logically begins with an appropriate introduction. Picking up where I left off from my June 18th blog post, the purpose of this posting is to compose Cue Card # 1, your Introduction. If this is your first visit to this blog, I suggest you read my June 18th entry so you will grasp the full value of this posting.
Let’s review some important ground rules. First, this scripting system is not intended for use as a cold calling tool. Heavens No! Always, always pre-mail (snail-mail, NOT e-mail) 3 tangible mailing pieces to this prospect BEFORE dialing to ‘qualify’ this person. The intent of your mailing is to set the stage for this qualifying call. An effective mailing campaign of 3 pieces, mailed in succession over a 15 day period to one prospect, so the addressee receives a personalized mailing on their desk every 5 days, is to whet their appetite. Never tell your whole story. But, only just enough to set them up for your timely and expected ‘qualifying’ phone call conducted within 5 days of their receipt of your mailing piece # 3.
No, your eyes didn’t deceive you when I said ‘your expected phone call’ in my last sentence. I expect some of you are saying, “this guy is nuts! I’m not going to mail 3 personalized mailings to one prospect over 15 days just to ‘qualify’ their need, authority or understanding of what I sell.” The whole point of my Power Prospecting Formula is to conduct your entire prospect qualification process by skillfully using personalized direct mail and the phone from the convenience of your office before getting into your gas guzzler so you only gain ethical access to thoroughly well-qualified decision-makers who have an urgent need, authority to buy and a concise understanding of what you sell. Before you discard my recommendations, consider this:
I have been a direct mail practioner (some, who paid me call me a ‘direct mail expert’ because my recommended results greatly exceeded their expectations) since 1978 when I opened the doors to Mr. Mailer, Inc., Central Florida’s first personalized direct mail processing center and list brokerage boutique. Over the course of 7 years and 1 month, we mailed 18,000,000 personalized mailings on behalf of 192 B2B corporate clients. While I sold Mr. Mailer, Inc. in 1983 to form my present sales prospecting consultancy, Leads-Plus, Inc., I have never left the mailing business. Frankly, I love the creative opportunities of personalized direct mail. It still works marvelously well to set the stage for timely, professional follow up ‘qualifying’ phone calls.
There is another more important reason for 3 pre-mailings. You are completely eliminating the coldness from your follow up ‘qualifying’ phone call. You are making a ‘warm call’ even though you haven’t ever spoken to this prospect. This will give you enormous self-confidence, so essential to project in your phone voice, when you call and speak with this decision-maker.
A well-orchestrated pre-mailing campaign that demonstrates tasteful originality but not at the expense of a relevant, benefit-driven message can make your reception during your initial ‘qualifying’ follow up call a memorable success - one you will want to repeat!
One last justification for a 3-piece pre-mailing. My most successful ever mailing was conducted in 2006 when I tested a new concept, which has since become my one-and-ONLY personalized direct mailing tool. The response from mailing 4 greeting cards to one prospect so that individual received a different personalized greeting card every 4 days; and then, a follow up ‘qualifying’ phone call from my telemarketer or me was 83%. That’s right, 332 of the 400 target prospects, who each received 4 distinctly unique greeting cards, over a 20 day period spoke either to me or my telemarketer. E-mail me at eurekaman43@hotmail.com if you want more info about the vendor who conducted the B2B mailing and the total mailing campaign cost.
Lets return to Scripting Cue Card # 1, your Introduction.
In my June 18th blog posting, you were asked to purchase a pack of white 5″ x 8″ index cards and a red and blue felt-tipped pen. You will only use one side of 8 of these cards to compose your entire qualifying script.
You will hand-print the single italicized line below at the very top of 1-side only of Cue Card # 1:
[1] “[Mr. Prospect], This is [Your Full Name] with [Company Name]“ [in red ink]
[in blue ink, hand-print this body copy]
“Recently, I mailed you 3 Greeting Cards about [Your BIG BENEfit Statement or a Testimonial where the delivered 'Quantified' value of your products or services was experienced by a very satisfied client]
“Suppose I could show you how to achieve [re-word your BIG Benefit Statement or your Testimonial Story so it fits into this scripted delivery] ? I’m sure you would agree Results, such as these would be worth 20 minutes of your time, wouldn’t it?” [pause and wait for a reply]
Prospect replies: YES-> Go to Cue Card [7] -> [ask your 5 key Qualifying Questions] -> Re-confirm your Appointment day, date, time and appointment address] -> End the Call and Decide whether to keep it or reschedule it.
Prospect replies: NO -> Go to Cue Cards [3], [4], [5], or [6] -> End the Call and Begin next Qualifying Call, [Cue Cards [3 - 6] are your 4 most frequently heard Objections, with your carefully-worded responses to each] If, after, voicing each of your 4 responses to these Objections, your prospect, still persists with a NO reply, then you are probably speaking to a non-prospect. End the call and cross this non-prospect off your calling list and proceed to your next call. Don’t personalize this rejection. Get over it! Be thankful you didn’t waste a valuable in-person sales call and the gas to discover this reality.
Prospect replies: Yes or No are Branching Statements which send you to either the Appointment-Setting Cue Card [7]; or to your 4 most frequently heard Objections, with your carefully-worded response to each.
Bold-faced words should be spoken louder to grab and keep the prospect’s attention.
Note, above, ‘5 key Qualifying Questions’. Their answers to your documented questions will tell you IF this prospect deserves your appointment time. Be selfish with your time! If you fail to obtain answers to these essential qualifying questions and you show up for the appointment, you are making a social call, NOT a sales call.
At $4.50 per gallon, none of us can continue to conduct social calls and remain in the sales game for very long. Asking your 5 Qualifying Questions, at this stage of your scripted sequence, works well because your prospect has already agreed to an appointment.
To learn how to get your ideal testimonial from a satisfied client which you can reword to use in Cue Card [1], please read my blog post titled, Best Ever Sales Prospecting Door-Opening Sales Tool.
If you would like to see the entire Scripted 8 Cue Card set with actual wording and the complete explanation and justification for use, CLICK on Purchase the E-Book Now in the right sidebar. My Power Prospecting eBook costs $40 and includes 4 FREE Bonus items. Plus, my NO NONSENSE Money-Back Guarantee gives you an entire year to try my program and then, if it doesn’t work for you; e-mail me your 5 completed Homework Assignments as proof, and I’ll refund your $40 credit card payment. Why does my guarantee require proof you have completed the 5 Homework Assignments? To discourage impulse buyers!
Remember, if you want more info about my personalized direct mailing vendor, just e-mail me at eurekaman43@hotmail.com and I’ll send you complete details. In my next blog posting, we will discuss how to effectively word Cue Card [2].
One other closing suggestion I mentioned in a prior entry is I have had great success acquiring new prospects at www.linkedin.com, an international professional online business networking community. You can sign on for FREE; learn how to apply it’s many user-friendly features; and build relationships among it’s 22 million members.
becoming a master communicator when using the telephone to access sales prospects. Never, never has mastering phone use skills been more important than right now. Today, at $4.50 per gallon, I’m going to make it easier for you to quickly and effectively make your point when using the phone to communicate with new sales prospects.
In December 1985, I conducted a seminar titled, “User-Friendly Telephone Use Skills” in Troy, MI. The audience was comprised of 83 retail computer store managers and members of their sales teams. Variations of the content of this seminar have since been repeated thousands of times to sales professionals and small business owner audiences throughout North America.
The 3 key concepts of this first seminar in 1985, and every one I have delivered since, are these:
It sounds like a no-brainer, doesn’t it? You would think every selling professional would conduct some form of advanced preparation before dialing. Yet, fewer than 3% of the surveyed selling professionals, who have attended my seminars since 1983, admitted to completing 1 of these 3 key concepts. In round numbers, that’s 2,800 people out of 93, 500.
Is it because 97% of the selling professionals who responded to my pre-seminar survey form just didn’t care about their phone-use skills? No, I believe the answer is because the telephone is such a common everyday household and office appliance that people presume to know how to use it. They do: know how to operate it.
There is a very wide chasm between use VERSUS skilled-use. The telephone is one of our most universal intuitive appliances. When I stepped off the plane in Stockholm, Sweden in 1966, my first action was to call my parents in Miami to advise them of my safe arrival. No one had to explain to me how to operate one of the banks of telephones in the baggage claim area. It was second-nature, even though the operating instructions were in Swedish.
Call Purpose is basic. Is this your first contact? Follow up on a recent mailing? Follow up on a recent meeting? Very specifically, what outcome do you anticipate as a result of initiating this call?
Decide, in advance of dialing, your specific goal or expected call outcome. I’ll presume most of you who are reading this blog will use the phone to follow up on a timely snail mailing. In this case, I urge you to prepare a complete script of what you plan to say during this 8-10 minute call. Even though you probably know everything about your products and services, it’s wise to script every word, for 7 reasons, namely:
A scripted presentation gives you the confidence of being completely prepared and thus achieving your call purpose, which is thoroughly qualifying each prospect as to decision-making authority; an urgent need for what you sell; and, a concise understanding of your services.
Lets face it, when you are thoroughly prepared, you project more confidence in your voice which is crucial when using the phone to greet and meet a new prospect. You sound more professional because you are more professional.
Using the phone, in this manner, will dramatically eliminate wasted in-person, face-time appointments and thus reduce your number of trips to the one-armed bandit at your gas station. Imagine, conducting all of your prospect qualification calls from the convenience of your office! You will be equipped to qualify many more prospects since this method is exponentially more time-efficient than just showing up, unannounced, like a peddler.
Script every word of your telephone presentation. Go to an office supply store and purchase a pack of white, lined 5″ x 8″ index cards and a red and blue felt-tipped pen. You will only need 8 of these white index cards. Think of these 8 cards as your ‘Cue Cards’. Each has a specific purpose:
In succeeding blog posts, I’ll provide you script composing techniques that will turn you into a master telephone communicator. I will take each Cue Card, in succession, and explain how you can master this simple but proven effective 30 year old tool to achieve your call purpose - everytime you dial.
Practice your scripted presentation until it’s second nature. After composing each of your Cue Cards, I will introduce you to a script practicing methodology that will fine-tune your Cue Card use skills.
If you are in a hurry to learn this Cue Carding Process, the entire snail mailing and telephone follow up Formula is documented in my PowerProspecting eBook which is for sale. Click on Purchase eBook Now in the right margin. Click on View Sample Chapters. The Introduction and Chapter 3 are FREE for your viewing. If you purchase my $40 ebook, you have 1 year to keep it or get a refund. Enough said!
Next week, I’ll begin the Cue Carding Process with Scripting Cue Card # 1.
When IT happened before we didn’t have the Internet. We were lock-stepped into drastically reducing our in person sales prospecting activities due to our reliance on our vehicles. This time, we have a more efficient and widely distributed option thanks to the growth of online business networking communities plus the software at our fingertips to mine and manage their data.
I’m no spring chicken and learning new technologies has required self-discipline and hours of self-study. My bookcase is full of the “Dummy” book series. I’ve invested the time, money and effort to learn how to author eBooks so I don’t have to conduct far away seminars, anymore; auction stuff on eBay; leverage software and some new biz tools to maximize my time away from my gas guzzler. If you read my “Let The Arabs Drink Their Oil” blog post, you know where the line is drawn in my sandbox.
My point is simply this………..now, is the time to become more skilled using today’s and even yesterday’s business tools to change the way we meet new prospects. Last year, after reading The Virtual Handshake authored by David Teten and Scott Allen (2005, AMACOM Books), I signed onto several popular online business networking communities. After kicking the tires at each of them, one became my tool of choice recently to exponentially expand my online business contacts network.
Check it out if you haven’t already done so at www.linkedin.com. The feature which convinced me to upgrade from a free membership to a monthly subscription fee and to get serious leveraging this very powerful business network is the one that permits me to Accept or Decline an Invitation to link to one of their 12 million members.
There are still too many getters who have no intention of sharing relevant, timely referrals. I choose to avoid these people. Having the convenience of quickly scanning another member’s Profile and credentials before accepting an invitation to link places me in control of who I add to my Connections.
The LinkedIn Dashboard works well with my Microsoft Outlook so I can stay on top of my new linking invitations. Another huge time-saver that will really turbo charge your email management activities is at www.xobni.com. Cute, xobni is ‘in box’ spelled backwards. At the About Xobni page it states:
“Xobni is the Outlook plug-in that saves you time finding email conversations, contacts and attachments. After a quick install, you’ll see the new Xobni toolbar appear in Outlook - and suddenly information will become much easier to find. When a new email arrives, the sender’s full communication history appears in the Xobni sidebar, including past conversations, attachments and contact details. Xobni also includes a blazing fast email search tool.”
It’s a free download since this is a beta version so, there may be some bugs to patiently tolerate. That’s OK, the embedded search feature which enables me to Global Search keywords in past, stored e-mail messages is a dream come true. I agree with Bill Gates’ comments about this software tool!
Next week, we will get back to mastering tactical phone-use skills to make sure we book more business by conducting face-time sales calls, not social calls. After all, none of us can make a living making social calls at today’s pump prices!
One of the most memorable and inspiring book treasures in my home office library is Man’s Search for Meaning, by Victor Frankl. It chronicles, Dr. Frankl’s WW2 imprisonment and his near-death experiences at the hands of Hitler’s henchmen in several infamous Holocaust Death Camps. While there are many lessons to be learned from this extraordinary little book, one that repeatedly rises to the surface of my conscious thinking is that we all ultimately can choose to personalize and accept criticism or reject it and remain self-assured and confident. It is always our choice.
As someone who specializes in sales prospecting skill-building, I have plenty of opportunities to make this choice. In the old days, calling strangers often lead to frequent rejection. ”They didn’t have time to talk with me, now” or they responded with a gruff, knee-jerk comment such as “I’m not interested!”.
Notice, I said, In the old days. Instead of tolerating frequent rejection I chose to find a better way. As a Rule, I won’t and don’t cold call potential prospects. After 19 years of trial and error testing of different direct mailing plarforms, I discovered a better and simpler way to consistently and painlessly gain ethical access to decision-makers. My ‘qualifying’ calls are always preceded with several snail-mailings which are a series of 4 personalized greeting cards. Cards work best because:
Sounds expensive, doesn’t it? Once upon a time, but not now with gas at $4.25 per gallon!
Here is the BIG PAYOFF. When I follow up with a phone call, 70-83% of the time, card recipients are looking forward to speaking with me. I didn’t pull 83% out of thin air to impress you. In 2006, it was the actual percentile of card recipients who spoke with my appointment-setter or me, when we called, following their receipt of greeting card # 4!
Since then, we have conducted several mailings for high-tech clients who are consistently gaining timely, ethical phone follow up access an average of 70% of the time when a 4 greeting card series precedes their prospect ‘qualification’ phone calls.
My mailings and those conducted on behalf of B2B clients have a distinct purpose which to ALWAYS set the stage for a timely phone call. Painless Sales Prospecting is a reality, now! It can work for you too if you precede your initial contact calls with a timely, carefully targetted series of 4 greeting card direct mailings. Because pre-mailed prospects are expecting your calls, you are eliminating the stress and often anticipated rejection factor that historically accompanies calling strangers for the first time. The ‘right’ mailing campaign is the key variable that prepares you for a positive expected outcome when you conduct your timely, expected followup qualifying phone calls.
Chapter 4 of my Power Prospecting eBook and 1 of the 4 FREE Bonus items you receive when you purchase my $40.00 eBook is the 4 greeting card mailing series with the cards and matching copy which achieved the remarkable 83% response in August 2006.
That’s it, for now. Have a traffic-free and relaxing Memorial Day Weekend. I’ll see you back here next week. As always, I relish Comments from B2B Selling Professionals, so let the discussion begin.
Here’s how I use my ACT Contact Management Software to make fewer monthly trips to the One-Armed Bandit at my local gas station. My Central Florida sales territory is divided into 4 quadrants. Each week, I conduct highly targetted personalized mailings into one of the 4 quadrants so when I conduct my timely follow up qualifying phone calls to each mailed addressee, my ‘qualified’ decision-maker face-time appointments are clustered by quadrant, thus reducing drive-time and cross town trips across my widely dispersed, traffic-challenged sales territory.
It’s a simple matter of just labeling one of the 14 ACT User Fields as a ‘Quad’ code field and editing the Drop Down Values numerically with: 1, 2, 3 or 4. Main highways and traffic arteries are the territory dividing lines and, of course, work seamlessly with mapping and even the newest GPS software.
While there are plenty of more sophisticated contact management software programs than ACT, I prefer the flexibility and the powerfully simple user-friendly features which enable me to tailor it to my specific territory management needs. It’s priced right; updated frequently; and compatible with several other time-saving sales tools I use to cut the cost of managing my sales territory.
The built-in User Guides and Feature Tours suit my impatient learning style and the online Knowledgebase Help Files accessed at SUPPORT at www.act.com match each version so non-techies, like me, can focus on what matters most: the daily business of managing our sales territories much more efficiently.
This is a FREE endorsement of a software product I have used since Patrick Sullivan introduced version 1.1 of ACT Lite over 20 years ago. I’m not shilling for Sage Software. I pay for it each time I purchase an updated version. While several contact management software vendors during the past 35 years offered me free packages, in exchange for rave reviews, I politely declined. I continue to use this product for the reasons stated in this blog post. I’m not ‘Goody Two Shoes’ but I still own my soul.
So, what works for you? Please enlighten me with Comments about your sales territory management tips.
were some casual comments made by a client to me during a long distance phone conversation in January 1986. It was one month to the day after I had conducted a sales prospecting training seminar for 83 retail computer center store managers for Inacomp Computer Centers headquartered in Troy, MI.
The client who made these casual comments was then VP of Support Services. I say then, because 11 months later he left Inacomp to launch his own consulting practice. His comments would forever change the way I approached prospective new clients about hiring me to conduct sales prospecting training seminars.
FACT: His words, spoken 22 years ago, have been responsible for generating over $3,000,000 in seminar and consulting revenue for my company since 1986. Here is what he said:
“Gordie, one of my retail store managers credits your training seminar with 11 desktop computer systems sales for over $52,000 in sales revenues.”
Then, he fleshed out the rest of the story about the client and their needs plus how this ’star pupil’ adapted techniques learned at my half-day training seminar to win this sales opportunity.
At the time, I didn’t remember much more than: “one of my retail store managers credits your training seminar with 11 desktop computer systems sales for over $52,000 in sales revenues.”
I was in shock! First, that a seminar attendee would actually give me credit for such a memorable sale. Second, this ’star pupil’ made it happen less than 4 weeks after attending my December 1985 seminar.
I do remember what I did next. I demonstrated the presence of mind to take action and preserve these comments and this moment for future posterity. I said something to this effect:
“Buzz, may I word process these comments into a testimonial letter and fax the letter to Helen (his secretary) so she can photocopy the letter onto one of your corporate letterheads?”
“Then, would you sign the original testimonial letter and have Helen mail it to me?”
He agreed. It took me 40 minutes to get the ultimate credibility tool - a third-party testimonial on a client’s corporate letterhead that quantified the value of my services.
Quantified is the key word. Also, the dollar amount is numerical with $52,000.
Which of these 2 statements has a more memorable impact?
“One of my retail store managers credits your training seminar with a substantial increase in sales revenues.”
or
“One of my retail store managers credits your training seminar with 11 desktop computer systems sales for over $52,000 in sales revenues.”
Of course, the second statement because it is specific and it established the dollar value of my services.
This letter was photocopied and faxed, with attached Post-It-Notes, to potential clients many times since 1986. Most often, the Post-It Note comments were:
“Mr. Prospect, as this letter attests, I did it for ICC. Maybe, I can do the same for your sales team. Let’s discuss the possibilities when I call you on [day], [date] and [time]. Until then, Gordie Allen, Leads-Plus, Inc. (800.548.4571) Since 1983, Training Sales Professionals to Gain Ethical Access to Decision-Makers.
It didn’t hurt that ICC (Inacomp Computer Centers) was recognized as THE fastest growing IBM PC Division’s computer reseller in 1987; or, that Rick Inatone, CEO, of ICC went on to become INC Magazine’s 1989, Entrepreneur of the Year.
I lost no sleep hanging onto the coattails of this successful client who became THE rising star in their very competitive industry. So successful, that 4 years later ICC was gobbled up by another industry giant and ceased to exist as ICC. It was a wonderful memory for many college-age ICC employees who saw their stock options turn into huge retirement bonuses. For me, it was proof and substantiation my sales prospecting training services worked magic in the hands of savvy B2B sales professionals. I took every opportunity to skillfully use this letter to ethically open decision-maker doors. I’m elated to report it worked every time.
Like the Energizer Bunny, every B2B client who hired me and raved about my tactical sales prospecting training agreed to and gave me a nearly identical hardcopy letter. In cellular sales, extrusion plastics, business forms, advertising specialty and promotional item sales…………………in 55 total B2B industries.
Third-party testimonials are still the single most powerful sales prospecting door-opening tool for getting a decision-maker’s rapt attention. They are so easy to get plus you can use them to ice the competition. If you would like to learn the complete process for free, CLICK on Purchase the E-Book Now in the right side bar. CLICK on View Sample Chapters. CLICK on <next>> at the top of the PowerProspecting eBook screen and Go to Chapter 3. Also, you can read the complete original ICC testimonial letter.
That’s it for this blog post. As always, I’d like to read your Comments. Whether you agree or disagree, they will be published except if they include profanity.
NUMBER 1: Resolve NOT to become a victim of hard times! No, this isn’t a motivational post, well, maybe a little. If you are going to thrive and not just survive, you need to get your head screwed on straight. Develop and maintain the right mindset. Accept this from the start: gas isn’t going to get any cheaper and we all going to have to lump it and accept the increased cost of doing business.
Remember, we are all in the same boat. Even the big guys are feeling the pinch. In fact, small businesses, like mine, are really at a considerable advantage since we can quickly cut back on waste and we can manage our cost of selling and closing new business. Look around your business community and identify business networking opportunity groups such as BNI (Business Network International) Chapters. Go to www.bni.com to locate one of the 3,000 chapters in North America. Read my last post: Let the Arabs Drink Their Oil to learn more about this wonderful organization. Plus, make more efficient use of your business day.
Yesterday, I attended for the first time, The Coffee Club, an excellent local, weekly networking meeting in Orlando, organized and managed by Insight Marketing Group. Visit www.InsightMG.com for more information. I met 80 other business professionals who like me, were there to expand their networking reach in the growing Central Florida Business Community. The bottom line: plan to identify and attend one networking group meeting, weekly.
NUMBER 2: Change the way you prospect for new business. Resolve to become a more skilled practioner of technology tools and identify your core group of best prospects. Develop a Profile of the characteristics of your most profitable best customers. Begin by reviewing and analyzing your existing customers. For example, what makes them your best customers? They order frequently; they pay on time; they praise your services, products and your sales staff.
Most importantly, when conducting this review and analysis, identify the job title, not the name, of the decision-maker who decides whether to buy from you or your competition. ID their industries. For example, wholesalers, retailers, manufacturers, B2B or B2C professional business types such as LLC and PA.
Then, call each of your best customers and ask what trade and professional associations they are members of? Next, go to your public library and request from the Reference Desk librarian a copy of the N.T.P.A. Directory (National Trade and Professional Associations Directory). Why? Because you want to find a local chapter of these trade and professional associations. Why? So, you can attend one of their monthly meetings to meet other best prospect decision-makers, just like your best customers you identified in your Profiling process. The NTPA Directory is an alphabetical directory of over 8,000 trade and professional associations. It includes complete information about each association including their website URLs. Here’s an example of how I used this invaluable FREE directory and this process to acquire 43 new clients in 1990.
One of my best clients at that time was a leading cellular services provider. My decision-making local contact was the Sales and Marketing VP. Larry was a member of SMEI (Sales & Marketing Executives International) headquartered, at that time in Cleveland, OH. Since I’m a sales prospecting trainer and consultant, attending a local chapter meeting of SMEI where 40-50 other local Marketing VP’s and Sales Managers were in attendance would be a golden opportunity to prospect for new clients.
One of the indices in the back of the NTPA Directory is a Subject Listing. It lists all the associations by subject category. Since Sales & Marketing are keywords, necessary for me to identify decision-makers for my services, I turned to the Sales & Marketing Subject Index. SMEI was one of 62 associations listed under this subject heading. I photocopied this list and returned to the A-Z listing in the front of the directory where I looked up each association with Sales and/or Marketing in their association name.
In 1990, website URLs weren’t included so I called SMEI’s HQ in Cleveland to obtain the local chapter contact and meeting information. Much to my surprise, Larry was at my first meeting. He introduced me to his local SMEI Chapter members - other sales and marketing decision-makers - at that meeting and while doing so, raved about my sales prospecting services and the results he was now achieving as a result of hiring me to train his authorized dealer sales network to become more efficient Power Prospectors.
Shortly after, I joined the local SMEI chapter. I even attended other monthly SMEI Chapter meetings in Jacksonville, Tampa and Ft. Lauderdale in 1990 and as a result, acquired 43 new clients. In fact, my SMEI membership proved to be my most prolific trade association membership.
NUMBER 3: Develop a systematic method for contacting and qualifying your target prospects. Weekly, I snail mail and conduct phone followup to thoroughly ‘pre-qualify’ 20 best prospects: those with an urgent, near-term need for my training services and the ability to pay. My method is explained in great detail and provided with sample mailers, qualifying phone scripts and all working forms in my newly released Power Prospecting eBook. CLICK on Purchase The eBook Now in the sidebar to learn more.
OK, there you have it: 3 FREE Tips to Ease Your Pressure at the Gas Pump. It works for me. What works for you?
to prospect for new business! I’ve been doing it since the last major gas shortfall at the Regular pump when rationing and lines around the block were the rage almost 30 years ago to the month. I recall, some station owners even hired private police to prevent driveaways. Then, I changed my wicked, wasteful ways. I halved my weekly local trips; mastered the telephone to better quaify prospects; and learned to use snail-mail more effectively to consistently replace my smiling face at the Receptionist’s Desk when I used to make walk-in cold calls. Because of those applied disciplines, I’m ready and able to change my ways, again. This time, thanks to the Internet, e-mail and cell-phone technology, I can and will become even more efficient and less dependent on my vehicles and them with their high priced fuel.
You can, too! It’s high time to get patriotic and turn the tables on those greedy profiteers.
It’s no accident that my proven successful POWER Prospecting eBook was released for sale 3 weeks ago. You see, like those crafty devils in the Middle East, I have been planning and preparing for the timely introduction of a new, more efficient way to deliver my training expertise to America’s Sales Professionals.
Why drive to a seminar when you can go online anytime 24/7 from the convenience of your home or office and get trained for less than what it now cost to top off your tank! No more fuel surcharges added to my plane tickets. No more sitting in lines of planes on runways waiting to takeoff; and finally the end of tipping my hard-earned commissions away at every turn in big cities.
Besides, I much prefer sleeping in my own bed every night and letting my family see my smiling face every day instead of long distance hellos and goodbyes.
Plus, now we have other options such as BNI (Business Network International) Chapters to leverage business referrals in over 3,000 American cities. If you don’t know about BNI, then it’s high time you went online to www.bni.com to find a chapter near you. BNI is the world’s largest and fastest growing business referral network of over 7,000 chapters in 38 countries with 130,000 members who exchanged over 1,500,000 business referrals last year.
Work smarter………………………..let’s put Yankee Ingenuity to work to teach those greedly profiteers a lesson they won’t soon forget that Americans won’t be held hostage for a gallon of gas!
Do you agree?
I’m talking about that big old dog-earred book. That’s right, your old fashioned Yellow Pages Directory, not the new streamlined online version. You know, the one some of us use as a door-stop or to anchor piles of paper on windy days. Your FREE printed Yellow Pages is still a prolific source of prospects provided you read between the lines. Pick any category.
Lets say for the sake of this post, ‘Air Conditioning’. In Florida, in any metropolitan phone directory, I’d be surprised if you found fewer than 20 pages of half and full page advertisements for local, regional HVAC (Heating, Ventilation, Air Conditioning) vendors. Since our mission as power prospectors is to quickly identify potential prospects who not only need what we sell but can also afford to pay for our products and services, it’s a safe bet that any company listing which displays multiple manufacturers’ brand logos, is representating the services and sales of AC units for that branded logo. This translates into factory-authorized stocking distributors with new units, parts and consumables for older models and new installs; a robust service department with trained service technicians and usually huge inventory bays with every conceivable part for new and older models to service residential and commercial customers. This also adds up to lots of square footage for warehousing, administrative offices; plus, multiple service vehicles.
So, vendors such as these have substantial cashflow to support their operation. Look closer and you will probably see a website listing which can provide lots more detailed info about a company as well as contact names, e-mail addresses and other relevant prospecting info. Look for local trade listings such as Chambers of Commerce, Better Business Bureau which are always included to enhance community credibility and fair trade practices. Multiple phone numbers for communities and counties serviced reveals their trading areas, too.
I usually electronically copy contact info from the websites since I’m a poor typist and the websites most often contain what I need to make a first contact either via snail mailings or e-mailings followed by an initial qualifying phone contact.
Two other points worth mentioning are: #1] At www.salesgenie.com, a paid subscription database, you will find all of this same information with the sizes of their Yellow Pages Display Advertising for the phone directories vendors such as these have purchased advertising; # 2] A terrific labor and time saving tool I can’t do without is eGrabber. This inexpensive desktop tool is compatible with ACT; most major contact software programs and MSN’s Excel spreadsheet software. It enables me to Control+Copy to quickly capture individual company contact data and entire lists with only a few keystrokes. Check out eGrabber and List Grabber at www.egrabber.com.
So, your FREE copy of your printed Yellow Pages Directory, when you have a limited prospecting budget is an excellent source of prospect contacts, provided you read between the lines.
In my next post, I’ll discuss another FREE printed list source available at the Reference Desk of most public libraries: The NTPA Directory, and how to get more FREE prospect contacts to build your database. Go for it and let’s see some of your Comments.
I’m Gordie Allen and I’m here to Welcome You Aboard www.salesprospectingtips.com, the friendly b2b selling professionals’ blog. My Purpose with this blog is twofold:
First, to share with you tactical sales prospecting tips that will make it easier for you to gain ethical access to those who sign the checks for what you sell. What’s the difference between access and ethical access? ‘Ethical’ access means you booked a face-time or a future confirmed telemarketing appointment without trickery or gimmicks. Thus, you will most likely be invited back for a second appointment. ‘Ethical’ also implies you are a sales professional and not a huckster.
A friend recently suggested a dedicated blog about ’sales prospecting’ might be too narrow a focus. I disagree, since we can cover a lot of ground when we discuss alternatives to cold calling, referral marketing, business networking, social networking, networking, e-mail marketing, voice-mail marketing, telemarketing and a host of other new business development acquisition tactics and techniques. What do you think?
Second, I’d like to learn from you. What works for you and why? I may be an ‘old dog’ but I’m not too old to learn new tricks from my selling colleagues. Granted, I’ve been in the Selling Game for 35 years but I thoroughly enjoy learning new hands-on how-to tactics from other street savvy selling professionals, regardless of age, gender or race.
While we are on the subject introducing ourselves, it’s relevant to mention I’m a member of BNI (Business Network International) and a practioner of their ‘Givers Gain’ philosophy so my plan is to openly share useful information specifically about sales prospecting, my sales training specialty since 1983, when I incorporated Leads-Plus, Inc., my current marketing consultancy and sales training company.
Training B2B sales professionals to apply my Power Prospecting™ Formula to systematically book qualified decision-maker appointments so they can earn the income they deserve has been my life’s work since 1983. Since then, I shared my tactical formula with corporate and trade association audiences who booked my Power Prospecting Workshops throughout North America.
Recently, I decided to retire my road warrior cleats, and instead offer my training over the Internet with a series of eBooks, the first two titles of which were published this week. My half-day Power Prospecting™ seminar has been converted into an 8 Chapter eBook with an accompanying printed Homework Study Guide. To learn more about my latest creation, click on ‘Purchase the E-book Now’ which will take you to my eBook selling website where most of your questions about this exciting new and convenient learning platform will be answered. If Timing is everything, then it’s almost uncanny that my eBook is now available as pump prices near $4.00 per gallon. OK, enough said about my sponsor!
My next blogpost will be about Prospect Lists and about how to dig great prospects out of one of the most overlooked and under-appreciated sources, the printed Yellow Pages Directory.
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