Tuesday, March 15
Replace cold calling with SMART calling
Let’s back up a moment and define what COLD CALLING usually means to most people:
* Dialing the phone for a set amount of time each day trying to get someone (anyone) to talk to you.
* Quantity-driven (“Sales is a numbers game”) mindset.
* Preparation involves looking at the next number to dial on your printout.
* Message is highly scripted and usually begins with something amazingly stupid like, “How are you today?” (This SCREAMS “cold call” – stop asking this question NOW!! It’s what the bozos say who call to interrupt you at dinnertime!)
Cold calling, even in the hands of people that like it, do it a lot, and claim to make money at it, is at best 4-5% effective.
SMART CALLING, on the other hand, is just like a regular sales call, with the unique added challenge that your prospect simply cannot SEE you. It involves the following:
* Dialing the phone trying to reach specific decision makers within specifically targeted organizations to provide them with valuable content, information, and resources.
* Quality-driven (“Sales is NOT a numbers game”) mindset.
* Preparation involves research, networking, company background, industry news, regional news, company changes, strategic opportunities, lead sharing, and giving value first. (Yup, this is real work. Welcome to sales!)
* Message is unscripted but well-planned. Specific questions, issues, and value statements are prepared in advance and the call has a clearly defined objective within an overall end-to-end integrated sales and marketing process.
Think about it: do you want to focus on getting lucky or on getting highly qualified prospects which lead to sales?
Do you want to make 100 dumb phone calls a day to strangers or 10-12 SMART phone calls to the right people in the right places at the right time for the right reasons?
Exactly.
* Dialing the phone for a set amount of time each day trying to get someone (anyone) to talk to you.
* Quantity-driven (“Sales is a numbers game”) mindset.
* Preparation involves looking at the next number to dial on your printout.
* Message is highly scripted and usually begins with something amazingly stupid like, “How are you today?” (This SCREAMS “cold call” – stop asking this question NOW!! It’s what the bozos say who call to interrupt you at dinnertime!)
Cold calling, even in the hands of people that like it, do it a lot, and claim to make money at it, is at best 4-5% effective.
SMART CALLING, on the other hand, is just like a regular sales call, with the unique added challenge that your prospect simply cannot SEE you. It involves the following:
* Dialing the phone trying to reach specific decision makers within specifically targeted organizations to provide them with valuable content, information, and resources.
* Quality-driven (“Sales is NOT a numbers game”) mindset.
* Preparation involves research, networking, company background, industry news, regional news, company changes, strategic opportunities, lead sharing, and giving value first. (Yup, this is real work. Welcome to sales!)
* Message is unscripted but well-planned. Specific questions, issues, and value statements are prepared in advance and the call has a clearly defined objective within an overall end-to-end integrated sales and marketing process.
Think about it: do you want to focus on getting lucky or on getting highly qualified prospects which lead to sales?
Do you want to make 100 dumb phone calls a day to strangers or 10-12 SMART phone calls to the right people in the right places at the right time for the right reasons?
Exactly.
