The question is to be used at the end of a meeting or a presentation and can even be used at the end of a job interview.

“Is there anything you have seen or heard from me today that will stop us doing business?”

That is the question now go and give it a try

One salesman was insistent that he was a top negotiator and always brought the deals in. I spoke to his Sales Director and found that although he was bringing in the sales he was selling at a low margin. He had to sell three times as many orders as the real top salespeople. On top of that he was working longer days than everyone else.

After another interview with the salesman and a few questions on some of his orders I discovered that whenever the prospect challenged him on price he dropped his pants and agreed to a low price.

He was selling on price – the client’s price at that!

In any sale you must find out the prospects real need or you will sell on price!

Here is one question that will drive out the prospects need and help you put together a sale based on value.

Early in the qualification ask this question “Why don’t you do nothing? The clients answer will tell you the real reason he is in the market to buy your product or service.

Right let’s get down to business and cover all the questions and queries I get, what’s the best opening, how do you handle objections and help I can’t get started!

The first and most important tip in cold calling is that you must get involved in a conversation. The quicker you get into a conversation the better as with the right questions and the right timing you will find out the information you need to decide if there is an opportunity worth going for – phew that was a long sentence!

To set the scene we have already sent a letter with a little novelty gift as in previous suggestions – the ‘get noticed’ approach. (I will cover the other two cold calling approaches in the near future)

You have your list of calls and contacts, you have blocked an hour of your time and you are ready to start.

First question what day of the week and when is the best time to start? It is down to personal preference however if I have to ring someone for the very first time I prefer calling in the afternoon – I have found Friday afternoon very profitable!

You pick up the phone take a deep breath and dial the number. After a few rings the phone is answered by the switchboard “Good afternoon the big prospect company”. This is the easiest part of the call as you answer with ‘Can you please put me through to Alan Brown’

There are two replies here! “Yes – putting you through now” or “Can you tell me who is calling please”. Again another easy reply for you “Yes it is Michael McMeekin of Arrow Sales”. Once again two potential replies! “Yes – putting you through now” or “Can you tell me what the call is about and do you know him/her and is he expecting your call”. This is the first big test!

Be honest “No I haven’t met him however I am calling for a couple of reasons, one of them is to see that he got the parachute man we sent him/her”. This seems to throw the switchboard into confusion. They call the person you have asked for and in most cases you get put through.

That might sound easy but try it out it does work and it is quite fun!

Now you are a speaking to the person you sent the letter and novelty gift to and you need take another deep breath. “Hello is that Alan Brown?” It is always good to confirm that you are speaking to the right person even if they answered the phone stating their name.

Hello Alan, “My name is Michael McMeekin from Arrow Sales; did you get the parachute man we sent you?”

The answer will be yes or no! If you get a yes they will mention it and say something like it is on their desk, took it home for the kids, they are having some fun with it in the office or someone in the office took it.

If you get a no it sometimes brings about a funny response. They get upset that they haven’t got it and say someone must have took it before the letter arrived on their desk.

Either response seems to relax your prospect so that you can introduce yourself properly. Get back into your pitch and re-introduce yourself

“My name is Michael McMeekin from Arrow Sales; we have never met before however we have helped companies such as ABC increase their sales. The reason for the call is to see if you are open to new and different ideas to increasing your sales”.

The we have never met before answers a question that is running through the prospects head – who is he and have I met him before? Mentioning another company that is similar to theirs also gains some interest as everyone wants to know information on how other companies are doing things.

I would also like to add please don’t ask him/her how they are doing? Having spoken to many people over the years it seems to annoy some people when you ask them how they are doing. You haven’t even met them why should you care how they are doing! The prospect knows it is a sales call so stick to sales on this first call.

Anyway back to the call. You have told the prospect who you are, what you have done for a company similar to theirs and you have asked them if they are open to new ideas to improve their company.

Now you are in a position to have a conversation and qualify whether there is an opportunity for you. The questions you ask are dependent on your product or service however I like to follow these headline questions:

• Where are they now?
• Where are they going?
• What do they use at the moment?
• What is missing that they need from existing processes/suppliers?
• What would fix this need?
• What criteria would they use for choosing an external resource/product/service?

You can tailor the questions to your product and service however you should be finding out if they have a need and a compelling reason to solve it and work with you.

You may not get an answer to all your questions on the first call but you are on the way to building a relationship with the prospect that will only grow when you continue with your ongoing campaign.

Does it work I hear you say – well take a look at this link?

http://www.arrowsales.co.uk/results/sales-increase-by-ps800,000

And here is a copy of an email from Richard who has tried the process. He sent out eight letters, got five positive responses and one order. This is a copy of his email in my reply to my what did you do and how long did it take

‘ABOUT 3 WEEKS FROM INTRODUCTION TO SENDING THE COMPLETED ORDER, AND I USED /TWOTHREE PHONE CALLS

1. ASK THE COMPANY FOR A CONTACT PERSON WHO DEALS WITH THE ORDERING
2. SENT OUT MARKETING PACK FOR THEIR ATTENTION WITH FOLLOW UP CALL (3 DAYS AFTER) TO SEE IF THEY GOT IT AND INTRODUCTION TO ME’

 Three weeks for a first order from a cold call!

 Give it a go what have you got to lose. In the next couple of blogs I will cover more cold calling tips and how to handle objections.

Someone asked me the other day for a definition of cold calling. My view is that cold calling is when you contact someone you have never met or spoken with before and interrupt their day to find out if they need something that you sell! Easy really!!!

The cold calling I will concentrate on in this email is Approach B

To give you a reminder of the cold calling approaches here they are:

The first activity approach A is “there is a list of companies for you so get on the phone and sell” – the list is generally thrown at you by your Sales Manager. I call it the ‘yellow pages’ approach

The second approach (Approach B) is three pronged activity – phone to get the name of the right person, send a letter and follow it up with a phone call.  This I call the ‘get noticed’ approach

Approach three (Approach C) has two actions, you research who you want to target – Companies who fit you target criteria. Once you have a list of who would be your ideal targets you find out who can help you get an introduction into the company.

You will use your existing contacts, customers, friends, network clubs and the likes of Linkedin. Once you have a link to the company through a contact you get permission off your contact and then ring the prospect. This is the ‘can you help me approach’. We will cover this in the near future.

I will cover the ‘get noticed’ approach in a bit more detail. The first part is important as you need to decide on your ideal clients. The criteria will include the size of the company, turnover and staff numbers, the geography, the personnel, the sector, the right people and what ever criteria is relevant to you – it could be budget spend on your products or service. Aim to get a list of about sixty names.

Once you have researched your potential prospects and come up with your list it is time to get the name of the right person.

Call up the switchboard of the company and simply ask for his or her name. In most cases you will get the name in a few cases they will have a no names policy.

You should be able to get most of the names in only two’s hour of calling – roughly two minutes per call.

After you have completed your list write a letter and the most important part – get noticed. You are going to be sending your prospect a free gift, something cheap and inexpensive but something that will get you noticed.

Get yourself to Tesco or Asda (Wal-mart for our American friends) and visit the party section and buy some little toys. You can get yo-yo’s, puzzles, little parachute men, whistles and anything that takes your fancy.

Decide on your little gift and write a brilliant headline to the letter i.e. service contracts shouldn’t be puzzling.

Send out the letter and follow it up within two to five working days.

In summary you have three approaches

• Approach A – Yellow Pages approach!
• Approach B – Get Noticed approach!
• Approach C – Can you help me approach?

Here is a little bit of homework for you before my next mailer

• Use Approach B – Get Noticed approach!
• Find 60 potential ideal clients
• Phone and find the name of the right person
• Write up a letter with a great headline
• Enclose a little gift – tie in the gift with the headline
• Send out the letter to you 60 ideal clients

Some of you might think that this will not work however only this week after a campaign targeting national retail companies a client of mine was invited to bid for some service work for over 500 shops in the UK.

The campaign started with the first mailer on 6^th August 2009 and involved only four mailers. This company is only a small company and has already punched above its weight by beating competitors over a hundred times bigger than them.

Next time I will cover the follow up of the letters and the actual phone calling.

If you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact me.

Sales Tip for today – If a prospect asks you to send a quotation at the end of a meeting please, please say these words as they will save you time and win you business.

Here are the results of three cold calling sessions I recently carried out in October 09 and January this year with two different clients using three different approaches

A. Calls made 42 – got through to 5 people – time spent 84 minutes

B. Calls made 23 – got through to 10 people – time spent 65 minutes

C. Calls made 19 – got through to 16 people – time spent 100 minutes

A. 12% success rate – average call time for all calls 2 minutes

B. 43% success rate – average call time for all calls just under 3 minutes

C. 84% success rate – average call time for all calls just over 5 minutes

Approach A and B were for the same company, Approach C was for a new start-up company who had until the calls never sold anything.

You will not be surprised but the number of meetings and qualified opportunities are higher with approach B and C. Although we did get one meeting and a fantastic opportunity worth over £5,000 from approach A! If it ends up as an order I will tell you.

Over the next few weeks I will cover the three approaches as well as show you how you can handle the objections you get on the phone i.e. we already have a supplier thank you (said with a smug voice!)

All three approaches have some merit, it depends on what you sell, who you are selling to, what you are trying to achieve with the call and who is making the call.

If approach A ends up with a £5,000 service order 65 minutes of telephone work was worth it however if you want larger and recurring contracts approach B and C maybe better for you.

You make the choice over the next few weeks with the approach that fits best for your business.