I recently received an email from one of my newsletter readers asking how he could get more attention when prospecting by telephone to set new business meetings.  Here is his email and my response which you will find useful:

Hi Peter.

I really need your help.

My name is Yari and I work as an independent sales contractor in Spain. I recently graduated and managed to sign/secure a contract with an events company as a delegate sales executive. I have designed a pitch which is somewhat OK in my opinion as it does get the prospect attention but as soon as mention EVENT,SUMMIT, B MEETING I really straggle when the prospect says things like “I don’t have time now” “send me an email” “I m not interested” send me an email is the most common one.  help me?

Please forgive me if I come across cheap since you have great packages I could buy for help. I just love what I do, I literally love getting on the phone to sale. so I’ve spent everything I had to set up an office in my house to run this little business and I m not going to get pay unless I bring the business in first!

I m crazy, I know!

Any advice or suggestion would be appreciated more than you can imagine. Thanks!

Kind regards

Yari.

Yari, Thanks for the question and here are some things for you to consider:

Great question with many possible responses so lets see what we can do to help you out as quick as possible.
If  I  read this right, you are working as a lead generation contractor who is setting meetings on behalf of your client. If this is the case I would hope that you have followed most of the principles outlined below. If not then don’t worry as you can see some dramatic sales prospecting upturns when you do.

Correct Targeting:

How did you develop the criteria for developing the list of people you were going to call? Our experience shows that developing the right criteria for the people you are going to contact will account for as much as 60% of your success rate. Determining the right prospects allows you to:

• Be focused on one key benefit in your initial approach that is likely to resonate with them, rather than having a vague, wishy washy, statement that is trying to appeal to all comers.

• Allows you to invest more time and energy to grab the attention of the prospect rather than skim through them without knowing how valuable they are. Instead of just one call and 1 voicemail, you can now develop a system of 4 (example purposes only) calls, voicemail, emails, faxes, and other touches.

• Allows you to demonstrate value to your client by ultimately producing appointments that are targeted and result in business increases rather than a drain on their resources.

You can’t do this alone. You have to have your clients agreement as to what constitues an ideal prospect. If they don’t know, consider charging them to do a mini consultancy project to help them find out. Start with their existing clients and profile their most desired prospect. This is their ‘dream’ prospect that they would love to work with.

Break it down into items that their ideal client can be identified by:

• Most profitable
• Business goals or challenges – Problems!
• Easiest to do business with
• Shortest sales cycle
• Average order value
• Highest margin
• Number of people in company
• Company Industry sector
• Annual Turnover
• Stage of business – i.e High growth or declining market

And this list can go on and on. As you are targeted on results it is imperative you get this right otherwise you will be wasting your time on people who are never going to be good clients and this can be demoralising and extremely difficult to sustain.

Once you have identified these characteristics then how have you sourced the names of the people you need to contact?

Have you randomly acquired a list from a cheap broker or have you invested in a quality list from an expert in your target market? Have you considered companies like  www.zoominfo.com
and www.jigsaw.com?

Value Proposition:

What is your value proposition?

What are you saying to grab immediate interest and attention?

What is your goal?

If your goal is to set a meeting then what is the value for them in having a meeting? You must carefully design value into the actual meeting so that they are curious to see you and want to see what it is you are offering at the meeting. You must be able to provide them some research, an answer to a problem they knew they had, or illustrate a problem they didn’t even know they had, or even ask some questions that no one else is capable of asking.  You must be able to offer value at the meeting.

Let’s face it, you are an interruption and peoples natural scepticism is to say No. Its ingrained in them. You have to have such a powerful message that it overcomes their natural reaction to say “No way”

A few other things stand out in your email:

• You mention ‘pitch’ this may be an unfortunate selection of words but a pitch is an old style one way conversation that does not include the other person. I, personally hate ‘pitches’ and would happily see the phrase disappear from the sales dictionary. You are trying to engage someone in a two way dialogue.
• You mention that you know there are products out there to help you but you did not give a valid reason why you won’t invest in yourself. Especially when you say “I m not going to get pay unless I bring the business in first!”. You have set yourself up as the expert at what you do and you have a responsibility to yourself and your clients to become that expert. You can do that by investing. You can either invest time in scouring free information of which there is a lot on the Internet or you can invest money in books and courses – or a mix of both. It is unlikely you will grow if you don’t.

Some other resources you should check out:

Home study course – It was on offer recently and I  haven’t got around to changing the sales page so grab a great product at a great price quickly – sales objections click here

http://www.salesdnaltd.com/blog/cold-calling-opening-lines/

http://www.salesdnaltd.com/blog/the-value-bullseye-if-youre-not-hitting-the-3-core-componments-you-are-leaving-money-on-the-table/

Yari, I hope that helps and I would love to hear how you get on with your sales prospecting activities.

Peter