Cold Calling is an Art that Everyone can Master!
Are your Prospects in Alignment with your business?
Your marketing campaign needs to be targeted toward your targeted customer profile. Through the copy in all of the forms of marketing you will weed out many that are not in "Alignment" with your business. How to know who your cold calling is in alignment, Fact Finding, rather than Fact Telling is the key. When cold calling you can determine by taking your list and asking a few simple questions. (As I write this, I am realizing that it is much easier to role play this technique rather than write it, but here it goes. please bear with me)
You know your potential prospects are not a "fit" for your business model if:
- If your prospect expects you to invest your time and resources into pursuing their business without any financial commitment on their part your calling on the wrong prospect. (Can we say free estimate/design?)
- The prospect does not treat you in a professional or courteous manner
- The prospect demands products and services you are not prepared to give.
Now there are many more than these three, but in the interest of brevity.....
1. How can I not give a free estimate or design????, it is simple, you should have your cost matrix down to a science and be able to do a take off of plans and be within 10-15 % accurate. If you take the time, by asking questions to find out from your prospect who they have used in the past, what they like about their service and what they do not like and desire to change...then it will be easier to get the prospect into your showroom and demonstrate the value of using your design firm. You should not need to do "Free Design Work" If you do not have your cost matrix down, then get it down before you go cold calling. Simply use three categories of cabinetry with two design categories each. ie: Good, Better, Best w/basic and fully loaded accessory packages. Then go cold calling! (I can help you develop and train your Sales/Design Staff on the cost matrix for your business)
2. If the prospect is rude to your phone call or does not respond to your inquiries then that is their problem, not yours. "The way you do anything is the way you do everything" Close minded attitudes about sales calls are a sign of closed minded about new products and services. If you can not hear a promotion, then how can you give a promotion? Always welcome reps and others into your business environment even if you do not have the time, invite them to make an appointment if you do not have a few minutes when they walk in. You never know what information they could give you to help you and your business. Never turn down free information.
3. If the prospect demands that you do something that your firm is not comfortable doing (And pricing) then do not do that work for that prospect. If the work seems like it might be something you can make money doing , then by all means after you have done your research on how and what systems you need to be a profit center, then by all means. How many have said " Oh, I will go ahead and ......... Then in the middle of it realized the cost was double what you thought!!! Been there done that, have the T shirt!
Now that we have your business and your prospect alignment techniques down, next issue we will simulate some conversations and how to build that list for you to cold call with.
Next Issue: Actual Conversational examples of effective Cold Calling & List Building!
