February 27th, 2008 by Barry Caponi
I’m often asked the best times to make cold calls. Here’s how I respond.
Particularly if you are calling C-level executives, try calling when their gatekeepers are not there. Try 7am before the gatekeeper arrives, at lunch time when the gatekeeper is gone and after 6pm. Executives don’t become executives by working nine to five.
If you’re calling business owners, additionally try Saturday mornings. (You’ll pretty much catch me in the office.) Worst case, when you leave a message, they’ll realize you’re like them and working hard to get ahead.
In virtually every business, there are better times than others, and they vary. When I first got in the sales training business, I convinced myself that all sales managers were in sales meetings every Monday morning until one Monday I didn’t have anything else to do and started making calls. Much to my surprise, senior sales managers are very available on Monday mornings because their minions are all in those pipeline review sessions, not them. Keep track of the times you call and success you have. You’ll find patterns.
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February 21st, 2008 by Barry Caponi
As soon as you tell them your name and company (and you should do that), your target knows this is a cold call. They don’t recognize your name or your company so what else could it be? A call to tell them you’ve found a sizable credit in their name at your company?
One of the precepts of The Appointment Making Formula™ is to always be honest and sincere with people. I don’t know about you, but as soon as a cold caller asks me how I’m doing, my defenses go up and I actually find myself irritated. I know they don’t give a hoot as to how I’m doing. Do you really care how they’re doing today? 55% of communication occurs through non-verbal manners such as facial expressions and body language. Over a phone call, that capability is not available to you. Only 7% occurs through the words you use. That means that the most effective communication available to you (38%) is through tonality. Don’t blow it by asking questions that sound devoid of meaning.
If you really want to ask a question early on to get them involved in the conversation (although it is not necessary), try this.
After saying hello (using their name), introduce yourself and your company. Then ask if they are familiar with your firm. Whether they say yes or no, respond using your eleven second commercial which describes your company briefly. The only difference between the yes, they are familiar or no, they are not is the first few words. If yes, it may sound something like, “Oh well then you’re aware that we are one of the largest…most successful”. If they say no, then say, “Well we’re one of the largest…most successful…”
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February 13th, 2008 by Barry Caponi
The Appointment Making Formula™ is based on the concept that the target you’re calling will do anything, including lie, to get you off the phone until you give them a reason to have a short conversation with you, so why would you ask for permission to continue before you get them into that conversation?
First of all, you have every right to make the calls you do (assuming you’re calling into businesses and not into ‘no call’ lists), so don’t be apologetic. Instead, project strength and confidence when you call. Also understand that you are interrupting the person you are calling whenever you call. That means they don’t want to talk to you when you call. Also understand that surveys show that more than 95% of the targets you’re calling do not think they need what you’re offering when you call. That means they don’t think they need you when you call. The result is that they will do anything, include lie, to get you off the phone when you call. So why, oh why, would you increase the odds of your target saying no to you by asking permission to talk with them?
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February 6th, 2008 by Barry Caponi
I’m sometimes asked how to best manage remote areas of a geographic territory. This applies to whether it is an ‘airplane’ territory or just a seldom visited area of a local territory.
I am going to make an assumption here that we are talking about a part of your territory that either is very expensive to visit, you’ve got more to say grace over locally than you can handle, or the area just doesn’t have very many ‘ quality targets’ in it so you don’t go there very often. There are several parts to this ‘Best Practice’.
- When you do call into that area trying to set appointments, and you get a no, always ask them if you can check back the next time you’re in the area to see if they might have some interest and availability. It is amazing how often people will say yes to this even though they’ve said no to the request for an appointment immediately. It is because they don’t think you’ll really call back, so they figure, “What’s the harm?” The point is though that when you do call back and tell them they said it was okay to do so, the psychological battle shifts and you’re more likely to get the appointment.
- When you do get an appointment in a remote area, make sure to set it out far enough to give you time to fill out your calendar either there, or on the way there or back.
- Remember, things come up and people legitimately cancel at the last minute even though they know you’ve driven four hours or taken a plane ride to get there. My rule of thumb when a sales manager was to require my team have at least three appointments when they were going to take a day to get somewhere and back. That way if one cancels, it is still a productive day.
- Make sure you use a system that allows you to search by geography to keep up with those ‘area’ calls as well as record those that say it’s okay to call when you’re back in the area. We recommend Klpz for appointment makers anyway, and it is superb at this.
- When you do call, make sure you tell them that you’re going to be in the area on that date and then use the remainder of your normal script. The more remote the area, the more likely people will grant you the meeting. People will grant you those appointments more often for some reason. I’m not sure why, but our clients consistently report back that this technique works.
- …Which means you can use that technique to create a trip to a remote area. Just don’t abuse the approach.
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