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Welcome to where the magic happens. Every project, class, system and process I have ever implemented started with a blog post RIGHT HERE. So dig in, there is gold in these electrons.

Cold Call Once, Then Never Again…

First and foremost, let me state for the record  WE WILL ALWAYS HAVE TO PROACTIVELY CALL SUSPECTS, PROSPECTS and CUSTOMERS, this activity is not going out of style any time soon. We will always have to COLD CALL. It is time, however, we changed the way we attack this very important and integral activity.

The perception of cold calling has morphed into the reality of cold calling; Calling blind with little or no plan or reason as to why we are calling. We can no longer afford to…

  • take a list and start calling with no upfront understanding of who we are calling
  • make this a center piece of our lead generation “strategy”.
  • tell sales reps “good job” for this type of effort.

What is necessary is a wholesale re-invention of lead generation or something I teach and implement called The S.I.T. (Stay In Touch) Nurture Prospecting System.  Today we will be talking about 1 aspect of the system, New Contact Touching.

Why do we need to re-invent cold calling?

  • It takes too much effort/time and yields too little results.
  • It weakens the customer perception of us and our organization.
  • It drains the caller and can de-motivate even a solid sales professional.
  • We have monthly quotas and quarterly/yearly goals.

So what is the solution? We need to treat our New Contact Touch Process like a full on marketing campaign. The biggest dose of time we need to invest needs to be upfront.

Step 1) Change our mindset. Sales is not about relationships. Sales IS relationships and a slim few relationships start because of an unwelcome intrusion. Which is EXACTLY how most executives/decision makers view an old fashioned cold call. We need to set the table of the relationship by learning about our potential “love connection”. We must pay the price of admission by showing our suspect/prospect/customer that we care enough to invest time researching them.

Step 2) Pick 50 to 100 companies to research. Base your search in whatever parameter/demographic is most important, some examples include:

  • market fit
  • contact type
  • seasonal
  • event promotion

Step 3) Discover some information about everybody on your list that is either highly relevant or timely. If you can’t find out something about a company or individual set them aside until you can and add another name you want to target. Some examples include:

  1. Sending an article where they/their company was mentioned
  2. Sending an article that they may benefit from because of its content and/or relation to their industry
  3. Sending a seminar/webinar notification because of its content and/or relation to their industry
  4. Sending a congratulatory note based on something you uncovered in your research

There are of course more, but all 4 of these examples will show the suspect/prospect/customer that you have “paid the price of admission.”

Once you have done this, take the list that you couldn’t find information on and “cold call” them. Use that time cold calling to build your suspect/prospect profile. Use that cold call as the first touch of your S.I.T. Nurture Prospecting System. This call is is only the initial touch, after qualification or if you don’t get the right person, info gather and find out who is the right person. Start your system based on relevant content for this person and organization. Always remember, sales is like lightening, it can strike anywhere, any time, but the odds of getting hit by it are pretty high. Go into each cold call with the agenda of learning and let the relationship build from there. Then never “cold call” the account again!

In our upcoming posts we will be discussing EVERYTHING included in a S.I.T. System

  • modes or vehicles that will carry your highly relevant/timely “touches”
  • basic scheduling ideas
  • social media’s place in the system
  • event planning (webinars/seminars)
  • tradeshows and their proper execution and much more…..

And remember you can either make sales or make excuses but you can’t do both!

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