My article, "Prospecting by Telephone–Skills Self-Checklist", has been posted (with permission, of course) on SOLDLAB. I've mentioned SOLD MAGAZINE here before— in fact, they reprinted a couple of my articles. SOLD MAGAZINE and SOLDLAB are "sister publications." (Sorry, don't know of an equivalent "gender-unspecific" term!)
In any case, SOLD MAGAZINE is a free on-line monthly magazine for sales professionals around the world. It's very impressively done, with clean, attractive layout, and practical how-to info by knowledgeable experts (in a humble tone, I'm referring to their other writers, of course!)
SOLDLABis a blog, updated daily or thereabouts, as blogs are. Good stuff that's not in the main magazine.
Here's the link to my "Prospecting by Telephone–Skills Self-Checklist" When you go there, you'll find how to subscribe to both SOLD MAGAZINE and SOLDLAB: Go to article
How much more does it cost to find and develop a new customer than to keep an existing one? The numbers vary, depending on who measured it, but probably five times is a reasonable estimate.
Implication: your existing customers will, very likely, come back for more. Even better, they may make referrals of others who then become customers, and who then refer more, and so on.
But things work the other way, too: if you antagonize a customer, you not only lose their business now and in the future (and have to spend five times the effort to replace him), but you also may find that not only are there are there no referrals, but may even be a lot of negative referrals.
The existing customer you antagonize costs you a chain of prospects that you never know about. (Not to count those prospects who happen to talk to that one-satisfied customer who is satisfied no longer.)
But suppose you are arrogant and suicidal and want to go about turning off happy customers. What are the best methods? We'll take for granted that they were happy because you did a good job for them first time— you showed up on time (or made delivery when promised), and so forth.
Partial checklist for turning happy customers into ones who'll never do business with you again:
1. Don't show up on time. (Cable Guys are you listening?)
2. Don't return calls.
3. Don't follow through.
Case: Ed the Tile Man came to us highly recommended by people in an up-scale community nearby. Mr A referred him to Ms B and so on. We took the advice. Ed came and did an estimate, and it sounded good. The work took several hours longer than he'd estimated, but he kept to his estimate. And, before I go on, let me say that 99% of the job was perfect. An A, though not quite A+.
A couple of weeks later, some small problems developed and we called him. ("5 year warranty" written into the contract.) No call back. Another call, same result. Meanwhile, we began hearing that the people in the next community who'd recommended him were having the same experience. Ed the Friendly Tile Man has turned into Ed the Invisible Man.
Now we've all quit dropping calls into his answering unit; we all just wrote him off. Well, not exactly: we've spread the word. So now Ed has to move on to some place new and find another chain of new prospects, and so forth.
I'm not alone in this, I find. Everyone knows Seth Godin, right? He did a post a couple of days ago, "The $20,000 phone call" See the article in Seth Godin's blog on another aspect of this same issue: when a prospect makes that first call (perhaps with $20K opportunities in hand), and that first phone call is not answered, or answered by some snotty-voiced unhappy receptionist. First impressions matter: and they may be the end of the story.
And another of my favorite bloggers, Jonathan Fields (like this humble blogger a lawyer who moved on to better things!), in his post Business Strategy Fail: Save $300, Lose $20,000 also focuses on the little things that (a) turn off existing customers, and (b) project indifference to those who would be prospects, and (c) wouldn't take much effort or cost many dollars to fix, and make everybody happy.
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.
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
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.
On the topics of consulting, contract work, and independent contracting, did you see Paul Davidson's article in USA Today (Dec 7, 2009), "Contract workers swelling ranks"? Go to article Some interesting points:
— About 8% of the US workforce consists of contract employees, most of whom are independent contractors.
— One person interviewed, a member of an employment law firm, predicts that half the jobs created in the recovery "will be filled by contractors, consultants, and other temps."
— More than half of all of these temporary slots are now "filled by professionals such as engineers and physicians."
— One of the key benefits for contractors like that is freedom: freedom to choose opportunities, and freedom to move on.
— From the perspective of an employer, one of the key benefits is flexibility: for example, firms can pull in specialists for product launches and new ventures without having to undertake the front-end costs in time and dollars of a permanent staffing-up.
All of this, need I point out, ties in with our overall theme: by learning to sell yourself (or your skills or whatever) face to face, you can help fill those needs.
Here's the third in our series of techniques for setting up sales appointments via the telephone, and here particularly on how to work with the gatekeeper or screen.
Telephone selling skills tip #3. "Pre-sell" the Screen. But speak only in broad concepts. DO NOT become drawn into the details.
Over the course of the next few posts, we'll be examining some telephone selling skills, specifically tips on how to get through (or past) the screen, also termed "gatekeeper," around the prospect (or decision maker within a larger organization, abbreviated as DM). This screen may be a secretary, receptionist, executive assistant, or perhaps a security guard.
Whether you choose to cold-call or to phone ahead for appointments, you still need effective telephone selling skills in order to get past the gatekeeper or screen so you can talk directly to the decision maker.
Here's the first of these telephone selling skills and tips to get you started, useful both in phoning and cold-calling. (The same tips apply if you meet the screen face-to-face while making a cold call).