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Browse published articles attributed to Wendy Weiss, with full-archive search.
You’re walking down a street in your home town and you have some time on your hands so you’re window shopping. You suddenly stop—transfixed by the fabulous shoes in the store window.
The first rule in “Naming Your Prospect” is to ask for a title not an activity. Do not ask for “the person who makes the decision to purchase….” Making the “decision to purchase…” is an activity and may get you a name, however, it will most likely be the name of someone who is involved but not in a decision-making capacity. A better approach is to figure out what department the decision is likely made in and then find out who is the head of that department.
1. Make sure that you ask all of the right questions so that you truly understand your prospect's needs. Don't assume that you know what your customer wants or that they have the same needs as all of your other customers. Ask. This way you'll be sure. 2. Give your customers exactly what they ask for. "Sort of" doesn't count. Make sure that you are delivering quality each and every time. In addition, don't oversell. Persuading a customer to take more product than they actually need will quickly make you a one-time resource. 3.
1. Not understanding the goal of the call When you hang up the phone, where do you want to be? What action do you want your prospect to take? What commitment do you want your prospect to make? Too many prospectors don’t identify the goal of their phone call and so they do not get the result that they want. Before you pick up the telephone, identify the goal of your conversation. 2.
"I have made attempts to contact you to determine if there is a mutual fit between our companies. How would you like for me to follow-up with you going forward? "I have been working under the assumption that Weiss Communications will be considering _________. Is this still the case? If you are not interested or if there is another person you would like me to follow-up with, please let me know. I certainly do not want to waste your time." This is an email I recently received from a sales representative.
1. Make telephone calls No one will buy from you if they do not know of you, your company/products/services. Every sale has its own cycle. Depending on what you are selling, it could be a short cycle of a day or two, or it could be a long cycle of a year or two. Your call is your introduction and the start of your entire sales process. Without that initial prospecting call, you will not close any sales. 2. Make a lot of telephone callsr If you have only one prospect to pursue, that prospect becomes overwhelmingly important.
Whenever I conduct a workshop or teleclass, invariably someone asks the question: 'What should I say when the prospect says, ‘I’m not interested?' My response invariably is: 'It's probably too late.' Certainly you can try to recover from that 'I'm not interested’ response. You can ask, 'Why do you say that?' (Say this gently, as though you are confused and really, really want the answer.) You can repeat back: 'Not interested?' (Again, say this gently, as though you are confused.) This sometimes gets people to start talking and explain themselves.
Leads are everywhere. No one should ever put off a cold calling campaign with the excuse of having no one to call. There are many excellent sources to find lists of potential prospects for your market. Many of them are online. Howvere, these databases, while excellent, require a fee. The following are some free resources to explore before you spend your hard-ea ed money. Read on: First check out all of your competitors web sites. Many web sites have client / customer pages. Bingo! You have a list of qualified prospects.
1. Prospects will take calls. Stop worrying that your prospects do not want to speak with you. If your offer has value and you have done your homework, targeted your market and are able to speak about your product/service intelligently and articulately, most prospects will be more than happy to listen to what you have to say. 2. A lot of times, they say "yes." This is true. 3.
Your mom said it. You heard it in school. You’ve probably heard it all your life. You may think it has nothing to do with sales, but it does because in sales: Honesty is Always the Best Policy Last evening I was speaking with a friend of mine. She’s the assistant dean at the business school of a very large university in the Northeast. She told me this real life story. My friend, let’s call her Jane Jones, had recently attended a seminar and exhibition. There she met an exhibitor with a very interesting service that she thought would be a good fit for the business school.
I first wrote about "Marketing Insensitives" a few years ago. At the time, I had received a call from a telemarketer offering me some "marketing insensitives" to purchase a product. Yes, she really said this. She was not being clever; she just couldn't pronounce "incentive." But, Marketing Insensitives do exist. They are the unfortunate, not-thought-through, ridiculous, dumb things that businesses do that drive customers away. Here are two new Marketing Insensitives-both from the same company. Read on: *** I've never had much interest in cooking.
1. Ask the gatekeeper: “When is the best time to reach (prospect’s name)?” Call back then. 2. Vary your calling times. If you are only reaching voice mail you have no way of ascertaining when your prospect will be available. If you always make your calls at the same time of day, vary your routine. Call at different times throughout the day and throughout the week 3. Ask for alte ate phone numbers for your prospect. Ten years ago prospects generally only had one office line. Today there are a myriad of ways to reach prospects: cell phones, home office phones.
I just hung up the telephone after an annoying conversation with someone who called to inquire if I would be interested in a joint venture. You see, yesterday I had received an email from Jane, the marketing director, describing their program and asking if I would be interested in promoting the program to my list. I took a look at their web site and it looked like they could have something of value to offer.
I was never supposed to be a sales trainer, coach and author. I was supposed to be a ballerina. Many years ago however, I needed a day job, so I got a job with a telemarketing company and the rest is history. Here I am many years later, "The Queen of Cold Calling." Dancing is still my great passion and in spite of the years and many injuries, I still dance. Recently, I started taking a ballet class with a new teacher.
1. Repeating the same action over and over and expecting different results The biggest enemy to sales is the status quo. When sales trainers say that phrase, we are usually referring to prospects. The idea is that most people find it to be very difficult to let go of what they are used to doing (even if it's not working for them) and so it is frequently difficult to persuade a prospect to make a change. Hence, the biggest enemy to sales is the status quo. What is interesting is that the same rule is true of anyone in sales.
Sometimes it is truly impossible to reach a prospect by telephone - and for some prospects email is their preferred form of communication. While nothing beats the direct interaction of a live phone call, sometimes instead of a cold call you simply have to send a cold prospecting email. If you do so, however, be careful. Don’t let this happen to you… An email received this week (typos and all): “I hope you enjoyed the weekend. I tried your office this morning but unfortunately could not get a hold of you.
Sales Representative: "I just called to see how things are going." Wendy: "Things are going fine. Why are you calling?" Sales Representative: "I just called to see how things are." Wendy: "Things are fine." Sales Representative: "OK. Well I'm here if you need me." Wendy: "Why should I need you?" As it turns out, the company this young man represented was supposed to be scheduling a demo of a product for my staff and for me. My wonderful assistant, Erin, usually takes care of scheduling for these types of events.
Last night I stayed up late to watch the final episodes of RuPaul’s Drag Race on Logo. For those of you not familiar with the program, drag queens compete for the title of America’s Next Drag Super Star. (The Queen likes her reality television and is always interested in the lives of other queens.) It’s hosted by RuPaul and the judges are Santino Rice (Project Runway) and, Merle Ginsberg (fashion jou alist) and of course, RuPaul. Guest judges sit in from time to time.
It’s summertime! 1. No one wants to be bothered. 2. It’s too hot. 3. It’s a beautiful day; everyone is out. 4. No one is thinking about work. 5. Prospects are getting ready to go on vacation. 6. Everyone is on vacation. 7. Prospects are just returning from their vacations. 8. I’m preparing to go on vacation. 9. I’m on vacation. 10. I’ve just returned from vacation. 11. My assistant is on vacation. 12. Their assistant is on vacation. 13. No one is in on Mondays. 14. No one is in on Fridays. 15. Prospects are catching up midweek. 16.
What separates the people who are amazingly successful from those who struggle? Why is one person able to start a business or begin a new job in sales and succeed, while others with similar qualifications and abilities fail? More and more I’ve come to realize that what makes the difference between those who succeed and those who do not comes down to thoughts and beliefs. You see, whatever you believe affects your actions. If you believe that a certain action is negative, you will not want to take that action.
In the maze of corporate America it is sometimes very difficult to get a decision-maker on the telephone. Sometimes the best way to reach a prospect is via email. If a gatekeeper or assistant tells you that the best way to reach a particular prospect is by email, by all means send one. Here are some strategies to maximize your email response: 1. Create an attention-grabbing subject line. If your prospect does not open your email or worse still, deletes your email you are nowhere. Make sure that you have an attention-grabbing subject line.
I received a voice mail from a s.ales representative: ‘The purpose of my call today is to introduce myself and take a moment to briefly describe for you two core-based technologies; laser Internet on-line office and an Internet broadcasting technology. I don’t know whether or not if any of these applications may be of interest to you, I would appreciate a brief moment of your time to review that.’ They weren’t of interest. I didn’t call back. Well, actually, to be more exact, I didn’t know if they’d be of interest. I am a techno-moron.
This morning I was interviewed by Umar Hameed of No Limits Selling, www.NoLimitsSelling.com. We were talking about prospecting, sales, life and overcomplicating things that are basically very simple. That conversation prompted this article. To my mind, prospecting is very simple. It’s a matter of truly understanding what you are selling (Sales 101, features and benefits), understanding the buyer (Sales 101, targeting your market) and connecting the two.
Is cold calling dead? Hardly. Cold calling is actually one of the most targeted, efficient and effective ways to reach potential customers. Nothing beats having a real conversation with a prospect. The problem is that so many people do it poorly—that’s why it doesn’t work for them. Read on to discover the rest of the New Rules for Cold Calling in the 21st Century: Craft your approach. While many, many people resist the idea of creating a script this is simply following through on Rules 2 and 3 above. Bottom line, cold calling is a communication skill.
On Monday mornings prospects are too busy… On Friday afte oons prospects are gone… Don’t want to bother the prospect by calling too early… They’ve probably left the office by mid-afte oon… Middle of the week they’re very busy… What to do?
If we listen to the media, 2009 is shaping up to be a tough year. People are losing jobs and homes and businesses are struggling. A tough economy, however, does not mean that no one will ever buy anything or that no business at all will be done in 2009.
Have LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and Sales 2.0 finished off cold calling for good? Is cold calling finally dead? An email from a reader: Hi Wendy,
1. What can I do for my existing customers to create greater value for them? Creating additional value builds customer loyalty. It is always important to have customer loyalty… especially during a recession. 2. Who can I refer to one of my existing customers or prospects? See #1 above. Helping customers creates loyalty. It also induces reciprocity. If you help a customer, they will feel obliged to help you, perhaps with an additional order, perhaps with a referral or perhaps simply by not switching to another vendor. 3.
“Rejection comes with the territory. If you're going to cold call you're going to have to deal with people saying ‘no’ to you, screaming at you and hanging up on you.” Ecch! Who wants to do that? This go through the "no's" until you get a "yes" myth is probably the most insidious and dangerous of all of the cold calling myths because it scares people. Really, who wants to go through all those "no's" to get to a "yes?"
1. If you are giving a sales presentation, make sure to only give that presentation after you thoroughly understand your prospect's specific problem and motivation to solve that problem. 2. Ask the Magic Question: “After our conversation (discussion/you see our presentation…) if you see that our product/service is a perfect fit for you, what would happen next?" Any answer other than the prospect would be ready to move forward means that you have more work to do to close the sale. 3. Be relevant.
Approximately two years ago I first wrote about “Marketing Insensitives.” At the time, I had received a call from a telemarketer offering me some “marketing insensitives” to purchase a product. Yes, she really said this! She was not being clever; she just couldn’t pronounce “incentive.” But, Marketing Insensitives do exist! They are the unfortunate, not-thought-through, ridiculous, dumb things that businesses do that drive customers away. Here is another: I decided to start out 2009 by purchasing a new printer.
How often have you started a call to a friend, family member or business associate with the phrase, "How are you?" I'm willing to bet the answer is a lot. I know I say it frequently. It's commonly used as a greeting, as a "hello."n nBecause "How are you?" is so commonly used, how often have you started your introductory calls with this phrase? If you do use this phrase as an opening for your introductory call, please stop immediately. It's an introductory call-killer, and thi