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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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April 27th, 2011 by Barry Caponi
Even the best of us can verbally stumble on that first call of the day. Here’s a tip to reduce the risk of that happening.
We encourage everyone to practice aloud before making the first call of a call block. Specifically, and especially when first beginning to use a new set of scripts, counters, Bridge Questions™, etc., we suggest going through the opening script and each of the counters to the expected negative responses aloud before making that first call. In the beginning, it may even take a few attempts before the words roll off the tongue fluently and conversationally—without having to look at the words. After a while, it may take one or two passes before that happens. Don’t worry, it becomes second nature fairly quickly when we’re making calls consistently.
Here’s the specific tip, though. Years ago, when I first started our sales training and consulting business, all of our business came through cold calling. We made calls virtually every day. At the time, my brother, Todd Caponi, was also in the sales training business. Here’s the tip that we used before we made that first call; and one we encourage all that go through our Prospector’s Academies to use. Pair up with someone, even if they’re not even at your company. When you’re ready to make that first call, place a call to your buddy and just pretend it’s a cold call. Your buddy should immediately understand what you’re doing when you just launch into your opening script. (No need to tell your buddy, what you’re doing.) They should respond with a typical negative response, just like a target would. You should then handle it, just like you would on a call. You might then want to have them give you another negative response or two before you’re ready, but it shouldn’t take more than a minute or two.
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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April 20th, 2011 by Barry Caponi
Do you love what you do?
I attended a convention over the end of last week and one of the speakers talked about something that hit home with me. He spoke of life and the shortness of it—even if we live a full life into our 80’s, or even beyond. He asked us if we are in the 40/40 club; working forty hours a week for forty years to get to retirement so we can do what we want to do.
He talked about the many people who were 40/40 club members that were ready to “graduate” over the past few years that now need to work beyond the 40 years. We all know people in that situation, don’t we?
In today’s economy, most of us sales professionals work much more than forty hours a week. I certainly do. This new reality our president wants us to get used to is a bit disturbing in my book. Looks like we ought to be talking about the forty/fifty club, but, hey, that’s a blog for another day.
The point is this. We are working longer days and weeks to make enough money to make ends meet today, let alone put enough money away for retirement. But, are we enjoying what we do while we’re doing it? Are we getting to spend quality time with our family and friends? Life is indeed short.
As the speaker put it: Run for the roses, but don’t forget to smell them along the way. And as to how that fits with appointment setting; be as effective and efficient as you can at the most difficult task of your job. That way there will be more time left over for the fun part of sales: Closing business!
Sales is also one of those professions that can provide us the ability to make as much money as we’d like to, so get good at it, and enjoy it along the way!
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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April 12th, 2011 by Barry Caponi
Once we make that first call, most of us are fine. It’s getting a call block started that is difficult.
The topic of how to motivate ourselves to making calls is so important that I have written five other blogs on it (see below for a full list). Since almost every buying cycle begins with one of us sales professionals picking up the phone dialing the number of a target and beginning a business conversation, this is a critical step (if not the critical step) in the selling process.
Take a look around your office, or if you’re an independent professional out there on your own, take a long look in the mirror and ask yourself this question. Who has more energy and is more upbeat, the person with a full pipeline wondering how they are going to get everything done, or the person with an empty pipeline. Is not the latter individual (or you when it happens to you) listless, lifeless, or perhaps even feeling bit depressed?
Success breeds success, energy seems to create more of itself, so there are many reasons (beyond the monetary ones) for keeping the pipeline full. Let me share with you one of the most powerful motivators in the world.
Every self-help book worth its salt has one common trait: picturing ourselves in successful situations. Not picturing what it would be like being successful, but picturing ourselves in that picture. So here’s what I recommend.
Vision boards are simply visual reminders of what are goals and aspirations are. My PC wall paper is a reminder of one of my goals. I have more pictures on the back of my office door and a few more on my bathroom mirror. If you’d like a visual image (sorry, couldn’t resist) of some vision board examples click on this link (Vision Board Images).
If you’re a manager, do you know what your sales professionals goals and dreams are? If not, find out and get them talking about them when activity is lagging, or they’ve just taken the ‘collar’ in a call block (a baseball term for no hits in a game). Remember, it’s not the money we work for, it’s what the money will be used for.
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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April 6th, 2011 by Barry Caponi
Before we begin calling, we should have already mapped out the times on our calendar we’ll be asking for appointments.
Remember, when calling for appointments, we recommend asking for specific dates and times in our opening. We’ll cover the reasons for that next week. For now, let’s talk about the concept of knowing when we want the appointment, as that will become an issue whether you ask for a specific date and time up front or not.
When beginning a Call Block, we should take a look at our calendar and map out some times when we’ll want to meet with those we’re about to call. Not only does this impact time management, but it will also indirectly (or maybe directly, depending on how we look at it) apply to geography.
I set aside days to be out on the road for appointments. In fact, I even have time slots set aside on my calendar for appointments. My Initial Appointments take an hour to an hour and twenty minutes (don’t get me started on that topic—it just does). Therefore, I set aside 90-minute time slots on my calendar for appointments. Since I also usually have follow-up meetings on those days, I am careful to select times that match the geography of where I’ll be in relation to whom I am calling. The Dallas/Ft. Worth Metroplex is a pretty large area. That means that it could take me easily an hour or more to go from one appointment to another if I don’t plan well. I’ll leave to another day the issue of out of town appointments which take on another level of complexity if you have to do it.
So, before I pick up the phone, I take a look at where I’m going to be the day I want the appointment and pick the time I want to ask for the appointment. That makes me sound much more confident and professional when I’m asking for the appointment. If the target cannot meet at that time, I’ve already got a few back-up times when I’ll be available and want to meet based on the days I’ll be out and the geography of the day. That way I won’t feel pressured, or hurried when hunting for a back-up time which could very well impact my productivity the day of the appointment if I didn’t.
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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March 30th, 2011 by Barry Caponi
For baseball fans, opening day is the start of another year, so if you’ve given up on your Jan. 1 resolutions…
April 1, is the first day of the year for baseball fans. (It’s also the beginning of quarter number two for most of us.) Every team starts out with great visions of a World Series dancing in their heads. The excitement is there again and hope springs eternal. Perhaps one of those rookies will have a fantastic year, fool the pundits and we will when it all this year.
Is that not what you had in mind on January 1st—that this year would be your best selling year ever? So why not join the crowd and start anew if you’ve already slipped on your 2011 New Year’s Resolutions.
Now some of those resolutions might have been non-business, like losing weight, working out, saving money, or taking the family on a vacation, but we all know the one I’m talking about: making those appointment setting dials a priority.
Go back and take a look at your goals for 2011 and if you’re not reaching them, there’s still plenty of time to redouble your efforts and reach them.
Hey, I know I may be the first to link New Year’s Resolutions with opening day, but it is a day of renewal for many. It’s also spring which is a traditional time of renewal, and that’s really what I’m talking about.
Hope this helps. It did help me kind of re-establish some goals, and I’m a Texas Ranger fan and this year should be another fun one.
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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March 23rd, 2011 by Barry Caponi
A Kentucky company has distributed approximately 20,000 copies of its Oscar night product for six years now.
Thanks to Kent Howell, of Kosa Consulting, who is our top ColdCalling101 trainer for this story.
The story is about a company called, KCD Multidisciplined Creative Source, from Williamstown, KY, who cold called the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and landed this highly visible and lucrative account. They’ve now had this account for six years!
You gotta’ love it!
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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March 16th, 2011 by Barry Caponi
A tip to make it easy for our customers and prospects to know what to expect from us when they reach our voice mail.
As Andy Rooney might whine, have you ever called someone that you really needed to talk to right away and heard that outgoing voice mail message, “You’ve reached the desk of (fill in the blank), and I’m either on the other line or away from my desk. Please leave a message and I’ll get back to you shortly?” So we leave a message expecting to hear from them—well, shortly. And then we waited, and waited; an hour, a day, two days. Then we call back again and leave another voicemail, telling them this time that we really need to talk to them right away.
So a week goes by, we’ve left five messages, each angrier than the preceding one and finally we get a return call. “Oh, sorry for the delay in getting back to you, I was on vacation last week in Hawaii. Had a great time! Now, what can I help you with?”
In the meantime, we’ve had to jump through all kind of hoops because our trusty sales professional did not get back to us in a timely fashion. Are we going to do business with this person going forward after they put us through all kinds of pain and suffering while they were surfing in Hawaii? I don’t know about you, but I will certainly think twice about doing business with them. And heaven forbid, I receive a cold call from someone selling the same thing while this is fresh on my mind.
Or what about if we’ve been cold calling and left a bunch of voice mails asking people to call us back, and we go on vacation and do unto them as others have done unto us?
Here’s a simple way to make it easy on people who depend on us (or who we want to depend on us). I change my outgoing voice mail message every day. If you call me, you’ll know whether you can expect a call back today or not. If I’m going to be gone for a while, I’ll tell you who you can call in the meantime to the get the help you need or give you my cell phone number.
Yah, I know; it takes effort to do it every day. But it really takes less than a minute and we might actually gain a new customer or save an existing one because we are considerate of the people we want to do business with.
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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March 9th, 2011 by Barry Caponi
What is the Coin of the Realm for sales professionals?
I was reading an old article from the Wall Street Journal the other day (August 6, 2007–-if you’re interested). It was entitled, On the Web, English is the Coin of the Realm. In the article, the author talks about English being the language of choice around the world. It went on to say that smart advertisers, when looking for an international audience on the Web, get a better bang for their advertising buck if they use English. It got me thinking (no, not about why Illegal Immigrants don’t get the value of learning English like the rest of the world has), but about the term, Coin of the Realm. In this article, the Coin of the Realm is actually the dollars spent on advertising, not the language of English. Why? Because that is the lowest common denominator of what each of us has to spend on the advertising. It is what each medium we wish to advertise on will accept in trade for that advertising. English is, well, something for another blog on another day.
I believe that the dial is the Coin of the Realm for us sales people who must set appointments to get a buying cycle started. Each of us must invest a certain number of dials in order to get an appointment. In order to get the biggest bang for our dial, we must get the most appointments for the dials that we invest each day.
Sales managers, when faced with one of their flock without enough Initial Appointments on the calendar too often say, “Make more dials!” as if there were an unlimited number of them available. Well guess what? There are not an unlimited number of them available. Each one is made up of names and phone numbers (targets) and time. Neither is limitless and neither is free.
The question to ask ourselves is, “How efficiently and effectively am I spending my dials?”
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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March 2nd, 2011 by Barry Caponi
What should the message of a voicemail be on a cold call?
I read an article recently by Ivan Misner, about asking our customers for written testimonials. It’s a great idea that most of us don’t do near enough. Here’s another reason for doing that.
We hear questions all the time about what should be the value proposition in voice mails. Our response is that we should be sharing why others do business with us. If we can be quantitative about an increase in sales (our result), an increase in their market share, or a decrease in costs, for instance, so much the better. Ergo, if that’s what the customer experienced, get them to put that in the testimonial.
But back to the voice mails: We’ve got to remember that when we call someone, they don’t believe they need us yet, so sharing with them how we believe we can help them falls on deaf ears. However, if we can move them from their state of complacency by telling them that our customers have experienced some great result that would potentially be important to them as well, we’ve got a better shot at a returned call.
So here’s how to marry Ivan’s idea to voice mails. We should be taking the testimonials we receive and use them in our voice mails. The message is powerful because it is from a customer, and just as importantly, it will give us more confidence in how we deliver that message, as it didn’t just come from our marketing department, or our boss’s experience. It is real; and as you’ve heard me say many times, the tone of our voice—in this case because of our confidence in the message we’re delivering—will get us more appointments!
So, we should all be making the time and go back and visit with some of our customers and get them to tell us why they do business with us. Then get them to agree to put it in writing. I am constantly surprised at how many will truly love to do that for me.
One last piece of advice, though: When they say yes, after sharing with us why they love us, we should ask them if they’d like for us to paraphrase what they told us for them. Most people will be relieved that we’ll do the heavy lifting; of course, giving them the final approval of what we wrote. It will also assure that it will get done (best intentions…) and it will be written in a way we can use.
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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