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
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.
What is consultative selling? Basically, it's the sales approach you're introduced to in this website/blog, and our books.
Consultative selling, is marked by three factors:
Basically, it's the sales approach you're introduced to in this website.
Consultative selling, is marked by three factors: