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Cold Calling Quantity Versus Quality

Cold Calling, Telephone sales training, Time management 6 Responses »

Aug 142009

There has been a rather heated discussion in one of the groups re this very subject that was generated by the question “How many calls can you do per day?” So I thought I would write something on the subject.

First and foremost you must understand that these things are not mutually exclusive. You can significantly increase both quality and quantity of calls at the same time.

The motivation for this article is that it has been my experience in working with inside groups or even field sales people that make calls. I have found that they’re usually quite inefficient and thus don’t make near as many calls as they could in the same period of time and without degrading the quality of their effort.

Call Quantity

It is stupid obvious that if you make more calls (assuming you don’t change the quality) you will reach more people and make more sales. Most people don’t even do 60% of what they could do because they haven’t worked out how to be really efficient and effective. Here are some ways to do that.

When you make calls, just make calls. What I mean here is that switching tasks takes tremendous amounts of time. If you are going to make calls have all the researched ready to call names in front of you and JUST make calls.

Control the calls. It is your job to control the flow and direction of the sales call and process. Don’t let prospects wander or waste your time. Make sure you efficiently gather the information and forward the sales process. If you take the time to record your calls you will probably find they run from 10-30 percent longer than necessary just do to inefficiencies in handling the call.

If you work from a CRM product fill out the record as you wait and as if you didn’t reach the person. If you plan to leave a message indicated that, or put that you didn’t reach the person. You can have all of this done before the call completes and thus move much more quickly to the next call. If they do answer you can simply edit your notes as you chat to reflect the actual results.

If you aren’t going to leave a message for the person, hang up after the third ring. Most people will answer long before the third ring if they are going to – this will save you tons of time.

Dial one number after the next – don’t allow yourself to be distracted until it is time to break or you have completed all your calls. The average distraction will steal anywhere form 11-22 minutes from your calling time – that’s one conversation or multiple dials.

These are just a few things you can do without affecting the quality of your calls that will make a big difference in your call numbers. I hope you find them useful.

I will now move on to call quality.

Call Quality

Call quality is very important. Rushing through calls with prospect’s, especially in today’s world where it is so hard to get them on the phone in the first place, is a very bad idea.

Here are some key things you can do that will improve call quality.

Have a documented sales process or presentation.

NO, I am not telling you to read a script even though this is workable if you know what you’re doing and have the delivery skills.

What I am saying is that you need a very clearly and well thought out sales process. It is my contention that not having such a document is the equivalent of saying this process has not be well thought out. It’s like goal setting – if you don’t write them down, they aren’t goals but wishes.

Develop a powerful unique selling proposition (USP)

For insight on just what a USP is all about read this post (opens in a new window)

The point is that call quality is improved when you have a strong USP – you engage more people and the people you engage will be more interested in what you have to say.

Make sure you’re doing the basics well.

I spent 23 years consulting to the high tech industry in telephone sales and management and it is frightening how many simple errors people make. Here are some of the most common.

Starting to sell before rapport is developed

Starting to sell before the person you’re speaking with has be qualified

Speaking in a casual voice

Not answering specifically the question or comment made by the prospect (changing subjects) without addressing the fact you are doing so

These are just a couple of the most obvious things you can do.

One final note, regular training is the absolute key to producing high quality calls. For those of you responsible for or managing insides sales organizations I am putting on a free conference call next week on driving high performance in inside groups – Click Here (Opens in a new widow) for details.

Cold Calling Secrets Focus, Concentration, Work Flow

Cold Calling, Prospecting, Telephone selling No Responses »

Aug 122009

Please see our events page for info on our upcoming FREE Telesales conference call.

In this article I’m basically going discussing “productivity.” Though it is an old cliche, prospecting, or cold calling, is a numbers game. This may be even truer today that it was just 10 or 15 years ago. By the way these techniques are totally valid and workable for any sales effort and not limited to cold calling. They are just more important for cold calling because of the nature of that game.

Why is this true? Because of the advent of technology and possibly the pace of business you’re simply going to reach less people each day. With voice mail and automated attendants decision makers can better protect their time and your access. Twenty years ago you would talk to more people than not. Today you’re lucky to talk to anyone at all in a whole day of calling – researched or not.

All of this makes it critically important that you play the numbers game with maximum efficiency.

The first secret here is “focus.” Focus is all about avoiding distractions during your efforts. When you sit down to make cold calls or prospect you MUST completely avoid any kind of distraction. You need to make sure you are ready to call and call without interruption.

Experts claim that interruptions cost a minimum of 11 minutes to recover from and many say that is conservative. That’s almost 20 percent of your hourly calling time eaten up by any interruption.

The second secret is “concentration” which is closely related to focus. In order to be effective and efficient you must keep your concentration on the matters at hand. When you lose concentration on your prospecting not only does it effect our efficiency but you also potentially loose your effectiveness in responding to the prospect.

You will find working fully focused with energy and concentration that you get on a roll – especially if you rack up a good call early in the effort. Once on that roll you’ll find that you begin working much faster than you were when you started. This is the right way to cold call or prospect or for that matter sell.

I suggest that you work in spurts of 50 minutes and then take a 10 minute rest. During the 50 minutes put all your effort and concentration on making the maximum number of calls you can, no sacrificing quality of course. Then take a 10 minute break and get away from your desk and the calling completely. Think about something else do something that is fun or relaxing, then get back for another concentrated period.

I managed a team years ago that I taught this trick to. Using this method they were able to make an average of 30 percent more calls than our peer groups and team members and they did it in 75 percent of the time. My group worked a solid 6 hours with total focus and was able to make more calls that other team members working 8 and 9 hours per day. Why, focus and concentration. And by the way they had better results as well.

Finally I want to introduce “work flow.” Most salespeople and manager’s pay no attention to this subject. You will find if you work at the work flow of making calls that you can produce some incredible results. Here’s an example.

Most people would say that making 50 calls in six hours is a reasonable number. And if you just cruise along you can probably do this consistently. However if you test and work some work flow tactics you may actually double it.

First, most people answer the phone by the third ring, thus, is you don’t need to leave a message you can hang up on ring 3 without much risk.

Second, if you create a prepared voice mail message and learn it well, you can deliver that message with enthusiasm and more quickly and efficiently saving even more time.

Third, use time after dialing the number while the phone rings and the time you spend speaking to the gatekeeper to fill out the contact record as if you “didn’t” talk to the person with a note that you left a message if you are going to do so. You’ll be right 90% of the time and ready to move to the next call immediately.

If they answer, you can simply edit as you talk and you’ve lost no time.

Consistently using the above tactics you’ll be able to move from call to call very quickly. This will result in far more calls, messages, and contacts in the same period of time.

In fact, don’t be surprised if you double your call numbers (Which has to improve your results). You will also notice with this focused approach that the day moves much faster and you feel far better and less tired at the end of the day.

Surprise yourself, try it!

Cold Calling Secrets Focus, Concentration, Work Flow

In this article I’m basically going discussing “productivity.” Though it is an old cliché, prospecting, or cold calling, is a numbers game. This may be even truer today that it was just 10 or 15 years ago. By the way these techniques are totally valid and workable for any sales effort and not limited to cold calling. They are just more important for cold calling because of the nature of that game.

All of this makes it critically important that you play the numbers game with maximum efficiency.

Experts claim that interruptions cost a minimum of 11 minutes to recover from and many say that is conservative. That’s almost 20 percent of your hourly calling time eaten up by any interruption.

First, most people answer the phone by the third ring, thus, is you don’t need to leave a message you can hang up on ring 3 without much risk.

Second, if you create a prepared voice mail message and learn it well, you can deliver that message with enthusiasm and more quickly and efficiently saving even more time.

If they answer, you can simply edit as you talk and you’ve lost no time.

Consistently using the above tactics you’ll be able to move from call to call very quickly. This will result in far more calls, messages, and contacts in the same period of time.

Surprise yourself!

A Better Version of the Qualifying Question

Cold Calling, Qualifying 2 Responses »

Aug 112009

I am amazed at how few salespeople do a good job qualifying before making their presentations. I think failure to qualify is one of the most frequent errors made in selling.

Anyway, I wanted to talk about the primary qualification question which is usually asked like so:

Are you the person that makes the decision to buy…

Who is the person that makes the decision to…

What is your authority in the decision to buy…

All of these are basically the same question. Here the seller is asking the prospect directly if they are the decision maker or who that person would be.

I have found a much better and more workable approach is to rephrase this question as follows:

How does your company go about making the decision to buy (your product or service)?

This version of the qualifying question is far less threatening and at the same time more flexible.

When the prospect starts to answer you now can question his or her responses to clarify exactly who does what in the buying process. It is also far harder for the prospect to miss lead you about their own authority.

The Long Forgotten Unique Selling Proposition

Cold Calling, Prospecting, unique sales proposition No Responses »

Aug 102009

I have made a most interesting discovery. Most salespeople don’t really know what a unique selling proposition is. In fact, most companies don’t seem to know. This sounds incredible but it appears to be true.

Since the unique selling proposition is a critical aspect of selling not to mention selling on the phone, I though I would share some information on unique selling propositions that will help you sell more.

Before I begin let me recommend a book that I recommend all the time and in my book lists to salespeople. (See the recommended reading section of my free sales resources page.). The book is called “Monopolize Your Marketplace” by Richard Harshaw. In this book, as well as Jay Abraham’s “Getting Everything You Can Out of All You’ve Got,” you can learn all about unique selling propositions and how to tell a powerful story that will hook prospects.

What is a Unique Selling Proposition?

Before I reveal the secrets of the unique selling proposition let me ask you to write yours down on a piece of paper. Then you can go through the exercise with me as I lay this out.

A unique selling proposition according to Hershaw should make the prospect feel, and I quote from page 21 of his book:

“I would have to be an absolute fool to do business with anyone else but you – regardless of price.”

As you can see a good unique selling proposition has to be pretty darn powerful. Most of the propositions you hear aren’t propositions at all but platitudes.

What’s a platitude? A platitude is something that is stated as if it were important or unique when in fact it is not. Here are some examples.

“We fix your car right the first time.”

Why is this a platitude? Because anyone getting their car fixed would expect this to be the case. No one is going to the guy who says – “We fix it right the second time.” This is a “Well I would hope so” platitude.

And that is the first test of a good unique selling proposition – Would a normal person looking for your product or service simply expect as common what you claim.

Here’s another example of “I would hope so.”

“We give you a free consultation visit.”

This is a common benefit stated in ads for lawyers – but everyone does it so it is expected anyway. It’s a platitude.

Look at your selling proposition, is it a “Well I would hope so?”

The second platitude is “Who else can say that?” If someone else can say what you said, then it’s not and unique selling proposition as it’s not unique.

If you say “Were the best in town.” you very well might be, but any other company could simply make the same claim. If your competition can say with confidence based on their belief what you are saying, it’s not a unique selling proposition.

It’s not about who can do what you do, but about who can say what you say.

A great example of all of this is found by looking in the phone book at say lawyers. In most cases you could switch the names and phone numbers between the ads (as long as you kept with in the specialties) and the claims would be true or at least legitimate. There are very few unique selling propositions in the phone book, most of the ads contain platitudes instead.

Summary

Now that you have a better understanding of what a unique selling proposition really is you can see why having one will likely generate call backs to your messages in your cold calling efforts and get the attention of those you engage on the phone.

Why Cold Calling Doesn't Work, When it Should!

Cold Calling, Prospecting, Telephone selling No Responses »

Jul 302009

The discussion to the last post brings me to write this explanation of cold calling.

As I said in the previous post, I think the heart of the debate about cold calling is a simple changing of the definition. Unfortunately, most of the nay sayers don’t define the terms.

To start I believe this circumstance and debate have come about because most people have no clue how to cold call effectively. The main reason for this is companies don’t invest the necessary time to teach people how to cold call for their product; they simply make the assumption that they know – a fatal error.

In over twenty years of active sales consulting to the high tech industry I found only a hand full of people who really had high level cold calling skills.

The starting point of the problem is the lack of a good and powerful unique selling proposition. Most salespeople think they know what that is but don’t, and most companies don’t do anything to help the sales team develop one.

Most cold calling is done via the phone and most salespeople don’t know how to use the phone properly. They don’t know what makes it tick and how to leverage what they do so it will succeed on the phone. One key reason for this is almost no one actually teaches these skills. Most telephone sales training is based on standard and classical sales theories and has nothing to do with what makes the telephone different – which is the key to succeeding.

Without real telephone selling skills, a powerful unique selling proposition, and some training on how to apply them specifically to the product at hand you can expect dismal results in cold calling.

If you are interested I have a telephone sales quiz you can take for your own entertainment and hopefully learning. Click here for quiz.