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Cold Calling Cold Calling Tip: Where Are You? There is a friend-to-friend greeting card that says, "Where ever you go, there you are." Another card has a picture of a guy flailing his arms in the middle of a fast moving river. He cries out to the dog on the river's bank, "Lassie! Get help!" Open the card and you see a picture of Lassie belly up on a therapist's couch. What do these cards have to do with cold calling? Glad you asked. The majority of sales pros insist on trying the latest and greatest of cold calling techniques only to find that you are still getting the same results they have always had. Because not matter where you go to try new cold calling techniques, there you are with your old habits. Then when you "go for help" if you don't know what kind of help you need, you'll find yourself jumping from one "couch" to the next wondering why all of these "experts" are unable to give you the help you need to move forward. During a coaching call with a sales executive, the client said, “My sales pros complained about your coaching call, and told me they spent the first 25 minutes of an hour long consultation with you asking about what we do.” The sales executive went on to say, “Those sales pros also told me I should have answered that question for you so they could have spent the whole hour learning from you rather than just 35 minutes." My response was this, "Fact is at this point in time feedback and comments from your sales pros feedback have no bankable meaning. The best your guys can do is to say whether or not they like what I have to say. Quite frankly it doesn't matter whether or not I am liked. What matters are the results – and right now their results are nominal at best.” I went on to say, “Part of the problem is your sales pros do not have the critical thinking skills about cold calling needed to objectively evaluate what transpired during out coaching session. What doesn't even register as a blip on their radar screen is this ... they were unable to identify where they need help. It took 25 minutes of questions from me to drill down to the specific areas in which they need help. At the end of the session I was clear about what we need to accomplish over the next six to nine months and could detail the road map about how to get there. However, at the end of the same 60-minute session all they could say is - this is good stuff, wish we could have listened for more minutes. They have no idea where they are and how to get to where they want to go." Sellers are often anxious to try the next new thing, to find the one best tip, only to find themselves buried under lots of new information and frustrated because of getting the same old results. So, what's missing? The sales professionals have no clear inventory of where they are. Without knowing where you are you are unable to deal with the changes that are needed to move you to the next level of success. Most people who sell have a vague sense that they would like their sales to be different in the future. But without a reality-based reference point of where-they-are in the cold calling process they are doomed to drift. What you need to do is have clarity about where you are and where you want to go. Even a small degree of clarification will help you stay on track for improvements in your cold calling. Without knowing where you are on the "map" of cold calling you will be clueless as to what adjustments you must make to stay on track to reach your goals of improving. You'll just pull over to the side of the road, try the next new best thing, and continue to wander about aimlessly. You will have no objective criteria by which to determine whether or not this-new-improved-cold-calling-technique will help or hinder your progress. Consciously acknowledging where you are in your cold calling strategy is a challenge. But the acknowledgement of what is factually true will allow you to change your level of skill and change your results exponentially. ***** Forward this article to friends. They will thank you for it! For your mini-course “Jealously Guarded Secrets to Cold Calling Company Presidents” visit www.ColdCallingExecutives.com or call New Business Development Coach, Leslie Buterin (like butterin’ bread) at (816) 554-3674 9-3 CST (that’s Kansas City/Chicago Time) (c) 2008 Leslie Buterin. All Rights Reserved.
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Leslie Buterin, founder Top Dog
Consulting |