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September 21st, 2011 by Barry Caponi
When face to face with our prospects, scripts are dangerous. When setting appointments, they are necessary.
Geoffrey James, in his September 14, 2011, blog, says that using sales scripts once in front of a prospect are a dangerous waste of time. I could not agree more. (His blogs are very good, by the way.) However, when setting appointments, following a script is critical.
I’ve written numerous blogs on the topic of scripting, but the key reason for scripting appointment setting calls is very simple. If we deliver the same message each time we dial the phone, we will limit the number of different Negative Responses we’ll hear. If we limit those, we’ll make our job of getting the appointment much easier. In other words, why in the world would you want to have to prepare for more obstacles to overcome than necessary? Hello?
Caponi Performance Group and Contact Science jointly market the telephone prospecting and cold calling solution called Coldcalling101™. It is the only comprehensive solution to solving the biggest barrier to success in most selling organizations—the inability to secure enough Initial Appointments to begin the selling process. We accomplish that through simultaneously addressing both the efficiency and effectiveness of the process. We can be reached at 817 224-9900 or at barry@coldcalling101.com. You can also find answers to many of your challenges in our books: Contrary to Popular Belief, Cold Calling DOES Work! Volume I: Effectiveness, The Art of Appointment Makingand Volume II: Efficiency, the Science of Appointment Making.
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September 14th, 2011 by Barry Caponi
What is the number one thing you can do to help your team get better at cold calling?
When we run Prospector’s Academies for our customers, the number one concern we must address is sustainability. Surveys run by the Sales Executive Council show that sales professionals can lose up to 87 percent of new skills acquired during training within one month. So the operative question becomes, how can we sustain the increase in the number of appointments we’ll inevitably get from the academy?
There are many reasons why sales professionals going through our Prospector’s Academies typically double or better the number of Initial Appointments they had been setting before going through an academy. However, only two of them affect sustainability—practice and coaching.
I’ve tackled practice before in these blogs, so I’ll just touch on the point here. We make sure we build a lot of time to practice into the academies because until a new skill is second nature, it will atrophy. Stephen Covey, in his book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, says that it takes 21 days to make a new habit—and that occurs only through practice.
Practicing without correction, however, is a waste of time. If someone practices a skill incorrectly, what good does it do them? It’s actually counter-productive. They would have been better off just making calls and letting the law of averages in numbers game work for them.
That is where coaching comes into play. The Sales Executive Council study I mentioned earlier also determined that sales professionals who receive a minimum of three hours of coaching a month achieve an average of 107 percent of quota versus 90 percent with those that receive some coaching, but less than two hours per month. It is even worse for those that get none.
As managers, we need to be honest with ourselves regarding whether we are good coaches or good managers. The skills are different and good managers are not necessarily good coaches. Good managers, do however, provide good coaching from some source for their charges.
There are a couple of take-aways here.
1. Ask yourself whether you are a good coach. If not, find someone who is that can fill that void. It will pay for itself many times over.
2. Don’t invest in sales training unless you are willing to invest in ongoing coaching—whether that means you doing it or paying someone else to do it.
For coaching appointment-setting in sales meetings, click here for a blog that covers some ideas to make you a better coach.
Caponi Performance Group and Contact Science jointly market the telephone prospecting and cold calling solution called Coldcalling101™. It is the only comprehensive solution to solving the biggest barrier to success in most selling organizations—the inability to secure enough Initial Appointments to begin the selling process. We accomplish that through simultaneously addressing both the efficiency and effectiveness of the process. We can be reached at 817 224-9900 or at barry@coldcalling101.com. You can also find answers to many of your challenges in our books: Contrary to Popular Belief, Cold Calling DOES Work! Volume I: Effectiveness, The Art of Appointment Makingand Volume II: Efficiency, the Science of Appointment Making.
Comments: 1
September 7th, 2011 by Barry Caponi
A special opportunity to star in a reality TV series and find a job from one of the best recruiters in the country.
I know many of us are either currently ‘under-employed’ or flat out unemployed at the moment. My good friend, Tony Beshara, who is one of the best job recruiters in the nation sent out a LinkedIn message Friday that you might be interested in. Here are the opening couple of thoughts from his message.
“As a result of our books and seminars about how to find a job, we have approached a TV production company to develop a 13 week television series which will be called ‘The Headhunter’. We are going to 'chronicle' the job search process for a number of people that will help the 12 million Americans who are either looking for a job full time or are underemployed. Most people have no idea how to look for a job and this TV series will help them.
We need people who are looking for a job to audition for the program. We are going to develop a 6 to 7 minute 'sizzle real' to market to television production houses..” Here’s the link to the entire message.
I’ve known Tony for quite a few years. I’ve hired sales people through his company and he’s even placed me a time or two. He’s good people, he’s very well connected, but more importantly, he’s written a book on how to find a job. He’s very passionate about helping people with this very important element of their careers. Click here for a link to see his system for job searching. (He’s been featured on Dr. Phil.)
If you are not currently ‘in the market’, pass this on to others that might be. Anyone can benefit from Tony’s system. And by the way, his firm handles more than just sales, so don’t limit your thinking.
For the TV show, he’s looking for those that are down on their luck, war veterans struggling to find a job, those without a lot of education, credit woes caused by being unemployed, etc. In other words, he’s looking for good compassionate stories.
Caponi Performance Group and Contact Science jointly market the telephone prospecting and cold calling solution called Coldcalling101™. It is the only comprehensive solution to solving the biggest barrier to success in most selling organizations—the inability to secure enough Initial Appointments to begin the selling process. We accomplish that through simultaneously addressing both the efficiency and effectiveness of the process. We can be reached at 817 224-9900 or at barry@coldcalling101.com. You can also find answers to many of your challenges in our books: Contrary to Popular Belief, Cold Calling DOES Work! Volume I: Effectiveness, The Art of Appointment Makingand Volume II: Efficiency, the Science of Appointment Making.
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August 31st, 2011 by Barry Caponi
Why offering purely money savings as the reason to meet will backfire on us.
Geoffrey James, in his blog dated August 22, 2011, talks about 8 ways to sell against a lower price. It’s a good read, as are most of his blogs by the way.
But let’s talk about the issue of offering a lower price for a moment. First of all, whether our commissions are based on gross margin or on the sales price of the solution we sell, we penalize ourselves (not to mention our employer) when we sell solely on a lower price. “But Barry, I may ask for the appointment based on price, but once I get there I talk about all the value we bring to the table.” My response? You may talk about value until you’re blue in the face. WE set the table by asking to see this target to see if we could save them any money. At the end of the day, they will expect a lower price than they are presently paying. The topic may not even come up again during your discussions—until closing time. Prospects do not forget what we say when it can be used to their advantage. “Why Barry, I see how this widget will impact my business in many ways. But you told me when you first called me, you’d save me money. Your product is more expensive than the one I use now. You’ll have to do better on the price if you want me to switch vendors.” Sound familiar?
When we ask for the appointment based on sharing what we’ve done for others, it sets a totally different tone once we’re in the meeting. We can branch off and talk about a lot of different things. The target is interested in hearing how we helped someone like themselves.
Most of us deliver value in many different ways. As a matter of fact, it is a law of mathematics that only one of us can have the lowest price, so why go down that road?
On the flip side, why do you think BMW, Audi, Mercedes, Lincoln, and Cadillac sell so many cars each year? It’s certainly not because they are the least expensive option.
If you work for a company that must sell solely based on low price—get a new gig. Believe it or not, it is actually easier to sell based on quality and added-value. It may take a bit more effort to learn how to do it, but it is also more fun and certainly more rewarding financially.
Oh, one last reason to stop selling on price. If that original target becomes a customer based solely on price, how loyal will they be the next time someone like you comes along and says they’ll save them more money?
Caponi Performance Group and Contact Science jointly market the telephone prospecting and cold calling solution called Coldcalling101™. It is the only comprehensive solution to solving the biggest barrier to success in most selling organizations—the inability to secure enough Initial Appointments to begin the selling process. We accomplish that through simultaneously addressing both the efficiency and effectiveness of the process. We can be reached at 817 224-9900 or at barry@coldcalling101.com. You can also find answers to many of your challenges in our books: Contrary to Popular Belief, Cold Calling DOES Work! Volume I: Effectiveness, The Art of Appointment Makingand Volume II: Efficiency, the Science of Appointment Making.
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August 24th, 2011 by Barry Caponi
Effectiveness or efficiency alone are not enough to be successful when cold calling.
Increasing our effectiveness is obviously important to our selling efforts as why would one want to do anything (like making an appointment making call) more times than necessary to accomplish an objective (setting the necessary number of Initial Appointments with targets)? However, realizing that there are only a certain number of hours in our selling day, doing what we must do as efficiently as possible is just as important, yet is seldom addressed.
I am a sales trainer by trade, and therefore I focus on helping sales people become more effective at their craft. If a sales professional can decrease the number of dials they must make each day to get the same number of appointments as they were previously getting, we’ve had an impact on their bottom line. It means they will spend less time on the appointment setting step in the process. That time can be invested elsewhere.
However, no matter how good that sales professional gets at setting appointments, they are still having to invest the same amount of time per dial in the process of making those dials.
Over the years, companies have invested much time and money in tools that make the selling process more efficient. Sales force automation and customer relationship management software are two very important tools in that battle. For the person who must set Initial Appointments with targets, those tools do not cut the mustard. They were not designed to be of benefit until the target becomes a prospect.
I use a tool called Klpz that was designed to make the appointment making process more efficient. I have lowered my average time per dial from approximately six minutes to three minutes using this tool. That provides me the ability to either make twice the number of dials in the same amount of time, or make the same number of dials in half the time.
If I remain just as effective (and I am VERY effective on the phone, by the way) as I was before using Klpz and I choose to invest the same amount of time making calls, I will DOUBLE my sales if all other things remain equal.
If you’re interested in doubling your sales or reducing the time necessary to set appointments—to mention eliminating those call backs that fall through the cracks with conventional systems used to track calls, send me a note and let’s talk…
Caponi Performance Group and Contact Science jointly market the telephone prospecting and cold calling solution called Coldcalling101™. It is the only comprehensive solution to solving the biggest barrier to success in most selling organizations—the inability to secure enough Initial Appointments to begin the selling process. We accomplish that through simultaneously addressing both the efficiency and effectiveness of the process. We can be reached at 817 224-9900 or at barry@coldcalling101.com. You can also find answers to many of your challenges in our books: Contrary to Popular Belief, Cold Calling DOES Work! Volume I: Effectiveness, The Art of Appointment Makingand Volume II: Efficiency, the Science of Appointment Making.
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August 17th, 2011 by Barry Caponi
Sales professionals many times ask me how many cold calling attempts to the same contact are too many.
This question actually comes in several flavors. For instance, how many times should I call this person today if I don’t get through? How many times should I call this person over time until the law of diminishing returns kicks in and I’d be better off calling someone else for the first time rather than calling this same person again?
The reason this came to mind today is that I am in Chicago where I gave a talk yesterday to the National Automated Merchandising Association. I’m staying with my dad who is retired. He went with me yesterday, so we were gone all day.
When we got home last night, he printed out a list of calls he had received during the day from his answering machine. There was one phone number on the list fourteen times. (I’m not kidding.) It was a stock broker who has never sold him anything, but has been calling him for a number of years. (Got to admire his persistence, I think.) When he spoke with the broker today (you guessed it, he called again), he tried to sell my dad a twenty year bond. My dad is 85 years old. Do the math…my dad did.
There are two points to this story. 1) This guy has talked to my dad on numerous occasions. He has never asked my dad what his investing goals are. He only knows my dad is a pretty active trader. So when he calls, he’s most of the time trying to interest him in things that just don’t make sense or that my dad has no interest in. 2) Why did this guy call my dad fourteen times and leave no messages? Did he think my dad wouldn’t know he called that many times? Did he think that what he wanted talk about couldn’t stand on its own enough to get my dad to call him back? What kind of credibility does he have with my dad?
Moral of the story: It takes time to make a dial and time is money. We should invest those dials just like we would any other limited asset. Let’s make sure it is worth it before we do it. Making another dial to the same number over and over again so that we kid ourselves into thinking we’re busy is foolish. Calling someone and throwing mud at the wall to see if something sticks is also a waste of time. We should record our activity and look at the outcome. If we don’t like the results, we should try something else. Don’t keep doing the same thing expecting a different outcome. It’s how Einstein defined
insanity.
Caponi Performance Group and Contact Science jointly market the telephone prospecting and cold calling solution called Coldcalling101™. It is the only comprehensive solution to solving the biggest barrier to success in most selling organizations—the inability to secure enough Initial Appointments to begin the selling process. We accomplish that through simultaneously addressing both the efficiency and effectiveness of the process. We can be reached at 817 224-9900 or at barry@coldcalling101.com. You can also find answers to many of your challenges in our books: Contrary to Popular Belief, Cold Calling DOES Work! Volume I: Effectiveness, The Art of Appointment Makingand Volume II: Efficiency, the Science of Appointment Making.
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August 10th, 2011 by Barry Caponi
The skill of appointment-setting will give you Employment Security.
There is no longer such a thing as job security. As a matter of fact, as far back as 1994, in his book entitled, Over the Top, Zig Zigler made the point that he didn’t believe that job security existed even back then.
However, both Zig and I both believe there is such a thing as employment security. He said that those with employment security have certain qualities. They are honest, intelligent, goal-directed, organized, responsible, committed, punctual, self-starters, motivated, optimistic, enthusiastic, decisive, make good choices; are disciplined, persistent, positive, have a good self-image; manage themselves well, are confident, competent, energized, resourceful, creative, knowledgeable, focused, a believer, emotionally intelligent, self-controlled, an extra-miler and a team player.
Can’t disagree with a single one of those. But, we must also have employable skills and experience. And although sales may not be the ‘oldest profession’, it’s darned close to it. Through the ions of human endeavor there have been many attempts to displace the need for sales people. But people still like to buy from people, and although there are plenty of examples of commodities that are ordered and not necessarily sold, there are still a lot of products and services that must be sold by those of us sales professionals who love the challenge of selling.
If we really want to have employment security, become a good sales professional with all of the skills that are required and are hard to find; a closer and a prospector. Learn the most difficult, and most sought after skill of them all, the ability to set appointments with potential buyers that do not know you, what you’re selling, or your company. It is those sales professionals whom are well paid and indispensable to their organizations.
Caponi Performance Group and Contact Science jointly market the telephone prospecting and cold calling solution called Coldcalling101™. It is the only comprehensive solution to solving the biggest barrier to success in most selling organizations—the inability to secure enough Initial Appointments to begin the selling process. We accomplish that through simultaneously addressing both the efficiency and effectiveness of the process. We can be reached at 817 224-9900 or at barry@coldcalling101.com. You can also find answers to many of your challenges in our books: Contrary to Popular Belief, Cold Calling DOES Work! Volume I: Effectiveness, The Art of Appointment Makingand Volume II: Efficiency, the Science of Appointment Making.
Comments: 2
August 3rd, 2011 by Barry Caponi
That frog won’t get any purtier…
I was re-reading Zig Ziglar’s book, Over the Top, this past weekend and stumbled upon an old saying that we can apply to cold calling. Many times I am asked, “When is the best time to make calls?” Back in 2008, I wrote a blog called, What are the best times to call?, so I won’t rehash all of that here. But, here’s what I’d like to suggest.
I make my calls first thing in the morning. There are two reasons for this:
1. I’ve found no pattern of best times for the people I call.
2. If I don’t do it first, I’ll find a hundred things to do during the day before making those calls, and before I know it, the day is gone and the calls did not get made—again.
In Zig’s book, he quotes an old country saying, “Friend, if you’ve got to swallow a frog, you just don’t want to look at that sucker too long. He ain’t gonna get any purtier! As a matter of fact, the longer you look, the uglier he gets.”
So for me, I’ve found that by doing it first, it gets done.
Caponi Performance Group and Contact Science jointly market the telephone prospecting and cold calling solution called Coldcalling101™. It is the only comprehensive solution to solving the biggest barrier to success in most selling organizations—the inability to secure enough Initial Appointments to begin the selling process. We accomplish that through simultaneously addressing both the efficiency and effectiveness of the process. We can be reached at 817 224-9900 or at barry@coldcalling101.com. You can also find answers to many of your challenges in our books: Contrary to Popular Belief, Cold Calling DOES Work! Volume I: Effectiveness, The Art of Appointment Makingand Volume II: Efficiency, the Science of Appointment Making.
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July 27th, 2011 by Barry Caponi
Until we internalize our script, we’ll sound like the proverbial telemarketer.
Practicing versus Doing–why do sports teams, who profess to play for fun, concentrate on practicing basic fundamentals skills (Art), and then specific plays (Best Practices) until they are second nature, yet we, who profess to belong to the profession of sales insist on winging it?
I was a sales manager at the district level up to the global level, and you know what, I never enforced (or recommended for that matter) having my teams practice any sales skills at weekly sales meetings. Attaining our revenue goals was way too important to take time out to practice the skills it takes to be efficient and effective. We would do it at a quarterly get together.
It was not until I became a sales consultant and trainer that I looked at skills improvement for what it is–getting better at what we do every day in order to sell more. A better fielding average or batting average does win more baseball games. It’s why baseball teams record those statistics and practice those skills, not just in spring training, but pretty much before every game.
Every workshop I run, I hear the war stories of big sales lost because they were in at the wrong level, didn’t ask the right questions, assumed something incorrectly, got there too late, etc. Why do I hear these stories? Because the proverbial light bulb comes on during our training and people realize that if they had only applied the skill we’re talking about right then and there, they wouldn’t have lost that deal. So what to do?
We should make a little time at each of our basic pipeline review meetings to practice (role-play) critical skills (fifteen minutes and make it fun). (Okay, maybe not at the last meeting before the end-of-the-quarter, but you get the idea.) Here’s a list of appointment-making role-plays and exercises to use.
- For Gatekeepers and Decision Makers
- What are the most common challenges we face? List them, figure out how to handle them and then role-play them.
- What are the most common questions we hear on an appointment-making call? How will we answer them and then role-play them.
- What are the most common negative responses we hear? How will we handle them and then role-play them?
- What are the benefits our products or services bring to our customers? How do we build that into the reason we want to meet with someone? Role-play it.
- Ask your sales professionals to write down on a 3×5 card the answers to the following questions:
o What do we sell?
o What are the three biggest reasons our customers buy from us?
o What are the three biggest challenges we solve for our customers?
o How do our competitors answer those questions? (This is the biggie. It will help them realize why their targets respond the way they do. We’re coming across as a “me too.”) And if you can’t figure out how to adequately script your differences, call us.)
Particularly with the last exercise, don’t be surprised if you get a bunch of different answers. Get marketing involved and standardize on a set of answers that work and get the team to internalize them.
Caponi Performance Group and Contact Science jointly market the telephone prospecting and cold calling solution called Coldcalling101™. It is the only comprehensive solution to solving the biggest barrier to success in most selling organizations—the inability to secure enough Initial Appointments to begin the selling process. We accomplish that through simultaneously addressing both the efficiency and effectiveness of the process. We can be reached at 817 224-9900 or at barry@coldcalling101.com. You can also find answers to many of your challenges in our books: Contrary to Popular Belief, Cold Calling DOES Work! Volume I: Effectiveness, The Art of Appointment Makingand Volume II: Efficiency, the Science of Appointment Making.
Comments: 3
July 20th, 2011 by Barry Caponi
Hint: it’s all about countering the negative responses we hear.
I called one of my former students the other day to see how she was doing with her new found appointment-making skills and she said that one the biggest benefits she received from our workshop was the ability to quickly read the defense so she can audible to the appropriate play to counter what’s being thrown at her. (You’ve got to love the analogy!)
What do I mean by that? When we make an appointment-making call, over 90 percent of the time, we’ll get what I refer to as a conditioned knee jerk response which is designed to get us off the phone as quickly as possible. We all have our favorite. (Think about it. Don’t we all use the same one most of the time when we get cold called?) Although they seemingly come in many flavors, they really don’t. As a matter of fact, they can be categorized into only four buckets. Our methodology, called The Formula, has its own approach to countering each one of them.
When we’re in a face-to-face sales call, we have the ability to actually stop and think when someone throws an objection at us because the person we’re talking with has already agreed that the conversation is worth their time. Hence, they’re willing to give us the time to think. In a phone conversation designed to set an appointment, we don’t have that luxury. We’ve got to be quick on our feet or we’ll lose.
So what does this have to do with my client’s analogy? Simple: As soon as we ask for the appointment (start to run our play), the target will throw up their favorite Conditioned Knee Jerk response (their defense). The more quickly we can recognize what kind of defense it is (which category of Conditioned Knee Jerk response), the more quickly and smoothly we can audible to the appropriate strategy (we call them counters) and gain the yardage (the appointment) the play was designed for. (Okay, okay, I know I probably took the analogy one step too far…but I couldn’t resist!)
Do you know what the most common conditioned knee jerk responses you hear are? Can you categorize them into manageable buckets? If you’ve heard a particular flavor at least three times and you’ve haven’t developed a way to handle it yet, shame on you.
Caponi Performance Group and Contact Science jointly market the telephone prospecting and cold calling solution called Coldcalling101™. It is the only comprehensive solution to solving the biggest barrier to success in most selling organizations—the inability to secure enough Initial Appointments to begin the selling process. We accomplish that through simultaneously addressing both the efficiency and effectiveness of the process. We can be reached at 817 224-9900 or at barry@coldcalling101.com. You can also find answers to many of your challenges in our books: Contrary to Popular Belief, Cold Calling DOES Work! Volume I: Effectiveness, The Art of Appointment Makingand Volume II: Efficiency, the Science of Appointment Making.
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