Here are 7 key ways to jump start your cold calls:
1. Research Your Market
Before you start your cold calls it's important that you be prepared so your prospect feels you really do understand their situation. Research the company you are calling, identify what issues they are having based on your other clients in their same industry and ask others in your company the main reasons why people buy your product or service.
The better prepared you are about discussing you prospect's issues, the easier it will be to allow the conversation to flourish.
2. Change Your Mental Expectations
Traditional selling has always taught us that our main goal of the cold call should be an appointment or a sale. With that mental focus, what happens is our mind is focused on the end goal before we even have a conversation with the person we are calling.
This creates a major conflict because you will be trying very hard not to use words that make you sound like all you care about is the sale. And even more importantly, if your prospect senses you are focusing on the appointment or sale, they will immediately be defensive.
So what to do? Change your mental expectations to focus on building a conversation first and then once you have generated a good dialogue, you can then determine if you are a fit or not with your prospect.
Be careful not to mentally "jump the gun".
3. Understand Your Prospect
Take a few minutes to think about your focus of your call. Think about how you are going to approach the conversation. Put yourself in the mind of your prospect.
How would you want to be approached? Certainly the last thing you want to hear is a sales pitch from someone you don't know.
Instead, begin the conversation diffusing any mystery as to who you are with "Hi, my name is Jim and you and I haven't met yet". This removes the mystery of who you are and allows you to begin talking about how you can help them solve a problem, rather than you having to default to a sales pitch.
Think before you speak.
4. Build Trust Through Conversation
Learning to build conversation is the key to cold calling success. Engaging in a conversation should be as natural as calling a friend. Your objective is to build trust on your call so that your prospect feels comfortable conversing with you rather than trying to focus on getting you off the phone.
How do you build trust? You build trust by removing any elements in your approach that connect you to the negative "salesperson" stereotype.
5. Ask A Question
Begin your cold call with "Hi my name is John, maybe you can help me out for a moment?"
Yes, that's really all you have to begin with because in the next few seconds you will hear "How can I help you". That is how you can build a two-way dialogue rather than having a one-way talk.
The truth is you are asking for help because you don't know if you can help them yet, right? Until you have the information you need about their situation, you can't determine if you are a fit or not.
6. Eliminate Pressure
Pressure is the main reason most cold calls turn into a negative rejection-filled experience. It doesn't have to be that way.
If you can become aware of things you are doing that is triggering pressure on your prospects, you can turn cold calling into a very productive and enjoyable experience.
The key is to never force your sales pitch, engage only in a natural conversation, and most importantly let your prospect talk. By doing all three you will eliminate pressure from the call and your prospect will be more open to the idea of what you have to offer.
7. Learn To Determine A Fit
So how do you know if your prospect is a fit with what you have to offer? You need to ask them this question towards the end of your problem solving discussion "Is solving your problem a top priority or something that is on the back burner for now?"
By determining the answer to this question, you can see if you can decide if your prospect is worth pursuing or not. You will also be able to determine their time frame which helps you better adjust your expectations.
Make no mistake about it, if you really want to be successful cold calling you'll need to let go of traditional sales thinking. Try these 7 strategies and watch how cold calling can be fun and productive.
Ari Galper makes cold calling painless and simple. Learn his cold calling secrets that even the sales gurus don't know. To receive your 10 free audio mini-lessons visit http://www.Unlock-The-Cold-Calling-Game.com
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/
The bottom line is that there are plenty of really talented people out there who will never be heard from because they don't understand even the most basic principles of marketing. Marketing isn't often taught in Fine Arts courses because the instructors, by nature, are better at teaching the craft than they are at marketing themselves in the craft. Most marketing experts haven't fine tuned their artistic talents enough to have a product worth marketing.
So the good news is that it is easier for a talented artist to learn the principles of excellence in marketing ideas and services than it is for a marketing genius to develop the passion and skill sets needed to produce good and, sometimes, great art.
Your website looks good and is ready to be shown to the public but now you'll have to begin your marketing phase.
The first thing you'll want to do is start writing internet articles...for free! They don't have to be long or profound, they just have to be written well, stay on subject, be controversial and have great titles that search engines will latch onto and deliver people into your funnel.
Go to http://ezinearticles.com, sign up for a free membership and start writing short articles about what you're interested in. Also, make sure the meta tags on each page of your website have 101 keywords and phrases to attract search engines. Also, make sure that you have a text table of contents on each page of your website as well as the cool flash buttons. Make sure every page has a title and that you register your site with http://dmoz.com.
Next, start a blog at http://blogger.com (it's free) and start blogging about your subject and your art. Talk about which phases your
are in certain projects and make sure to include plenty of juicy tips and advice for people interested in art (do you see that you are truly building your online brand into an expertise here?).
Next, go to http://aweber.com and sign up for a newsletter database subscription ($20 a month). Put forms and links on all of your websites and send an initial message to your warm e-mail market to join your subscription list. Send a weekly newsletter to your subscribers-keep them entertained and keep them interested and with patience and time your audience will grow into thousands. These thousands know tens of thousands and this circle of hundreds of thousands of possibilities will keep you working for the rest of your life if you choose to work that long.
Beyond this, there is pay-per-click advertising you search out proper keywords and buy time with them in certain search engines as well as affiliate programs where other people market your services for you and you give them a percentage of whatever business they bring. But let's focus on the cheaper foundation first.
This is a guaranteed method of success if you are willing to put the time into it and you must first decide whether you want to go all the way or not because success and happiness begin at the crown of the head where spirit meets mind meets body. Success or failure is a choice we make each moment and determine the nature of our experience of reality. I have been extremely impressed with your talent and with your professionalism in our exchanges so far-I believe in you and in your future and I am willing to invest my time and limited resources (for now at least) into helping you achieve. But all that doesn't matter if you haven't invested yourself and your success 100%.
There is no going back from here, my friend. Onward and upward!
Joshua Minton is President of an Internet Publishing and Business Consulting Corporation called Family Bliss Enterprises, Inc. He is also author of two novels, several short stories, poems and articles on art, philosophy, politics, sociology, science, popular culture, business, health insurance administration, internet marketing, blogging and personal success.
You can reach Josh by e-mail at josh@joshuaminton.com or by signing up for his weekly newsletter off http://joshuaminton.com or by sending a blank e-mail to moreminton@aweber.com.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/
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