7 Cold Calling Secrets Even The Sales Gurus Don't Know

Written by Ari Galper


7 Cold Calling Secrets Even The Sales Gurus Don't Know

More and more e-mails are arriving in my in-box from people who hate cold calling. Here's what they're saying:

• “Cold calling terrifies me.” • “The phone feels like a 10,000-pound weight.” • “Every time I have to make a cold call, I freeze up.” • “I feel like a fraud when I’m cold calling.” • “I can’t takerepparttar rejection when I do cold calling. It just kills me.” • “I’ve gone from top producer to ‘hermit’ because of my mental brick wall when it comes to cold calling.”

Cold callingrepparttar 119543 old way is a painful struggle.

But you can make it a productive and positive experience by changing your mindset and cold callingrepparttar 119544 new way.

To show you what I mean, here are 7 tested cold calling ideas that evenrepparttar 119545 sales gurus don’t know.

1. Change Your Mental Objective Before You Makerepparttar 119546 Call If you’re like most people who make cold calls, you’re hoping to make a sale -- or at least an appointment -- before you even pick uprepparttar 119547 phone.

The problem is,repparttar 119548 people you call somehow always pick up on your mindset immediately.

They sense that you’re focused on your goals and interests, rather than on finding out what they might need or want.

This short-circuitsrepparttar 119549 whole process of communication and trust-building.

Here’srepparttar 119550 benefit of changing your mental objective before you makerepparttar 119551 call: it takes awayrepparttar 119552 frenzy of working yourself up mentally to pick uprepparttar 119553 phone.

Allrepparttar 119554 feelings of rejection and fear come from us getting wrapped up in our expectations and hoping for an outcome when it’s premature to even be thinking about an outcome.

So try this. Practice shifting your mental focus to thinking, “When I make this call, I’m going to build a conversation so that a level of trust can emerge allowing us to exchange information back and forth so we can both determine if there’s a fit or not.”

2. Understandrepparttar 119555 Mindset ofrepparttar 119556 Person You’re Calling

Let’s say you’re at your office and you’re working away.

Your phone rings and someone says, “Hello, my name’s Mark. I’m with Financial Solutions International. We offer a broad array of financial solutions. Do you have a few minutes?”

What would go through your mind?

Probably something like this: “Uh-oh, another salesperson. I’m about to be sold something. How fast can I get this person offrepparttar 119557 phone?”

In other words, it’s basically over at “Hello,” and you end up rejected. The moment you userepparttar 119558 old cold calling approach --repparttar 119559 traditional pitch about who you are and what you have to offer, which allrepparttar 119560 sales gurus have been teaching for years -- you triggerrepparttar 119561 negative “salesperson” stereotype inrepparttar 119562 mind ofrepparttar 119563 person you’ve called, and that means immediate rejection.

I call it “The Wall.”

The problem is with how you’re selling, not what you’re selling.

This is an area that’s been ignored inrepparttar 119564 world of selling.

We’ve all been trained to try to push prospects into a "yes" response onrepparttar 119565 first call. But that creates sales pressure.

But, if you learn to really understand and put yourself inrepparttar 119566 mindset ofrepparttar 119567 person you call, you’ll find it easier to avoid triggering The Wall.

It’s that fear of rejection that makes cold calling so frightening.

Instead, start thinking about language that will engage people and not language that will trigger rejection.

3. Identify a Core Problem That You Can Solve

We’ve all learned that when we begin a conversation with a prospect, we should talk about ourselves, our product, and our solution. Then we sort of hope thatrepparttar 119568 person connects with what we’ve just told them. Right? But when you offer your pitch or your solution without first involving your prospect by talking about a core problem that they might be having, you’re talking about yourself, not them.

And that’s a problem.

Prospects connect when they feel that you understand their issues before you start to talk about your solutions.

When people feel understood, they don’t put up The Wall. They remain open to talking with you.

Here’s an example based on my own experience. I offer Unlock The Game™ as a new approach in selling. When I call a vice president of sales, I would never start out with, “Hi, my name is Ari, I'm with Unlock The Game, and I offerrepparttar 119569 newest technique in selling, and I wonder if you have a few minutes to talk now.”

Instead, I wouldn’t even pick uprepparttar 119570 phone without first identifying one or more problems that I know VPs often have with their sales teams. Problems that Unlock The Game™ can solve.

For example, one common problem is when sales teams and salespeople spend time chasing prospects who have no intention of buying.

So I would start by asking, “Are you grappling with issues around your sales team chasing prospects who lead them on without any intention of buying?”

So, come up with two or three specific core problems that your product or service solves. (Avoid generic problem phrases like “cut costs” or “increase revenue.” They’re too vague.)

4. Start With a Dialogue, Not a Presentation

Let’s return torepparttar 119571 goal of a cold call, which is to create a two-way dialogue engaging prospects in a conversation.

We’re not trying to setrepparttar 119572 person up for a yes or no. That’srepparttar 119573 old way of cold calling.

This new cold calling approach is designed to engage people in a natural conversation. The kind you might have with a friend. This lets you both of you decide whether it’s worth your time to pursuerepparttar 119574 conversation further. The key here is never to assume beforehand that your prospect should buy what you have to offer, even if they’re a 100 percent fit withrepparttar 119575 profile ofrepparttar 119576 “perfect customer.”

If you go intorepparttar 119577 call with that assumption, prospects will pick up on it and The Wall will go up, no matter how sincere you are.

Niche And Grow Rich

Written by André Anthony


Unless you've been living under an Internet rock, you've probably heardrepparttar buzz about Niche Marketing. Right now it'srepparttar 119542 hottest marketing topic online.

Is it a new concept?

Well onrepparttar 119543 Internet maybe, but if like me, you've been involved in direct response marketing inrepparttar 119544 'Bricks and Mortar' world then it isn't - that'srepparttar 119545 way we've done things since time immemorial.

So what's this Niche Marketing thing all about?

If you have ever taken Marketing 101 then you'll have heard ofrepparttar 119546 old marketing adage : "Find a need and fill it" - that's what "Niche Marketing" is all about. Finding a "focussed" group of people, with a specialized interest, eager to buy (The Niche) and promoting a suitable product or service to all those interested in buying it (Marketing).

Let me give you a few examples of these Niches :

Recipes Golf Fishing Health and Fitness Travel Collectibles Dating Dog Training Satellite TV Beauty Tips Astrology Cats Bartending Alternative Health Hand-poured Candles Gourmet Foods Gambling Mortgages Credit Cards Music Jewellery

......repparttar 119547 list just goes on and on and these are justrepparttar 119548 main headings, there are niches within each of these niches ... Think of a subject and there's likely a niche market for it...

Butrepparttar 119549 name ofrepparttar 119550 game is to find a "tightly focussed" niche. The reason for this that if you target a general marketrepparttar 119551 competition is fierce and it's hard, if not impossible, forrepparttar 119552 little guy to get a foothold.

When you narrow downrepparttar 119553 size ofrepparttar 119554 market you eradicate most ofrepparttar 119555 heavy hitters with bottomless advertising budgets, because these guys aren't interested in making a few thousand bucks a year from these tiny specialized markets, they're after millions from mass markets...

... And let's face it if you're a little guy you simply can't be everything to everybody, so you must pick a specific focus (Niche) for your business. For example don't target "Fishing", instead target "Fishing Baits" or "Fishing Lures" both of which have a much more specific focus...

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