January 30th, 2008 by Barry Caponi
Timing is everything. Our research shows that less than five percent of your target universe is in the market for what you sell when you call them. The operative words there are, “when you call them.”
When you can’t convince someone to see you when on an appointment making call, (or even if you come to the conclusion during the buying cycle that they won’t buy right now), don’t give up entirely on that person/company.
When disengaging from the call, I will say something like, “If it’s one thing I’ve learned in my career, it’s that the only constant in life is change. Do you mind if I call you back in six months (or some other appropriate time frame) to see if anything is changed?” I’ve never had anyone say no to that. And I now have clients that were not in the market when I first called on them. As a matter of fact, it may take multiple calls before they are willing to talk. But since you’ve invested time in them, why not leverage it? Have a system (Klpz) that will bring their name back up in the agreed upon time frame and call them back. You will also differentiate yourself as a professional. Get in the habit of disengaging professionally.
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January 23rd, 2008 by Barry Caponi
Just because someone doesn’t return your phone call or email doesn’t mean they can’t be a future customer. My ‘cycle’ for cold calls is 4×4x90. What that means is that I will make four attempts, every four days, and if I don’t get through, I will recycle them for ninety days and try again. I always leave a voicemail and on the fourth attempt, I will leave what I call is a ‘move-on’ message. In that voicemail, I will professionally convey the message that this will be my last attempt for a while, so if they have been meaning to call me back, now would be a good time. I get more calls returned from this message than all my other voicemails combined. As a matter of fact, it has been so successful that I have reduced my cycle from five attempts to four. Why waste the time for the extra call? Here’s the lesson, though.
When I ask people why they returned this particular message, the response is always the same. They tell me that they did want to speak with me, but that they were busy and figured sooner or later I’d get lucky and catch them. It was the sense of urgency that made them return the call. The point is that just because they are not returning your calls, you cannot assume that they would not be a potential future customer. Don’t give up on that name. For more information on this topic, see my February newsletter. I’ll expand on this a bit more.
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January 15th, 2008 by Barry Caponi
I was sitting at a business luncheon the other day and we were all telling each other at the table what we did for a living and I mentioned that I was a sales trainer with a focus on appointment setting. The young woman sitting next to me was in sales and she asked me for a ‘free’ tip. After passing on the old line of “Don’t bet on the horses”, I asked her what objection she heard most often when calling for an appointment. (We call them Conditioned Responses because people generally use the same one all the time to get us pesky sales people off the phone.) She told me it was, “I don’t have time to talk right now”. I asked her how she handled that and she said that she politely asked what would be a good time for her to call back.
I told her before I would give her my approach; I wanted to know why she thought the person was being honest with her and that they really didn’t have time to talk. It stopped her dead in her tracks. She told me she never thought about it that way, so I asked her what she said when people cold called her. Was she always honest? She laughed and said she always said the same thing; “I’m in good shape on (whatever they were selling).” “Always?” I asked.
“Pretty much” she answered. “So what makes you believe everyone else doesn’t use their own favorite Conditioned Response just like you do?” Mine is the too busy to talk one she hears most often as well, by the way. So here’s how I told her to handle it next time:
- “Hey, I totally understand. As a matter of fact the only reason I called was to set an appointment. How is Tuesday at 2:00?” (Assuming that’s what you asked for the first time.) You’ll more than likely hear them ask you what you were calling about again because they really weren’t listening any more once they realized it was a sales call. They were trying to figure out which of their old stand by excuses would work the best on you – proving my point that it was a conditioned or knee jerk response.
- Don’t believe it’s true until they tell you a second time – then it’s okay to ask when would be a good time to call back and take your chances. If you can though, pin them down to a specific day and time and call back at that time
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January 15th, 2008 by Barry Caponi
I was sitting at a business luncheon the other day and we were all telling each other at the table what we did for a living and I mentioned that I was a sales trainer with a focus on appointment setting. The young woman sitting next to me was in sales and she asked me for a ‘free’ tip. After passing on the old line of “Don’t bet on the horses”, I asked her what objection she heard most often when calling for an appointment. (We call them Conditioned Responses because people generally use the same one all the time to get us pesky sales people off the phone.) She told me it was, “I don’t have time to talk right now”. I asked her how she handled that and she said that she politely asked what would be a good time for her to call back.
I told her before I would give her my approach; I wanted to know why she thought the person was being honest with her and that they really didn’t have time to talk. It stopped her dead in her tracks. She told me she never thought about it that way, so I asked her what she said when people cold called her. Was she always honest? She laughed and said she always said the same thing; “I’m in good shape on (whatever they were selling).” “Always?” I asked.
“Pretty much” she answered. “So what makes you believe everyone else doesn’t use their own favorite Conditioned Response just like you do?” Mine is the too busy to talk one she hears most often as well, by the way. So here’s how I told her to handle it next time:
- “Hey, I totally understand. As a matter of fact the only reason I called was to set an appointment. How is Tuesday at 2:00?” (Assuming that’s what you asked for the first time.) You’ll more than likely hear them ask you what you were calling about again because they really weren’t listening any more once they realized it was a sales call. They were trying to figure out which of their old stand by excuses would work the best on you – proving my point that it was a conditioned or knee jerk response.
- Don’t believe it’s true until they tell you a second time – then it’s okay to ask when would be a good time to call back and take your chances. If you can though, pin them down to a specific day and time and call back at that time
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January 15th, 2008 by Barry Caponi
I was sitting at a business luncheon the other day and we were all telling each other at the table what we did for a living and I mentioned that I was a sales trainer with a focus on appointment setting. The young woman sitting next to me was in sales and she asked me for a ‘free’ tip. After passing on the old line of “Don’t bet on the horses”, I asked her what objection she heard most often when calling for an appointment. (We call them Conditioned Responses because people generally use the same one all the time to get us pesky sales people off the phone.) She told me it was, “I don’t have time to talk right now”. I asked her how she handled that and she said that she politely asked what would be a good time for her to call back.
I told her before I would give her my approach; I wanted to know why she thought the person was being honest with her and that they really didn’t have time to talk. It stopped her dead in her tracks. She told me she never thought about it that way, so I asked her what she said when people cold called her. Was she always honest? She laughed and said she always said the same thing; “I’m in good shape on (whatever they were selling).” “Always?” I asked.
“Pretty much” she answered. “So what makes you believe everyone else doesn’t use their own favorite Conditioned Response just like you do?” Mine is the too busy to talk one she hears most often as well, by the way. So here’s how I told her to handle it next time:
- “Hey, I totally understand. As a matter of fact the only reason I called was to set an appointment. How is Tuesday at 2:00?” (Assuming that’s what you asked for the first time.) You’ll more than likely hear them ask you what you were calling about again because they really weren’t listening any more once they realized it was a sales call. They were trying to figure out which of their old stand by excuses would work the best on you – proving my point that it was a conditioned or knee jerk response.
- Don’t believe it’s true until they tell you a second time – then it’s okay to ask when would be a good time to call back and take your chances. If you can though, pin them down to a specific day and time and call back at that time
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