Saturday, December 20, 2008

Cold Calling Mistakes - 8 Tips To Avoid

By Brian McCoy

1) Know Your Call's Goal

Before you even make the call, identify the purpose and end goal of your call. What action do you want your prospects to take after the call? If you don't have a goal, you won't get the result that you want in the end.

2) Don't Give It All Away Too Fast

When your prospect says, "Send me some information," that does not translate into them reading that information. Do not oblige them and send information just as a means to get off of the phone. Find out if they really want the information, or if they are just trying to get rid of you.

3) Bad Telephone Etiquette

Good manners and phone etiquette seem fairly simple. However, when you are on the phone, you might not even realize that what you are doing is obnoxious to the person on the other end of the line. It is best to not chew gum, eat, drink, or be trying to do other things while you are making a call. You will be distracted as well as your prospect.

4) Listen To Your Prospect

If you want to know what your prospect is thinking, just listen to them. Make sure that you do not monopolize the conversation. Poor listening skills will lead to failure.

5) Making Your Fears The Prospects'

Just because your prospect does not have the time to talk to you right now does not mean that they never want to talk to you. Do not jump to conclusions. You may have just caught them at an inconvenient time. Ask them when would be a better time to chat and reschedule your appointment.

6) Not Asking Questions

There are certain things that you want to find out about a person to know whether or not you would even want to do business with them. So ask some questions. People love to discuss themselves, their families, and other areas of interest to them. People will respond more favorably to you if you show an interest in them.

7) Be Prepared

You would never dream of speaking to a room full of people without having prepared ahead of time. The phone is no different. You really need to take some time and go over what you have to say. Ask a friend or family member to do some role playing with you. There's nothing worse than fumbling over your words when you are talking to a prospect.

8) Ask For What You Want

You want to compel your prospect to action. It's not good enough to tell them, you want them to do their due diligence and look into what you're telling them. If you ask them to do something for you, then you have an opportunity to follow up with them and make sure that they did what you requested of them. - 16003

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