Responding to an "easy" sales objection or question? Then handle it directly, get it out of the way quickly, and move on. See the section on handling easy questions and objections.
When you encounter more difficult objections and questions, it's best to work systematically through this Four-Step Process:
Continue reading Responding to more difficult objections and questions
First, what is cold-call selling?
Cold calling can be by phone, as you telephone prospects for appointments, or maybe to do some early research. (Telephone cold calling is a topic we'll be dealing with another time.)
What we'll be speaking of here are cold-calls made in person.
Suppose you're a consultant looking to sell your expertise as a trainer in a certain field— perhaps how to comply with new federal regulations, or how to improve the effectiveness of customer care departments. Since it's about training, you might think that the training department is the place to make your first contact.
Well, maybe. But, then again, maybe not.
You’ll find here free sales training articles and tutorials, checklists and sales tips, as well as links to our sales training books — all focused on Selling Face to Face.
The free sales training articles and tutorials here are adapted from the courses and workshops I developed on contract for the “sales universities” of world-class marketing companies such as Xerox in the United States and abroad, Kodak, Motorola, Sylvania, Bank of America, and others . . . as filtered through my own experience in marketing consulting services.
The aim is to provide practical sales training across the spectrum from beginners (starting up new businesses, or making career changes) to experienced sales people looking for fresh approaches, or hoping to gain the kind of professional selling skills they would have developed as attendees in big company sales training programs.
In the free sales training articles here, and in the related books, we cover topics including,
Considerations before you make that call:
1. If you encounter voice mail, will you leave a message, or keep trying to reach the prospect directly? If you leave your name, then you leave it in the prospect's hands to respond, and you lose control.
Continue reading Telephone sales training: if you encounter voice mail
Phantom objections: Sometimes an objection seems to relate to one issue, but in fact that issue is cover for a deeper, "phantom" objection.
Continue reading Phantom objections: how to recognize and respond to them
Check out your non-verbal selling skills by doing a videotaped run-through before important demos and presentations.
Here are some key elements to attune to as you check the quality of the non-verbal selling skills you project on your taped run-through:
Continue reading Non-verbal selling skills: “screen test” checklist
In case you missed it, here's the link to that article in Business Week Determine what to charge as a consultant
As you make cold calls (whether by phone or in person), on these initial prospecting sweeps for leads and information, your tone should be that of a conversation, not an interrogation. Be friendly. Don't put them on the spot with a barrage of questions.
If someone you meet during these calls is reluctant to talk, it could be that they are only a temporary employee and doesn't want to admit it. Or it may be that they don't want to give away too much information without knowing why you're there, and what you're going to do with this information
To overcome this,
Cold calling is usually much more productive as a way of prospecting for leads than it is in making the actual sales. In sales skills terminology, "prospecting" often means looking for industrial parks and the like, then doing a quick sweep in order to rapidly scan and flush out potential prospects. 71811
In those sweeps, you speak briefly with the receptionist or secretary to make a quick determination of whether it is worth calling back to see the Decision Maker.
Just what information you are looking for at this early stage of your search for viable leads will vary with your product and the market.
While these sweeps are, technically-speaking, cold-calls, the purpose is more to gather useful information: information you will draw from later in determining whether to come back here, with an appointment, as well as what kinds of questions to ask and information to present.
The checklist below is a starting point; adapt it to your own uses.