When you prospect over the telephone do you always get stuck with the people who can never make the decision?

Do you know of the three types of people that you should aim for when prospecting?

Well, the person you should ultimately get through to should be a MAN!

No, not MAN as in gentleman! I mean the acronym MAN.

MAN stands for:

Money

Authority

Need

The people you should get through to should either hold the money in the company and are able to spend it, have the authority to make decisions or they should have the need for whatever you are selling.

If they have all three then it’s SHOWTIME!

Always make sure your calls focus on one of these types. Now, I know you should always go for those people who can make the decisions.

But if you go after the "NEED" person the call should be positioned around influencing them to make the right noises with the people who can make the decisions to go with your product etc. An "insider" on your side can work wonders when you eventually get around to talking with the decision maker.

Cold Calling Technique - What’s yours like?

If you are like the vast majority of cold callers out there then you suck! I really mean that - the standards of cold calling that I have to endure as a Decision Maker are terrible.

The funny thing is, is that they know (or should know) that they are cold calling the head man of a Sales Training Company so you think they would at least try to be a little bit special! I shake my head at times I really do!

So what can you do to stand out from the crowd of cold calling mediocrity?

Here are 5 cold calling techniques to use or avoid as the case may be:

1. Do not sound polished - as soon as a well oiled person comes on the telephone I immediately know it’s a salesperson. Why? Because they are too perfect. No stammers, no "err" "umms" - be human please and you will get a crack at the title.

2. Do not ask "How are you today?" - that’s puke material and smells of "I’m building rapport before I ask you for your money!"

3. Qualify before you call - "Can I speak with who deals with your marketing please?" - "No, bog off - if you can’t be bothered to find out his name, I can’t be bothered to put you through" This is just awful salesmanship. Do your homework.

4. I don’t want war and peace! - If your objective is to set an appointment then sell the appointment! Do not go on and on about your company, your products etc. Just get the appointment and focus on that.

5. "I’m not interested" - How do you reply to this response? Have you got a standard response? Want to know my line? Here it is:

PROSPECT:

"I’m not interested"

SEAN:

"I didn’t think you’d be interested, that’s why I called" THEN DON’T SAY ANYTHING

PROSPECT:

"What?"

SEAN:

"Well, XYZ Company said that they weren’t interested too until they trialled our ABC system which improved their sales by 36% in 1 week - the reason for my call is that I just wanted to pop around and talk you through what it is and how it can improve your sales performance. Would next Tuesday at 3pm be good for you?"

Go for the jugular! I get a hit rate higher than anyone I know!

Use these cold calling techniques and watch your response rates soar!