Thursday, February 26, 2009

New Rules for Cold Calling - Part 3

Cold calling is not dead. Telesales expert Wendy Weiss made a successful living with cold calling and now has expert advice for you to do the same - the only thing is, you need to get out of the dark ages and look at new ways to cold call. Here's her last rule to earn money with cold calling.

Have a system


This is probably the hardest rule for most people to follow. I am always surprised by the number of sales professionals and business owners who do not have a good system to track their prospects--or even their customers. In 2009 there is no excuse for not using some type of contact tracking software.

In addition set up your "Best Practices" for prospecting. What are your systems for contacting prospects? How often do you try a prospect before letting them go? What scripts are you using? What scripts are you using for voice mails? What email templates are you using? What is your system to follow up with prospects? What other tools are you using to support your prospecting efforts? While the answers to these questions are outside the scope of this article, they are important and will have a great impact on any cold calling campaign.

While cold calling has changed in certain ways, the bottom line is that cold calling still works. It must be targeted and you must have a compelling, market-focused, value-centered message that will resonate with prospects. Rather than manipulation, cold calling is sorting--you are looking for those prospects who are looking for you. For cold calling to work best, it is about sorting your prospects with a system. Cold calling is about conversations that lead to conversions, it's not about closing on the telephone on the first call.

The "numbers game" and "open the phone book and call" days are history. Cold calling is not dead. Long live cold calling.

Learn more from cold calling expert Wendy Weiss at www.wendyweiss.com or email her at wendy@wendyweiss.com

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