever your answer, list all the things that you have been doing to get you to that score?
- What might happen if you were to do more of them?
- What else might you do to increase your score by 1 point?
- Is ‘cold calling’ one of these? If no – then you’ve solved your problem. If yes, then ask yourself some further questions.
- What is it about cold calling that I hate?
- What is okay?
- And what do I like?
Break the process down into its components and consider each element. You’ll likely find that its only one specific element that you ‘hate’ e.g. the first 20 seconds when you start to talk to the stranger on the other end of the line.
When you’ve found it, think about the feelings that part generates in you e.g. the feeling of rejection when someone is not interested and puts the phone down on you. And then look for ways that will enable you to ‘manage’ those feelings when you experience them again.
Consider doing this with a colleague or other trusted person if you find it challenging on your own.
Director of Sales Operations at TARGUSinfo
I believe that you have to “cold call”, but you should never make a truly cold call. Don’t expect a senior executive to spend any time on you and your solutions unless you can demonstrate out of the gate that you have put some time and thought into why there is value in your solution for THEIR company specifically. There has never been a company that is a good target (based on research-heavy approach) that I haven’t been able to initiate conversations with. That doesn’t mean they are ready to buy, but they tend to remember you (and call you) when they are.
Manager of Web Marketing
Check out the below resources for ideas. I use them when I need inspiration and ideas.
The concept of finding a ‘triggering event’ is great. I’ve gotten business that way, and its easy to make the call.
For instance, there was a major public event coming up for a company I was prospecting. I called the person that responsible for the booth and event and left him a message that went something like this:
“Hi Jim, this is Bart Molenda from …….. and I’m calling regarding the XYZ event in June. I know you’re going to be there, and I want to briefly discuss it with you. Please call me at …….”
My intent was to sell him on something he would use from my company during the event.
He called me back almost right away, and I was able to schedule a face to face with him. I proceeded with the sale from there.
Finance and Operations Professional
Sell a product that people actually want enough to pursue.
Add your insights and opinions in the comments section below!
Success Stories are part of my Success Through Balance approach to life. I believe that Success comes from living a balanced life. You can read more about being successful and the skills required here.
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