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.

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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:

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

Action Step

In order to create desire for your products, you need to believe in the product itself. Your feelings about the product are easily picked up on by your client. So, if you feel anything less than passionate about what you’re selling, your client will know that straight away. You need to ensure that you’re selling a great quality product or service and let your enthusiasm for that shine through in your presentation. If you love it, creating desire in others will be a piece of cake!

Answer These Questions:

• How could you create desire for the product that you sell?
• Are you enthusiastic about the product that you sell? Would you use it yourself?

*Take a look at these sales jobs from Jobboom, a supporter of this site.

Sales Tip #40: presentation secret is a post from: The Science and Art of Selling by Alen Mayer

www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Xcuv3uzWgU

Video: Daily Sales Tip #21 is a post from: The Science and Art of Selling by Alen Mayer

Do you add value to your customer’s business? Or are you simply another salesperson to be reluctantly contacted when there’s a need for a new product?

You can stand out from the crowd and flatten your competition by adding extra value to your customer’s business. If you can gain a great understanding of how the customer’s business operates and what his desires are for growth and progress, your number will be the first that he dials when he needs to upgrade or buy something new. By adding value and building a relationship of trust, you can rest assured that your customer will want your advice and will appreciate the expert knowledge that you have to share with him.

Set yourself apart from the rest. Become an asset to your customer’s business and you’ll see the difference it makes to your bottom line.

Do you add value to your customer’s business? is a post from: The Science and Art of Selling by Alen Mayer

Today I am sharing with you my Daily Sales Tip #28 titled: “Hit or miss does not work in selling.”

www.youtube.com/watch?v=T7_pCalDZ7M

Hit or miss does not work in selling. Many sales are lost because salespeople assume they know what the customer wants. This does not mean you should not use your instincts and training well. But it does mean that your sales assumptions must be based in a finding of facts, not guesses.

Subscribe to my daily sales tips and you will receive a free ebook every 30 days, plus extra discounts on my books, CD’s, webinars and seminars. If you would like to stop receiving my tips, you can unsubscribe at any time. Subscribe today by filling the form on the right-hand side. Thanks!

Video: Daily Sales Tip #28 is a post from: The Science and Art of Selling by Alen Mayer

The importance of the preliminary preparation of the salesperson in knowledge of his products or services has already been emphasized in the preceding posts on this blog. Now we are to realize that knowledge of his territory and of his prospective customers is equally necessary.

Many salespeople consider prospecting in a very narrow way. They are on the lookout for the names of people who might buy, but do not realize the broader aspect of prospecting. They do not seek comprehensive knowledge of conditions in general throughout their industries or territories, but only “hot tips” that are likely to lead to orders.

I frequently meet salespeople who regard systematic prospecting as the sales manager’s job. These people think the company should comb the field with marketing messages and keep the salesperson supplied with prospects to follow up and sell.

Let us realize the wider salesperson meaning of prospecting, and appreciate that prospecting is the salesperson’s job -  practically all of the responsibility rests on him for doing it well. We get the right idea if we understand that the salesperson should comprehend for whom he is working primarily — himself.

Don’t start your selling cross-eyed. The business in which you are engaging is your business. Attend to it yourself if you would have it taken care of in the way that will be best for you. The company risks very little on you, compared with what you have to lose. Therefore make your investment of yourself wisely, with forethought and care to insure the highest degree of effectiveness in your sales efforts.

Do not think of what you do as temporary or a makeshift. Search for the materials with which to build your business permanently. Act from the start of your connection with a company as if you expected to spend all your life in that relation, developing from year to year. You may have other plans in view, but conduct yourself as you would do if the company was really your own.

Aimless, hit-or-miss prospecting is never very systematic effective. The salesperson must determine exactly what he or she wants to know. If you are just looking for the names of buyers, you will find your prospecting like bacon, with a streak of fat and a streak of lean. But if you systematically seek fundamental knowledge of your industry or territory, and are motivated by a definite purpose all the time, you will accumulate a fund of facts that will enable you to do most of your prospecting inside your own mind.

You won’t need tips. You will know the conditions in your field which influence buying, and at the right time will be guided by your knowledge to the very places where business is to be had.

Don’t let your internet presence have an effect on your sales.  Make sure you have the right website hosting service.

What is Sales Prospecting? is a post from: The Science and Art of Selling by Alen Mayer

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Subscribe to my daily sales tips and you will receive a free ebook every 30 days, plus extra discounts on my books, CD’s, webinars and seminars. If you would like to stop receiving my tips, you can unsubscribe at any time. Subscribe today by filling the form on the right-hand side. Thanks!

Another option: visit DailySalesTip.com and get your sales tip of the day!

Daily Sales Tip #53: is a post from: The Science and Art of Selling by Alen Mayer

Go the extra mile. It’s actually not that far.

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Subscribe to my daily sales tips and you will receive a free ebook every 30 days, plus extra discounts on my books, CD’s, webinars and seminars. If you would like to stop receiving my tips, you can unsubscribe at any time. Subscribe today by filling the form on the right-hand side. Thanks!

Daily Sales Tip #173 is a post from: The Science and Art of Selling by Alen Mayer

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Subscribe to my daily sales tips and you will receive a free ebook every 30 days, plus extra discounts on my books, CD’s, webinars and seminars. If you would like to stop receiving my tips, you can unsubscribe at any time. Subscribe today by filling the form on the right-hand side. Thanks!

Daily Sales Tip #122 is a post from: The Science and Art of Selling by Alen Mayer

Sizing up your prospect is part of the skills that you will acquire in selling. While you’ve carried out your due diligence about your prospect’s business before meeting up with him, you will spend some time observing him and trying to understand who he is, in order for you to make the appropriate approach. You cannot use the same tactics on each prospect. Adjust your tone and your manner, according to the needs of your prospect and according to the environment that surrounds the sale.

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Subscribe to my daily sales tips and you will receive a free ebook every 30 days, plus extra discounts on my books, CD’s, webinars and seminars. If you would like to stop receiving my tips, you can unsubscribe at any time. Subscribe today by filling the form on the right-hand side. Thanks!

Daily Sales Tip #155 is a post from: The Science and Art of Selling by Alen Mayer