“We have a no names policy says the receptionist at the switchboard, sorry I can not give you the name/s” Continue reading »
I thought I would write this blogg post which is related to a question I got from one of my business school talks which was: Executives keep ignoring my call, what do I need to do to get their attention?
I think the “keep ignoring” may give a clue to the problem. There may be two probems here 1) This person is working for a company that demands “spray and pray” behaviour ie 60-80calls a day with constant cries “keep making those calls”. What comes out of this process is an annoying behaviour where the salesperson or the telemarketer keeps calling the same people over and over again with very little time between the calls. 2)The other problem is that the person has put so much pressure on themself to get through to this individual decision-maker that they too call too often. I think that unsolicited calls should only be made with a week’s interval between them otherwise I think the executive will just refuse to speak to you.
If an executive is seemingly so difficult to get hold of, try different strategies but do not keep doing the same thing which produces the same useless outcome! As I have counselled in some of my previous posts, work with the personal assistants to find a time in their calender, or find a way to get hold of their mobile number(eg ask the switchboard to put you through to their number), considered calling and polite texts can also work well. Any sign of desperation in trying get hold of these decision-makers will get you permanently blocked.
Moreover, I keep coming back to this research element, find out something about them and their business which will really capture their attention, especially if is current and a priority. There is loads of information in the public domain, news releases, articles, utube presentations they may have made -all this can be referenced in a really relaxed way and get really responsive call backs. I remember once seeing an article about a company in the Sunday times -on the monday I called the CEO and made reference to that article. Within the hour he had called me back and we had a meeting booked. This was just one call!
Finally,the other thing I would say before signing off is that when you make loads of the same calls and say the same thing you become to sound stale. It is almost that after 10secs of you opening your mouth they know it is a cold call followed by a pitch. So make the intial investment in doing the upfront work and it will pay great dividends. Once more you will actually enjoy the work rather than finding it a frustrating thankless task!!
As you will have noticed from my past posts, there is a whole process to this, including doing your research about the decision-maker and the company as well as calibrating their voice tone when they pick up the phone. But if you want a simple way.. Continue reading »
What stops many people “starting conversations from cold” with senior people is that they are frightened about tripping over their words, getting tongue tied or feeling that they have made a fool of themselves. So how do you get off to a good start a create a good lasting impression? Continue reading »
The first thing that springs to mind is who is the decision-maker in this process and how can you get to them? Then you can think about your follow up by phone. Continue reading »
This was one of the questions from one of my talks at the business schools, it’s a good question because a number of individuals in corporates like to think they are the decision-maker but in fact they are an important influencer! So how do you find the person who really makes the decisions? Continue reading »
Jul 072011
I remember years ago when I attended a Tony Robbins three day event, I got some CD’s as part of the promotion and on one of them he was teaching the listener about the value of cold calling. Two very important points stick in my mind 1)You must believe in what you are selling or promoting and in turn the value it can bring to the person you are calling 2) How you come across or how you sound over the phone. In fact I will never forget him saying “Most cold calls fail because the person sounds boring”. This comes back to the all important principle of being in the right mental and energy “state” – he then talks about “getting into State” and reaching at a high enough energy level to make the right impact and get the results you want. Continue reading »
This is the last step of my 7 step to recovery model from a stroke “following the process”. Everyday in hospital I had exercises (physio) to do to regain movement in my effected side. My right arm and hand were paralysed and I was unable to walk. I had very specific exercises to do twice a day for about 15mins but they were critical to my recovery. As I got better, I was able to spend a little longer doing them, but in essence it was about doing them regularly even if some of them were quite difficult. As I was very diligent as well as lucky, the movement came back and I started to walk again. It took just under a month before I took my first steps. During this period, I had kept a bright vision of getting better and followed the process of doing my exercises and having any necessary tests which were required. Also because I followed step 5 of managing my emotions, I kept motivated to do the exercises in the first place.
So how is this relevant to telemarketers? Continue reading »
As we progress through my 7 steps to recovery from a stroke, we now have come to “rapport with support staff”. By taking an interest in the medical staff and building rapport with each and everyone that looked after me, I felt that I had a real community of support around me to help drive my recovery. How is this relevant to telemarketers? Continue reading »
Learning once again from my 7 steps to recovery from a stroke we now go to step 5 which is “State management”. This is all about how you manage your emotions when the going is really tough. In my case I had to deal with the fact that my right arm and hand did not function at all and I could not walk. How did I keep my spirits up in such circumstances? 1) I focused on what I had and could do rather than what I had lost 2) I kept a diary and a journal of all the things that were going well and any positive feedback that I got; I also used both writing logs to externalise any frustration that I had at the time. 3)If something did not work I would try something different rather than keep doing the same things 4)”Square breathing”, taking a deep breath through one’s nose, holding it for 5secs and then breathing out through one’s mouth; as you do this concentrating on the outcome you want.
So how does all this help the telemarketer? Continue reading »
