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

14 Things You Should Do To Protect Your Online Reputation

By invesp on in Business-Economics, Lifestyle, SEO

In 30 minutes, your SSN can be dug out using free internet resources. Recruiters sniff the net for personal data about you and base their hiring decisions on what they read. This can mean good news or bad news, depending on what kind of online reputation you have. Here’s what you should do to ensure your online presence is stigma free.

1. Check For Activity Around Your Name

Monitor online activity connected to your name; Google yourself frequently. Set up an RSS news feed for your full name. Read the feeds now and then to know if your name is coming up in any news stories or blogs.

2. Make Sure You’re Not Mistaken For Someone Else

Register a domain name under your full name. Also, register as a member on every social networking site using your full name. By doing these, you can ensure that someone else does not falsely set up their online presence using your name.

3. Watch What You Post

Sometimes, the most innocuous entry can work against you, and most of the time, these entries are made by you. Recruiters watch out for online mentions and eliminate candidates based on what they find on the web. So if you’re unhappy about your job and want to crib, don’t do it online.

4. Create A Positive Digital Presence

Don’t ever let someone else establish your online reputation. You should do it yourself. Set up a clean, positive image through professional and social networking profiles, personal blog and professional website. This is your personal insurance against potential damage. Being digitally non-existent is just as detrimental to one’s reputation as having a bad digital presence.

5. Use Google Profiles To Direct Search Results

Use Google Profiles to maneuver what appears first on search results. Use this tool to add positive connections to your profiles. Use professional pictures, link to good reputation building professional URLs, employment and contact information.

6. Opt Out Of People Search And Data Brokerage Services

If you have a highly searchable web history, remove your personal data from the top data aggregators, public record searches and web tracker services. The opting out procedure will vary for each service type. You’ll have to repeat this exercise, since new profiles will be created when there’s new info on you. Some of the top services are 123people.com, Acxiom, EmailFinder.com, InfoSpace and so on.

7. Use Google Privacy Center Tools

Use the tools included in the Google Privacy Center to monitor and manage your online reputation. You can also prevent Google websites from harvesting your personal data.

8. Disable Tracking Cookies

Prevent web trackers from installing tracking cookies on your computer. Use the opt-out form from Network Advertising to discourage web trackers.

9. Limit Your Online Aliases

Don’t create any number of online aliases on IMs, social networking pages and the like. Even long after you’ve stopped using them, they can be traced back to you. When you decide not to use an account anymore, delete it from the service provider’s server.

10. Use SEO

Use your personal blog to post positive articles about your industry or experiences. Make sure that you apply every possible SEO optimization strategy to your blog to ensure these articles come up top on search results.

11. Secure Your Online Accounts

Make sure you regularly change the passwords for your banking accounts, social networking accounts, and IM and email accounts. Also, log in to any service only when you want to use it; disable the ‘stay logged in’ feature. This will ensure that some bonehead won’t be able to access your account and post nasties about you online, or perform illegal transactions with your bank and ruin you.

12. Don’t Reveal Personal Information

Even if you’re using a 100% (supposedly) connection, don’t share your complete personal information online. This means no one communication should contain your full name, address, and phone number, full date of birth, hometown details and information about family and friends. Any half-wit hacker can put this kind of information to any number of negative uses, to your total detriment.

13. Use Google Image Search

Try not to post pictures of yourself on photo-sharing websites unless it’s a secure site. Use Google Image Search to look for pictures of you that might be misused online.

14. Deal With Negative Reputation Immediately

If you find negative mentions of you on other blogs or networking sites, request the owners to remove them. The longer you allow the mentions to remain, the faster they’ll spread. If they don’t comply, you can resort to legal action; however, the first step should be to identify, isolate and address the issue immediately.

Source: http://www.vfacebook.net/online-reputation-management/