Sales Training Motivational Speaker | Gavin Ingham» cold calling

The Death Of Cold Calling? Not Today Thanks.

Gavin Ingham — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 15:32:48 +0000

I had an amazing day at the ISMM’s Successful Selling conference yesterday making several amazing video interviews (watch this space… you’re going to love them), meetings many interesting people and all culminating in a motivational sales keynote talk to 500 motivated and professional salespeople. What a great day!

Clearing my emails, catching up from a week away and planning for next week, I just received this into my inbox…

Just to confirm our shared opinion on the best days to call, I’ve just made an absolute gem of an appt. Friday afternoons are the best! Thanks for the course at RIBA last week its proving valuable. Four quality appts this week.

Now, what I actually said was that plenty of people don’t like making proactive calls on Friday afternoons because “nobody is in” but that I always find them productive…

But the main lesson from this is that if you plan for your calls, make them relevant, make them intelligent, make them about the individual that you are calling, make them professionally then you can get proven results. One of the videos I recorded yesterday is all about new business calls and it’s a chat between myself and one of the directors of a telemarketing agency. Watch this space as it is full of tips and strategies and you’re going to love it.

Cold Calling Success

Gavin Ingham — Mon, 25 Jul 2011 16:30:37 +0000

I say every week when talking at conferences as a sales motivational speaker that you have to Share Sales Success Stories (my powerful 4S Principle) with yourself, with your sales team and within your organization and yet, I don’t share very many with you.

So I thought it was about time that I rectified that so here’s one that I got a couple of days ago. It says all there is to say about cold calling when it’s done right (which is of course what I teach) and from the right sales mindset so I suggest you read it several times, imagine what these kind of results could do for you and then take massive action!

Hi Gavin,

Thanks for your message and for connecting. Who said that cold calling was dead? Recent apppointments set with senior finance contacts;

- a major international fast food chain
- a sizeable UK NHS trust
- one of the UK’s largest housing associations
- one of the UK’s biggest network rail operators
- a large Welsh City Council

Qualify well, be polite, project confidence, know your pitch, engage the client and persist. Managing to set appointments often with people that previously said NO!

Regards

If you want to be getting results like this and be one of the many, many people writing similar letters to me, then you need to be checking out my books, audios, webinars and seminars with particular regard to No Fear Cold Calling .

Has Selling Changed? Is It Time For Out With The Old & In With The New?

Gavin Ingham — Thu, 14 Jul 2011 10:43:23 +0000

A lot of people over the last few weeks have been talking about “the best ways” to locate new customers and clients. A lot of people think that the strategies required have changed and that many of the old strategies don’t work anymore.

Out with the old, in with the new?

Not really. I agree that there are many “new ways” of reaching prospects and customers…

I have a LinkedIn account and a LinkedIn group (Sales Psychology & Performance if you want to have a look). I have a Youtube channel, I Twitter, I have a sales training blog and was blogging well before most other’s in the market place. I have numerous other social media profiles which I don’t use as much and I am also looking at the newest trends all of the time. I love to use the new ways and embrace change…

However, I think there is a real danger of throwing out what was and is still good about the old in chasing the new with comments like this one that someone made on one of my groups the other day when talking about traditional sales methods in particular prospecting…

“…you’ll be missing the 90%+ of the market that don’t buy like that…”

I am always suspicious of statistics but that one just looks wrong to me. To start with, if I only look at my own stats, I can see that my business comes from multiple sources. It does not just come from cold calling, or from blogging, or from videos, or from article marketing, or from networking, or from referrals, or from sales meetings…

In fact, most of my clients and prospects travel through multiple touch points before buying i.e. “Well I saw you on a video programme where you were a guest expert, then I read one of your articles in a (traditional print) magazine, then someone said something about you at a networking event. I always thought I might book you for my team but then I changed roles and someone sent me a copy of your newsletter and so I came to one of your seminars and then I thought “Wow!” I need this guy for my next sales conference.”

Furthermore, it is indeed amazing how much of it still comes from traditional sources… speaking, referrals (proactive and reactive), word of mouth, recommendations, networking, traditional sales… with a kicker that most have read my blog after they found me, or watched my Youtube videos or checked me out on LinkedIn etc.

There are some markets where many sales are made using totally new ways of selling and there are some where no-one is buying this way. I am constantly amazed by how many of my paying clients do not have video enabled on their PCs, do not use Twitter and have failed to respond to invites to any of my online groups or communities.

The only “new way” they respond to is my email newsletter (permission based but the only one that interrupts them) and then they won’t post a blog answer on my website, they prefer to email me their thoughts and questions instead.

The new way of selling is here. The new way of making contacts and differentiating yourself from the market is here but it is not about new methodologies…

The new way of selling is about adding value for your clients. The new way is about better engaging your clients. The new way is about caring about your clients and their businesses. The new way is about focusing on your clients and not on you. And if you can use new media to do this, that’s great.

But the new way of selling is not about activity, it is about mindset. Selling is an attitude that leaves behind a trail of techniques.

It is misleading to assume then that the old methods do not work anymore. When you apply the new mindset to them they work incredibly well but too few people (know how to) do this and therefore fail miserably.

After my cold calling seminar of last week, someone Twittered the next day to say they had already set up 4 meetings. After my cold calling seminar of Tuesday this week, someone already emailed me to say they would never have thought that they would be the person emailing me at all let alone saying that they had set up 5 appointments the very next day.

The old ways still work when you use the new mindset and new technologies to pimp them up.

It is also worth noting that many people using the new technologies do not have the new mindset and are just spamming anyway. The vast majority of comments and discussions posted in my communities are by people who ought to know better saying “go look at my seminar” or “see this article I wrote and spammed across every group”. They are no better than old school, bad, cold callers and I believe will be looked upon as the same in time. They add no value to their groups, no value to their communities, no value to their readers and this approach will not work long term.
Someone said to me the other day that I am the only person who consistently gives away stuff of value. This is clearly not true and I could name others who do too but it says a lot about the state of how people perceive the way people are using these new mediums.

People are unsubscribing from social media. People are clicking off from newsletters. People do not have the time to take part in discussions a lot of the time. I only need to look at the number of people who ring me and speak to me about booking me for a conference and who then fail to respond to emails. When I pick the phone up to them they invariably say, “I meant to call you,” and then book me.

And if every person out there started blogging, Twittering, Facebooking and videoing, firstly, many would just be no good at it and, secondly, no-one would be able to find anything worthwhile through the white noise…

So...

The expectation of salespeople has to change. The approaches you take have to change. The mindset you have has to change.

We have to add value. We have to utilise multiple routes to market. We have to employ new strategies, old strategies and hybrid strategies.

We have to use what works.

It’s not out with the old in with the new. It’s embrace the new, pimp up the old and mash up the lot to come up with a viable approach that connects and adds value for your clients. And this should include whatever strategies, old or new, that work best for you.

Does Cold Calling Work, 2?

Gavin Ingham — Thu, 23 Jun 2011 01:32:02 +0000

I hope that you’re having a good week, speaking to lots of new clients and winning lots of new business. I want to start this blog post by asking you a question, “What do you think about cold calling?” Now by asking that, what I don’t mean is do you like being rung at home when you’re eating your dinner (tea for us Northerners) and someone trying to sell you timeshares? No, what I mean is, “Do you think cold calling works?”

Now I know that this is a very divisive question. It’s divisive for a whole variety of reasons. It’s divisive because everyone has so many opinions, ideas and beliefs about whether cold calling is coming, going, works, doesn’t work, is ethical, is unethical, is powerful, is a waste of time…

And not everyone can be right, can they?

Or can they? As a sales motivational speaker and sales author I get to work with salespeople of all flavours and I have clients from all industries from car sales to insurance sales, from park home sales to engineering sales, from pharmaceutical sales to financial sales and pretty much everything sales inbetween. And on my travels I see people who win lots and lots of new business by picking up the phone and making appointments with key new prospects and many, many people who fail miserably too.

And whilst I agree that cold calling is more relevant for some industries than others and more relevant for some products than others and it is most definitely not right in all situations, I have met salespeople from all walks of industry who use it effectively. I’ve also worked with them and seen the results.

You see, most of the time, it’s not the industry or the product, it’s the salesperson and the sales system that makes the difference.

Melody proved this on The Apprentice (UK) last night when she picked up a mobile in the back of a car in France (!) and set up 6 appointments. But could the others Apprentices repeat her success?

Nope.

What did she have that the others didn’t? How did she approach prospects that got results where others failed?

Why do some people in your office get great results on the phone and others get only mediocre results… or worse?

Sure, we could get into an argument about what a cold call is. We could debate whether your call should be called a cold call at all if you’ve done the right research and weaved it into your call effectively. We could discuss the percentage of your time you should spend on the phone versus utilising other methods of contacting or attracting new clients…

And that would be useful but it would not change the facts. Cold calling works when done right. And you may not want to do it. And you may not want to hear it but that’s the way it is.

Someone once asked me why I blogged and why I used Twitter and why I networked if cold calling was so effective? And that’s the problem here. People want to say something has replaced something else. It’s black and white. It’s either or. But it’s not…

My answer was simple. “I do what works. I do a combination of things designed to consistently bring me in business. I do the ones that work. As long as they work I use them. And when they don’t, I will change what I am doing or stop.”

I have a highly refined new business sales system based on sales mindset, structure and language. The call engages clients by focusing on them not you. If you’re interested, read some more of my blog posts on cold calling and selling in general or watch a video or two. Better still, why not come to one of my No Fear Cold Calling seminars? If you want to eliminate fear of cold calling, get the mindset for success, better engage with your clients, set up more appointments and win more new business then it is a must attend.

Cold Calling Sucks & It’s Only Going To Get Worse…

Gavin Ingham — Wed, 20 Apr 2011 18:26:27 +0000

I was the motivational speaker at a sales conference the other day and one of the Sales Directors came up to me to ask about the future of cold calling. He explained that he had a sales team of some 100+ salespeople and that they all had to set up their own appointments and that one of the primary ways of doing this was on the phone. He went on to describe what a nightmare this was and how it was seemingly getting harder every day.

I won’t bore you with the whole conversation but I am sure just a few snatches of it will feel familiar…

“… changing markets… increased competition… no names policies… voicemail… gatekeepers… competition from abroad… clients getting too many calls… client indifference… inability to distinguish calls… just a numbers game… necessary evil… falling conversion levels… more calls required to stand still… demotivated staff…”

In frustration, he had searched the internet high and low looking for an answer but, far from finding one, all he had found was oodles of expert opinion and networks of websites dedicated to tolling the bell for the death of cold calling, gurus explaining how it would not / could not / will not work and explanations for why social media, new marketing and sales 3.0 were the only way forward…

Sheesh! Cold calling is one of the most divisive subjects in selling. You cannot start a conversation on cold calling in any sales training forum without igniting the age old debate… Does it work, doesn’t it work, is it dying…? Lah! Lah! Lah! You might as well argue about chickens and eggs but I have my metaphorical fingers firmly in my metaphorical ears because I don’t care…

Truth 1! Cold calling doesn’t work and is a fruitless activity for most sales and business people. They might as well give up as it does not get them results.
Truth 2! Cold calling is an incredibly powerful strategy that many top salespeople utilise ALONGSIDE other lead generation strategies to acquire new prospects, clients and business.

Difficult to reconcile? Not really. The more flexible you are in your approach to sales and marketing and the more options you have at your disposal, all the better. As with many things in life, you can choose to believe whatever truth you want to believe so my question to you is simple…

Would it be more useful for you to have some really good reasons and argument for why cold calling doesn’t work anymore or would it be better if you had proven, cold calling strategies that win new business in any economy?

If your answer is the first one then good luck and goodbye to you but if it is the latter then that is what I’m going to help you to attain… AND I am going to do it in a way that even the most phone shy, nervous cold callers can understand and implement. The world has changed, the economy has changed, your market has probably changed and so too your sales approach and sales habits should have changed.

If you work with a sales team or friends who would benefit from these awesome tips and strategies then email them now and tell them to sign up to my sales success newsletter to ensure that they get cold calling secrets right into their email box. Here are what just two delegates had to say after one of my half day seminars last month…

“It was realistic, motivational, client focused and entertaining. Result: 4 very significant meetings booked, doors opening and winning more business. I would recommend Gavin and his product without question. Do it!”

“Brilliant day with Gavin, with immediate results. Meetings booked immediately after going to the course.”

Here’s a thought to get you thinking about things for next week…

Why do most cold calls fail?

I’ll start to answer this next week but in the meantime, and if you already know how much impact my unique sales seminars have then you can book on the first full day open cold calling sales seminar I have run in several years now.