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Or…. Cold Calling DOES waste time… First, a confession, I’m not in love with cold calling to set appointments. That’s right. The guy who has personally scheduled more than 2,000 sales appointments with "impossible" to reach high-level decision-makers at targeted new accounts for my clients – isn’t in love with cold calling. Frankly, anybody who says they do is a bit suspect. But, over the last 13 years, I have seen this tool (when used properly) deliver new accounts on a timetable that other means could not have. Effective appointment setting strategies work and seems to be most welcomed:
Before you find out where these strategies came from, learn the problems that are typically solved and review some short case histories, let’s paint a clearer picture of how these strategies may help you – by highlighting recent results among those who have read my book, listened to my CD’s or been coached by me.
"Sounds good" you are probably thinking. But will these strategies work in myyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy industry? Fair question. All I can tell you is that I have been helping companies set sales appointments since 1992. I have worked with large companies and small companies, service providers and manufacturers, in industries as diverse as transportation, relocation, all sorts of consulting, financial services, advertising, high-tech, chemicals, research labs, public utilities, energy, binding and B2B. In all of these industries successful appointment setting programs were established using the step-by-step methods and strategies you could soon be applying in your business. I had never worked in these industries previously. Let me tell you how these strategies were born, review the typical problems they solve and some case histories, then give you three popular options to get started now. I have always been kind of a marketing and sales freak. When I was 16 (before I had a license) I had a yellow page ad and business phone in my parents basement. I put myself through school building and servicing in-ground swimming pools (my own business) and on a debate scholarship. For the past 23 years I have worked exclusively to market and sell services. The first 10 of those years consisted of pretty traditional marketing and sales services to professional service firms. Marketing planning, lead generation, newsletters, direct mail, how to communicate value, cross-selling, generating referrals – that sort of stuff. Sometime in 1992 I saw an ad in the Boston Globe from an employee relocation company seeking someone to set appointments with top decision makers at 1,000+ employee companies for their six person national sales team. This company could close when they could get face-to-face with the right person. The challenge was to open those doors. I had just finished a six month project with a 40 seat tele-center setting in-home appointments that had gone very well. The group set more appointments during their slow time of year than they usually did during their busy season. So I was curious about this project. Turns out this company had hired 3 previous consultants and tried everything – even turning the calling room into a beach complete with sand on the floor and fake palm trees to stir callers to set appointments and win a Hawaiian vacation. Nothing worked. This company was determined to grow, had just hired a new VP of Sales and made me appointment setting consultant #4. After a month of trying to pick up where the others had left off – nothing was working. Gatekeepers were shutting me down, mail sent was rarely received and never read, top level people who could authorize checks rarely picked up the phone, and when they did it was typically "click", "I’m busy", "send me some info" or "call me back." My head was getting sore from banging it against the wall with nothing to show for it. I didn’t know what to do, but I knew this – I had to blow up the system, start from scratch with a clean sheet of paper and do something totally different. Only then would there be even a chance for me to start setting sales appointments. It was quite a challenge. From this challenge came the core of the system I have used to personally set more than 2,000 sales appointments and train others to set tens of thousands more. If you have ever been on an extremely short leash on a project you can appreciate my situation. I had to make things happen quick or bye-bye gig. So I collected, read and studied every book available on cold calling, sales prospecting and appointment setting. At one point I stacked the books up and they measured more than two feet. Unfortunately, 95% of what was in those books recommended techniques that had failed miserably for me. So I drew upon my high level professional services marketing, direct marketing and communications background to test, track and analyze alternative methods of being efficient and effective at every step of the use the phone to gain access to top decision-makers process. Before you learn what I discovered… let me skip to the bottom line. Within 12 months this company was generating 500 face-to-face appointments annually with top-level executives at large companies fitting their target profile. The average sale was $250,000.00 annually with an account life of 3 – 5 years. With my help and guidance – using strategies you can learn – they were able to consistently gain access to top decision makers at companies like General Motors, Spring and Minolta. As a result of these appointments, they signed contracts worth millions in new business, business they otherwise would not have had.
The first million-dollar contract signed was closed on the first follow-up meeting from a cold call appointment I made with the very top executive of a billion dollar company (who by the way, could authorize checks.) The new VP Sales was so happy he copied the first page of the sales contract, wrote on it "Scott - $1,000,000 This is not possible Bravo," framed it and presented it to me in front of the whole company. Note: many in the company had felt that cold calling was a complete waste of time.
You can learn all these things. Would You Like A Lead Generation Or Sales Appointment Setting Program All the techniques, strategies and organization methods are revealed and explained. Hard working talented home based business owner grossing a little less than $100,000.00 a year comes to me with a problem. Although quite capable of handling more challenging and substantive projects, she can't seem to break away from attracting and servicing too many low-end, low-profit, high-turnover, hard to satisfy clients. She either has to figure out how to turn it around or consider folding the tent. Using the same process you can learn. I worked with her to analyze her best opportunities and focused on implementing just a few strategies consistently, which were best for her situation. Sixty five face-to-face sales appointments with super prospects were set within months. Prior to learning and using these prospecting methods, meeting with this many great prospects, not to speak of the quality of the prospects, was just wishful thinking. The bottom line: Revenues quadruple in 18 months from Low-level, low-profit clients were replaced by large accounts that provide her with business every single month. She has now hired her first employees and now has so much business that her marketing is limited to word-of-mouth and referrals from current satisfied clients. She bought the home she was renting. There is now a Lexus in the driveway.. EXAMPLE #2. Consulting company gets meetings with President/CEO's of corporations having at least 1,000 employees or $100,000,000.00 in revenue. This boutique consulting firm, whose smallest contract was $500,000.00 found that they closed six times more business when their initial point of contact was the CEO/President rather than a V.P. or Executive Vice President. I took on this challenge. The targeted CEO's had never heard of this consulting company and received no mail prior to my telephone contact. The result? Working less than 15 hours a week… IF YOU SELL CONSULTING SERVICES AND RELY ON FACE-TO-FACE SALES MEETINGS TO CLOSE NEW ACCOUNTS – THESE STRATEGIES WILL GUIDE YOU STEP-BY-STEP TO SETTING UP A "GAIN ACCESS TO THE TOP DECISION MAKER SYSTEM" THAT WILL SIGNIFICANTLY IMPACT YOUR SALES RESULTS EXAMPLE #3. Publicly traded energy conglomerate selling to large companies that buy millions of dollars worth of electricity and natural gas annually gets meetings with ultimate decision makers. In this new age of energy deregulation, heavy users can purchase from who they wish. In this new highly competitive environment it is a major benefit to be there first. The challenge was to get a new outside sales team face-to-face with the ultimate authority in large corporations that decided the fate of energy contracts worth millions. The bottom line: Within months starting from ground zero, I set up a system which had one part time teleprospector setting an average of 7 qualified appointments with the right executive level decision makers every week. EXAMPLE #4: $100,000,000.00 IT equipment supplier documents $700,000.00 in closed deals within 14 weeks of beginning to implement these strategies. This company utilized a combination of a customized in-house seminar, personal coaching with selected members of the sales team, and having me create customized training audiotapes and CD’s specific to the needs of the company for easy reference by the sales team. Starting from ground zero, the VP Sales documented $700,000.00 in closed deals from meetings they would not have had without my training and coaching intervention, within the first 14 weeks. Not only that, but they found that due to the increased quality of the meetings, that their closing percentage increased 25% in the same time period. Leads and appointments have been generated from all sorts of VP level executives, finance officers, The fundamental process and steps are the same in all the above examples. There are distinctions made company to company and industry to industry — but the essential elements of success were present in all these examples. You can learn them and implement them to your advantage and my experience can help. SMILING AND DIALING OVER MANY YEARS, FOR MANY COMPANIES, IN MANY INDUSTRIES HAS PERFECTED THE STRATEGIES AND METHODS USED TO GET THE RESULTS DESCRIBED ABOVE. If there are good solid profitable accounts out there you could close Use these strategies not to get more of the same.
Why not add another proven marketing and sales tool to your business building mix? Get more of the most desired, most profitable accounts. BUT, MANY SAY... COLD CALLING IS A WASTE OF TIME. That is absolutely true... if you don't know what to do and the right strategies to use in the proper amounts and the right time. Using the phone to access high level decision makers is like any other sales and marketing tool. Used correctly in the right circumstances it will generate results. Use it incorrectly or in the wrong circumstances and you waste time, money and lose out on new business opportunities. NOW, YOU READ MY CONFESSION ABOVE... It's repetitive. The same calls... the same words... the same situations... hear the same things... over and over again. Yada yada yada. For those reasons, I don't LOVE doing it. But, I have come to appreciate the results obtained over and over again... repetitively...like clockwork. Face to face appointments with high level decision makers at the most desired future accounts. I do it... and you should too, because you can very quickly fill a sales pipeline with clones of your best accounts... and your competitor's best accounts. Once you learn the steps, the setup, the script formats, the organizational keys, the rules you must know and adhere to, and how to follow-up -- you have a tool that can:
There is not one component of an effective appointment setting system that is particularly difficult... this is not rocket science... it is just a bunch of simple common sense principles and steps that can combine very powerfully. The challenge is knowing what all the steps are (and the pitfalls to avoid,) and how to combine them in the proper way and sequence to gain the access into accounts that you desire most. That challenge is solved for you. Like me, you may never learn to LOVE using the phone to set appointments, but you will learn to love...
You have choices that will lay out all the steps one-by-one in what to do, how to do it, A-Z order, with many samples and examples to choose from. Let's describe the component parts of the product options, then you can make your choice.
One closing thought... if you have a quality product or service... and you can close deals when you get the right meeting... and desired accounts are out there that are not in your sales pipeline... and you don't pick one of these money saving proven get-in-the-door strategies full satisfaction guarantee no financial risk options... WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO to access and close more accounts like your best accounts? Whatever you decide, best wishes for sales success. p.s. Each of these options comes with a full 60 day test drive full money back no questions asked no note from your mother required full satisfaction guarantee. p.p.s. The master option comes with a six month complete refund if you are not fully satisfied that you have received much more than full value for your investment. So you can benefit from all these resources, my critique and personal consultations with me on a six month no risk basis.
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