Stop Cold-Calling
Forever!
True Confessions of a Reformed
Serial Cold-Caller
By:
Anthony Parinello
Dedication
Acknowledgements
Introduction
Preface
Forward
Part One:Laying the Foundation
Beyond the Cold Call
Chapter One:Who’s Who?
Forget about your routine
The Ultimate Time Saver
Your TIP
SELL: Select, Engage, Launch, Listen
Six Big Ideas
Chapter Two:Breaking It Down
Categories
Four Players
Recommenders
Influencers
Decision Makers
Approvers
Eight Big Ideas
Chapter Three:Different Strokes for Different Folks
When Money Talks…Listen Ten big ideas
Chapter Four:Crossroads
Personal Value Inventory
Product Value Inventory
Two big ideas
Part Two:Getting Your Message Across
Chapter Five:Battle Plans
Advertising
Direct Mail
Meet the Press
Your Tactical Plan
Five Big Ideas
Chapter Six:Buzz
Seven Ways
Advocacy Lists
Seven Big Ideas
Chapter Seven:Sales Heaven, Sales Hell
Definitions
Four Big Ideas
Chapter Eight:The Seven Touch Points of the Sale
Seven Principles
Cycles
Clues & Cues
Eight Big Ideas
Chapter Nine:Ten Powerful Ingredients of your Correspondence
The Need to Belong
The Need for Candor
The Need for Integrity
The Need for Trust
The Need for Quantifiable Value
The Need for Greed
The Need to be an Authority
The Need for Certainty
The Need for Charisma
The Need for Unique Connection
One Big Idea
Chapter Ten:Correspondence Boot Camp
Four indisputable laws
Never mix and match
Nine Different Elements
Five big ideas
Chapter Eleven:The Wave
Creating A Selling Environment
One Common Theme
First Class Mail
Postcards
Faxing
E-Presentations
The Blended Approach
Ten big ideas
Chapter Twelve:Old Dog New Dog
Seven Steps Of a Highly Successful Initial Call
Make a Great First Impression
Make it Conversational
Deliver it with Confidence
Get a Favorable Response
Establish Precise Follow up
Make a Great Lasting Impression
Follow up
Six BigIideas
Chapter Thirteen:Gatekeepers
Receptionist Gatekeepers
Administrative Assistant Gatekeepers
Voice Mail Jail
Your Voice is More Powerful than Your Message
Eight Big Ideas
Chapter Fourteen:Referrals
Why we go to work every day
Trust
Expectations
Investments
Ten Commandments of Referral Generation
A Few More Guidelines
Chapter Fifteen:Reaching Out
Two Strategies
Testimonial Letters
Keep em’ Posted
Four Big Ideas
Chapter Sixteen:The Last Frontier
SELL
“NO-COLD CALLING” PRINCIPLE #1:
“The only good prospect is one who is pre-disposed to buy from you.”
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PART I
Laying the Foundation
I hope you decide to read this book for one of two reasons:
Because you are sick and tired of making cold calls, and you’ve decided that you’re not going to take it anymore, or
Because you love making cold calls, but you have a feeling, deep down inside, that they are not part of the task of learning how to sell more successfully in this economy.
Either one of these premises will work as a point of entry for this book.
BEYOND THE COLD CALL
Whether you’re a veteran salesperson, a newcomer to the game, or a sales manager/sales leader looking for new ideas for his or her team you want answers to these questions:
Do I really have to make cold calls?
How can I make my sales work more effective?
How can I attract more new customers without getting rejected oh, let’s say 150 times a day?
How can I hold on to and grow the customer base that I already have?
I’ve met over two and a half million salespeople eyeball to eyeball and they ask me similar questions. The good news is that you really can work more effectively, attract more new customers, and grow your customer base -- without making cold calls. This book shows you how.
The way I see it, the work of a professional salesperson includes:
Prospecting for new business
Probing for needs
Creating proposals
Making presentations
Answering objections
Negotiating
Asking for the business
Time is at a premium … and competition is brutal … so it’s incumbent upon us to learn how to carry out these tasks more effectively than we did in years past … and more effectively than our competition is doing right now.
Guess what? Making cold calls is not part of that equation!
NO SHORT CUTS
There are no short cuts here. Selling is, and always has been, hard work. This book is designed to make your selling routine more efficient … but I’m afraid that’s not the same thing as making selling easy!
So -- get started. It’s time to do some “pick and shovel” work. I’ve put the biggest task up front, in the early part of the book, so you can get it out of the way. Once it’s done, I promise you won’t have to do it again … and you’ll be one step closer to acold-call-free model of selling.
Ready? Let’s go.
CHAPTER ONE:Who’s Who?
The critical first step in the cold-call-free selling model is defining whatorganizations would be pre-disposed to buy from us. A substep of this step is identifying the key individual(s) within these organizations.
The operative words here are “pre-disposed” and “individual(s)”. In this chapter we’ll discover a way to pre-qualify the organizations (yes, you read right, “pre-qualify”), and we’ll create a “Target List” of pre-qualified, pre-disposed organizations. In Chapter Two we’ll focus on the individuals within those organizations.
Listen up – if you don’t carry out the tasks outlined in these first two chapters, you are essentially declining the invitation to work in a cold-call-free selling environment. It’s up to you. If you decide to keep reading – and I hope you will –please do complete all the assignments I give you, okay? And, you’ll be invited to go on-line and get additional information and do additional exercises. That’s right I’ve created a special Learning Center for you continual self-improvement in what will become your cold-call-free world.
To Buy or Not to Buy
It never ceases to amaze me how many salespeople act as if their job description included “beat a dead horse.”
They spend sales call after sales call, voice mail message after voice mail message and presentation after presentation trying to persuade their “prospect” to buy from them. What a waste of time!
We must not fall into the trap of mistaking activity for results. There really is a way to target, visit, and sell to only those organizations and individuals who are truly pre-disposed to buy from us. To pull this off, we have to …
Getting Our Heads Straight
True sales excellence involves thinking in the long term, acting in the short term and developing the capacity to highlight creative solutions. Start thinking about yourself as less of a "sales rep" and more of a “Trusted Advisor” or “Thought Partner”.
Focus on learning everything you possibly can about your territory as a whole. Take all those old complaints you’ve heard other salespeople make about their territories -- “There aren’t enough companies”, “It’s been split too many times”, “The last rep who had my territory didn’t make her/his quota,” “It’s not the right demographics for our product,” etc. etc. – drag them all into a folder, click on the folder, and deposit the whole mess into the Recycle Bin. Now activate the Recycle Bin and hit Empty.
You are now out of excuses and formally in charge of your territory and every enterprise that resides within it. You, and you alone, are in control of your own career.
Doesn’t that feel better?
Forget About Your Routine
You may have an established routine when it comes to connecting with people who may buy from you. I'm going to ask you to trash that routine too-and take full advantage of a powerful sales tool: the Template of Ideal Prospects, or TIP Sheet.
The Template of Ideal Prospects (TIP) Sheet is your list of characteristics shared by your company's best customers.
“Wait a minute, Tony, I don’t have any customers….remember, it’s the beginning of a new year!” “I am a hunter!” “I just started this job!” “I just got a new territory…”
Worry not. Remember, the focus is on “your company’s best customers.” Just about every company has a customer or two you can model this process with. My promise to you is: if you take this step and live by this pre-sales call process you’ll never, ever waste your time again calling on a company who won’t buy from you. And you’ll never have to make another cold-call!
On the Road Again…
Grab your company's current customer list, a notebook or perhaps a small personal tape recorder. You’ll also need a pen or pencil and a large pad of paper! Put aside your lap-top, palm-top, PDA and/or cell phone. You’ll have no need for these “time-savers”.
Head for the Door
No, you're not going out to make a sales call or, take a friend to lunch. You're bound for the library – the biggest one in your area with a business research department worthy of the name.
Maybe you’re thinking: “Tony – what’s wrong with the Internet?”
Everything is wrong with the Internet! For starters, your competition is looking at the Internet…let’s just stop there, shall we? Trust me, the library is where you need to be.
Once you're at the library, take a good, long look at that customer list you brought along. Then ask yourself the following question:
What do my company's best current customers have in common?
A Momentous Question…
Success leaves clues, a little trail of breadcrumbs that when retraced will take you back to success -- and so do your best customers. You'll be using all the Internet resources at your disposal to find answers to the key questions about your organization's existing customer base-by working your way through the Template of Ideal Prospects (TIP).
The customer list you'll be reviewing may need to be broken down into subgroups. If you're selling a product, service or solution that’s of interest to both Life-Sciences organizations and the Entertainment industry, you'll find that the specifics of each group should be taken into account. You’ll also notice that different subgroups may have some limited number on commonalties…more breadcrumbs.
You’ll be creating a separate TIP for each of the industries, subgroups or niches to which you'll currently wanting to sell to.
Look at that first question once again: “What do my company's best current customers have in common?” You may be tempted to answer by saying, "Hey, I know 'em when I see 'em" or some variation. Don't fall into that trap!
Get specific. You owe your quota-busting, no cold-calling career the fullest possible answer.
If you take the time to do the good work it will save you lots of time, and prevent you from confusing sales “activity” with sales “results”. And perhaps more importantly when combined with what you’ll be learning in the rest of this book save you from ever making a cold call again.
The Ultimate Time-Saver…it’s Your First Step:
Even if you "hate research" are a “better doer than planner,” and "don't have time for paperwork," spending at least a full eight hour day developing your TIP(s) will be a great investment in your career. Do it!
The TIP will also help you create attention-getting written material and opening statements – which will, as you will soon see, play a very important role in your cold-call-free selling model.
As if all that weren’t enough, the TIP sheet will allow you to develop other tools you can use to get the attention of key decision makers who are pre-disposed to buy from you!
SELL
If you’re not experiencing a burning desire to go to the library now, you should be. It’s part of the first step in your new cold-call-free SELLing model. The key word here is of course “SELL”:
Select…Engage…Launch…Listen
Once you’ve completed your first eight hours (at a minimum) of research at the library, it will be time to … head back to the library.
Oh, stop groaning. I told you there was some “pick and shovel” work here. Buckle down and get it over with. Which is more painful, a couple of evenings at the library, or a couple of years’ worth of cold calls?
Six New Ideas:
- Understand what a TIP is.
- Surf the web and develop the fullest possible answer to the question ‘what do my very best customers have in common’.
- Identify all the names of all the organizations in your territory that match your TIP. It will take you perhaps another eight hours.
- Stop whining about how much time you’re investing. It will all be worth it.
Bonus idea:
While you’re surfing the web take the time to check out some self-help, self-development programs and register for at least one!
“NO-COLD CALLING” PRINCIPLE #2:
“Always know the answer to the question: Who’s who?”
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Chapter Two: Breaking It Down
Categories of Prospects:
Now you know what organizations are most likely to be pre-disposed to buying whatever it is you happen to be selling. In order to change your selling model, you’ll need to take two more steps:
1.) Divide each of these organizations into one of three different categories.
2.) Select the right person to Engage with.
In this chapter, you’ll complete item 1, and you’ll also learn the categories that will allow you to start working on item 2.
Three Different Categories
What is your territory? It could be:
*A geographic area,
*A named and somewhat protected list of accounts
*A niche of any number of industry-specific organizations
*A subset of somebody else’s territory
*Or, even, the entire world!
No matter how you slice the territory up, what you call it, or what resides in your sales territory, you will find that it consists one, two, or all three of the following categories of organizations:
Suspects. This word describes individuals or companies who are potentialcustomers, but who have not yet had any direct contact with you or your organization.
Prospects. These are people whom youhavecontacted, or who havecontacted you, and who fit the TIP that we created in Chapter One. In other words, they represent a realistic potential for future business.
Customers. These are the folks who have made a decision to purchasewhat you have to offer and are currently buying from you. The operative word here is currently. If someone has your product, service or solution but is not currently buying from you by default, you are looking at a prospect – certainly, you are looking at someone who, by definition, fits your TIP sheet to a T!
Note that any one of the above categories may be a great source for referrals! (We will cover the important topic of referrals in detail a little later on in the book.)
Update your Target List:
Now, take all of the TIP sheets that you created in Chapter One. In the blank spot, enter the right category: Suspect, Prospect, or Customer.
Now separate all of your TIP sheets into three piles. Take a long, careful look at the three stacks of paper.
By the way -- if you’ve been reading along passively, and have skipped the “pick and shovel” steps where you were supposed to do the research at the library, you now have no stacks of paper to look at, and have confirmed only that you are wasting both your own reading time and the money you spent on this book. At this point, you have two choices: put the book aside and start reading again when you’re willing to make an investment in your own career … or toss the book into the garbage and bury the purchase price in your expenses as a cheap customer lunch.
Assuming you really do have three stacks of paper in front of you …. Guess what? What’s in front of you is your bread and butter. What’s in front of you will drive your prospecting activities and feed your sales process. What’s in front of you will generate performance levels beyond your wildest imagination.
Now the question becomes: whom in these three categories of accounts will you Engage with?
Four Different Roles
No matter what category of organization we choose to base our sales efforts on -- Suspect, Prospect or, Customer – we will four basis roles or areas of responsibility waiting for us in the cold-call-free selling model.
No matter what you’re selling or whom you’re selling it to, you will, inevitably, find that your audience consists of these four important roles/individuals. Let’s identify whom we’re dealing with.