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.

Related posts:

1. Should Cold Callers Ask, “How Are You Today?”
2. What The Mile High Agony Aunt Can’t Teach You About Cold Calling
3. Cold Calling For New Business

If you want to win new business you need to be able to find new client information. In this video, the third in the series, we look at 10 top tips for improving your prospecting and new business generation.

Follow these links to check out video 1 of Finding New Client Information and video 2 of Finding New Client Information. Don’t forget to join the GavinIngham.com success newsletter free too as we will be launching new videos and sharing more sales boosting articles regularly.

Related posts:

1. Finding New Client Information, Video 2 Of 3
2. Finding New Client Information, Video 1 of 3
3. Finding New Client Information

Check out this article in the Institute of Sales & Marketing Management’s leading magazine, Winning Edge, on how to Warm Up Your Cold Calling – 9 steps that you can take to improve your cold calling results. Read Warm Up Your Cold Calling here.

Related posts:

1. Does Cold Calling Work?
2. The Financial Times On Winning New Business In A Recession
3. Another 8 Tips For Confident Cold Calling…

As many of you know I have been very busy speaking at sales conferences and sales seminars so I haven’t had chance to post this article before in which I was interviewed for the Financial Times of December 08. Virginia Matthews was exploring the need for small and large businesses to drum up more prospects and more opportunities in the current economic client and I think it is well worth reading her findings and conclusions.

There are many ways to gain new prospects and win new business and if your only way of winning new business is via cold calling then your business model is every bit as flawed as if you never cold call for new business at all… That said, professional cold calling skills and making legitimate new business calls, like the ones that I teach you how to make in my cold calling books, audios and programmes is an essential skill set for every sales professional and every business that wants to succeed.

In this article, James Caan, whom I have found to be a strong addition to Dragon’s Den, makes some interesting points not least that a sales person who cannot convert a cold call should probably not even be termed a sales professional and that he would not invest in a business which was incapable of cold calling...

A comeback for cold calling as chill sets in
By Virginia Matthews
Published: December 8 2008

When Robyn Jones was made redundant during the recession of 1991, she realised her future rested solely on her ability to cold call. Her confidence was then at a low ebb but she knew that, if she did not pick up the phone, her dream of setting up a catering company would never become reality.

Armed with a redundancy cheque of £2,500 but no clients, Ms Jones learnt that “getting through the gatekeepers” who protect decision-makers from unsolicited callers requires mental agility and charm. But the cold calls paid off and, today, Charlton House Catering has an annual turnover of £75m. “If I hadn’t gathered up my courage to phone strangers, which was quite tough, having just lost my job, I wouldn’t have created a business.”

As the recession bites, the practice of cold calling will become increasingly important, say Ms Jones. She believes that “having a good reputation in your industry is not enough when times are hard”. In order to make new contacts, generate leads and differentiate yourself from the competition, she says “all businesspeople need to forget their fear of cold calling and learn how to market themselves one-to-one, even when the person at the other end of the line is clearly skeptical”.

Serial entrepreneur James Caan, who appears on the British business television competition, Dragon’s Den , has a rather strict rule for start-ups. He will not invest in one if they are incapable of cold-calling. “If people don’t have the skills to convert a cold call into a face-to-face meeting or even a potential contract – and it’s particularly important to have these talents when you are generating sales in a recession – then I doubt whether they can even be termed sales professionals.”

He believes effective cold calling is a dying art among those more accustomed to the anonymity of the internet. But he argues that generating sales leads over the phone is far easier today than it was in the 1980s when he set up recruitment firm Alexander Mann from scratch.

Mr Caan says: “In the 1980s, there were literally hundreds of thousands of us using the Yellow Bible (Yellow Pages telephone directory) all day and it became fairly easy for personal assistants and other gatekeepers of the time to get rid of us before we were even halfway through our pitch.

“Today, cold calling is far rarer and the relatively small number of people who manage to talk their way past switchboard and into my office usually have something worth listening to.”

Mr Caan adds that the secret of cold calling may come down to the caller’s posture. “Too many so-called salespeople currently hide behind the internet when they should be getting on the phone and talking to people. I always encourage people to do it standing up because that way, you sound more in control and less like someone who has had the phone put down on you 20 times already that morning.”

The Institute of Sales and Marketing Management takes a less indulgent view.

“Cold calling can scare clients and make you look desperate and we believe it is even less appropriate in a recession,” says director of training William Pedley.

“We want people to be invited in to see their clients because they already have a good relationship with them, not because they’ve been rushing round like headless chickens trying to get appointments. We hope there won’t be a resurgence in either cold calling or doorstepping.”

Gavin Ingham, who coaches sales staff, trained 5,000 people in recruitment, IT and telecoms to cold call last year and says that, to judge by his order book for 2009, both the numbers and the sectors willing to get on the phone are rising.

“Aside from business start-ups, I’m getting requests from solicitors, accountants and even fire and rescue services looking to build their businesses and brands with a campaign of cold calling.”

Mr. Ingham has three rules however. “The WIIFM (what’s in it for me?) rule is there to remind you that it’s the person being cold called, not you, that’s the really important one, and the 10 second rule is all about making your pitch relevant and different right from the word go.”

And the third? “If you’re following up an e-mail, call your target within 24 hours or you’ll have to start all over again.”

©The Financial Times Limited 2008.

p.s. For more strategies and techniques for selling in a downturn market make sure that you read my free special report on selling in a recession.

Related posts:

1. 98 Lead Generation Strategies To Grow Your Business
2. Selling In A Recession – Why Some People Are Going To Crash And Others Are Going To Fly
3. Does Cold Calling Work?

Salespeople are always moaning to me about not having enough people to ring or about not having enough leads to prospect. It doesn’t seem to matter who they are or what level they are working at, comments like, “I’ve run out of people to ring” and “The database they (the management) gave me is useless” are commonplace.

Here’s the thing. There are plenty of clients out there but you have to take some action to find them. Sales people moaning and whining about this subject always reminds me of a child saying that they’re bored in the middle of the summer holidays. Nonsense.  There’s always something to do, they’re just too busy focusing on their own perceived boredom and not on what they can do. These salespeople are just the same. They are spending far too much time moaning and far too little looking for new clients!

It sounds unbelievable as I write this but I once gave one of my sales consultants Wales as a territory. That’s Wales the country not whales the animals. He came back to me a week later and said that there was no business in Wales. I asked him how he knew and he said that he’d rung everyone!

Errr, right.

Moral: There’s always more clients out there to prospect so stop moaning, get of your ass and take action.

The tips below are great for beginners as we all need to start somewhere but they’re also good for everyone else too! There’s no rocket science here, just good, solid sales habits. Infact, I hope that experienced salespeople read this and think, “I knew all of that” because at least that proves that you haven’t been asleep thus far in your career!

But, despite the fact that you may know it all, I still think you should read it and whilst you’re doing so, check that you really do do all of this stuff regularly! Many clients I have worked with kick themselves when they realise that they are not consistently doing what they know!

1. Check client websites

Client websites are a great source of knowledge. Search them. There’s more on the web than video and audio downloads and as a salesperson you should be using it. You would be quite justified in today’s marketplace spending a fair chunk of time in web research but the problem is that most salespeople seem to think that the screen on their desk is for playing on Facebook, instant messaging their friends and browsing their favourite websites! All great fun but not something that you should be doing in core selling hours!

On the web you can search and locate your target clients? Find their contact details. Check out their latest news, research their products and check out their clients to see if they may become clients of yours too! You’ll find plenty of contact details on websites They might not be the people you want but they might well be able to tell you who is!

2. Google it

The internet is phenomenal. I’m no great expert but I know there are more contact details on the internet that I could ring in a 100 million life times and it’s growing every day. Thing is, as the internet grows so the names get harder to find. Invest a small amount of time now in finiding out how to use your search engine of choice (I normally use Google and Yahoo) and get searching.

There are many free courses online which teach you how to search intelligently, indeed Google and Yahoo have fairly comprehensive instructions in advanced search terms if you choose to read about them. An hour on the internet learning how to search properly a few years ago drastically improved my ability to find more of what I wanted in my search enquiries and has saved me many hours of work since.

An increasing number of people also have their CV’s online and guess what’s on them? Contact details!

3. Your clients’ clients

Most salespeople do a deal and then either walk away from their clients or try and sell them something else. This is incredibly short sighted as your clients represent a shortcut to your long-term success. Getting a referral from a happy client is one of the most powerful sales approaches there is.

Why not organise a meeting with one of your happy clients and ask for a testimonial? If they’re happy with that ask them for a referral. Even better, tell them how your product can help their clients and how that in turn will help them. You’ll be amazed how helpful they will be.

Many salespeople do not ask for referrals for fear that their clients will say “No”. Many clients might say “No” but you only need a small handful to say “Yes” to boost your sales exponentially. I have only ever met a handful of sales professionals who always ask for referrals. Amazing! This represents a huge pool of untapped leads.

Be honest with yourself, do you always ask for referrals? Probably not. Don’t worry, it’s never too late to start!

4. Your physical sales network

All salespeople should have their own network of individuals who they can contact for help, advice and support. Some of you may have this at work but in my experience, not many. Mutually supportive and beneficial sales networks rarely occur by accident. Most are set up deliberately.

If you are a sales manager this is something that you must build within your business. If you are a salesperson then you need to create your own network. Be imaginative, who would be the best people to have in your network? It does not have to be colleagues, it could be your friends, your clients, your coach…

Think about who you can help and how. To get the sales edge you need to constantly add value to your network and make it easy for them to help you to succeed.

In my business my network consists of people in a variety of fields who can help me in a variety of ways. In today’s marketplace your physical network can even be partly (or wholly in some markets!) on the worldwide web.

5. Trade directories

Many trade directories are relatively cheap to buy and can be packed full of information. With the internet you can now view sample pages of many of them online and compare the information that you are getting. This is pretty important as not all trade directories are created the same. Some are far more up to date than others and some are far more open to approaches from sales people than others. It very much depends how and why the names were collated in the first place.

Many companies buy trade directories and ring them “willy nilly”. Whilst (if the directory is up to date) this may seem an easy way of securing names to ring, it’s also an easy way for your competitors to find names too so the clients in these directories may be a little “sales sick”.

6. Databases

These can be bought, traded or acquired but make sure that you do not fall foul of any legal requirements such as the Data Protection Act.

Many companies sell databases and some of these are remarkably good. Some are also remarkably bad!Generally speaking you get what you pay for. As with trade directories many databases will be used by call centres and cold calling teams so the “names” may well have been hammered.

This doesn’t tend to make them particularly open to cold calls so make sure that you put some thought into why they might want to speak with you and approach in the right way.

Ultimatelt, a bought database (or information) can aid a quick start but the best database is always one that you built and maintained yourself

7. Ring and ask

I often work with individuals who say that companies have “no name policies” and that potential clients will not give out any information. When I ask them how many calls they have made it is usually very few – sometimes only one.

One of my biggest breaks as a young salesman was breaking into a large software company. They had a no name’s policy and refused to give out any information. Many of my peers had tried a couple of times and failed and I had been handed this potentially huge but unassailable account.

At this stage in my career I had no magic tricks, very few strategies and even less experience. The one thing I did have however was hunger and persistence. I wasn’t going to be beaten and I rang and rang and rang this client. I kept ringing and ringing and ringing the client over a period of days and eventually someone gave me my lucky break

As my mum used to say, “If at first you don’t succeed, try, try and try again!” Great advice.

8. Call the sales dept and ask for…

Here’s a little trick that one of my first sales managers taught me. This tactic works really well if you know which company you want to talk with but you cannot find the right people to speak with. He pointed out to me that the one group of people in an organization who can rarely keep their mouths closed are the sales team!

If you really cannot find the names of the people that you need to approach then give the sales team a try! It’s easy ot get through (who won’t put you through to the sales team?) and they’re usually pretty talkative. Who knows, they may even become a part of your sales support network!

9. Read! Read! Read!

Spending some time every day reading is not only an enjoyable part of my day it has also delivered several of the best clients that I have ever approached. Many of these I had never even heard of until I read something written by or about them! I’ve picked up really hot leads in newspapers – national and local – magazines, trade magazines, online ezines, circulars.

One of my first MDs hated me sitting reading the industry press because he thought that it was a "waste of time" but I wasn’t listening because I knew just how many of my clients had been "cherry picked" this way.

Probably every company you will ever want to deal with has at some time or other spoken to the press, launched a new product or put out a press release. This is a great way in to companies and one that rarely fails when done well.

Now if you’re reading this thinking that you’ve already tried this approch but that it didn’t work, it’s probably because your approach was too focused on you and your products. The key to making this approach work is in making your opening gambit totally client and individual centric.

Let’s say an outsourcing company have just won a new contract to roll out some software with a national company and they are bragging about it in the paper for some PR. They’re going to get plenty of call from salespeople saying things like…

"Hey Mike

This is John from XYZ software. I see you’ve won the contract for Blah National – well done. We specialise in that kind of roll out and I’d like to talk with you about it. Can we meet?"

Let’s face it – this is not going to work! Not by a long shot! Think about it…

1. Why does Mike care?
2. Mike knows you don’t really mean “well done”!
3. This is the 5th call today he has had like this!

You need to research more and plan your opening gambit carefully. There are many different approaches that could work… Why not practise now and think about how you would you approach this one in such a way that it showed the client that you were genuinely interested in them and their company?

10. Your personal network

At the age of 19 I was sold a pension by a friend of mine. He had gone to work for a company selling pensions and the first thing he was asked to do was list 200 people he knew on a piece of paper. If the employees could not write down 200 names then they were sacked!

They were then asked to go and “practice” their techniques on 200 family and friends. If they couldn’t do this they were sacked! If they didn’t make many sales to their family and friends, guess what, they were sacked!

I suppose that for the company this was a great way of testing their potential staff and also a good way of making sales because surely a large number of “friends” and family would make a purchase if only to “help out” the employee! Even if they didn’t make it in the trade the company would have made a few sales before they left!

So I don’t put this strategy first, I put it last! And I think that you need to know your stuff well before you approach your friends and family because they will hopefully be your friends and family long after you retire or change jobs!

That said, if you’re remotely social, your personal network will be able to help you a lot but (and I do find this a bit bizarre) they probably won’t unless you find a way of suggesting that they can. I think sometimes it’s just easier for them not to.

So there you are, 10 great ways of finding new client information. Why not share your favourite ideas and tips by commenting below. Happy hunting.

Related posts:

1. Finding Your Personal Motivation
2. The Sales Apprentice: Sales Training Tips From The Hit TV Show, Part IX