Prospecting for new business, especially over the phone, is every sales professional's least favorite activity. Even a professional as accomplished as Paul S. Goldner says so. No-one wants to risk rejection.
Keep expectations realistic and focus on the objective of the 'cold' telephone sales call. The objective is not to make a sale. It is to secure an appointment for a face-to-face 'discovery' meeting to learn more about the prospective company as part of the process of making a sale.
Out of 20 'cold' phone calls, a sales professional might make only one appointment. That's not a 95% failure rate.
The other 19 calls are not failures if you learn useful information, such as:
- The name of the decision maker;
- If the prospective company already uses the type of product or service you offer;
- If the company is on a contract for your type of service and when it expires;
- The number of employees (this can indicate the company's sales revenue).
Paul Goldner says sales is education. You become 'rejection proof' if you see each rejection as simply showing that the prospect is not yet sufficiently educated about your product or service. Put the prospect back in your customer relations management (CRM) system for another 'educational' call.
That turns an emotional response to rejection into objective record-keeping.
However, emotions determine motivation. Here are a few tips.
Avoid Negative People
Sales training professionals, such as Paul Goldner, Zig Ziglar and Mark Hunter, suggest you avoid people with negative attitudes. Negative attitudes rub off. It's hard to do if friends and family are negative, but you have to try to exclude the influences.
- It helps you to maintain enthusiasm that will come through in your voice.
- It helps you to maintain a positive state of mind in which you can spontaneously see the positive side of any objection a prospect brings up.
- It helps you to ignore discouragement of bad calls.
Avoid The News
'If it bleeds it leads' is the creed of the newspaper editor and newscaster. That means bad and discouraging news will be prominent in papers, radio and TV. The sales trainers say 'tune it out.'
Smile
Smile at people on the way to work. It will put you in a positive mood. And smile while on the phone. The person on the other end will hear it in your voice.
After A Successful Call
As soon as you have gained a prospect's interest and made an appointment, don't go for coffee or to celebrate. Make quick notes in your CRM and make the next call.
Don't delay -- enthusiasm will fade and call-reluctance will return.
Since your enthusiasm will sound in your voice, the next call has a better chance of success.
After A Rejection
If you have been rudely rejected during a call, make the next call immediately.
The temptation is to do what Zig Ziglar did as a young door-to-door salesman when he was turned down badly once. He skipped his next appointment, got in his car and drove 40 minutes trying to figure out what he had done wrong.
He wasted time, missed a potentially good call and brooded, making it harder to make his next call.
Envision Success
Don't tell yourself a call will end badly or that the prospect will reject you or pose objections you can't answer. That's what Dr. David Burns, author of The Feeling Good Handbook, calls fortune telling and mind-reading that can depress your emotions.
You don't know what will happen in a call or what the prospect will think.
Have a vision in your mind's eye of the call succeeding and your attitude will sound in your voice.
Log all calls and the outcomes. You'll see more success than you expect.
At the end of the week, look back on what you've achieved. That's when to celebrate.
See also: How To Sell Over The Phone ; Five Keys To Cold Call Selling; Sales Tip: Best Times for Cold Calls
Thomas Kelly - Tom Kelly has pursued a long, successful and award-winning career as a technical and business writer, marketer and publisher, during which ...
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