Month: December 2011

What’s Right with Warm-Calling?

by Jacques Werth

Earlier this year, I answered the phone and a man said “I hate cold-calling.”

I said, “I’ve heard that from hundreds of salespeople. What about warm-calling?”

“Warm-calling, what’s that?” he asked.

I asked, “What’s your name and what do you sell?”

Ten minutes later, I knew Robert was calling lab managers, at myriad different types of laboratories, trying to get appointments to sell lab equipment and supplies. He had a good value proposition and he was trying to get the prospects interested enough to give him an appointment.  He seldom got appointments and, when he did, he rarely sold anything.

Most successful salespeople have been cold-calling for a very long time.  They are the survivors, the ones who stuck it out, put up with the pain and pressure, and hardened themselves to rejection. They learned how to get appointments with prospects who are interested in their products and services. Now, they get enough orders to earn a good living.

The first call that top producing salespeople make to a prospect is, by definition, a cold-call.  However, they don’t try to get appointments. They offer their product or service and ask the prospects if it is what they want.  Then, they call the same prospects every few weeks, again-and-again. They, change the wording of their offers each time.  Those are warm-calls. When a prospect is ready to change to a new supplier, it’s the prospect who asks for an appointment. A high percentage of those prospects eventually become customers. That’s just one of the results of “warm-calling.”

So, Robert learned warm-calling. “Now I make the most prospecting calls of all our salespeople, and the fewest sales visits,” he said. “And, my sales volume is  growing faster than I would ever have imagined.”

Obviously, there is a lot more to warm-calling than is explained in this article.

If you want to know more, or to tell me why you think it’s impossible, feel free to post your questions and opinions as a comment below.

A Key Ingredient for Becoming a Successful Salesperson

What are the characteristics of a successful salesperson? Is it the standard old-school-list of persistence, goal-orientated, good listeners, and many more? These are all important skills, and none should be taken lightly. But there’s one key ingredient in the formula of a successful salesperson that often gets overlooked, yet it is no less important than the above list.

by Jacques Werth

What are the characteristics of a successful salesperson? Is it the standard old-school-list of persistence, goal-orientated, good listeners, and many more? These are all important skills, and none should be taken lightly. But there’s one key ingredient in the formula of a successful salesperson that often gets overlooked, yet it is no less important than the above list.

It is the willingness to be uncomfortable.

What? You may be thinking. Maybe even just reading that statement makes you squirm a little. The willingness to be uncomfortable doesn’t necessarily mean “painful” or “unbearable.” It simply means to be willing to push the envelope, try something new, re-wire old thinking and old habits. Push it to the point where you are forced out of your comfort zone and into learning something new.

Being uncomfortable doesn’t sound very appealing to some, but it can be a powerful motivator. A motivator that allows salespeople to stop being “safe”, and challenge themselves to break away from their old and ineffective habits. The challenge of asking the questions to prospects they have never had the courage to ask before. The courage and willingness to try something new, even if it makes them “uncomfortable.”

Making The Shift To New Mindsets:

It can very hard to “unlearn” all your old selling habits. Heck, it’s even hard to unlearn being affected by prospect’s rejections. Our habits drive our need to succeed everyday and it’s not an easy task to shake them for the sake of learning new ones. It’s like still reaching for your glasses even though you just got contacts. Or going to another country and looking the wrong way for oncoming traffic when you are trying to cross the street. Habits shape who we are, good or bad, and become like grooves in a record.

Time to scratch that record. There’s an old saying that goes “do what you’ve always done, and you’ll get what you’ve always gotten.”

We all have what it takes to become successful. Are you ready to take the steps and make it happen?

Driving Your Customers

Watch your language. Driving is what we do to sheep. Is that how you feel about your customers? If so, it probably shows. If not, then be careful about the language you use, and the messages it sends.

by Carl Ingalls

Watch your language.  Driving is what we do to sheep.  Is that how you feel about your customers?  If so, it probably shows.  If not, then be careful about the language you use, and the messages it sends.

If you don’t respect your customers, and you don’t show this in every detail, you can’t expect them to respect you.  Lack of respect leads to lack of trust, and we all know what that does to sales.

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