Cold Calling Campaign… Does This Look Like Your Office?
The cold calling campaign at Sales Inc. was not going to well! I’ve seen plenty of sales offices that look like this as I am sure you have too. Perhaps you’re looking at one now and pulling your hair out! It’s amazing the excuses that salespeople can come up with when trying to avoid contacting new and (even) existing customers.
If you don’t want your sales office to look like this then why not speak to me about organizing an inspirational and motivational sales talk for your next sales conference, AGM or away day.
Should I Hire A Sales Coach?
I received this question the other day and I started to reply and then realized that the answer would be really useful for many of my readers…
I follow your regular updates with interest. I’m doing some work on goal setting at the moment both personally and for clients. One of the personal goals I’m toying with is the idea of hiring a personal sales mentor/coach.
I was interested to know if this was an area that you had an opinion on?
Do I have an opinion? I think all my readers will know that I must have. To try and help, I have broken the question down into several sub-questions…
Who should hire a sales coach?
- Salespeople who want to increase their skills, their sales strategies and their sales approach.
- Non-salespeople who want to ensure that their sales systems and processes are the most effective that they can be.
- Sales managers and team leaders who need to recruit, manage and motivate sales teams, both small and large.
- Sales leaders and business owners looking to develop powerful sales systems and productive sales teams.
When should I hire a sales coach?
Better question. Now, this is where I disagree with many people because many people would say, “All of the time!” Not surprisingly, most of them have coaching services to sell!
For many people, constant sales coaching loses it zing and may suffer from co-dependency issues. Personally, I think most if not all people involved with sales would benefit from having a coach or coaches at times but not all of the time. Maybe most of the time but certainly not all.
Coaching is great for salespeople looking to break through barriers, stretch for new sales goals, get unstuck orwho are taking on new projects. Here are some classic examples where a sales coach can help?
- Setting new goals, life plans and strategic direction.
- Setting out a sales and new client acquisition strategy.
- Developing new sales skills and sales processes, practising sales techniques and approaches and trying out new methods.
- Creating realistic systems and plans for achieving unrealistic goals.
- Getting out of comfort zones and motivation traps and re-motivating and re-energizing salespeople not firing on all cylinders.
Who should hire a sales coach?
- Salespeople and non-salespeople taking on new challenges where support or experience is limited.
- Team leaders, sales managers and sales leaders facing promotions, new responsibilities and new challenges.
- Anyone wanting to achieve quantum leaps in their sales results…. fast!
When should I not hire a sales coach?
- When you don’t want one.
- When you are looking for someone to sympathise with your “plight”.
- When you don’t believe in them.
- When you want them to do the work for you.
- When it’s forced upon you.
- When you don’t want to hear the truth (although this is, of course, just when you do need one!)
What are my alternatives to using a sales coach?
Sometimes there aren’t any but sometimes there are many options available and all of them may well be right at one stage or another of your sales career. Here are just a few alternatives…
- Self-learn from your own experiences.
- Read a book, listen to an audio, watch a DVD, join a sales progamme.
- Set up a Sales Champions group.
- Buddy up with a friend.
- Attend a seminar or a training course.
How do I choose my sales coach?
- Do some research, join some newsletters and watch some videos from sales coaches.
- Get referrals and advice from friends and colleagues who have used a sales coach.
- Ask some sales coaches some questions and facilitate a few conversations.
- Find someone you can trust and who has credibility and the credentials to help you.
- Make sure that they challenge you… this is not about blowing hot air up your rear end.
- Choose someone who inspires you.
- And feel free to use different coaches for specialist situations. This is not a one-size-fits-all scenario.
Will you be my sales coach Gavin?
Great question. I don’t know yet.
For many years, I have wrestled with the constant challenge of not having enough time to do everything that needs to be done. I only have limited time and only a small amount of that is allocated to very (very) committed clients who want to achieve extraordinary results in their sales and in their lives. If you have a desire to be average or, worse still, mediocre I’m not interested.
If you want want to consider coaching with me, spend some time reading the blogs and watch some of the free videos. Better still, read a few of my books, listen to an audio, watch a DVD or attend a seminar. If that juices you up and you’re up for making a quantum leap in your sales or taking your sales teams to the next level then use the contact form to tell me why you think I should work with you and we’ll take it from there…
APSCo Members Conference, 2010, Brave New World
I am delighted to have been invited to speak for the 2nd time at the APSCo Members Conference on Thursday 30th September at the Hilton London Tower Bridge. I spoke at the APSCo (or ATSCo as it was then) conference in 2008 (ATSCo 2008) and it was a great event. I know this isn’t for all of my readers but if you are in recruitment and you’re a member, then why not come along? This may well be the only recruitment specific event that I attend in 2010.
The APSCo Members Conference is firmly established as the largest sales conference in the recruitment profession in the UK and is market specific, content rich and enlightening day for both sales and sales management professionals in the recruitment sector. The focus is on providing information, techniques and tactics that will help to improve the consistency of success for even the most experienced of recruiters. Speaking at the event this year are…
- Ann Swain, Chief Executive, APSCo.
- Anthony Hilton, Financial Editor, Evening Standard. The Business Lessons of The Post Credit Crunch Recession.
- Chris Matchan, The Chris Matchan Partnership. Engagement in a Brave New World.
- Me, Gavin Ingham, How to Make Quantum Leaps in Your Sales Results.
There will also be several break out sessions away from the main stage with options for managers (Charles Bates, Know Why & Keep It Right & Duncan John, Transactional Analysis & Communication), salespeople (Graham Smith, How to Let Other People Have Your Way & Colin Forster, The Sales Relationship in a Brave New World) and executives (Rob Gee, Authentic Leadership).
The conference will the finish up with a panel discussion on “How Can Recruiters Adapt to Provide the Service Clients Need in Today’s Environment – And Still Make Profit?”
You can see the full APSCo Members Conference brochure here. And you can find members and non-members booking form on the APSCo website here.
When Your Prospect Or Customer Says, ‘No!’, What Do You Hear?
Here’s another question that came up recently. “When your prospect or customer says, “No!”, what do you hear? How do you react? Rejected or challenged? What advice would you give to somebody just starting out?”
As a sales motivational speaker I see the negative consequences of sales and business people dealing with this badly every day so here is my advice…
It’s not what is said, it is your interpretation that does the damage. How many people every year die of snake bites? The answer is none. People die of the poison, not the bites. Salespeople are not undone by “No” but by how they interpret that “No.”
If someone says to you, “We have an existing supplier”… what do you hear and what do you think?
Do you hear, like most salespeople, “We have an existing supplier so we’re not interested. Go away!”? And then think, “This job is rubbish, no-one ever has a need for our services.”
Or do you hear, like sales superstars, “We have an existing supplier which means that we’re in the market place and already see value in what you do”? And then think, “All I have to do now is find a way to demonstrate how we can provide a better service.”
One of the keys to being a top salesperson is getting, keeping and cultivating a positive, sales mindset. This can be done by reading good sales books, listening to sales audios, attending sales seminars, mixing with sales winners, employing a sales coach, learning from sales experts, focusing on what’s good about any event….
To someone starting out, avoid negative mood-hoovers,whingers and whiners, associate with sales winners, make sure you get plenty of the good stuff. Protect your positive mindset like it is a pot of gold…
Because it is!
What Are The First 15 Words To Say To A Prospect To Get Them Hooked Into A Conversation?
Here’s a question that one of my contacts asked recently that I thought I would share with you, “So I have got past the gatekeeper – after the introduction, what are the first 15 words (or so) I say to a prospect that’s going to get them hooked into a conversation?”
And here’s my answer…
One of the questions I always ask delegates in sales training seminars is, “How long do you have to make a first impression?” The answer they give me varies but is always no more than a handful of seconds. In today’s world, people make decisions very quickly and, upon receiving a cold call, even quicker still!
From a receiver’s perspective, they want to decide as fast as possible whether this call is a legitimate, business interruption or a nuisance, spam call. There are three things you need to consider to maximize your chances of achieving the former and minimize your chances of suffering the latter…
- Plan and prepare effectively. Understand why you are calling that individual, why now and how you can make a difference for them. Also, get yourself into the right mindset. Mindset is critical for cold calling (and indeed for selling) and I will be posting some sales training videos on this soon…
- Know how you answer their key question, “What’s in this for me?” If you can’t and don’t answer that, and quickly, you’re toast!
- Avoid coming across as a salesperson and using “crash and burn” sales phrases. I teach people how not to use these on my programmes but the easiest way of thinking about them for yourself is to think about the cold calls you get and think about what really puts your back up at the start of the call… and don’t do it!
For more on cold calling, have a look at this short video I did on 10 tips for cold calling.
“How Do I Avoid My Cold Call Being Viewed As An Interruption By My Prospect?”
I’ve recently been collating common sales questions for a forthcoming book answering all of the main sales queries and questions that sales and business people have. I thought I’d share the answer to this one with you…
“How do I avoid my cold call being viewed as an interruption by my prospect?”
Simple answer: You can never stop your cold call being viewed as an “interruption”. Prospects are not wandering around with their phones under their arms hoping that you give them a call and brighten their days up! And, in a way, this is good news, because it should serve to remind you that you owe it to yourself and the person you are “interrupting” to make it a good call.
There are two types of cold call…
- Nuisance spam calls &
- Legitimate new business calls.
You need to make sure that yours is a legitimate new business call. If you don’t you are never going to get the results that you want from cold calling and that means not enough opportunities and not enough clients.
We’ve all experienced one of those awful calls at home where you’re cooking the dinner and your phone rings and, full of hope that it is one of your friends or family, you answer the phone. But it is a cold caller. You listen agitated as they launch into their pre-prepared, pre-packaged, pre-canned script and eventually you slam the phone down annoyed.
You can never guarantee that your prospects will buy from you. You can never guarantee that your prospects will connect with you. And you can never guarantee that they will even speak with you. That’s just the way that it is…
But you can guarantee that you make cold calls that give you the best chance of being viewed as a legitimate new business call and you can guarantee that you can make your calls relevant to your prospects and not just yourself.
Here are my top tips for differentiating your call from nuisance spam cold calls…
Plan and prepare.
Planning and preparation warms your call up. It tailors your calls for the individual prospect that you are calling. It demonstrates that you have thought about them, their issues and their business and it separates you from junk cold callers.
“Play from a 10”.
When you cold call you need to be in the right state of mind. I call this “playing from a 10” (where 10 is the best state of mind that you can possibly be in). A large part of cold calling success is down to your attitude or your state of mind at the time that you make the call. Being on top of your game helps you to make your call sound like the kind of call that your prospect would want to take and helps you to connect more effectively with your prospect than your also-ran competitors.
Add value.
Think about how you add value for your prospect. Based on your research, what problems and challenges do you think that they might be facing? How can you add value for them? What experience do you have working in this area and how can this help them and their business? Now use this in your opening statement and in your questions so that your prospect can see that you are different, that you have done your research and that you are thinking about them not yourself!
Ask, “How convenient is it to speak?”
Most salespeople don’t ask if it’s a good time for their prospect to take the call. When I tell them to, they say things to me like, “Well, do you expect me to let them get away?!” Look! This call is supposed to be about your client not you. Just because it is convenient for you does not mean it is convenient for them. Don’t be so arrogant! That’s one of the things prospects don’t like about salespeople anyway.
(Footnote, as I am writing this sitting looking at the hills (in Spain), my phone just rang. Expecting it to be a client who was due to call I answered the phone, It was a cold caller from the UK who asked me, “How are you?”£ (Uggh!) then launched into a pitch. At 50ppm I canned the call. Did him not asking help him in anyway? Nope, got him canned faster.)
Ask, “How convenient is it to speak?” immediately after you say hello. This way you have been polite and asked but you have also maximized your chances of them continuing with the call. If they are truly busy then you are better off taking this call another time anyway.
If you have a sales questions that you would like answered then please forward it to me via this Contact Gavin form here or via my Facebook or LinkedIn groups. The better the questions, the better the answers and the better the book will be. And, in any case, where else can you get free advice?!
How To Mess Up A Cold Call
A cold caller has been trying to get hold of me for a few days with the message, “I would like to invite you to an event?” We finally spoke today and he launched into a series of questions (which weren’t all bad) and then a reasonably well crafted and well presented pitch. This guy should be making a lot of sales but, whether he does or not, I bet that he does a lot of head banging on a daily basis and he could do a lot better…
Why?
Lack of research, planning and preparation. You might ask how I know he wasn’t prepared properly? Well, these two little gems to start with…
- His opening gambit, “I don’t know much about your company”. For that, read, he knows nothing.
- Having the nerve to ask me, “What are the main products and services you sell?”
Seriously, can you believe that? And to a sales motivational speaker too. He needs to attend one of my sales seminars!
Intrigued, I asked him how he got my details. The answer was not clear but it was something like, “Well, I have a list that came from research and my manager recommended you and I had a look and…” Oh, come on. No, you didn’t and no he didn’t and we both know that someone bought a list of numbers from somewhere and you rang it without a second thought. You’ve done nothing.
A lot of people think that cold calling doesn’t work anymore. A lot of people think that cold calling never worked. A lot of people think that cold calling doesn’t and won’t work for them. A lot of speakers are making a lot of money perpetuating this myth (watch out for my forthcoming video series where I set the stall straight on that one!).
The truth is that cold calling does not work for many salespeople. And it doesn’t work for several reasons…
- They’re not in the right state of mind.
- They don’t make enough calls.
- They don’t know enough about their prospects.
- They don’t personalize their calls for every individual.
- They don’t ask enough questions.
- They don’t know how they are most likely to be able to help that prospect.
- They don’t listen.
- They don’t tailor their solutions.
- They don’t offer up enough (any) value.
- They give up too easily.
Cold calling can and does work. I am not going to bore you talking about the clients that I have helped to explode their sales results, nor am I going to drone on about how I have helped individuals to create and sustain the lives they desire by being able to attend more proactive sales meetings and sell more when they get there. Instead, I am going to share with you the success a friend of mine, Clifton, who led a professional services sales team by running powerful sales meetings stemming from professional cold calling techniques…
They grew a division taking 700 meetings a year and turning £7m pa to a team running 1000 meetings a year and turning £25m pa within 2 years. On one specific project they had 250 meetings (gained through cold calling) and won £22m worth of revenues.
Cold calling doesn’t work when coupled with powerful sales strategies? As Bart would say, “Eat my shorts!”
But cold calling has to be coupled with powerful, proven sales strategies and it also has to be professional, purposeful and legitimate and this requires effective planning and preparation to even get off the starting line. If you review my list of the 10 reasons cold calling doesn’t work you will see that at least 8 of them (if not arguably all of them) could be addressed or massively improved by doing the right preparation in the first place.
I hope my cold caller reads this article. It might help him. It probably won’t as I don’t think he will think to check my blog, certainly not now… I’m just the guy who spoiled his morning and said that I wasn’t interested.
Sales Psychology & Performance, LinkedIn Group
Check out my Sales Psychology & Performance, LinkedIn Group. As an author and sales speaker I get asked questions every day. Many of these are face to face, up close and personal but, increasingly, many of them are “virtual”. After an inspirational sales seminar many people email me to say that they enjoyed it and then ask questions…
I welcome and enjoy these questions. After all, helping people to improve their sales results and build the businesses and the lives that they desire is one of the primary reasons that I became a speaker in the first place. Interestingly, most of these questions come via email and are never posted on the blog. Despite my best efforts this has remained the case for several years now. After conversations with my clients about this I have concluded that clients are “used” to asking questions via email and are comfortable with this medium. Whilst I do my best to answer all of them, it can get quite time consuming and also a little repetitive with me constantly “reinventing” the wheel.
Most of my clients however do use and are members of LinkedIn. LinkedIn, on the off chance that it has somehow passed you by, or on the off chance that you are still trying to ignore it and pretend that it could not add value for you is, in my opinion, the business social network of the moment. The reason for this is that anyone can join LinkedIn and you can get as involved as you like or you can be as passive as you like but you will not get spammed by idiots or have goats or pies thrown at you like you might on Facebook (*more on my plans for Facebook another day!).
So to let everyone have their say, communicate amongst themselves, get access to my blogs and videos and ask questions I have started a LinkedIn group, Sales Psychology & Performance. If you are wondering if the group is for you, then here is my description of the group…
For sales professionals, sales leaders & professionals who want to maximize sales. This group is dedicated to people who want to share sales superstar strategies & approaches that win more sales. Join the discussions, read the blogs or share your favourite strategies.
So in short, YES, if you are reading this blog or are a member of my GavinIngham.com newsletter this group is for you.
To join, you need a LinkedIn account and you may as well link up with me whilst you are there. I see this group as a good way of keeping your sales edge sharp, sharing best practice and keeping up with the Sales Joneses! The group has grown to 450+ members in under two weeks and that is just from mentioning it on LinkedIn. This is the first time I have mentioned it to my readership. If you are wavering here is an idea of the kind of conversations going on currently…
Question from me…
What’s your most effective strategy for getting motivated?
Every sales professional has faced challenges and, at some point, every sales person has found themselves in a less than perfect state of mind. What separates sales superstars from more mediocre performers is their ability to bounce back and get straight back into the game.
What is your most effective strategy for getting yourself motivated, in the right state of mind and at the top of your game?
This currently has 24 fabulous answers. Here is one of them from Angela…
Something that resonated with me was a session by Hunphrey Walters (amazing man – look him up). He talks about a winning team mentality, but it works for the individual too. Here are a few points…
i) Set and celebrate mini victories. This took me back to taking exams and having a sweet whenever I finished a section. I still do it now, it’s just that the ’sweets’ have gotten a little bigger! So don’t wait for the end goal, make sure there are many along the way.
ii) Never leave the game early. There are a few premiership football teams that could have learnt from this one this year! It’s the same as motivating yourself to pick up the phone again when selling. Apparently it’ll take 6 contacts with a new client to gain business, on average. Most people give up on the 3rd or 4th. This knowledge helps in the sense that you can tell yourself that each call it a step closer to the 6th one.
iii) Pride in the badge. Paul Burton was right in that it really helps if you love what you do, but also if you love the company you’re doing it for. Wanting to do a good job for others is a motivator in itself.
There are 5 others, so look him up. His book is a great read too. ‘Global Challenge’ by Humphrey Walters.
Enjoy, Angela
Angela Cripps, Lander Associates
And another from Sean…
Great question!
I am not sure my method will work for everyone, but it seems to work for me.
I use the same method in the gym in the morning and the same method during the day. Quite simply I break down my day into easily achievable targets, whether it be run for the next 5 minutes at x speed, or call 10 prospective clients. Whilst carrying out this challenge, I am already thinking about what my next target will be and so my work or work out moves smoothly from one challenge to the next.
I will often summarise milestones or tasks that I need to reach or carry out during the day. This gives me a rough idea of the path my day will take.
Hopefully, not always the case, by the end of the day I have reached all of my targets and had a solid productive day.
Sean Burling, V-HR
Pretty good answers I am sure you will agree… so check out Sales Psychology & Performance and link with me on LinkedIn whilst you’re at it. Take the opportunity to sharpen your sales skills, boost your sales attitudes and get the sales edge…
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