Monday, December 8, 2008

Cold Calling Mistakes - 8 Tips To NOT Do!

By Brian McCoy

1) Purpose Of The Call

Before you even dial the phone, you should have a clear understanding of your call's purpose and what your end goal is. What direction do you want your potential client to head in after the call? If you fail to plan, you won't achieve the goal for your call.

2) Find Out Their True Interest Level

This goal is simple. Do not give away all of your goods without knowing if the person will even take the time to look at them. If they want you to just send them the information so that they can get you off of the phone, don't do it. Do some digging to see what their level of interest is, or if they're just trying to get rid of you.

3) Bad Telephone Etiquette

Good manners and phone etiquette seem fairly simple. However, when you are on the phone, you might not even realize that what you are doing is obnoxious to the person on the other end of the line. It is best to not chew gum, eat, drink, or be trying to do other things while you are making a call. You will be distracted as well as your prospect.

4) Not Listening To Your Prospect

If you want to get a good idea about what your prospect thinks, you need to listen up. Make sure to ask questions, rather than monopolize the whole conversation. If you don't listen, you won't have success.

5) Avoid Making Your Fears Theirs

Just because your client is busy at the moment does not mean that they do not ever want to talk to you. Do not read negativity into somewhere that it is not. Just because you are afraid that they don't want to talk to you, doesn't mean that they don't.

6) Not Asking Questions

There are things that you need to know about your prospect to qualify them, but also make sure to find out about what they want you to know. People love to talk about themselves, their families, and things of interest to them. You will build rapport with them by being interested in what interests them.

7) Not Being Prepared

You would not go into an important presentation and wing it, and the phone is no different. Spend some time role playing with a friend or your spouse. You want to grab your prospect's attention, not turn them off with you stumbling over your words.

8) Ask For What You Want

You want to push your client to action. Ask them to do their due diligence and research what you're telling them. By asking them to do something for you, you will be creating an opportunity for a callback to make sure that they have followed through with their end of the deal. - 15478

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