18 Tips For Warming Up Cold Situations
1. Know your products and services better than anyone else.
2. Anticipate questions from your prospective customer and answer them thoughtfully.
3. Qualify the prospect and his or her needs within the first few questions to make sure you are not wasting each other’s time. Is he or she gathering information or making decisions? Do you normally supply this kind of product or service?
4. Look beyond the prospect’s initial request and determine if there are other needs that he or she has not mentioned or could be unaware of.
5. Be confident about your products or services and yourself. Sometimes, a tone of commitment can make the difference between a prospect giving you twenty minutes and two minutes of his or her time.
6. Be enthusiastic when you are talking to a prospect. Enthusiasm breeds excitement and excitement leads to sales.
7. You have one chance to make a first impression and in a cold situation, probably fifteen seconds to earn any more time.
8. Look and listen for the most appropriate prospects. Don’t judge a book by its cover but don’t waste your energy or the non-prospect’s time either.
9. If you are not the right supplier, suggest one who could be better-suited to satisfy the prospect’s needs.
10. Control the call or conversation and lead it to a positive conclusion.
11. Be very clear on your objective (sale, proposal, quotation, demonstration, information gathering, etc.) before picking up the telephone or dropping in on someone.
12. Have your presentation materials readily available. Saying, ‘‘Let me look for my binder’’ doesn’t help.
13. Call first and qualify the contact in a cold telephone call or personal visit. Do you have the correct name and title? Is he or she the right person to be talking to? Walking in cold off the street and asking for the purchaser or the president is
unacceptable.
14. Be sensitive about the prospect’s time. A call from out of the blue or an unexpected visit can take a prospect away from an important job. It might be better to just introduce yourself and arrange a later time to meet.
15. Do not stop to take another call or see another customer after you start a call or conversation. Please leave your cell phone in the car.
16. Memorize a script to keep you on track but plan to adapt it to the prospect’s needs. Eventually with practise it will become more natural.
17. Listen carefully to and don’t rush or interrupt the prospect; he or she will lead you to a sale.
18. At the end of the meeting or telephone conversation, schedule a time you will get back to them with follow up or answers to their request. Send them pertinent marketing materials.
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