Goal

[Kak]

500 cold calls next week myself without using my reps. That is right! I am not making a feeble goal to have a certain amount of money by a certain date with no plan.

I am hoping to gain 1 close per day at 100 calls and put at least 10 per day in my CRM for future correspondence. But I do not control the result, I just control my action.

BOOM!

 

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[AgonI]

I might've missed this, but what are you selling? 500 calls should be fun!

 

[Kak]

I am selling money!

 

[AgonI]

lol you don't want to share what type of "money" you're selling ?

 

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[Kak]

Commercial energy, industrial capacitors, surge protection, power-factor reducing equipment, and a giant buyers market.

You know... money!

 

[Mike.B]

500 cold calls next week myself without using my reps.

Serious hustle! Most sales personnel can't handle 100 calls per week. I guess that's why they're broke ...

 

[Bentley]

That is an AWESOME Goal! Keep us updated

 

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[Felix II]

Kak, it would be great if you could share how this goes next week.


Do you consider yourself experienced at selling over the phone?

 

[Kak]

Do you consider yourself experienced at selling over the phone?

Not at all... I am going to set appointments for the following week and sell in person which I do have experience with.

Ok guys sorry to say this but it looks like my business phone system won't be here till friday. All I have is my cell phone until then and cant blow minutes to landlines. I also want to use my 1877 number as the company will appear bigger.

I will be up and running on friday to test it out. Goal moved to next week.

 

[JAJT]

Kak - do you have a star cold caller or salesman on staff?

Have him sit with you on the call (on mute). Have him coach you between calls. Role-play. Practice.

Cold calling is DAMN hard, and every single word and inflection makes a difference. Your star will notice things NOBODY ELSE does. Do you end your sentences with an upward inflection like most people or do you stay even-keeled? This can make a huge difference for some people. Are you using verbage that turns off people without realizing it? Are you talking too quickly? Closing too late/early?

Selling isn't easy, especially cold calling. It comes naturally to some but the rest of us have to work HARD at it. My recommendation is that if you have people on staff to do this for you, and you don't plan to make this a regular thing, just delegate it. Unless it comes naturally to you, of course.

You'll learn LOTS in 500 calls (a ton, in fact) but it will be much more work than needed if your goal isn't specifically to increase your ability to cold-cold.

 

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[PatrickP]

BEST of luck to you!

I am interested to see how this goes for you.

I tried cold calling for 2 days. I didn't even need to sell anything and it was HORRIBLE in my opinion. We had gotten our product into a chain of stores. All I had to do was call and ask the manager, inform them to expect our product and ask how many samples he/she wanted.

Sounds easy. Ugggg well after 50+ calls I hadn't got to speak with one single manager. Either they were on a break, it was their day off, they were too busy waiting on customers and on and on. 2nd day I recall those stores, same thing oh he just stepped out, he is in a meeting and on and on.

I then called the franchise home office and told THEM to handle it.


I don't know how people do it I really don't.

 

[JAJT]

Here's a stupid tip to help you out. Start your calls with the decision maker with this: "Hello, I'm Kak from Kakology, did I catch you at a bad time?"

This stupid line actually does a lot (in my experience).

- It tricks a lot of people into WANTING to talk to you instead of fighting against you. "Bad" is negative, they don't want to appear negative, so they'll say "Oh no, it's a great time". They just convinced THEMSELVES it's a good time to speak.
- They may say "oh, it's always a bad time, hahaha..." and you joke back saying "Oh tell me about it, hahaha..." (or whatever). Now you're starting the conversation off in a joking and playful way. Easy transition to business.
- They may genuinely be busy. This is fine. You are showing your respect for their time. You say "Oh, I'm so sorry to disturb you! Do you have 5 minutes later today?" Book a time. Now you're someone they may actually listen to when you call back.

Anyway, that's what always worked for me when nothing else seemed to.

 

[Kak]

Kak - do you have a star cold caller or salesman on staff?

I actually have a sales intern from U of H that is awesome at cold calling. My other my other salesman is well connected and the other is looking like a flake.

 

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[JAJT]

I don't know how people do it I really don't.

Two ways:

- Born with it (bastards).
- They learned to tweak every word and inflection over the course of a million F*cking "no"s.

I've only ever done it at the end of a gun (my job depended on it). It's a brutal thing to learn if it's not in your blood.

 

[PatrickP]

I wonder if the gene that makes natural cold callers is the same one that helps people make friends easily?

Hey I see you are from Ottawa, I was just there last week. : )

 

[JAJT]

Hey I see you are from Ottawa, I was just there last week. : )

Let me know the next time you make it up this way - we'll wine and waffle.

 

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[PatrickP]

Very nice invitation, thank you.

Wine and waffle hmmmmm I could turn this into a political thread but I don't want to get it shut down lol

 

[Kak]

Here's a stupid tip to help you out. Start your calls with the decision maker with this: "Hello, I'm Kak from Kakology, did I catch you at a bad time?"

This stupid line actually does a lot (in my experience).

- It tricks a lot of people into WANTING to talk to you instead of fighting against you. "Bad" is negative, they don't want to appear negative, so they'll say "Oh no, it's a great time". They just convinced THEMSELVES it's a good time to speak.
- They may say "oh, it's always a bad time, hahaha..." and you joke back saying "Oh tell me about it, hahaha..." (or whatever). Now you're starting the conversation off in a joking and playful way. Easy transition to business.
- They may genuinely be busy. This is fine. You are showing your respect for their time. You say "Oh, I'm so sorry to disturb you! Do you have 5 minutes later today?" Book a time. Now you're someone they may actually listen to when you call back.

Anyway, that's what always worked for me when nothing else seemed to.

Awesome! Thanks for the tip, I am actually looking forward to this.

When her internship is over I may ask her to stay on as an appointment setter or something. I am doing this just to learn an useful skill and make some money. It can always be a default to make money when you don't want a job as well.

 

[JAJT]

If you hit any specific roadblocks or something just isn't working please let me know and I'll try to help as best I can. I've picked up quite a few tricks/tips over the years and would be glad to share.

I may not like cold calling but I've certainly done my fair share of it...

 

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[Kak]

Awesome buddy! I appreciate it.

I think it will be a fantastic learning experience and I will get in front of far more people than I am currently reaching which can't be a bad thing.

So. Should the goal of the call to be to quote the customer or to arrange an appointment? I usually quote them via email or phone if they call me, but I think going out for an arranged appointment actually fits this prospecting method better. I think it will be more inviting than some guy who wants to close on the phone. What do you think? Did you just cold call or did you push completely through to the sale?

If it works out well I may set 1 week per month aside for this.

 

[MJ DeMarco]

Hello, I'm Kak from Kakology, did I catch you at a bad time?"

I get cold calls nearly every day ... this would not work on me. I would answer YES, every single time.

I view the statement as "Can you give me permission to sell you?"

Let us know what you learn after 100 calls ... and yes, you will learn a lot! Looking forward to it.

 

[St.Alpine]

So. Should the goal of the call to be to quote the customer or to arrange an appointment? I usually quote them via email or phone if they call me, but I think going out for an arranged appointment actually fits this prospecting method better. I think it will be more inviting than some guy who wants to close on the phone. What do you think? Did you just cold call or did you push completely through to the sale?

Hi Kak,

I just did cold calling 5 weeks and loved it.
All in all I called about 3200 people.
Making an appointment or not depends on the product.
If it's very technical, it is good to make an appointment.
Basically the more you have to explain, the better it is to be there in person.

Some general things when calling people:

• make it very easy for them to say no
• the more you push, the more this will work against you
• really check, as JAIT said, if the guy has time or not, again, make it easy for them
• provide value for them, think about, how could you make THEIR life easier
• everybody is selffish, they don't care what is in it for you, all they want to know is how THEY can benefit from it
• just be friendly
• there will be gate keepers
• if you don't get through, ask for an email adress, where you can send an
  invitation for an appointment to (attach infomaterial into that email)
• make it as easy for them as possible
• don't think of you as a salesguy, think more about you as a consultant for them

I have some materials that helped me to reap some nice profits, while doing that.
Just shoot me a PM and I will be happy to send it to you.

 

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[JAJT]

It's much, much easier getting an appointment than a sale on a cold call but if someone is seriously drinking the kool-aid then go for the throat, why not?

In general you will get only a handful of 'types' of responses to your calls:

- No / F*ck off (most calls)
- Send me more information (people too polite to say "no")
- Yes (this will throw you off when you start out - hearing 'yes' after 40 people saying 'no' makes you question if they understood what you asked)

Ideally you want to convert the "send me more info" people into appointments. They say "I'm busy, send me info", you tell them that information is the purpose of the meeting and ask what their calendar is like "this Thursday, perhaps at 2?". Then negotiations tend to focus on the time, not the meeting - a much better thing to argue over

The "yes" crowd will surprise you with how easy they make it. It will literally be as easy as this:

You - "Does this sound like something worth discussing?"
Them - "Yes"
You - "How about this Thursday?"
Them - "Yes"
You - "2:00?"
Them - "Yes"
You - "See you then"
Them "Sounds good, *click*"
You - Scratch your head, wonder why every call can't go so easily.

There is really almost nothing you can do with the "no" crowd. You can ask if you can call them again in two weeks/months/years, when their current contract ends, if they know of someone else who would be interested, etc... and hope for the best.

Bottom line: Cold calling is a numbers game. If you say the same thing again and again you will get a VERY accurate idea of how much people you have to call to get a result. You can tweak and see differences in results very, very easily if you track it (and you should track it).

 

[JAJT]

I get cold calls nearly every day ... this would not work on me. I would answer YES, every single time.

Curious - what do the callers initially say that DO earn your time?

Always up for learning something new

 

[Kak]

My guess is that some people are just not at all responsive to cold calls, that is OK because there are going to also be people who are receptive. It is a numbers game. I am going to look at it like I am ruling out prospects, and that I need to rule out as many as possible to talk to real customers.

 

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[St.Alpine]

The best sales calls or sales talks, don't seem to be sales talks.
The just sound like a natural conversation.
There is an old model and a new model of sales.
Although there are things you can still use from the old
model, the majority has changed.

Old Model:
Long time ago we had a seller market. The sellers where the majority.
Buyers couldn't choose. The producers made the rules. People where
forced to buy a car at the price the manufacturer put on it.

New Model:
Today we have a buyer market. People can choose between
hundreds of similar offers. It is not the quality of goods, that is
important, it is more about the ecosystem/services/brand recognition
that comes with the goods that counts.

Selling in the new model:
Today you can't ask somebody while selling: "Do you
want the green or the brown car." They will feel pushed and back off.
People today have all the info they need. It is more about finding the pain point
of somebody, and giving him the correct solution for that. 2/3 listening
to people and 1/3 talking.

If you qualify yourself as an expert in your field, that knows more
about a product than everyone else, people will come back to you.
Today a good salesperson is a good consultant as well.

 

[Milkanic]

Awesome. I highly suggest using a goal card for this. Break your goals down into small chunks and control the controllables.

Print out the excel file on #2 and give yourself a hash mark for every call (not my site - searched for sales goal card)
Selling Systems: Self-Management Systems « Southwestern Company Certified Sales Training

 

[St.Alpine]

My guess is that some people are just not at all responsive to cold calls, that is OK because there are going to also be people who are receptive. It is a numbers game. I am going to look at it like I am ruling out prospects, and that I need to rule out as many as possible.

Right attitude. X number of calls = x number of sales.

[video=youtube;vwm-Dl_QBmk]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vwm-Dl_QBmk[/video]​

 

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[Pinnacle]

So. Should the goal of the call to be to quote the customer or to arrange an appointment? I usually quote them via email or phone if they call me, but I think going out for an arranged appointment actually fits this prospecting method better. I think it will be more inviting than some guy who wants to close on the phone. What do you think? Did you just cold call or did you push completely through to the sale?

If it works out well I may set 1 week per month aside for this.

In my previous job we had to close over the phone, if not set an appointment to speak and then close over the phone.

In my current job, our sales cycle is longer, but all deals are closed by both phone and email following a conference call sales meeting with the prospect.

In my current business, I set an appointment to speak by phone or in person. I will then close the sale either over the phone or in person.

You need engagement from your prospects. Get them to converse with you and communicate their needs to you whether the sale happens now or in the future. In other words, do not waste your time on those calls if you are not securing at least an appointment.

I'm loving your thread, by the way.

 

[Pinnacle]

I get cold calls nearly every day ... this would not work on me. I would answer YES, every single time.

I view the statement as "Can you give me permission to sell you?"

Let us know what you learn after 100 calls ... and yes, you will learn a lot! Looking forward to it.

I've been the one to make these calls. They typically do say it is a bad time.