Cold calls to generate cash flow and sales

Making cold calls is easier when the purpose of the cold call is clear and the target customer is clear.

I'm reading a book Cold Calling Techniques (That Really Work) by Stephan Schiffman. He states the purpose of the call is to simply set an appointment. It is not a sales call - unless the conversation turns that direction.

His statements:

• you'll get one-third of your sales no matter what you do
• your goal is to get an appointment
• A=P=S (appointments lead to prospects lead to sales)

I really like his script and how to get someone's attention on page 41. It's "Good morning, Mr. Jones." He writes "It's that simple. It's so simple, it's almost scary."

Here's an article on BNET titled "Five Rules for Effective Cold Calling." It's also a fairly simple list and I would couple it with Schiffman's advice.

Hmm, maybe cold calling isn't really all that hard. In fact, it's easy. Isn't that why so many people enjoy doing it?! The answer is "no, that's why sales professionals have jobs."

Stuck for Sales Leads?

Generating leads

keeps the sales cycle pumping and results in cash flow for the business you represent.

But what happens when the leads fall off . . . and your contacts don't return phone calls . . . ?

I just got off the phone with Norman. He's a salesman for a lithography company in Los Angeles producing banners for outdoor advertising and indoor use. Clients include major corporations such as the studios and smaller companies, too.

I met Norman at a business networking function last December sponsored by Washington Mutual Bank and Telemundo.

He told me how he went about doing "detective" work to make contacts in select companies.

I've been sitting in a "sales lead" fog recently and have been fighting distractions. So I called Norman to ask if he knew of networking events coming up. He didn't but mentioned he had made contacts within Subway and he was also going to send me the name of the person responsible for vendor relations at Washington Mutual Bank.

While he didn't give me any specific, concrete leads or solid information I nevertheless benefitted from a call to him. It energized me and got me thinking creatively to market the interactive company I represent and to follow through on some other leads.

In a slump? Find it hard to focus in lead generation?

Then try to have someone you can call even for only a few minutes.

It can give you the spark you need to take a major step forward.

How Rain Impacts Marketing

Southern California got smacked with almost a full season's worth of rain in one week. Of course, the stormy weather made me think about marketing and the impact on two different businesses.

In the home improvement industry, roofing sales are going to perk up while another Southern California landmark watched ticket sales plummet: the Santa Anita Race Track cancelled races for the past week.

Here's how I personally experienced marketing in the home improvement industry and groaned through some low dips in business.

In 2004 - 2005, Pasadena had nearly 40 inches of rain. Wow! Most of it came during intense storms from November to February. Needless to say, once dry roofs sprung leaks.

In late 2005, I joined the Home Depot as an outside salesman to sell roofs. I saw the printout of the sales numbers for people on the team: commission-only salespeople were earning from $12,000 to $20,000 per month. They were running 3 - 4 appointments per day even as dry weather moved in.

2005 was a record year of sales for the entire roofing industry.

So Home Depot in their corporate offices in Atlanta were so excited by the cash that the LA office brought in, they decided to expand the sales team dramatically in 2006.

Then the rain stopped. In 2006, I ended up number 4 in Los Angeles for total appointments in the year, but I had to work almost 7 days a week. Tough emails started circulating questioning why people didn't "want" to work hard and earn money.

The corporate office churned out marketing collateral like crazy: new, impressive banners to hang over the entrances of stores, stickers on shopping carts, handouts to customers in the stores, tear-off pads at every register.

Every piece of material cried out to the customer that Home Depot could do their roofs (and do a nice job, I will say. I respected the project managers). But the rain wasn't falling and the marketing message seemed to fall right smack on to the cement aisles.

As 2007 started, the number of salespeople fell from 30 to about 11 within a few months. I hung in until the summer. In 2006 - '07, Pasadena had less than 4 inches of rain. Plus, credit was getting tighter and roofing prices rose.

But herein lies a marketing lesson: you market for the future. If you're going to have a line of products and you want people to know about it, you need to keep churning out the message.

Marketing requires a long-term effort.

So the rain is pouring this year. I expect there are some leaky roofs and sales should pick up - even if for a few months.

Make Money using these Sales Tips

Salespeople, do you want to boost your closing rate?

There are no magic formulas or easy solutions. But here is a list of sales tips and sales techniques that a successful salesperson, who was also my sales manager, shared with me to boost your closing rate to 30%:

The first sales tip comes directly from me.

You’re offering a solution. You’re not just trying to sell something. Your customer has a need. You have a product or service to fulfill their need or solve their problem. If you remember this, it should also help you move forward if you ever get “cold feet.”

Be Obsessed: Learn to love what you do for a living and have fun.

Use a presentation book with lots of pictures and you with smiling customers.

Listen to your customer. As Walter Haley said, “If you want to sell, ask don’t tell.”
Listen, listen, listen. Ask questions, ask questions, ask questions.

Develop empathy for your customer’s viewpoint: “I understand . . .”
Another Walter Haley saying was “People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.”

See the prospect as your partner in the project. Sit beside them whenever possible.

Give the prospect all your attention and don’t get distracted.

Use a Talking Pad to take notes when your customer is talking and draw out ideas. It’s good to draw out ideas to illustrate a point as well. Once they see you writing, and then you pull out the agreement, it will also be natural to keep filling in the paperwork.

Some people learn best when they see something, others learn best by hearing you speak. You don't know which customer has the best method of learning. So, combine the two approaches.

When I sold roofing for Home Depot, which has been the only time in my career I’ve been hired strictly for a salesposition, I learned to use a talking pad to list Home Depot’s competitive advantages, the number of people Home Depot used on a project versus competitors. It helped me when I got to the paperwork since I had already been writing. I moved easily into completing the paperwork and closing the sale.

Send thank you notes to everyone. Call all your customers who you did not close.

Keep in contact with past clients. On occasion, send cards to everyone who has purchased from you.

Plan your day efficiently. Use your free time to generate more business.

You can read more sales tips in this complete article.

Marketing yourself is an important part of prospecting. Here is a useful article on why you should try to be world-famous . . . in your neighborhood!

Salespeople: Ideas to Boost Your Closing Rate

Do you want to boost your closing rate?

There are no magic formulas or solutions. But there are habits to develop. Here is a list of ideas that someone shared with me to boost your closing rate to 30%:

Be Obsessed: Learn to love what you do for a living and have fun.

Use a presentation book with lots of pictures and you with smiling customers.

Listen to your customer. As Walter Haley said, “If you want to sell, ask don’t tell.”

Develop empathy for your customer’s viewpoint: “I understand . . .”
Another Walter Haley saying was “People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.”

See the prospect as your partner in the project. Sit beside them whenever possible.

Give the prospect all your attention and don’t get distracted.

Use a Talking Pad to take notes when your customer is talking and draw out ideas. It’s good to draw out ideas to illustrate a point as well. Once they see you writing, and then you pull out the agreement, it will also be natural to keep filling in the paperwork.

Send thank you notes to everyone. Call all your customers who you did not close.

Keep in contact with past clients. On occasion, send cards to everyone who has purchased from you.

Plan your day efficiently. Use your free time to generate more business.

Boost Your Gross Closing Percentage

Here are ways to boost your gross closing percentage, close more sales, and build your sales income using these simple sales tips.

Be obsessed with selling and relationships. Love what you do for a living and have fun.

Treat selling as a profession.

Use a presentation book with pictures and testimonials. Have pictures of you with your customers.

Listen, listen, listen to your customers and ask them questions about themselves and their desires.

Be empathetic with your customer, "I understand" phrasing.

See yourself as the prospect's partner in your appointment. When selling home improvement for a brief time, I learned to sit down with my customers and write out "Reasons to move forward now" -- "Reasons to wait."

Give the customer your complete attention. Don't get distracted and don't be in a hurry.

Use a talking pad and take notes, draw diagrams. Some people learn best visually, some auditorily . . . others both. You don't know so write as you listen and speak.

Send thank you notes to everyone you meet.

Keep in contact with past customers. Send them cards on occasion with extras of your business cards enclosed.

Look neat.

Stay organized!

Make sense of the project for your prospects.

Your prospect is intelligent. Don't sound condescending.

Keep your self-image high. You are a professional and you engage in on-going sales training.

Don't talk about the price, talk about the sense the investment makes to your prospective customer.

You're not "selling a customer" . . . you're "persuading a friend."

What other tips can you think of?

Steps in the Sales Process

Here's another look at Steps in the Sales Process. If you master these then you've really mastered the "art of selling." This is actually for selling to homeowners but it can be adapted for business-to-business sales as well:

Step 1 Get the appointment

Step 2 Arrive 15 minutes early - gather car, check presentation, review assessment questions
wait until exact time to approach customer

Step 3 Greeting

Step 4 Warm-up

Step 5 Pre-Assessment Questions: how long have you been thinking of this? When did you decide to call us out?

Step 6 Assessment of need for product or service

Step 7 Company story - position company as why we do business, our competitive advantage

Step 8 Complete presentation

Step 9 Pre-close questions: Have I covered everything with you, other than the price? Should we move forward with such-and-such product or agreed upon service?

Step 10 Objections - Listen, repeat objection, ask for order again

Step 11 Close sale or seal the sale - send thank you card right away, too

Sales Tips - Next Steps in the Sales Process

I covered Steps in the Sales Process 1,2,3 in the previous post. Now here are more steps in the sales process:

#4 Company Story
This establishes reasons your company is providing the product or service. In business to business, it tells a little about you and your partners if you're a small company or a provider of professional services. Talk about your competitive edge and what makes you unique.

When I was selling to homeowners for Home Depot, there were former Sears salesmen who called this part “Fears then Sears.” The idea is you talk about the unethical practices of contractors, and there are unethical companies out there and it's hard to distinguish them, and then you talk about the big company swooping in to save the day. The competitive advantage for a major corporation like Sears or Home Depot is "we'll be around forever to take care of you."


#5 Product or Service Presentation stressing benefits to client
Don’t get caught up in the technical points of your product unless you're talking to a tech guy, an engineer and you're a tech person yourself.

Homeowners mostly want to know their roof isn’t going to leak or their paint’s not going to peel in 5 years. They don’t need to know all the fine points about how well made the granules are, etc.

A business owner or mid-level manager in a major corporation like Toyota may not need to know all the technical points of web programming or placing video on to Power Point.

Jot down notes at this point, or even earlier. Use a "talking pad" and this makes it natural when you start writing up the order.

#6 Price presentation and asking for order
On my first day selling for Home Depot, I made two sales right away. It's because I moved effortlessly from one stage to another and right in to writing up the specification sheet, then showing the customer the price and saying "let's get started with the project."

If you show the price, then stop dead, or say "what do you think?" you're going to increase your chances of losing the sale. But if you continue cheerfully along while you're taking notes and chatting, and start filling out the paperwork then you increase your chances of making the sale.

If you've warmed up well and developed rapport, you know their needs and their objections then there isn't any reason not to assume they want to buy from you.

Some helpful phrases at this point if they object over price, and at Home Depot we always said price was the main objection, reply "I hear you. Is that all that's stopping you from moving forward?" It gives you a chance to talk about financing options if your company offers such.

Price is going to be different in the business-to-business world since most prices are set out on proposals and emailed or faxed in. I don't see a reason why even professional service companies couldn't learn from the home improvement industry in making an effort to personally deliver the price.
#7 Post-sale
You've filled out the paperwork, made arrangements for credit and secured the deposit. Relax a bit - be sensitive to their time - but don't rush off. Take your conversation back to the warm-up phase before leaving.

When you drive away, have a thank-you card filled out and ready to drop in the mail box. Or, if it's a corporate account, have a gift basket ready to send as a "thank you."

Sales Tips - The first 3 steps in the sales process

Business happens when sales are made . . . and there is no business when sales are not made.

Selling is basic to the growth of any company - yet the word can terrify those who don't see themselves as salespeople. But sales, or the art of selling, is simply a way to persuade a customer to purchase what you offer.

I also discovered that customers don't just buy the product or service you represent - they buy you! So if you're not a natural-born salesperson, or you want to avoid becoming "slick", relax and be yourself.


In my career, I've spent more time writing and marketing than selling. But when I started my own company I had to learn how to sell web design to small businesses and recently I spent nearly a year and a half selling roofs to homeowners for the Home Depot.


Since we only had 3 inches of rain in Southern California this past winter, I'm back in the world of marketing, web development and writing. My position with Home Depot, and my previous business where I had to generate sales, taught me about the entire sales process.

Here are the first 3 steps - and perhaps the most strategtic steps in the sales process:

#1 Generating leads
I like generating leads and setting appointments. Salespeople who insist their company provide them with leads are missing out on chances to build new friendships and earn new referrals. It gives the salesperson a chance to qualify or have slightly more control in selecting the prospective customers.

But it does take time, energy and focus.

#2 Warm-Up
How long the warm-up takes is entirely up to the customer - and the questions you ask.

In the world of business to business selling, your initial contact with a prospect (that word sounds too clinical for me) and the warm-up may be at a chamber of commerce meeting. Or it may take place over several phone calls. If you meet them in their office, try to find something to remark on - a fountain in the lobby, a picture on their desk. Take a genuine interest in what they have to say.

When selling to homeowners, ask them about anything but not the product you're selling when you first arrive. How did they choose the neighborhood? Who's in the picture on their wall? What do they enjoy most about their dogs? What do they like about the plants in their flower bed?

Be sensitive to their time and when they're ready to end the conversation. Don't be in a hurry. A warm-up may take 5 - 10 minutes or it could take an hour. People like to talk about themselves and they like someone to take a genuine interest in them.

#3 Assessment Questions
When you engage in a natural conversation based on a warm-up, it can put you both at ease. Listen carefully during the warm-up and either you or the customer will move into discussion of the product or service you're selling.

You can sprinkle in various assessment questions during the warm-up and as you get ready to move into the product and company presentation.

I've added questions for both business to business sales and business to consumer:

How long have you owned your home?

When did your business first launch?
Tell me about some of your challenges and successes?

How long have you thought about the product or service?

What is important to you in a company changing your roof, developing your web site, painting your house, building your database?

Have you used a contractor before to do home repairs?

Or were you pleased with another web firm who originally developed your site?

Have you tried to contact them recently?

How is your schedule today?

Is there anyone else involved in making the decision?

If someone else is involved in making the decision then make a great presentation and offer to come back when the other person is available. Don't give away the price at this point.