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"Cold Calling Is A Waste Of Time" Newsletter
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"Why are prospects so flakey lately?"
In this newsletter I'm going to address that question.
One of the more common things I hear from salespeople
is that prospects are increasingly blowing off or
canceling appointments, or act really interested when
you meet with them but fail to ever return another phone
call again.
I heard Donald Trump say the following recently:
"In selling, you must never appear desperate. As
soon as you look desperate, it's over."
Well, as you've probably noticed by now, I equate
looking desperate with cold calling.
I had a good conversation the other day with a friend
of mine who happens to be a master at sales. He has
most of the same opinions as I on the subject, and
we were talking about the dynamics of what happens
when a salesperson makes a cold call, and talked
about what goes through a prospect's mind to cause
them to reject the salesperson.
When we make that call, we usually hope and expect that
the prospect will at least be receptive to hearing what
we have to say. However, salespeople face increasing
resistance to cold calling, as well as increasing
flakiness on the part of prospects who do meet with them,
i.e. not showing up for appointments and such. Instead
of thinking, "Ok, this may be interesting," here's what
most prospects actually think when they receive a
cold call: "Great. You don't know me and I don't know
you. You have no idea what my company does or what my
own business goals are. You don't know if we even need
whatever it is that you're selling, and in spite of all
that, you've decided to waste my time anyway with this
call."
What is increasingly becoming the norm is to be rejected
by the good, solid prospects everyone wants, and to get
appointments with flakey time-wasters who will never
buy anything. Flakiness, in particular, is a growing
problem thanks to the fact that prospects are increasingly
bombarded with endless advertising as well as endless
salespeople. When you consider the fact that few prospects
actually have the courage to say "no" and instead choose
to blow us off and make excuses, it becomes even more
frustrating.
One of the main themes I try to teach salespeople is
two-fold: 1) You must be supremely confident, to a level
that borders on mild arrogance. 2) You must get into the
habit of qualifying prospects OUT instead of merely
qualifying them. It's taking things to the next level and
is the appropriate response to ever-increasing flakiness
and evasiveness on the part of prospects. It's our way of
communicating to them, "If you can't take the heat, get
out of the kitchen" in a non-verbal way. The idea of taking
the lead and qualifying prospects out is scary at first,
and as a result most salespeople aren't willing to do it,
but it will save you lots of otherwise wasted time with
prospects who aren't really serious, and will free that
time up to be spent with real prospects who are really
going to buy.
It's important to start all sales relationships from a
position of power, and you do this in two ways: 1) Through
your outward presentation. This is easily accomplished
by acting very professional and dressing better than your
prospects, rather than taking the wrong advice of "dressing
like your prospects." It's easy to say "no" to someone with
whom you're comfortable, but much more difficult to say "no"
to someone who intimidates you. 2) Through your actions.
A great example is someone who is squirrely about agreeing to
an appointment with you. In many cases, these are the people
who finally agree to meet with you but eventually blow you
off without buying. When I found myself in this situation,
I discovered a great way to overcome it. It goes back to the
idea of confidence bordering on mild arrogance, and puts
you in the position of power. When you're getting the
runaround, something like "Well, we'll let you know when
we have time to pencil you in," say something like, "Great,
let me know. I'm very busy so I need to know either way -
NOW." This will get rid of time-wasters, and with serious
prospects, will clearly communicate that you're a serious
businessperson, should be taken seriously, and will not
tolerate having your time wasted and otherwise being
disrespected. It will also set you apart from the
competition and greatly increase your chances of getting
the sale.
As time goes on and I work with more salespeople, I'm
realizing that this idea of being powerful really overrides
everything else, and once you can pull it off, it
overshadows everything. You can do a poor job of presenting
and selling and yet this can carry you all by itself. For
anyone who is doubtful about this idea of presenting
yourself as overconfident and even a little bit arrogant,
I'll go back to Donald Trump since he's famous for his
giant ego. I saw him on Larry King, and as they were
taking live calls, one of the callers openly confronted
him about his massive ego and Larry King jumped on and
questioned him about it as well. Donald Trump simply
replied, "Have you EVER met a successful person who didn't
have a big ego?" After some hemming and hawing from King,
Trump repeated the question to him, and he said, "No."
Moving on from the idea of avoiding an appearance of
desperation and creating an appearance of power, there's
another very good reason as to why prospects who are
uncovered via cold calling are flakey. This one has
nothing to do with us and everything to do with a
particular prospect's mindset and level of sales
vulnerability to begin with.
Most of us have noticed, at some time or another, that
prospects who absolutely refuse to take cold calls and
have giant "No Soliciting" signs plastered on their
front doors tend to be the easiest to sell to once you
manage to get in front of them. There are a few popular
theories as to why this is so, the most common one
being the idea that since so few salespeople get through
to begin with, there is little competition and therefore
a better chance of getting the sale. However, I know
the real reason behind this.
The reason those people are so defensive against
sales pitches and have all those "No Soliciting" signs
is quite simple. They are AFRAID of salespeople. They
know very well that they have a very difficult time
saying "no," and as such they are highly vulnerable to
sales presentations and know very well that if a
salesperson gets to them, they'll probably buy whether
they need to or not.
(I never figured this out until I saw an article on the
subject of social dynamics which was written by someone
who has studied the subject of human social interaction
in depth. It explained that the people who act the coldest
and most unapproachable in social settings do so exactly
because they're overly vulnerable to being seduced and
falling in love and therefore are afraid of what someone's
advance may lead to.)
Now that we've explained why those people are the easiest
to sell to, let's look at the opposite type of prospect:
those who willingly take your call and willingly agree
to set an appointment.
If those who are easily sold won't take your call and won't
agree to meet with you, why would someone be so agreeable
to taking your call and meeting with you? Exactly. It's
because they have no fear of salespeople. They know right
from the start that there's little chance of them being
sold. Their openness and receptiveness to your call
puts us off-guard. We think we have a great shot at a
sale, but in reality we're meeting with someone who is
98% certain not to buy.
Since the people who willingly take cold calls usually
don't buy, and the people who usually buy don't take
cold calls, what's the solution? Since those who are
easily sold almost always meet with salespeople only
when they've called the salesperson first and not the
other way around, you must get your message across to
these people in creative and effective ways other than
cold calling.
To those highly desirable prospects who are easily
sold, all salespeople seem the same. The only way
to win with them is to separate yourself from the
rest of the crowd.
The first way to accomplish this is to be that powerful
businessperson who needs nothing and deserves respect.
I think most of us were taught and have gotten into the
habit of treating prospects as superiors and as a result
we tend to do whatever is convenient for the prospects
and otherwise kiss up to them. We are used to rearranging
our schedules just to meet with that one prospect. Stop
this, and start expecting your prospects to treat YOU with
the respect and consideration you deserve as someone who is
not only a business equal, but who has the knowledge and
wisdom to help them and improve their businesses and their
lives.
The second way to stand out is to stop cold calling.
Nothing will stereotype you as the typical salesperson
faster than a cold call. The way to win with the prime
prospects is to get your message across to them in ways
that don't use cold calling. You'll get in front of
the easy sales, and you won't have any competition once
you get there. The answers as to how to accomplish this
are in my "Cold Calling Is A Waste Of Time: Sales Success
In The Information Age" program. I spent a long time
figuring these things out, and I can say both from my
own experience and from the feedback and testimonials
from others who are using the program that it's the best
one out there. You can order it right now at:
http://www.nevercoldcall.com/products.htm
Thanks once again for reading, and be sure to send
in your emails to newsletter@nevercoldcall.com and
watch for them in an upcoming mailbag. And, as
always, I read success stories first, so send yours
in today!
Good luck and happy selling!
Your friend,
Frank J. Rumbauskas, Jr.
www.nevercoldcall.com
www.dontcoldcall.com
--------------------------------------------------------
Copyright 2006 Frank J. Rumbauskas, Jr. and FJR
Advisors, LLC. All rights reserved. "Cold Calling
Is A Waste Of Time: Sales Success In The Information
Age" and "Never Cold Call Again" are registered
trademarks of FJR Advisors, LLC.
--------------------------------------------------------
20701 N Scottsdale Rd Suite C5-290
Scottsdale AZ 85255 USA
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posted by Justin McWhirter @ 7:17 PM
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