| Articles |
|
Cold Calling When Cold Calling, Get Your Signals Straight!
Luke, my husband, and I are taking a marriage class entitled "Love and Respect". Don't mind telling you we are having a blast and learning a good number of things along the way! The man teaching the session points out that men and women can use the same works, yet mean entirely different things, unbeknown to each other. Case in point ... a women will say in all sincerity, "I have nothing to wear" which means she has nothing new to wear. A man on the other hand will say in all sincerity, "I have nothing to wear" which means every stitch of clothing that he owns is in the hamper that's reserved for dirty clothes. The instructor goes on to say that women filter words through "pink ears" and speak "pink language"; men hear and speak in "blue". Both have value and are distinctly different ... not bad, just different. As we laughed, I thought of you. Yep, you. The professional who cold calls. The colors that came to my mind for you are "red" and "green" as in red-means-stop and green-means-go. Through the years I have coached sales pros in the art of a top-down cold calling strategy, I've observed that for the most part sellers who cold call decision makers hear something different than what is being said. The really scary part is these sellers hear "red-as-in-stop" when the decision-makers are saying "green-as-in-let's-give-it-a-go." You don't think that's happening to you? Read on. Many of your colleagues confess to calling and doing their best to "chat up" the gatekeeper and/or executive with words such as, "How are you"; "How are you doing"; "Is this a good time." Your colleagues, who are afraid of hearing "no" use these social niceties to ask permission - that is, for the right to proceed with the conversation. Your prospects - gatekeepers and executives alike- respond by asking pointed questions quickly, such as "who are you and what are you calling about?" Your colleagues filter those questions through a red-light-filter-that-says-stop- this-is-a-no-go . And hear, "My prospect is saying I've blown it already. My prospect is telling me he/she doesn't have time and is asking me to justify myself." When in fact these prospects are speaking green, as in yes-this-is-a-green light-to-move-forward. And thinking, "This caller said a word or two that caught my attention. Now, I need to get him/her to speak slowly so I can catch what the call is about; and ask questions to quickly glean the information I need." Make sense? Hope so, because the sooner you learn the differences between red and green the sooner you will be reaping the rewards. ***** 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.
|
|
Leslie Buterin, founder Top Dog
Consulting |