Cold calls

You probably made calls on the base of your potential customers more than once . If you call someone for the first time and this person has not heard from you before, then this call is called "cold".

This is the most uncomfortable type of call.

You do not know what to expect from a person and how he will react to your proposal. You do not know what his mood and temperament are.

And this uncertainty always causes excitement.

And it's even harder to make cold calls if you have already listened to a few bounces or even someone has rudely attacked you in response to your proposal over the phone.
And here you pick up the phone, and yourself mentally "stuck" in past failures and rudeness, and, without ceasing, "scrolling" them in your head like a spoiled tape in a tape recorder.

That's why many managers try to occupy themselves with anything, not just phone calls. They come up with a bunch of urgent cases and excuses.

But cold calls are the least expensive type of promotion and, I must say, very effective.

First, we'll figure out why your calls cause rudeness or a sharp denial. And ways to avoid this. And then we will deduce some simple ways to increase the return on your calls fantastically.

So, here are the reasons why customers are getting rude at the time of the call.

1. The manager is too pushy.

Sometimes the manager, who deals with cold calls, overdo it with pressure. Especially if he went through some kind of super-training, where he was taught to "never give up" and not listen to the client's refusals. Honestly, this is one of the worst ways to sell something. If the manager strongly presses, it is very annoying and causes the desire to send him far away. Imagine that you are selling something too hard. You are trying to explain that you absolutely do not need this thing, but you still persistently "vtyuhivayut." It's like saying that "your opinion on this matter does not mean anything, I better know what you need."

2. The manager can not clearly explain what he offers. How does it look like?

Office. Call. I pick up the phone. In the tube the girl starts to tell me:

- Hello, we offer optimization systems for your business, you can select several blocks that suit you. We will make you all the necessary settings. Are you ready to order?

I, with a slightly stunned voice, ask:

- girl, I did not understand, what exactly do you propose?

She repeats the above text almost word for word to me. In general, I had both time and patience (and usually clients do not have neither one nor the other). Therefore, I finally got the answer to my question after all. It turned out that the girl works on the first day and herself still does not understand anything. She switched me to a senior manager, and only then did I understand what I was talking about. It turned out that they offer a computer program for working with client databases. Do you think that many potential customers on this day have made the effort to learn that in the midst of working hours, this girl is trying to convince them? I think no one. And she listened to rudeness enough to conclude that telephone sales are not for her.

3. The manager speaks too quietly or illegible;

There are no comments here. It is much easier to say "no, it does not interest us" than to try to hear the beaten hour and ask what exactly they offer. There is neither time nor desire for this.

4. Manager in an exaggeratedly alert state. This is also usually the result of different trainings. And if you get on a client who has the same vigorous state - you are very lucky. With him you will speak the same language. But usually an overly resonant, vigorous voice does not correspond at all to the client's internal state and immediately alerts him with an alert signal. "Attention! Attention! Now there will be something to persistently offer! "

5. The client is in a bad mood. Well, just try to understand. It happens. You yourself know that when it's bad on the soul - the whole world starts to annoy. Just try to hear your client and leave him alone in time when he is not able to shop.

6. The manager, like a Cossack with a sword and on horseback, "hacks" all the objections of the client to the nines and wins a "brilliant victory" when the client no longer has anything to say. But the sale still does not happen. In many firms, the answers to all objections of the client were prudently developed. The manager has learned all this and, confident that now he has driven the client into a corner, rushes into battle. It looks something like this:

Customer: sorry, but I do not have time to attend your seminars.

Manager: if you do not come to our seminar, you will never have free time! We are just telling you how to plan your time correctly! Come!

Client: No, we will not go yet. We will not spend money on training. They must first be earned.

Manager: The money invested in this training will pay off very quickly! You will be shown the ways, why there is never any money and how to make it happen!

Client: But we have everything in order with the planning! We do not need this seminar!

Manager: So it will be even better! You yourself said that there is no time and no money. And this means that the planning workshop will definitely not hurt you!

The client (resorts to the last means to get rid of the manager): Well send your proposal to the electronic, if we are interested, then we will call you!

This is called a polite form of failure.

Why did not the sale occur, although the manager seemed to have overcome all the objections of the client? Well, let's start with the fact that if you read between the lines, then the whole dialogue looks like this. The manager, as it were, says: "I do not care about all your excuses. I know you better than what you need for this seminar! "And, I assure you, the client very well hears these words. And so he will resist to the last, because you expose him as an idiot, and have already made a decision for him. You prove to him that HE IS NOT NEGATIVE. In this situation, he will never agree. Therefore, in words you may have "won", since he agreed to receive your proposal. But in fact you have ingloriously lost this fight.

7. The manager does not want to hear what the client is telling him. This is a very common situation. The manager is so focused on the desire to correctly say his text, that he does not want to listen to the client. He plays one game. One must be able to listen to the client's refusal and the reasons why he refuses. It is necessary to listen to the client very well and if you see that you can not help him now, leave him alone. And best of all, if you do not just leave him alone, but give him a little bit of importance and improve his mood.

For example:

Client: You know, I do not have time to visit your seminar on Friday.

You: It's okay, I understand perfectly well that you have a lot of things to do, you are in charge of the company! The last question: is the topic of the seminar itself interesting to you? Next time you will be invited?

8. The manager exaggerates and frankly lies. He paints his goods so fabulously that it looks something like this: "Our consultants will not only answer any of your questions, but they will give you valuable recommendations for free, and they will tell you anecdotes if you get bored and cook dinner for you in the morning if you bachelor". Well, or something like that. It is completely unreal.

9. The manager is lost and does not know what to answer the questions. Here, perhaps, comments are superfluous.

So, we have made detailed mistakes in telephone conversations.

The question remained: how to make calls to customers, so that sales and do not cause unnecessary irritation?

Everything is very simple.

Now let's look at the rules of cold calls, which are reasonable to observe.

1. Do not forget to ask if it's convenient for a client to talk, do not distract him;

2. Talk in a normal human voice that you speak to other people. Add, perhaps, goodwill;

3. Immediately adapt to the tone of the interlocutor. It will be nice if you train with someone. What is meant? If a person speaks quickly, you speak quickly. If he speaks very very slowly, then you should speak just as well. Otherwise, he just will not hear you. If he speaks sharply and seriously, then speak also. If he talks with a smile and humor, then copy it exactly.

It is important! People do not hear those who are not in their tone! If he is very worried about something, and you are calling with inappropriate joy in your voice, be prepared that he will not accept either you or your proposal;

4. Listen to the client, listen and try to understand what exactly he is telling you. If you hear that he is in a hurry, then suggest calling back later. Be attentive to it. And know how to accept rejection normally;

5. Try to clearly and clearly formulate your proposal. To be immediately clear what exactly you are offering. Write your text on paper. Read to other people. Look, do they understand right away, what are we talking about? If not, then work on the text more;

6. Do not use abstruse and incomprehensible words. Try to convey your proposal simply and so that it is interesting. Because if the client does not understand what he is talking about, he may not ask again, so as not to seem stupid. He simply refuses;

7. The most important thing in all this is to have a sincere desire to help the client. And do not just sell the product to him and forget about his existence. Everything will be in vain if you do not really want to help him solve his problems with the help of his product or service;

8. Every time you pick up the phone, try to take it into a new unit of time. Do not hang in past failures. Just go back now and remind yourself that you just can not know what the client will say until you call him. More precisely, I can not explain. Just try to make each call as the first time;

9. The best results for calls always happen at a time when the manager has a good mood. Million times proved. So try to keep yourself toned. And the reverse rule is also true - when there is no mood, you are more likely to hear rudeness. Unfortunately, this rule works almost without failures. You will see for yourself. Although sometimes it happens - start to call without any mood, make at least one sale and the mood rises sharply.

Good luck with your sales!