How to “Cold Call” door to door without any difficulty

It was a hot sunny day in the middle of July. I started my early day selling door to door Direct Marketing services to businesses in my local neighborhood. For all of you that are sales people that do door to door selling, I am sure you have an idea of what it feels like being rejected constantly all day long before getting that one appointment or sale. I know that you have been at a point where you feel drained out and you feel like you aren’t worth a thing after talking to a lot of rude business owners or other decision makers who put you down. I know how it feels like ending your day sometimes going to bed frustrated and constantly thinking about the people that gave you the evil eye after you gave them your sales pitch.

However, the good news is that if you learn how to handle difficult people in a positive way you won’t feel like taking multiple lunch breaks during the day or ending your day early.

What I found is that everyone has a very different personality and reacts differently when you approach them on a cold call. The important thing to remember is not to take rejection personally. There will be people that will tell you to get out of the door as soon as possible and there will be people that will love your service. But how do you deal with the difficult business owners that drain your energy all day or lower your self confidence? For you to really enjoy cold calling you have to understand people really well. I mean really well!! Here is what you need to understand about people and how they think. Keep reading...

* How to deal with the rude business owner that is not interested in your product at all-

I have walked into many businesses where the owner or receptionist at the front desk will tell me right away “Sorry not interested.” When I hear this my heart would start beating fast and my ego would take over so I did the wrong thing by giving my pitch and kept talking and talking. What did she tell me next? “Sir now we are not interested at all”. I haven’t heard from them since:(

What I learnt from that experience is “Never let your ego take you over." We all want to be accepted and hate hearing the word “NO” so we do anything it takes to sell and win. When a business owner says “Not interested” it could be because of many reasons. They may have had a rough experience in the past with a sales person that didn’t service them well and that experience gave them a negative perspective on sales people. They also may be interested but don’t want to deal with you right away on the spot.

The best thing to do if someone says “Not interested” is to just walk out the door and say “Not a problem thanks for your time.” The more you try to sell them or even try to set an appointment the more you are going to annoy them. You have to understand that there are a million things that maybe going on in their lives and they don’t want to deal with you right away. Trust me you don’t want to get to the point where you feel drained out emotionally because of all the rude comments that you have to deal with coming from them.

* How to know if someone is very visual and loves colors-

Everyone is different. If you give a sales pitch explaining numbers and data to someone that likes colors they won’t show interest. You will see their eyes wondering off right away and they won’t pay attention to you. Do your research before walking into the business. I had an appointment with a business owner of a gift shop so before walking in I went to the website and found that there were many exhibits and colors on there. I also walked by the store and saw that the walls were full of colorful art. This gave me a solid idea of the person’s taste. I focused on preparing a presentation that was more visual and included sample work of our company’s direct mail postcards (This is what I sell by the way).

* What to say when someone says that they are “Not interested yet” but will consider you in the future-

Why would someone say this? Well it could be because of many reasons. However, remember people like to do business with people they TRUST and people that can provide value. When you approach people that give you this answer after your pitch, tell them that you would really like to set up an appointment with them next week and show them how your service can benefit their business model. When you have face to face time the business owner gets to see your true personality and what kind of a person you are. After he or she sees that you have prepared a great presentation and showed them a lot of value they may want to use your service right away now that they have an image of how this can work for them.

When you are someone that people can trust and you have demonstrated double the value of what they expect from you they will buy “NOW” instead of “LATER”. They won’t say “We will consider you in the future.”

When you can provide someone more happiness than suffering with your service or product they will call you right away.

* What to say when client says “I have tried the similar service but it hasn’t worked for me in the past”-

These business owners have tried similar services but they either weren’t serviced well or they were dealing with a company with no passion. I would get stuck when someone told me this and thought that the service I am providing wouldn’t work for them either. This was a big mistake! Set up an appointment and explain to them that you can provide unique solutions that can work. Also go out of your way by proving them helpful information or success stories of your previous clients. They will give you a try if they see that you have gone out of your way to try to help them. Wake up guys we are in a recession economy and the people that win are the ones that go out of their way and build solid relationships with their clients!

Happy Selling

Cheers,

Nabil Gulamani
www.successatreach.com
"Your Lifestyle Taken To A Whole New Level"