The Cold, Hard Truth with Gabriel Siegel
We’re following the financial planner looking to expand his customer base by using cold call prospecting.
Our target is the small business owner and our source is the local yellow pages. The singular objective is to get an appointment. Each agent (financial planner) in the office has committed to spend at least one hour a day cold calling. The newest agent will be spending the bulk of her day cold calling for new clients. She understands that building a “book” of clients is a long process.
If you remember from our previous article, we have 3 objectives:
1) Introducing yourself
2) Overcoming objections
3) Getting a firm appointment
We spent a good part of each session working on overcoming objections. Perhaps you have heard some of these common objections:
“I’m not interested.” Click
“I have no money.”
“I have all the insurance I need.”
“I have a relative in the business.”
“I’m too young to think about retirement.”
“I keep my money in the bank.”
“My wife handles our money.”
“All my extra money goes back into my business.”
These may be valid objections, or simply a way for a prospect to “blow you off.” How these objections were handled will be the subject of a future article.
As I explained to this group, cold calling is an impersonal process. You don’t know each other. Second, most of us are conditioned to reject an unsolicited call. It helps when you keep your tone casual. Third, remember that your only objective is to get an appointment or permission to call back. Fourth, there’s always the next name on the list.
In our prospecting round table, we developed and role played a variety of openings. One of the agents decided to use the following approach in introducing herself to new clients. She speaks in a casual and soothing tone:
“Good day sir. My name is ________and I have been talking with business people in our area who may have questions or concerns about their investment and retirement funds and may not have the time, or even the inclination, given this economy, to give this much thought.”
Remember, this is only an opening. For those skeptics out there, I must emphasize this approach works for her. Others in the office used a similar opening, with variations suited to their individual styles. But, all the openings had a common theme: POINT OUT WHERE THE PROSPECT IS HURTING.
After asking one or two qualifying questions (also developed in our “Prospecting Round tables”) our agent concluded her phone presentation thus:
“Sir, we really need to talk. I’m not going to sell you anything, we just need to talk. Would __________________ or _________________ be a good time to meet?”
Our agent has made several contacts so far. She carries nothing with her to the initial interview; just a pad and pencil to make notes. As her principle agent notes, “The objective is to look for real money and that takes trust and time.”
Why does this approach work? There are two reasons. First, it utilizes the salesperson’s own personality and comfort level. There are no scripts, because as successful salespersons have learned, the prospect never follows the script. Second, there are no “steps.” Some sales programs take the salesperson through a series of steps designed to culminate in a sale or close. The salesperson becomes so wrapped up in the progression of steps that any curve thrown by a prospect (and it will happen every time) renders the steps moot with the salesperson trying to figure out where to go next.
Our approach emphasizes questions and responses to a prospect’s concerns. It works for the financial planner, it works for our carpet and upholstery cleaner, it works for the computer consultant, and recently a painting contractor working with realtors to prepare houses for sale. There’s no reason to doubt it could work for you.
In my next article, I will share some of our approaches to handling objections on the phone just using a simple phrase. Unfortunately, too many sales persons will give up at the first hint of an objection.
For anyone wishing to share thoughts or comments, the writer can be reached at guitarman1811@aol.com. I respond to emails more quickly and thoughtfully than I do when contacted on social networking sites.
For more information, please visit Gabriel's TNNWC Bio.
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