George Kengott

By George Kengott

In these uncertain times, business owners and salespeople might need to dust the cobwebs off of that telephone and start to cold call to increase sales. You may have not done that when you first started in business. You may have told yourself for years that you HATE cold calling. Now, you will start to LOVE and LIKE cold calling and here is the reason why.

Telling yourself you hate calling is akin to a woman who is about to give birth saying “I hate kids-they never liked me. I don’t know how to handle them. I’m not going to be a good mom.” Sound ridiculous? If you have to do something for any length of time, why not learn to enjoy it now?

How is that possible?

You can change the way you view prospecting on the phone by changing your primary goal. Your primary goal in the past might have been to get an appointment, close a deal, get an agreement to call back at a later date or any number of primary goals depending on your product or service. Now, you can set a new primary goal which is to HAVE FUN. This makes the former primary goals your secondary goals.

You might be asking, “How can I have fun if I never liked cold calling before?” Here are some ways you can have fun:

• Transform rejection into an advantage. When the prospects reject you, they are not essentially rejecting you. They may just be busy, at a loss, or in a bad mood. They may be feeling the need to end the call without your services and get back to doing their job.Instead of feeling disappointed, thank them for their time and tell them to have a great day! Make them laugh even after they reject you. You have to be creative in doing so. For instance, you can tell them they might win a prize for being the 25th person that day who said no.

 

• Get them to feel happier after finding out they don’t need your services. Think that making other people feel happier is not so much for their benefit but for your benefit. It removes the barrier between you and prospects and it makes you feel better for the next call.

 

• Be yourself. You are unique. Don’t freeze or turn into a robot once you get on the phone. Pretend you are speaking with someone as if he or she is sitting on your sofa on your living room.

 

• Let your body talk. People only hear 8% of what you say. The other 92% is your body language and how you say it. Smile, put your feet up on the desk if that’s what makes you comfortable, talk with your hands if that’s what you normally do. If it sounds like you are having fun, they are much more likely to do business with you.

 

• Believe you can achieve your primary goal on every call. When you are having fun, you have constant success which will allow you to sail to the next call in a good mood with a smile on your face.

Don’t say “My name is…”

Always start out with “This is (name)” whenever you leave a voice mail or first introduce yourself to the prospect or the receptionist. When we hear “My name is,” our defense mechanism kicks in and says “I don’t know this person so how can I get rid of them?” On the other hand, when we hear “This is,” our ears perk up because we usually know the person when he or she says “This is…”

Try saying “This is George Kengott. Do you have a quick second?” Don’t automatically assume they are sitting behind their desks waiting for Sally or Georgie boy to sell them something. They will respect the fact that you asked if they have time. Don’t puke all over them with your features and benefits. If they say they don’t have time, ask them for a time tomorrow.

If they do say yes and give you some time, give them your elevator speech that should take no longer than 20 seconds. Give them a compelling reason to go past the 20 seconds. If you do business with notable clients, you might do a quick name drop to give you some instant credibility.

You asked if they had time and gave them your 20 second speech. You had fun before the call and will continue to have fun after the call. That, my friends, is 90% of cold calling but many sales people and business owners cannot do those simple steps. The other 10% is how you differentiate yourself from your competition.

Having fun makes you, your prospect and your pocketbook much happier. Now go out and look forward to having a fun filled and prosperous 2009.