Cold-Calling Trick: 16 Ways to Start a Conversation

Source: http://www.inc.com/geoffrey-james/cold-calling-16-ways-to-start-sales-conversation.html?nav=pop

The most effective way to open a conversation is to connect your call to one of these “trigger events.” Here’s how.

The purpose of a cold call is to have a conversation to determine whether a potential customer has the following two things:

• a need your offering can satisfy, and
• the money to purchase it.

That conversation can happen, though, only if you get through the customer’s natural reluctance to speak with a stranger.

The easiest way to get through that reluctance is to have a reason you’re calling, other than just the fact that you have something to sell.

For example, suppose you’re selling an inventory control system. Here are two possible ways to begin the conversation:

• “I’m calling because I’m selling a great inventory control system that can save you money.”
• “I’m calling because I understand that you just announced a new product line–and since that usually increases inventory costs, you may be looking to for a way to reduce those costs.”

The second example is more likely to result in a conversation because it relates what you’re selling to what’s called a trigger event, a change in the way that a potential customer operates its business.

The following trigger events are all excellent conversation starters:

1. The company has opened a new factory or facility.
2. It is moving an existing facility to a new location.
3. It has hired a new executive.
4. It has lost an existing executive.
5. It has announced a layoff.
6. It has announced an expansion.
7. It has acquired a new major customer.
8. It has lost a major customer.
9. It has launched a new product line.
10. It has retired an existing product line.
11. It has updated a major existing product.
12. It is acquiring another company.
13. It is being acquired by another company.
14. It has announced a restructuring.
15. It has announced a new round of financing.
16. It has announced a change in ownership.

The trick to using trigger events is creating a reasonable link between the event and what you’re selling. The more logical the link, the more likely that bringing up the trigger will result in a conversation.

Where do you find these trigger events? The cheapest way is to check the press releases on the website of the company that you’re calling. An easier way, however, is to expand your CRM system to include a service, like SalesLoft.com or InsideView.com, that trolls the Web and displays relevant news stories and announcements on potential or current customers.

Geoffrey James writes the Sales Source column on Inc.com, the world’s most-visited sales-oriented blog. His newly published book is Business to Business Selling: Power Words and Strategies From the World’s Top Sales Experts. @Sales_Source

Ten Top Sales Tips for Sales Success

The following tips are tried and true … proven to be effective for companies across a wide diversity of industries and in many different geographic areas. Often, the key to success is being flexible and open-minded about trying something new. If you already have these tips in your arsenal of tricks, then consider this a refresher, akin to spring training in which the baseball pros reinforce and perfect already existing skills. Here goes:

1. Don’t do the bulk of your business prospecting during prime business hours. Often the call that is placed at 8AM or 6PM will be received by a decision-maker that has more time to talk. And don’t under-estimate the value of leaving voice mail messages at night. These will be the very first messages that your prospect will hear in the morning, thereby increasing the odds of them placing a returned call.
2. If you want to present products and services that are of value to the prospect and that meet their needs, you have to ASK questions. Ask the right questions and the prospect will tell you what they want and how they need to be sold.
3. Too many sales reps launch into a conversation by discussing the features of their products and services. Features never sold anyone. The only thing that a prospect cares about is what these features will do for them. In other words, speak in terms of benefits and your prospect will be more pre-disposed to listening to your presentation.
4. There’s no magic bullet. Prospecting takes time and if your sales pipeline isn’t always filled with prospects in various stages of being worked, then you are in for a future sales slump.
5. Don’t underestimate the power of faxes. In these days of email, faxes have taken a back seat. Because of that, faxes get noticed. Carefully position faxes as part of your prospecting efforts.
6. Follow-up and follow-through are keys to prospecting success. Just like gardening, if you don’t water the seeds, the garden will languish. And so it is with prospecting… if you don’t remain in contact, you will never break through.
7. Give a prospect something for nothing. An article that would be of interest and value, information that you received online etc. and transferred to the prospect with a note “just thought you might be interested in this” indicates that you are thinking of them and wish to be a resource.
8. Periodically tape-record a random sampling of your cold calls. Listen to the tape and assess your tone and voice. How did you sound? Would you want to speak with a person who sounds like you? What about your words? Were they clear and benefits oriented. Taping gives you the opportunity to self-correct your presentation.
9. Pace yourself. Prospecting is a very time-consuming and arduous task. Allocate a specific amount of time each day (week?) and keep to the schedule. It is always easy to put something ahead of the prospecting activity but make an appointment with yourself and don’t break it.
10. Last but definitely not least, maintain a good sense of humor. Make the prospect smile and you’re halfway there!

via Ten Top Sales Tips for Sales Success
by Adrian Miller