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July 6th, 2011 by Barry Caponi
How video can help set appointments.
We’re all looking for that ‘Silver Bullet’ that will eliminate the need for us to pick up the phone and call someone for an appointment. Most of us have come to grips with the fact that this isn’t going to happen. As a matter of fact, most of us who understand how this whole thing works don’t even want that to happen. After all, if it were easy, we wouldn’t be paid near as much to do it.
However, I am not a masochist, so I am always looking for ways to, at least, make the process easier. Well, here’s one of those ways: using video to get people to accept our calls when cold calling for an appointment.
If you’ve been reading my blogs (or books), you know that I don’t believe that marketing, or even the newest flavor of marketing, social media, will actually set appointments for us. Neither will video clips. Video clips, will however, help open doors to those we want to ask for an appointment—and increase our odds of getting one when we ask.
There are two components to consider. The first is how we actually deliver the message. Almost no corporate firewall will allow a video clip itself to be delivered. Therefore, we must deliver only a link.
Second, we must use a delivery vehicle that will allow us to see and track what happens when it is delivered. One of the beauties of the videos is that not only is it opened more often than our regular emails, it is viewed more times and is forwarded within the organization more often. Because of this, what we use to deliver the video is as important as the video itself.
Here are some thoughts on delivering the video:
In this case though, we recommend Klpz because of its ability to deliver and manage these video clips (klpz).
2. We suggest a five-step ‘cycle’ in most situations. We are assuming here we didn’t get through to the decision maker and we’re leaving a voicemail along with a coordinated email to get them to return our call:
a. The first voicemail/email does not mention the video. The message contains the first reason why most of our customers buy from us.
b. The second voicemail/email does not mention the video either. The message contains the second reason why most of our customers buy from us.
c. The third and the fourth attempt’s voicemails reference the email that will follow. It simply says that the email that will follow this call contains a link to a short video from one of our current customers describing the benefit they’ve derived from out solution. It also describes what is displayed in the subject line so that the target will actually look for it as opposed to deleting it because it contains a link.
d. The fifth voicemail/email message is always the ‘Move-on’ message telling the target we’ll not be calling back again for a while. See blog, The most effective voicemail ever.
If you’d prefer to jump right to the video, we’d suggest a three step cycle, with the third being the ‘Move-on’ message.
Here’s some tips on the message itself:
1. Testimonials from customers work best. Commercials that describe our solutions do not.
2. The message should be no more than 45 – 60 seconds.
3. The message should say why the target should take our call, not why they should buy.
4. The message should contain a story about how our product helped our customer in a tangible way, if possible. Remember: facts tell, stories sell.
One last benefit to this approach. Asking a customer to record one of these videos is a great way to reward them, and say thank you. Taking someone into a studio to put on makeup and read from a teleprompter will get you more mileage than your typical corporate way to say thank you. This is something most people will never have the opportunity to do. It will differentiate you from your competitors, to say the least. It sure beats tickets to a sporting event or other gift; plus it is a lot of fun and not as expensive as you think.
If you’re looking for a way to make your appointment setting easier, more efficient, and more effective, try video.
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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June 29th, 2011 by Barry Caponi
New Web-site is ready.
A couple of weeks ago, I announced that my first books, Contrary to Popular Belief, Cold Calling DOES Work! Volumes I and II were available. This week, we not only celebrate our fourth anniversary of blogging, but I’d also like to make you aware that we’ve re-launched our website, www.caponipg.com. It’s got a great new look and feel and is now totally dedicated to what we do each and every day now, appointment-setting.
I’d like to thank Barry Zuber, at Egeland, Wood, and Zuber, who helped me with the original concepts. He was instrumental in helping me get my thoughts in order and then did much of the editing of the content. I’d also like to thank Kevin Wegner and his staff at Blacktip Media (www.blacktipmedia.com) for their work on the actual layout and building of the site. They brought me into the 21st century with a very unique look and feel.
Let us know what you think; and if you need a website, or really any kind of marketing coupled with technology, I strongly recommend Blacktip Media.
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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June 22nd, 2011 by Barry Caponi
What can we do when a competitor has lied to our target?
First of all, how do we know that our target is actually telling us the truth? Perhaps they are making this up to get us off the phone. “I buy from XYZ because their purchase price and total cost of ownership is so low,” when they’ve never stopped to figure out what the TOC is. The answer is—we don’t.
Perhaps our competitor did lie to this target. Perhaps our target misunderstood something that was said by our competitor. Maybe they honestly don’t know how much it is costing them to use XYZ’s product as I mentioned a minute ago or, hey, perhaps they really do know it is a lie—they just want to get us off the phone because they are swamped and don’t want to face this right now.
One of the beauties of The Appointment Making Formula™, is that we treat all of these situations in exactly the same manner. It doesn’t matter to us whether the person is being truthful with us, lying to us, or were simply misinformed when they reply to us. We’re going to us exactly the same approach when responding.
Our approach contains three elements: the transition, a Bridge Question™, and then asking for the appointment again.
To provide you an example of how we might respond to that, I’m going to make the following assumptions:
- We offer a product that costs more to buy, but has a significantly better total cost of ownership.
- Our competitor’s product is cheaper to buy but is more expensive to use over time.
Here’s the example:
They respond to our request for an appointment with: “We buy from the XYZ company because their price and total cost of ownership is lower than anyone else’s. We’re very happy with them.”
Transition: “I understand how important the total cost of ownership is, particularly when coupled with a low entry price. As a matter of fact, many of our current customers who used to buy from the XYZ company told us exactly the same thing until they actually looked at the total cost of owning those products more closely.”
Bridge Question: “I’m just curious, how often do you have to shut down your manufacturing process to service their product.”
After their response (that you can predict to be either more often than yours, or, “I don’t know”) you respond with: “You know what, that’s exactly why we need to get together. I’d love to share with you what those current customers of ours that used to buy from the XYZ company told us about how much more their margins have increased because they are shutting down the line much less frequently using our product.
Would Tuesday at 2:00 work for you?”
The key to this response is the Bridge Question. You can read more about them in the following previous blogs.
Using effective Bridge Questions, and setting them up properly works more often than any other approach I’ve seen.
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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June 14th, 2011 by Barry Caponi
Would you want to do business with you?
Take the time to ‘shop’ yourself. If you haven’t looked at your email signature or listened to your outgoing email message in a while, you might want to take a moment or two and do it. What kind of impression does it leave? Does your signature block look professional? Is your outgoing voicemail message positive, upbeat and enthusiastic? Does it sound professional?
I talk a lot about making little improvements in what you do and paying attention to the details. As a matter of fact, my Activity Calculator will show you how small incremental improvements in what you do can make a huge difference in your sales. Just send me an email and I’ll send it to you. (barry@coldcalling101.com)
I do some training for franchisors, and the other day I was calling some franchise owners for one of them and got some voicemail recordings as you might imagine. Very few of them were upbeat and inviting. These people make outbound calls to people in a sales mode asking suspects to call them back. I don’t know about you, but if I return a call to someone who I don’t know and I hear a message that sounds like I’m imposing on them to get them to return my call, I have no desire to do business with them.
And while I’m on the topic – here’s my pet peeve regarding outgoing messages. “You’ve reached my voicemail. I must be on the phone or away from my desk. Please….” Have you ever called someone you really needed to speak with and left a message to that outgoing message expecting a call back and didn’t receive one because the person was on vacation for a week? I change my outgoing message EVERY day so people will know when to expect a return call from me. I do that because I want them to think I am always thinking about THEM and making doing business with me as painless as possible.
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.
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June 8th, 2011 by Barry Caponi
Barry’s books are now available on Amazon.com!
I have referred to the Art and Science of the appointment setting process in this blog for years. These two books are divided into those two topics. If your bigger challenge is efficiency, then order Volume II: Efficiency, as it covers speed, organization, and reporting for improvement. If what to say, when to say, and how to say it is the challenge, then Volume I: Effectiveness will help the most. If you’re like most of our clients, then both volumes will be of benefit.
Here is an Excerpt to the introduction which talks about our foundation for our entire ColdCalling101 approach to appointment setting. It summarizes, at a high level, everything that we have covered in these blogs for the past four years. So regardless of whether you call nothing but warm leads, referrals, cold leads, or a combination of them all, there is a lot in the books to help 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.
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June 1st, 2011 by Barry Caponi
The twelve steps of the appointment setting process.
When we talk to sales professionals and sales managers alike, they are amazed at the fact that the average outside sales professional who sets their own appointments only makes about ten dials per hour. Most believe that we should be able to make many more than we truly do—until they examine the process that must take place. Here is why the number is so low in most selling environments.
There are actually twelve steps to the process of making an appointment making call. They are as follows:
- Login to database. This may be a CRM, a contact manager such as ACT!, an Excel spreadsheet, or a manila folder we keep our targets in.
- Locate the list of target records we want to call today.
- Select the first target.
- Review the pursuit history of that target.
- Decide on the messaging for this call.
- Make the call.
- Send an email if I have an email address.
- Select and add the appropriate attachment.
- Record the results of the call.
- Decide if I should call this target again and set the date for the next call if appropriate.
- Put that target away.
- Select the next target and repeat steps 4 through 12.
Even all of that presupposes that I have a pristine list and I do not have to add steps to find the person I need to talk to, or find their phone number and/or email address. It is why the first time through a list is even more time consuming.
Here’s the point of sharing this with you. Not having a predetermined set of Best Practices to follow, such as: predetermined messaging for each conversation, voicemail, and email; predetermined attachments for particular emails I do create, a predetermined pursuit plan, including the number of times to call and the frequency of those calls adds precious seconds (if not minutes) to the time it takes to call each target.
Just as importantly, not having the proper technology to manage those calls also adds time to each step.
If you think this doesn’t mean much, think about this. Even our benchmarks of the best sales professionals that actually did have a predetermined set of Best Practices and well customized CRM systems still took an average of 4.8 minutes per dial. That means that the best of best could only complete 12 dials per hour.
Here is what happens if we are able to minimally double that efficiency while still do nothing to improve the effectiveness of those calls. It is actually simple: With all other things in the selling process being equal, we will double our sales. Now realistically, many of us could not handle the volume created by doubling the number of active sales opportunities we have open at any given time. But, I bet most of us would like to try!
If the topic of efficiency interests you, here are some related blogs:
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.
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May 24th, 2011 by Barry Caponi
I received an email from a very good friend of mine this week. It contained a link to a two-minute video about an organization that flies WWII veterans to Washington to see their newly completed war memorial.
He has two sons that have served in the armed forces for us; one of which is still active, has served in Iraq, and is getting ready to depart for an Afghanistan tour shortly. I’ve also got a dad, step-dad, and father-in-law who all served during WWII.
Take two minutes to watch this video. It is very touching and, hopefully, will help each of us reflect on the real meaning of Memorial Day this coming Monday.
And, to each and every one of you who are veterans, thank you, from the bottom of my heart.
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.
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May 18th, 2011 by Barry Caponi
Where do we draw the line between persistency and pest?
This past week, I answered a question on the LinkedIn Group, Best Practices for Telephone Prospecting/Cold Calling. (By the way, this is a very good group. Lots of good discussions.) The question I answered was, “When do you give up on a call?” What the questioner meant was, when is asking for the appointment one more time, too many? Here’s how I answered that.
I make up my mind of how aggressive to be with an individual target based on a few criteria:
- How aggressive am I as a sales professional? How comfortable am I asking three, four or more times? (Two is the minimum because the first one is almost always a conditioned knee jerk reaction designed to get us off the phone with little thought given to whether the value proposition is of potential interest or not.)
- How many targets do I have in my universe? The more I have, the less aggressive I have to be. Consequently, the fewer potential targets I have, the more aggressive I must be. As a matter of fact, if I have a relatively few targets to choose from, I will also research them more before calling to make sure I understand how to approach a particular company, or even, person. I can’t afford to miss these opportunities, so I’ll be more aggressive in my belief that I can be of service.
- I also have a long term view of my prospecting, so I will always end (if I don’t get the appointment) by asking for permission to call back in the future. This will impact when I quit asking for the appointment this time, because I don’t want to burn the bridge to future attempts on this call.
- As I’ve discussed in other blogs, we use a technique we call Bridge Questions™, to help us get into an open minded conversation after hearing a no. By doing so, we come across as very professional, non-confrontational, and knowledgeable. This actually allows us to ask for the appointment, at least, another couple of times without sounding pushy or too aggressive. It comes across as conversational.
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.
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May 10th, 2011 by Barry Caponi
Why are we afraid to pick up the phone and cold call someone—and what can we do about it?
Remember the old TV show, Family Feud? And the audience said, fear of public speaking! It’s probably one of the most commonly known facts in America: the number one fear of Americans is the fear of public speaking. The number two fear is death. But, here’s one that you might not know. The number three fear is death from public speaking. Just kidding, but thanks to my good friend, Sean Sturrock, for that bit of humor!
As a member of the National Speakers Association, I’ve heard many people talk about how one gets over the fear of public speaking. It all boils down to three simple things: preparation, process and practice.
Let’s take those one at a time and dissect them as they apply to cold calling. These same factors are at play here when we consider picking up the phone and ‘public speaking’ to just one stranger at a time.
- Preparation. Toastmasters has an exercise that requires its members to get up in front of the group and speak extemporaneously for just one minute. That’s harder than one might imagine, as anyone who has been a member can attest. However, we all do it many times each day. Someone asks us a question, or we talk about the news of the day with our friends, family, and colleagues.
So, what’s the difference? In my opinion, it’s the stakes and the setting: the audience, the goal and topic. When we pick up the phone to call someone for an appointment, there is a very specific objective on the table—an appointment is at stake—not to mention our livelihood. We also know that this will most likely not be a friendly setting—at least at the beginning. So not only do we need to know what we’re going to say to start the conversation, but we’ll also need to be prepared to handle the common types of responses we receive. If we don’t, most of us feel foolish and embarrassed, even though the person can’t see us.
- Process. When we deliver a speech, we know we have to have a beginning, a middle, and an end. You might be familiar with the old adage of tell them what you’re going to tell them, tell them, and then tell them what you told them. An appointment making call also has a process.
There are actually twelve steps in the process of making an appointment setting call, and only one of them is actually placing the call. Many of us get lost in the process because we don’t even understand the entire process, let alone have the right tools to keep us efficiently organized and on pace. For instance, as we get ready to call a target that we’ve called before, and we can’t remember what we said to them last time, how many times we’ve called before, or just as importantly, what they said back to us, we will get a bit apprehensive. Why? Because we don’t want to sound foolish and unprofessional if the person we’re calling happens to remember those things.
Therefore, having a process to follow, and tools to keep track of the process will make us fear making calls.
- Practice. How we deliver our message is far more important than what we actually say according to a UCLA study on effective communications. See blog called What are the key elements in effective communication. That’s not to say that what we say is not important at all. The key here, though, is for what we say to become so second nature that we can concentrate on how we deliver it, and on what our target says back to us.
Sorry to be the bearer of bad news here, but there is only one way to accomplish this: practice, practice, and then practice some more. Practice until it sounds more natural and conversational than the ‘wing it’ manner you’re using now. And here’s one more hint for you. Even the best public speakers will rehearse their opening lines to their speech right before walking on stage, so practice your opening out loud (or with a calling buddy—see blog called Five tips to help make that first call of the day).
To be successful cold calling, one must be prepared, have a process and practice, practice, practice.
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.
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May 4th, 2011 by Barry Caponi
Is the sales force one that cannot, will not, or should not be setting appointments their own appointments?
We are many times asked, “When should I outsource our appointment setting requirement for the outside sales team?” This question comes up when managers aren’t consistently seeing enough Initial Appointments being set by their sales team.
If we can answer the following question, we’ve got our answer. Is the reason enough appointments are not being set because the sales team cannot, will not, or should not be setting appointments? Now that I’ve settled that topic…just kidding. Let’s explore that a little more deeply.
Let’s look at the last qualifier first, because if the answer is no for that one, then the first two qualifiers are moot. “Should our outside sales team be setting their own appointments?” In a sales environment where the buying cycles are long and complex, the average sized sale is big, and the competitive landscape is tough, our sales professionals are usually very highly paid. In those situations, suggest we, at least, look at having someone else set appointments for them.
The reason for that is that setting our own appointments takes time, and a lower cost resource can set appointments. If I’ve got a team of highly qualified subject matter experts, for instance, who have heavy time commitments in the buying cycles to qualify, present, and close, it does beg the question. Perhaps we are better off letting those sales people concentrate on what only they can do, and hire someone else to set appointments for them.
The trade-offs here are how much subject matter training is required to make the appointment setters competent to set qualified appointments, can we deliver that training, and can we supply reasonably targeted lists. Those are questions you’ll have to answer yourself.
However, let’s assume for a moment that we’ve decided that our team should be setting their own appointments. The next question we need to ask ourselves is, “Are they failing because they cannot, or will not set their own appointments?” If they will not, perhaps it is because the task is arduous, too time consuming, and painful. If we have addressed those issues and they just won’t do it, we need to find those sales professionals something else to do.
If it is because they cannot (or we’re not sure if it still might be will not), we do have remedies for that. Four areas may be addressed to help them become more effective and efficient at this task. They are; better lists of targets to call, a better set of best practices (pre-set business rules for the process), a better set of tools to take the pain out of the process and make them more efficient, and better skills to handle the objections they encounter when attempting to set the appointment.
Do not fall into the trap of; if a sales professional knows how to close, they know how to set appointments. It is a totally different process, requiring a different set of skills, tools and processes. Too many, this is a surprise. So much so, that I dedicated an entire section to this topic in both of my books, Contrary to Popular Opinion, Cold Calling Does Work! Volume I: Effectiveness, the Art of Appointment Making, and Volume II: Efficiency, the Science of Appointment Making. You can also find some of that explanation in the blog entitled, The skills that are necessary in the pipeline phase of selling are not the same as those required in appointment setting Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 and Part 4.
If you believe that your team needs to be setting some, if not all, of their own Initial Appointments, then make sure they’ve got the proper set of skills, tools and processes to make them both effective and efficient—or you’ll continue to struggle with an anemic pipeline.
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.
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