6) DON’T HARD SELL!!!

Don’t pressure people or make it hard for them to get off phone. Tell them what you do and that you'd like to send them an email with a link to your website with samples and testimonials (or with an attachment containing samples), then leave them to it.

7) Follow up with an email

If you have permission, always send a follow-up email – and do so immediately. Be specific in your subject line. (TIP FOR COPYWRITERS: If you’re an advertising copywriter or website copywriter, use words "advertising copywriting" or “website copywriting” in subject. Most people don't get many emails with this in subject line, so it'll be distinctive and probably won’t be snuffed by their spam filter if they have one.) Address email to them (e.g. "Hi Joe"), keep email short 'n sweet. Include only essential info, make it easy to read and conversational, and bold important words or phrases as they'll probably only skim it. Include a link to your website, reference day and date you talked on phone (and thank them for that time), mention any names you learnt (e.g. receptionist's name, especially if receptionist gave you an email address but you didn't actually get to speak to decision maker), tell them that you'd like to follow up in a few weeks (assuming conversation indicated that this would be a good idea).

8) Follow up with another call

If lead looks promising, make sure you follow up. And when you do, always mention day and date of original call, as well as fact that you sent an email. Give a quick summary of who you are and what you do, and say that you're just calling to make sure they got email. Most of time, you’ll find lead will talk to you about your services, if only to remind themselves of what you do!

9) Don’t expect to make too many calls

On a really good day, I've made 80 cold calls. Most days, though, you should be very pleased to average around 40. You’ll spend a lot of time playing telephone tag.

10) Don’t leave message

Unless you absolutely have to (or you’ve just about given up on lead), don’t leave messages. Most people have trouble returning phone calls from people they know and like; returning phone calls from someone who’s trying to sell them something isn’t high on their list of priorities.

11) Don’t expect to qualify too many leads

Depending on your business, if you get one good lead a day, you're probably doing very well.

12) Don’t expect immediate conversion

Unfortunately, most leads take a long time to come to fruition (up to 2 years). So you have to be prepared to be patient.

Good luck and happy calling!

* Glenn Murray is an advertising copywriter and heads copywriting studio Divine Write. He can be contacted on Sydney +612 4334 6222 or at glenn@divinewrite.com. Visit http://www.divinewrite.com for further details or more FREE articles.

Points System

Reward customers a point for every one-dollar they spend. Lets say customers can get a free computer for 300 points. That means customers will spend $300 dollars on your products and services to get enough points to get free computer. To push slower selling products or services just offer more points per dollar spent for those particular items.

The kind of rewards you give should depend on what your business can afford. Cheaper rewards could be gift certificates, coupons, clothes, or movie passes. Expensive rewards could be jewelry, vacations, bed and breakfast gift certificates, electronics or computer equipment.

You may want to invest in a good database program to keep track of your rewards program. I also recommend contacting a legal professional for advice, set-up and structure of your rewards program. I hope these ideas I've given you help make your business more successful.