Ten Ways to Make Cold Calling Easy

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  jongreer05/20/08 Reported as spam
  1

  Great stuff

  Nice easy read. Bottom line: just do it!

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  Bestnotefinder05/20/08 Report as spam
  2

  RE: Ten Ways to Make Cold Calling Easy

  These are great techniques! I will start implementing them tomorrow first thing! Thanks! -Andrew D. Salem, Oregon.
  
  P.S. If I could ad one thing, it's: "ALWAYS SMILE, AND KEEP A MIRROR IN FRONT OF YOU TO KEEP YOURSELF ACCOUNTABLE TO YOUR RULE"

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  joannesblack05/20/08 Report as spam
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  RE: Ten Ways to Make Cold Calling Easy

  Why even bother cold calling? You're interrupting people, dialing for dollars, and even encountering rude people. When you sell through referrals, it's not about the number of calls you make, it's about the number of introductions you receive, the shortening of your sales process, and the absolute delight in speaking with people you want to talk to and who want to talk to you. There's absolutely no reason to cold call.
  
  Joanne Black

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  JulieBeth4405/21/08 Report as spam
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  Ten Ways to Make Cold Calling Easy

  I am in the middle of interviewing for an Inside Technology Sales job where my company provides us with a customer base list of customers currently ordering office products from us. We are required to may 60 calls a day and be on the phone at least 2 1/2 hours a day and cold calls are required. Not every sales rep is going to have the luxury of referrals, at least to start.
  
  If I get one of the positions and don't make cold calls, I risk losing my job so I feel that making the statement you made should be evaluated based on individual sales type positions and what the expectations are from the company you work for.

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  joannesblack05/22/08 Report as spam
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  Your Question about the cold calling job

  There are many companies that have a cold calling culture. That's what they expect salespeople to do. You have no choice if you go to work for such a company. However, I don't believe in cold calling--for any salesperson. The reason? It's intrusive, it's not a relationship sale, and the stats are dismal. (Close 1-2 deals for 100 dials). When you work a referral strategy, you get a new client more than 50 percent of the time, are pre-sold, have credibility and trust, collapse your sales process, and ace out the competition. That's why I love referrals and why I wrote the book on it.
  Hope that helps clarify.

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  Geoffrey James, Sales Machine05/21/08 Report as spam
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  Referral Selling

  No question of it, referral selling is easier and cheaper in the long run. See:
  
  http://blogs.bnet.com/salesmachine/?p=211
  
  Hi, Joanne!

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  Arvindcares05/21/08 Report as spam
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  RE: Ten Ways to Make Cold Calling Easy

  Makes great sense!
  
  I feel the fear can be overcome by keeping one single fact in mind - calling is integral part of sales process. No calling, no money!
  
  If that too gives fear, then, one needs to 'prepare' him/herself not on call content but on personal level. Fear of cold calling is generally more personal than content - oriented.
  
  'Motivated person can do anything!'

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  craigjustice05/21/08 Report as spam
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  Get A List To Make Cold Calling Easier

  Get a list of target prospects representative of the type of customers who have bought from you in the past. It makes cold calling much easier -- because then you are calling to help prospects, just as you've been able to assist hundreds of other customers in a similar situation. Craig Justice, Director of Sales, SmartDraw.

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  Geoffrey James, Sales Machine05/21/08 Report as spam
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  Right on!

  My post assumes that marketing has provided you with a great list of pre-qualified prospects. If nobody -- even the experienced sales reps -- aren't getting a hit rate of 1 prospect (agrees to meeting) out of every 15 leads, then it's a better use of your time to go beat up marketing than keep beating your head against the wall.

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  snadler05/21/08 Report as spam
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  RE: Ten Ways to Make Cold Calling Easy

  Makes sense but also set aside a specific time / appointment to make the calls.

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  mark@...05/22/08 Report as spam
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  RE: Ten Ways to Make Cold Calling Easy

  Lots of good ideas. It's important that you have a very good reason - from the customer's perspective - for calling. That reason could be an article you saw about the company, or a trend that you know affects this company's business, or best practices you can share based on your experience with companies like the one you're calling. You also need to be clear about who you are - master that elevator speech. Finally, be respectful. Give the customer an option to opt out right now. You can always call back at a later time.

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  andrew2wyatt05/23/08 Report as spam
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  Call on your website visitors

  Companies who visit your website are likely to be interested already.
  This requires a service which reveals the company names of the visitors.
  By analyzing the pages visited, time on pages and returning visits by company, these companies can be qualified as leads (or to be forgotten).
  Additionally the service can include Internet Data Mining for retrieving useful information about the company, all in one place.
  
  Interested in such web services? Just Google "website visitor identification"

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  nickvaidya05/29/08 Report as spam
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  RE: Ten Ways to Make Cold Calling Easy

  Cold calling is a very creative job. Make a script and keep modifying it every now and then (1 day or 1 week) until you find your ideal script. It will vary for each segment of your market. You will realize that as you become experienced. Script is critical to experimentation, which is critical for success. Take the whole experience as an excercise in finding the right script. Once you do, you will have enough success that is greater than that of others.
  
  Regards,
  
  Nick Vaidya
  The 8020Strategy Group

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  Geoffrey James, Sales Machine05/29/08 Report as spam
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  Good advice!

  Thanks for weighing in!

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  nidhimos09/06/08 Report as spam
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  RE: Ten Ways to Make Cold Calling Easy

  I tend to agree with the fact that cold calling over phone is the most creative job. There are many times when you might be asked to make cold calls, not over phone, but in person.
  It is very tough and mostly not advisable that you do that especially if you want to meet a really important person, however if you have to do it:
  Be very polite, but not Appologetic. Stress it was very important to meet.
  To not give any brochure in the begining, it ends the call immidiately.
  Give all the relevant details of the product or serice that u offer in a crisp and consise way.,stress how critical and important it is for his/her business.
  Send him/her a thank you mail and confirm the next follow up immidiately on reaching back your office.
  All The Best.

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  Annieinthesun09/22/08 Report as spam
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  RE: Ten Ways to Make Cold Calling Easy

  Cold calling kinda explains how both parties feel about it...leaves us kind of cold and clammy just thinking about it.
  
  But sometimes cold calling can lead us to more self-discovery about our value proposition for the party at the other end. It always helps to have at least talking points mapped out, and really learn to listen to the person on the other line. With time, you hopefully get to understand who will really be interested in your product or service and be able to do better diligence to find out who is receptive to your calls and get some real referrals.
  
  Like one reader said, just do it, but don't do it mindlessly. Quality over quantity is the way to make calls work.