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You know, it’s always interesting to read articles on cold calling….from people that don’t have a clue what they’re talking about! A client sent me a few articles this week that he was laughing about – all about cold calling – all written by people that can’t, won’t or don’t cold call – hilarious!

Firstly – Cold Calling Isn’t ‘Dead’

All of them were saying how it doesn’t work, how it’s ‘dead’ etc etc. They’re wrong. Cold calling is still one of the best (and quickest) ways to get new business. But it’s evolving. And you need to be aware of what’s changing so you can stay ahead of the game….and your competition.

As most of you know, I’m well-known for my cold calling expertise and results I’ve got with clients from implementing the methods. So here are 6 tips for getting more appointments from your cold calls. Study them. Pin this article up on the wall. Make the techniques work for you. And I promise you’ll see a marked difference in your sales figures……

Andy’s Sales Tip No 1 – Stop Asking ‘When Is Your Contract Up For Renewal?’

This is probably one of the worst questions you can ask early in a call! You might as well say to the prospect ‘this is my pathetic attempt at qualifying you in order that I can decide if you’re worth my time or not right now, or whether I should call you back in 9/12/15 months time in the vain hope you remember me (rather than forgetting me within seconds of putting the phone down). Please let me know the answer to this so I can get on with calling the rest of my list of people I’m supposed to call today’.

You know that if you ask this question early in the call that they’re probably going to lie to you, don’t you? How do you know? Because you’ve been lied to in the past, haven’t you? Ever called someone previously who told you their contract was due to renew in June, but when you ring them in March they’ve just renewed? Yep, you’ve been lied to! Are you going to continue doing the same thing, or do you want a different result? So stop asking the question!

Andy’s Sales Tip No 2 – Have A Strong ‘Reason’ For Calling

This is another thing the average telecoms salesperson fails to do. So if you do it, you’re already well ahead of the game. The prize for ‘worst ever’ call reason goes to someone who I once heard say ‘the reason for the call is to find out when your contract is up for renewal’.

Brilliant! Abject failure to understand tip number one and tip number two! Great effort. Collect the envelope containing your P45 and join the queue at the job centre.

Your ability to grab your prospect’s attention is a major factor in whether you get a little more time on the call. And an important part of that is having a strong call reason. You do have a strong reason for calling, don’t you? And it’s about the prospect, not you?

Andy’s Sales Tip No 3 – Call With Confidence And Belief

This part is often missing – particularly if the salespeople concerned are calling over a period of more than an hour. If they’re not careful, their motivation can drop off over time, and their confidence and belief can be affected in a negative way just by one bad call!

Prospects can ‘hear’ confidence and belief in your voice…and they notice when it’s missing! You need persuade people to buy into you and what you offer. They need to have faith in you and trust that you know what you’re talking about. But if you don’t have strong belief and confidence they won’t do either. Lost sales opportunity!

An example of how vital this area is – I worked with an internal sales team last week whose role it is to get appointments for their field sales colleagues. Purely focusing on motivation, confidence and belief we achieved a 60 PERCENT increase in appointments!! Note: I didn’t change anything about what they said, just their motivation, confidence and belief! Anyone else out there want similar results?…..

Andy’s Sales Tip No 4 – Do Some Preparation!

It often astounds me how little preparation your average telecoms salesperson does. Like I mentioned above, Cold Calling is evolving, and you need to evolve with it to give yourself a good chance of success. No longer can you call companies with a name of the person you’re trying to reach and have a good success rate in terms of getting through to them, or getting appointments with them.

The minimum preparation you should be doing prior to a call is to get the name of the decision maker, direct phone number and email where appropriate, an idea of your call reason and what you’re going to say, likely objections and how you’re going to handle them, plus access to your diary (or your colleague’s diary) to book those appointments in!

Remember, you need to know exactly the date and time that you’re trying to make the appointment for before you start to close – otherwise you’re affecting your chances of success in a negative way!

Andy’s Sales Tip No 5 – Focus Your Time

If you’re starting any sort of calling session, whether it’s cold or warm calling, make sure you’re focused before you start! This means eliminating any distractions. Far too many telecoms salespeople allow themselves to get interrupted during calling sessions, which then has a negative impact on the results they get from them – which falsely leads some people to the conclusion that it ‘doesn’t work for them’ or they’re no good at it.

Interruptions would include things like colleagues talking to them, incoming phone calls, emails, making a drink etc etc. Particularly if the salesperson isn’t enjoying the session, they’ll take advantage of the interruption, therefore ruining their chances of success in the calling session!

If you’re going to start a calling session, make sure you’re focused on it. As well as the end result you want to achieve.

Andy’s Sales Tip No 6 – Create Some Energy

Another big mistake the average telecoms salesperson makes is sounding bored and tired. Remember, when you’re making a phone call, your voice is all you have to persuade people, so make sure you give it your best shot! You need to have energy and enthusiasm in your voice in order to persuade others, so why are you making calls where you sound like you’re terminally depressed?!!

The longer the calling session goes on, the more you have to be careful of your energy levels. Sometimes short breaks between focused calling sessions actually produce better results, as well as the salesperson managing their energy levels during the session.

Remember – If you’re going to bother making a call, make it sound like a good one!

You can ask any questions about this article or sales in general, by contacting Andy here

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Andy Preston is a leading Sales Expert, Trainer and Motivational Speaker. He runs the Ecademy ‘Sales And Cold Calling Tips Club’ as well as writing for magazines, newspapers and trade journals all around the world on anything related to sales and selling.

You can get Andy’s free cold calling and sales tips HERE

This article is copyright Andy Preston 2010. To copy or syndicate this or any part of this article contact Andy Preston for guidelines. Media enquiries – details here

2009 was an interesting year for many ’mobile phone’ salespeople and telecoms companies I’ve been speaking with recently. Whilst some had a successful year, many others were grateful for making the sales they did, and some were grateful to make it through the year at all!

2009 had some interesting lessons in terms of sales and sales tactics, things we should all learn from whether we’re a salesperson, manager or director.

Follow the tips below and watch your sales soar in 2010!…..

Sales Lesson Number One – Prospect Continuously

If 2009 taught you nothing else, it taught you that you can’t always rely on renewals or re-signs from your existing customers to hit your targets! 2009 was the year that existing customers were looking for ways to cut costs in their businesses – and I think it’s fair to say mobiles and telecoms were among the first costs to be looked at.

Far too many salespeople stop prospecting when they’re busy. Then they wonder why their sales figures suffer afterwards. Prospecting should be done on a continuous basis, not just when you’re quiet!

Sales Lesson Number Two – Control The Sales Cycle

2009 highlighted the need for the salesperson to control the sales process more than ever before! It was the year where customers started asking for proposals, but then didn’t seem to proceed with the buying decision anywhere near as fast!

In a lot of cases, prospects were trying to get a ‘feel’ for what was available and what it would-cost, before trying to get approval for who to go with, which often resulted in internal discussion and slow decision making by potential clients! So the salesperson does lots of ‘running around’ for very little reward!

Sales Lesson Number Three – Know More About The Competition

Again, 2009 showed us that we have to be sharper in this arena. Many telecoms companies were finding increased competition when trying to make appointments and also when trying to close the deal face-to-face. Often this was happening in existing accounts as well!

If you truly want to be able to sell against your competition, you’d better know them – inside and out.

You want to know about their marketing and promotion, their sales campaigns, their offering, where they’re strong (and weak), and how you can sell against them effectively. That is, if you want to be more successful this year than last….?

Sales Lesson Number Four – Write A Sales Plan

I’m often amazed how few people have a proper sales plan in place! I mean a specific document, written down, with a focused plan of how the individual, team or business is going to win business for the forthcoming year.

Without a proper sales plan in place, most people will miss opportunities that they could have converted, and miss other opportunities they weren’t even aware of.

Not the best thing to happen in a tough market, so start your year off well and get a written sales plan in place, right now!

Sales Lesson Number Five – Examine Your ‘Selling Level’

2009 was the year that purchasing and ‘sign-off’ responsibility shifted somewhat. Managers or Department Heads that were previously able to sign-off quite large sums of money were ‘reigned in’ somewhat, and Directors and Owners started taking more interest in exactly where the company’s money was being spent.

This means that all the salespeople that were selling at ‘user’ or ‘manager’ level found that decisions were going ‘above’ – and that they weren’t coming back as positively or as quickly as previously might have happened!

Sales Lesson Number Six – Ask Better Questions

If you or your team are still asking mainly ‘fact-find’ questions of prospects you’re speaking to, then you’ll probably be one of the first to be left behind in 2010!

If your prospects and clients are considering you as a potential supplier for 2010, do you really think questions like ‘how many handsets have you got?’, what network are you on?’ and ‘when is your contract up for renewal?’ are really going to help you build your business or your desk in 2010?

Your questioning ability can be one of the biggest things that differentiates you from your competition. How does yours (or your team’s) currently measure up?

Sales Lesson Number Seven – Re-Establish Contact

As businesses have ‘re-engineered’ themselves and their business offering over the last few months, for some companies that’s meant re-shuffling their staff and their responsibilities. This is worth looking at closely from a sales point of view however, as we want to make sure you aren’t losing any opportunities through any re-structuring or re-organisation.

Think about some companies that you (or your team) have sold tot in the past. Are you completely ‘on top’ of those companies? Even the ones that haven’t been ‘in the market’ for ages? Do you know every contact in the account that’s involved in telecoms? Do they all know you and would call you first when they need someone?

Many salespeople are in for a shock this year if they only have one or two contact s in an organisation. If those contacts have left or changed responsibilities, they could find themselves having to start again with new contacts. Not the best start to 2010, is it?

Sales Lesson Number Eight – Work On Your Sales Skills

2009 taught us that many of the basic sales skills that are needed for success in a telecoms role had been ‘taken for granted’ – yet were lacking in a large number of the companies and the salespeople I spoke to! Particularly in the cold calling/new business arena.

Last year was the year where sales skills mattered far more than in years previous. Prospects were taking longer to make decisions, higher level decision makers were getting involved, ROI needed to be proven at every stage, more competitors were involved in every sale and prospects were looking to negotiate all your profit out of every deal!

What are you doing to make sure that doesn’t happen to you in 2010?

You can ask any questions about this article or sales in general, by contacting Andy here

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Andy Preston is a recognized Sales Expert, who specialises in working with mobile phone companies in particular – helping them generate more appointments, stand out from the competition, and close more deals.

You can get Andy’s free cold calling and sales tips HERE

This article is copyright Andy Preston 2010. To copy or syndicate this or any part of this article contact Andy Preston for guidelines. Media enquiries – details here