Clammy hands?  Blank mind?  Have you become an expert at creative avoidance?  No one actually looks forward to cold calling, yet it’s a necessity for successful selling.

Happily, there are some simple cold calling techniques you can use to become much more comfortable, move past your fear and enjoy the positive results you want.

These cold calling techniques can really help:

• Acknowledge your anxiety.  Even professional athletes psych themselves up, put on their game face and focus only on desired results.
• Be prepared.  Know exactly how each prospect can benefit from doing business with you, how your company and products can improve their operations or bottom line.  Talk with current customers to learn how they’ve benefited to get ideas and examples.
• Assume prospects are interested.  Unless you’re merely opening the phone book and blindly selecting numbers to call, you’re making appropriate contacts.  They just haven’t met your company or products yet, so it’s a teaching opportunity for you.
• Anticipate objections.  You can be a hero by helping resolve problems or allaying  concerns about pricing, budget, timing, usage, etc.
• Pretend you’re speaking face-to-face.
• Speak normally.  Know the points you want to make, but let your personality show.  People buy from other people, and they prefer to do business with people they like.
• Stand up.  Your voice will sound better and you’ll be less tense.

Don’t overdo it. 

Set yourself up for success, by scheduling short cold calling sessions – say, ten calls or 15 minutes — and rewarding yourself after each session.  Rewards should be something you really like, such as calling one of your best customers to check in, reading for a few minutes (limit the time) about sales tips or market trends, even tapping into a short podcast or video.

Short sessions and frequent rewards make cold calling manageable and focus on the positive, energizing you for your next round of calls.  Get up and move around between sessions, too, because stretching improves blood flow to your body and your mind.

These cold calling techniques can improve your results.  And remember, cold calling is not a goal.  It’s the first step in a winnowing process, so naturally you’ll find some “chaff” along the way.  But with every call, you’re expanding awareness of your company’s brand and products, and you’ve introduced yourself so you’re no longer a complete stranger.  You’ve planted a seed that might some day grow into a customer.

———-

I’ve been nominated as one of the Most Influential People in Sales Lead Management in 2011 by Sales Lead Management Association. Voting is open until November 30; please vote for me only if you feel I am contributing to the sales community:

http://www.salesleadmgmtassn.com/50most2011/top50_vote.htm

Cold Calling Techniques is a post from: The Science and Art of Selling by Alen Mayer

Plus, you’ll learn how to:

• Enjoy the foreplay (sales people call it the “Preparation Phase”)
• Get lucky more often by focusing your activities (in your search for new customers)
• Handle the situation like a pro if you get the cold shoulder (No Means No – or does it?)
• Master the art of “You Show me Yours and I’ll Show You Mine” (Presentation and Negotiation)
• Seal it with a kiss (The Art of Closing)
• Deal with the morning-after (Post-Selling Activities)
• Ask for help if you aren’t sure about what you’re doing (Yes, you can!)
• Hook up  (Build Rapport and Credibility – Develop the Relationship)
• Have happy endings

This e-book will provide you with more than 200 reasons why selling is even better than sex, and what you can do about it in order to improve your career and your life. This is not just another sales book – this is a revelation!

Order your e-book copy of the book now for only 12.95!

Note: This is an e-book (electronic book), not a soft-cover book. To get your soft-cover version of the book, click here.

E-book Selling Is Better Than Sex – Available Now! is a post from: The Science and Art of Selling by Alen Mayer

What is the mission of your presentation?

To create desire for your products. That’s all. And the minute that is accomplished, the order is yours for the taking.

Your presentation must be organized, well thought out, with a beginning, middle, and an end. Don’t take any chances in your presentation. Know what you are doing.

Once a friend of mine was demonstrating a new steam cleaner to an interested contractor. She failed to ground the unit as she usually did. The lesson is still in her mind ten years later: her prospective buyer leaned against the machine, receiving an electric shock that did not hurt him, but it sure killed the potential sale.

Prepare and memorize a standard presentation of your proposition; have it in such shape, like a pilot’s check list, so that your mind is dealing with the person you are talking to. And if emergencies arise, instead of groping for something to say, you have already rehearsed for it.

The best speeches, the greatest orations, the ones that have made history, have in the great majority of cases been prepared beforehand and carefully memorized.

I don’t mean to say that you should write out a presentation or demonstration, then commit it to memory, and try to repeat it word for word. Just know it well. But I do say that you should have a standard practice in presenting or demonstrating your proposition. Again, remember the pilot’s checklist. No matter how many times you’ve flown, no matter how smart and capable you are, following a standard practice will be worth your effort. Let this presentation of yours be born of your experience and that of others in selling your product or service.

Sit down with a pencil and a lot of paper, or behind your computer screen. First, jot down the big talking points of your proposition. Then organize them with a beginning, middle, and an end. Then write out a presentation, putting yourself in the other person’s place, and weighing the effect upon them of every word you’re going to utter. Remember, you’re a salesperson, not an author.

Cut down. Boil down. Eliminate. Abbreviate.

Then when you’re satisfied that you’ve got the shortest, best, most convincing, most complete presentation of your product that you are capable of giving, commit it to memory. Yes, commit it to memory. And if you doubt the effect on others of memorized words, witness the actors who, with the same speeches, make different audiences laugh and cry at the same places in their play night after night after night.

When you are convinced that you have the best presentation you are capable of giving, then memorize it. Take it out on the firing line. Add to it. Take away from it. We can’t all be at our best every day or every hour, but if you get your best possible presentation down on paper and then firmly entrench it in the back of your head, you’ll be certain to make a better average presentation than you ever have before. It will also give you confidence during off days.

What are you doing to prepare yourself for the presentation?

How to Present Successfully is a post from: The Science and Art of Selling by Alen Mayer

Class 1. The simplest business sale is one in which the customer is so anxious to buy at a specified price that he comes to the salesperson and voluntarily offers her the proper amount of money for the products. As an illustration, take the ticket seller in the box office of a theatre. A line of customers is waiting. Each customer is ready to pay for his ticket as soon as it is given to him. There is only one requirement of the salesperson here – the requirement of accuracy in handling a transaction the details of which are simple and usually so well known by the buyer as to require no selling talk whatever.

Class 2. The customer is not anxious as in the previous case, but is perfectly willing to buy at a given price of any salesperson who may happen to ask for his business. Take as an illustration another kind of ticket seller. Suppose a concert is to be given and a number of people are engaged in contacting potential clients for the sale of tickets. Mr. Smith, a prospective customer, is perfectly willing to buy a ticket to the concert from the first person who asks him.

The salesperson must have knowledge or activity, in addition to meeting the requirement of accuracy as in the first case. For instance, suppose a young student selling tickets for a concert is anxious to sell more than his competitors, but perhaps is not conveniently situated so that he can personally visit as many prospective buyers as others can. He picks up a phone and calls up twenty or thirty people, securing their pledges to buy tickets of him. Thus by directing mental activity, he achieves more than his competitors who use mere physical activity visiting customers in person.

In this second class, the requirements are:

1. Accuracy, as in Class 1, and
2. Energy

In both cases the so called salespeople are merely order-takers.  (Read my previous article Are you an Order Taker or an Order Maker?)

Class 3. Sales of Class 1 and Class 2 are so simple in their requirements that they need no special attention here. In the first class, the customer is anxious to buy. In the second class he is willing to buy. In Class 3, however, we have an entirely different situation — the customer is neither willing nor unwilling to buy, the matter never having been brought to his attention. Often such customers can use the products or services offered and will buy if the right impression is made. They do not have to be convinced of the value of the products through features and benefits, and the salesperson may so impress such customers with his personality that he can secure the order easily.

For instance, take the same simple illustration of the concert tickets. Two people with these tickets for sale reach the customer at exactly the same time. The customer has not considered the matter yet, but needs no further discussion to bring him to a favorable conclusion. Neither one of the sales people has to argue about the value of the tickets. It is merely a question of which one can make the best impression upon the customer.

A forceful personality is an important requirement of the successful salesperson. While it is desirable for one to have a good proposition, a well-known company, and skill in presentation, there are many cases in which these things do not count so much as personality alone. Personality gives strength to the salesperson’s presentation and inspires in the customer confidence in the company for which the salesperson works. This ought not, however, to discourage anyone from the pursuit of selling products, for there is nothing vague or mystical about a convincing personality; nothing that can’t be acquired through effort and study. Remember – you can improve your personality and make it more effective for the career in selling.

If you have any doubt that this can be accomplished, please consider the following statements before yielding to your doubts:

1. Personality depends upon the development of the physical, intellectual, inspirational, and moral qualities.
2. All these can be improved.
3. The word physical does not refer merely to the height, weight, or strength of a person. It embraces also his general state of vigor and his personal appearance, both of which can be improved by following the common laws of health and cleanliness.
4. By “the improvement of the intellectual person,” reference is made especially to the salesperson’s mastery of the details of his own business, which can be secured through study.
5. The inspirational qualities are those by means of which one inspires himself to greater effort and gathers inspiration from others.
6. The moral elements of personality in the salesperson are the ones that inspire confidence, and these can be acquired by clean living and right thinking.

The requirements of Class 3 are :

1. Accuracy
2. Energy
3. Strong Personality

Class 4. While his personality may gain for the salesperson a meeting with a buyer, there are certain points beyond which mere personality can’t go. Here the salesperson must use, in addition to the requirements already mentioned, a skill in presentation which is based upon his knowledge of the products or services and his ability to convey this knowledge of the products to the mind of the buyer.

The requirements of Class 4 are:

1. Accuracy
2. Energy
3. Strong Personality
4. Presentation

Class 5. This is the hardest class of sale when the customer is absolutely unwilling to buy. After all the powers of energy, personality, and presentation have been brought into play, a final skill is required of the salesperson to enable him to accomplish one of these most difficult sales. This is the art of persuasion.

Suppose you have presented your points with a customer until she is thoroughly convinced of the value of the products, but for some unknown reason she does not buy. In many cases, you must exercise your power of persuasion. Undoubtedly, when buying a shirt or a tie, you have had that peculiar mental impression that you were convinced of the value of the products, but had not yet been persuaded to buy them. This is the frame of mind in which you will find a great many of your customers and the art of persuading without appearing to gush or plead is one of the things you must learn.

The Conclusion

In Class 1 the customer is anxious to buy. The sale is very easy. The only requirement is accuracy.

In Class 2 the customer is willing to buy, but not easily accessible. The sale is easy, but not so easy as before. The requirements are accuracy and energy.

In Class 3, the customer is indifferent. The sale is neither easy nor hard. It requires accuracy, energy, and personality.

In Class 4, the customer is unconvinced. The sale is hard. The requirements are accuracy, energy, personality, and presentation.

In Class 5, the customer is unwilling. The sale is very hard. The requirements are accuracy, energy, personality, presentation, and persuasion.

5 Classes of Sales is a post from: The Science and Art of Selling by Alen Mayer

Action Step

Take the time to understand your client’s business and its processes. Listen to your client as he discusses his goals and his dream to take his business to the next level.  Ask questions to aid you in better understanding what concerns he may have and also about how he would choose to attain his goals. By demonstrating a working knowledge of your client’s business he will feel more confident about trusting in your ability to present him with the best solutions for his business.

Answer These Questions:

• Does your client see you as just another friendly face, or does he actually rely on you for support in his business?
• Do your clients perceive you as a reliable source of information in your field of expertise?

How to develop a true business relationship is a post from: The Science and Art of Selling by Alen Mayer

Action Step

You need to be in control of the conversation when it comes to selling. This way you will know when it’s the right time to ask for the order. But you can’t ask for the order until you have educated your client sufficiently about the product and how he will benefit from buying it from you. You cannot sell him your product until you understand his business and his requirements. So, ask the right questions – and then LISTEN! Hear what he has to say and let this lead you into your next question. And then listen some more. Allow him to speak but always be in control over where the conversation is going. You cannot sell your product until you know who you’re selling it to – and why.

Ask questions to control the conversation is a post from: The Science and Art of Selling by Alen Mayer

In keeping with Alen’s current theme about Trigger Events, I can confirm that in my business identifying trigger events has been a key aspect of the sales process.

Importance of Trigger Events

In my business, we offer financial education workshops and, if you think about it, it’s hard to get excited about being more responsible with money unless there is some sort of life event that’s requiring you to make decisions regarding your finances.

For example, we find that our clients are interested in taking our workshops when they’re about to start a new job, or they need to know how to complete their tax return or they want to take control of their investments.

Deliberate Approach

What I would recommend to salespeople is to make a list of the top five trigger events suitable for your (potential) client base, quantify the frequency of each event and identify where it would be suitable to connect with the client when this event is occurring.

For instance, one of our clients’ trigger events is starting a new business. New business owners need to make a number of decisions about money including how to take advantage of business expenses. Using the approach described above, first, I would determine how many new businesses are started in my target market each year (and when) so that I can quantify the potential pipeline. Next, I would conduct research to determine what percentage of this market has a need and would be interested in my product or service. Finally, I would research where I can find these new business owners, so that I can meet them.

Do they go to entrepreneurial networking events? Or, perhaps they attend local information seminars on starting a new venture? What online forums do they frequent?

Your trigger event list should be a working document, constantly refined based on what you learn from your clients and determining how best to reach them when they need your product or service.

Partnerships

One final tip: partnering with non-competing organizations that already service your prospective customers during a trigger event stage can be a potential shortcut to connecting with clients. The organization may already have an established distribution mechanism making it easy to connect with potential clients. Just remember to offer to reciprocate if appropriate!

Participate:

Do you use trigger events to determine when to approach your customers? Any tips that you can share?

Neil Jain is President and Lead Facilitator of Money Life Skills.

Money Life Skills aims to empower people to make confident financial decisions. We offer unbiased private, customized and affordable workshops to individuals, couples and families on how to save, spend and invest money. For more information, visit www.moneylifeskills.com.

Trigger Events are Key to the Sales Process by Neil Jain is a post from: The Science and Art of Selling by Alen Mayer

So you are probably asking yourself – how is it that they can make six or seven figures and you are struggling month by month to make ends meet and reach your quotas?

The first and probably the most accurate answer is that they see themselves as professionals.

How can you grow if you don’t adopt new ideas or learn about new things in business and in sales? How can you expect to advance to better, higher paid positions if you stop investing in your knowledge?

In my 20+ years in different roles in sales, I have met many sales people who never bought a book about the sales in their life. They never attended a seminar about sales, which was not part of their company at the time. However, they were always complaining about how companies are not investing enough in their sales force, yet expect them to be perfect and up to date. That is the reason why they don’t want to invest in seminars on their own.

They believe that if their company does not see the value in it, why would they pay for it by themselves? Also they feel they know everything about the sales, so there is no need for spending money on books and seminars, or finding time for reading magazines or specialized websites. Many of those people who don’t learn continuously wonder why they don’t advance in their career or are skipped over again for a promotion.

I am giving you perfect examples of how the amateurs are thinking while blaming everyone around them for being unsuccessful in sales. You are the one who is making the decision. Every morning, when you look in the mirror, are you seeing the reflection of an amateur or professional?

Sales professional is someone who invests in his knowledge, who reads magazines and web portals dedicated to sales people and attends seminars and conferences. A sales person who follows the trends understands how essential it is to improve him personally.Professionals are ones they know how necessary this is to start selling more. And of course – they are the ones who are earning more.

Be different from the 95% of salespeople out there who are not investing in their knowledge, and you will start seeing the change. It will start first inside of you where you will be hungrier for the new knowledge. You will have a better conversation and better approach to your prospects and people around you will see that difference.

Your self-respect that you’ve gained with that new knowledge will make the world your oyster. Don’t wait for your employer to send you to a seminar. Be proactive, for yourself and your career. It will benefit you in the long term – with your career and most importantly you will see the difference in your wallet!

You are asking your clients to make a change, but if you are unwilling to change yourself, how can you ask your prospects to?

Your sales process will also depend on your efforts invested in research and understanding your customer base, your energy and enthusiasm about your product. If you cannot transfer enthusiasm to your prospects, you are in deep problems. When you talking about something people can feel if you are insincere, or you really know what you are talking about.

It is not what are you saying but how are you saying it.

What does it mean to be sales professional? I am not saying that you have to live, eat and breathe sales 24/7 every day for the rest of your life, but to start seeing your sales position as something more, something bigger than 9-5 job.

Whether you love your sales job or not, you have a choice to do it well or not, to be fully involved or back away, and if you have this attitude of choosing to do your work well, you will enjoy your job itself!

You can be very productive once you consciously choose to be in sales, and if you change your approach from “get things done” to actually enjoy what you do, you can get the job well done and be rewarded for your efforts.

Fulfillment in your life comes with doing a great job, whatever you do. And your occupation, in this case sales profession, is just as important to your personal health as the right food for your body.

Invest in your knowledge; put the seeds in the small steps and watering your skills and constant caring about your sales knowledge. And when the time of harvesting comes, you will have the fruits of your efforts in front of you.

To differentiate from majority of people who don’t like what they do, you have to actually enjoy what you do.

Start your day by doing your job the best you can, and try to do it for a week. Then come back next week and do it all over again. The best you can, not waiting for rewards, not asking for rewards. Don’t wait for results to come, just do the job the best you could. When first results came back, when you get positive feedback from your customers, when you close a new deal – ask yourself: What has changed?

You will start loving your job because success will come, first in small steps, but more and more day by day it will grow. Your customers will start seeing you as a knowledgeable person, your colleagues will see you with different eyes, and you will realize that all of that is important, but most important are feelings inside of you that start building – good feelings about yourself.

You will feel worthy, valuable to your customers, colleagues, and you will build that feeling inside of you that you are valuable part of your environment.

And you will start feeling that you are helping others – your colleagues to be better, your customers to find the best solution, and by helping them you are actually helping yourself to become a more valuable member of the community.

Does it make sense?

Natural order of things is in doing your best at what you do best, and the rewards will follow inevitable.

Remember this – you can’t fail how hard you try it.

Sales Amateur vs. Sales Professional is a post from: The Science and Art of Selling by Alen Mayer

Let’s talk further about how to close the deal without discounting.

If you base your offer on your price only, there is a good chance that someone will have lower price than you, or you can end up in the bidding war that distracts from solutions. To avoid that, base your proposal in achieving more goals for your prospects, not just to save money, because every other salesperson will say exactly the same.

Customer wants to see the value not in your product; he wants to get the value from your solution to their business problem. They must perceive unique value from you. If they cannot differentiate you from the competition, there is no reason to buy from you.

Probably you can’t differentiate much with your product, I am sure you have some unique features, but your competition has them too. Customers today can easily substitute your product with the one from your competition and still be satisfied.

So how can you differentiate?
That’s where trigger events are coming to the game.

Trigger events can help you with recognizing needs and opening the door to have a meaningful conversation with customers who have events happening. Just to be different from the competition is not really important to your customers. What they would like to see is added value.

What creates customer value?
-    Skilled sales force
-    Sales process itself
-    Understanding their business situation today and adapting to their particular wants and needs

If you recognize customers’ needs and create the value for them, customers will move from initial meeting to a decision much easier. Communicating the value is a traditional view of selling, but in today’s world you can’t survive if you are not creating the value for the customer. And make customer realize that they are on the market.

Sales person needs to play a leading role to create the value for his customers. In each step of sales process sales person can create the value, but the most value can be created early in the process by helping customers to define their needs.

This is true especially in consultative sales where sales person can create the value recognizing customer needs with trigger events and helping them to define them better and deeper. Sales professional needs to create the specialized situation and put them on the market even they didn’t felt like that before he entered the picture.

If you are just selling your product – you are missing the point and you will die by price, as you lived by price. Customers are looking beyond the product; they are looking for the solution to their needs and your understanding of their business situation. Many times that should include help and advice too.

Different customers must be treated differently, what works for one customer may not work at all for another. Knowing about trigger events happening to your targeted prospect (and more different events is always better) you will have a very powerful tool to adjust your sales presentation to their needs, recovered with trigger events.

Concentrate on understanding your customers’ business issues, and show them how to solve more than one goal with your product, create a value for them and you will go home with the contract in your pocket, whatever the price is.

Let me repeat it here once more – if you don’t show the value you will definitely not win whatever your price is. Even if you have a lowest price on the market, it does not mean much to the prospect, because they don’t see the difference between your product and ones from the competition. And many buyers are buying from someone who had crafted a compelling solution to their needs, then comes understanding of their needs, and after that the financial part of the deal.

Your goal as sales professional is to create value through how you’re selling, not just through what you’re selling. To be a real sales professional ready for 21st century customers, here is no question you need to change your approach, but when and how?

How to win the deal without discounting is a post from: The Science and Art of Selling by Alen Mayer

Suppose the products delivered later do not correspond with the particular ideas about them that have been sold. For example, the device shipped is not the same as the sales person pictured when he got the order for it. Then there has been no sale of the different “goods.” The intending buyer bought particular ideas, and he will not accept the delivery of products unlike the ideas sold to him.

Sales person doesn’t really sell products. He or she sells ideas about products.

Let me give you an example: a real estate agent describes a bungalow to a potential home buyer. She shows plans and specifications, with accurate dimensions; there is no misrepresentation of any detail. The agent especially emphasizes that the bungalow would make a “cozy” home. The prospect decides to buy the property saying, “If it is as you describe it, I’ll take that place.”

The sale to his mind has been completed.

All that remains is delivery of a bungalow corresponding to the ideas sold. The delighted real-estate agent takes the buyer to the “cozy home”, but the empty rooms do not confirm the idea emphasized to the prospect. Real-estate agent has made the mistake of omitting to learn the other person’s conception of a cozy home before selling the expectation of coziness. She is shocked when the sale is canceled with the prospect’s contradiction of her description, “There’s nothing cozy about this place.”

The intending buyer of a home feels there has been a misrepresentation; though the bungalow is exactly like the plans and specifications shown to him. He was sold an idea that “the product” have not delivered; so he declares the sale off.

Remember this two steps next time when you are visiting your prospects: a sale is a successfully completed only when true ideas are sold, and afterward are delivered by the product or service.

Sales people sell ideas, not products is a post from: The Science and Art of Selling by Alen Mayer