March 26th, 2008 by Barry Caponi
If we don’t know how to effectively take someone who does not believe they are in the market for what we are selling when we pick up the phone and call, we will have to make many more calls for each appointment we set than we need or want to – and most of us have limited time to invest in cold calling.
Our surveys consistently show that less than five percent of any universe of suspects believes they are in the market for what we’re selling when we call. If we take our suspect’s word for it, that means that only 5 of every 100 people we talk to should have an interest in meeting with us when we call. Experience teaches us that we’ll not be able to convince all of those to meet with us for a variety of reasons, but let’s assume for the sake of argument that we can. So let’s do the math.
Assumptions:
Average time per dial = 6 minutes (including prep. time, calling, conversing & recording – trust me, we’ve documented it)
Typical Conversation Ratio = 10% (Dial to Conversations)
Typical Appointment Ratio = 20% (Conversations to Appointments)
Closing Ratio = 20% (Initial Meeting to Close)
Interest Level = 5%
Based on these averages, if we dial the phone 1000 times, we’ll get through to 50 people. Of those 50 conversations, we’ll only run into 2.5 that are in the market for what we’re selling right now. Even assuming that they’re all willing to meet with us, we’ve now invested 6,000 (100 hours) to get those appointments. So how much do you make an hour? Is it worth it just to play the numbers game, or should we be learning how to convince some of those people that we’ve got something that others in their position have benefitted from?
You do the math…
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March 18th, 2008 by Barry Caponi
Newton’s ‘Law of Inertia’ states that, “Every object in a state of uniform motion tends to remain in that state of motion unless an external force is applied to it.”
“So what does that have to do with cold calling” you ask? “Everything,” I answer!
The other day, one of my clients made an admission to me. He was new to his business this past October and had just cranked up his cold calling regimen when he went through one of our appointment making workshops in November and December. He quit making calls while he was taking the workshop by convincing himself that he’d develop his new process and techniques before he’d start calling again. Besides, who is around in December anyway?
He just told me that he had started making calls again in February, which brings me to why I brought out the ‘Law of Inertia’. “It was just so tough to get it going again. I used every excuse in the book” he told me.
Cold calling is not the easiest task you have to do, so human nature says you’ll put it off given a choice. But have you ever noticed that once you get doing it every day, even if it is less than you need to, it is easier each day to continue to do it. It’s like my exercise routine. Once I get in the habit of doing it every day, it just seems to happen (an object in motion tends to stay in motion). I go on a business trip and miss one or two of those habitual sessions and it is difficult to get back in motion again. Don’t let that happen to you in your cold calling regimen. Get in the habit of making some calls every day. If you need to make 20, make the time to do it. But if you don’t, make 10. And if you can’t do 10, do 5, or 3, or heck, even just a couple, but keep that object in motion!
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March 12th, 2008 by Barry Caponi
Have you ever played phone tag with someone when all you were trying to do was set a date and time for an appointment? Well, here’s a quick tip to shorten the process.
I had a friend of mine tell me the other day about the frustrating game of phone tag he was in the middle of with a prospect (not a target, but someone he was in a confirmed buying cycle with). He said he was trying to schedule a meeting to close the sale. He mentioned that it was almost getting comical and now he was worried that the guy would start to think it wasn’t worth all the effort. Here’s a little tip to apply when this happens.
The next time you call, instead of saying, “Hi, it’s Barry again. Tag you’re it! Call me back to schedule that time to get together.” Try simply making a couple of suggested times the prospect can respond to with a simple ‘yes’ or ‘no’. It would sound more like this, “Hi, it’s Barry again. Since we seemed to be destined to keep missing each other, let me suggest a couple of times for our meeting. How about…Monday at 3:00 or Tuesday at 2:00? If either of these won’t work for you and you get my voicemail again, feel free to leave me a couple of suggestions.” It works great and certainly shortens the game of phone tag.
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March 5th, 2008 by Barry Caponi
I’m often asked whether I confirm the Initial Meetings prior to the appointment. Here are the rules I use to determine whether I do or not. A few questions:
- How far in advance did you set the meeting?
- Are you confident that you created enough value with the target when you set the appointment for them to look forward to the meeting?
- Did you send a confirmation with your contact information directly after setting the appointment with your contact information?
If the answer to the first question is a week or less (generally my pattern), I don’t worry about it too much for three reasons.
- First of all, using the techniques we teach in The Appointment Making Formula™, I’ve sold enough value during the cold call for the target to be looking forward to the meeting.
- I’ve also asked for an email address after setting the appointment so I could send a confirming email directly after the call.
- I’ve sent along with the confirming email a document or two that provides some third party credibility for the Caponi Performance Group. (A topic for another day.)
One of the most popular appointment making methodologies on the market is Stephen Schiffman’s. He wrote a book called Cold Calling Techniques (That Really Work!). Some of his techniques still work very well. However, his approach is based using a set of techniques to quickly get the appointment with as little conversation as possible and then getting off the phone. If you do that, there is always the danger that the person will use any secondary contact to cancel the meeting, or at least put you through your paces again to resell it. (As I used to subscribe totally to his methods, I can attest to the worry I had when showing up for appointments without confirming.)
The Formula is based on getting people past their initial knee jerk reaction designed to get you off the phone at any cost and into a short conversation. When you do that, you have the ability to provide enough value to make them truly look forward to the meeting. I’m so sure of the fact that I’ve accomplished making them look forward to the meeting that I immediately ask for their email address (and I DO want that) so that I can send them the confirming email I mentioned above.
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