I was just about to write a post on the how satisfied customers can help a business to grow through word of mouth marketing, recommendations and testimonials. Call it karma, but just then, a recent client of ours, Ireland’s best selling kitchen provider, Cash & Carry Kitchens send me over a testimonial.
A client of mine called me the other day looking for some advice. He owns and operates a small distribution business and as he put it is considering investing in CRM technology, with the aim of helping his business through automating his sales and customer reporting.
The catalyst event for this call was that one member of his sales team had recently left the company taking with him a long list of contacts, and presumably with time customers.
Studies show that women buy or influence 80% of all consumer goods. According to a David Powers Homes study they make 80% of all $180 to $500K price range and they are likely to play a significant role in other big ticket purchases such as cars etc. In fact just because they aren’t directly involved in a particular purchase doesn’t mean they aren’t strongly behind the buying decision.
This is the final post of three on Cold Calling strategies and techniques although I’m sure it’s a subject I will no doubt revisit in the future. The other two posts are “Is Cold Calling still Relevant” and “Cold Call Strategy Planning and Objective”
In the last post “ Is Cold Calling still Relevant” I discussed some issues around cold calling and outlined why I feel that it is a very divisive sales topic. While are some who believe that cold calling is no longer relevant, my opinion remains that if you apply the right approach and techniques, cold calling is still a effective method of generating sales meetings.
This is the first of a further three posts dedicated to the one of the hottest of sales topics: Cold Calling
Cold Calling is probably the one subject that truly divides opinions across the sales community. When it comes to cold calling there are generally two polar opposite viewpoints, one being that you can learn to use cold calling as a effective means of generating new business meetings, going on to claim that by applying the right tactics and approach you can not only be successful but even learn to enjoy the experience.
The ability to create rapport with others helps to ensure success in almost every situation. Effective rapport building allows for more effective communication that is a crucial ingredient in all business interactions including but not limited to selling, negotiations and interviews.
Rapport usually happens at a level that we are unaware of so people will say that they had a gut instinct or a feeling to describe having a good or bad rapport with another person. Statements such as ” I had a good feeling about her” or ” There was something just not right about him” will be used to describe communications such as interviews or sales meetings.
Lisa Hanberg of Haneberg Management poses some very interesting questions in relation to management training on her blog “Management Craft”
She starts by asking the question
“What ought to be the goal of management training?”
- To provide a lesson?
- To create a conversation?
- To create behavioural change?
My very first sales position was with an insurance industry and I now can look back fondly at that experience knowing that some of the early sales skills that I learnt from my time selling life polices and critical illness cover have remained valuable and relevant to the other products that I later sold and sales roles that I worked.
Recording details on paper with the prospect during a sales meeting is a subject that divides a lot of salespeople. Sellers who fall into the “no to note taking camp” will say that note taking can be off putting to the prospect and only serves to stop the prospect from sharing information.
They say that it can ruin the natural flow of the conversation and can make questioning the prospect a disjointed process. I on the other hand am a firm believer in the value of taking notes Here is a list of ten reasons why I believe note taking works.
