How to make a B to B Sales Call
Submitted by JenniferP on Fri, 10/31/2008 - 08:24
Someone once asked me if I knew the people I call, when I told them I did not they were very surprised!
It starts by picking up the phone, and that's were a lot of people get into trouble. The first defense a company has against a sales call is the receptionist, try saying Good Morning or Good Afternoon and if you catch the person's name, use it. If you do not have a name of someone to talk to, ask the receptionist for help. Tell them what company you are calling from and what you need, usually they are glad to help. However if not, there is no need to take it out on them as they are just good at their job!
Two little know rules, you have 5 seconds for the person you are calling to decide to listen to you or not, and they are only going to hear about 10% of what you say...so speak English, tell them who you are, where you are calling from and why you are calling. The other thing that helps is do not pause at the end of the sentence, you will get interrupted, however if you pause in the middle of sentences it is less likely that you will be stopped. When people read they pause at the end of a sentence, when you speak you do not, so do not sound like you are reading.......there is nothing worse!
The kiss of death of any cold call is when someone starts out with "How Are You Today" It breaks the pacing of the call and worse yet it makes it a telemarketing call which has no place in business calling. .
The most important thing I ever learned about cold calling is to "Actively Listen", to the person on the other end of the phone, so stop thinking about what you are going to say next and just shut up an listen! This is a skill we can all use in our daily lives as everyone likes to be listened too!
Try to know who you are calling, the type of company, the position of the person you will be speaking with and ALWAYS get the name for the Adminstrative Assistant. These people are very good at what they do and more important they know more about the company than anyone else..they can be very helpful!
So I guess if I had one thing to pass on it would be...just pick up the phone!
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I need a list of...how come I can't find one???
I recently had a friend of mine ask me where she could find a list of Administrative Assistance in a 20 mile radius of Addison, of companies to do a mailing to. She said she had not had much luck locating one on the internet and her question was did I have any idea where to buy one? I had another person I know want a list of companies within a certain sales figure and employee count and the CFO's name to do a call campaign?
Anytime you need a list with any specific criteria, someone has to put it together, not only with your specifics, but with the correct addresses and phone numbers......who wants to do a mailing to an executive and get their title wrong...anyone with a title does not pay any attention to mail they get with an incorrect title, it shows that is is Junk Mail. Also addresses are very important, because you get a list with addresses on it, it does not mean the person who you are sending the mail to is located at that office..they could be at another address, and do you know what happens to mail that goes to a mail room in a big company...it goes in the trash under the Junk Mail.
All list you buy are about 50% inaccurate, if it is a good list and you will pay for that list..and a 75% accuracy ratio and above is great!! So before you do your campaign, confirm that data and correct it..because you do not want it to be identified as a Junk Mail!!!
These forms of sales are expensive, so you want as much of your marketing dollars to make the largest impact as possible, and the higher up in the company you are targeting, the more junk mail they receive and most of that does not get past the front desk..
However if your contacts name is spelled correctly, the address is correct and title is right on, you have a better chance that your piece of information will get to your contact ....and even get opened!
It takes a lot of work and skill to get this information to produce specific targeted list, but if you take the time to do the work...the data is only as good as the work you put into it!!