Two tales of how individuals, in competitive industries, spiked sales by finding qualified decision makers and meeting with them.
Find out what really made the difference for each of them.
In Tale #2, Jim from PA in IT went from 2 meetings to 15 meetings per week making less than 40 calls a day. He tells how below, but first…
Tale #1. David from CA. Financial services. Listened to the “Lipstick on a pig” mp3 and sent me this note.
“Scott :
I followed the example as set forth from your client in Michigan, forced myself to go forward in spite of serious opposition, and then added a unique feature specific to our agency, that is, a service that only our agency has which is not available to anyone else in California. I was not setting anything viable until I added one dimension and then I booked 6 appointments through yesterday, sold one of the 6 yesterday over the phone, OVER THE PHONE, yes you read it correctly, and with our feature added we will continue to sell more over the phone and thereby be able to cover the state without having to travel. I formerly dreaded coming into the office and getting my ass kicked, now I love picking up the phone and offering our valuable to service to anyone that will listen.
David”
I asked David what he heard that really made the difference to him?
He told me this…
Scott, what struck me about Craig’s success (his 5 person group went from 20 to 100 appointments a week and improved their closing ratio) was that he constantly tweaked his system. He said he kept going back to the Seminar-in-a-box and picking up new tweaks and kept measuring and tweaking his system until he got his breakthrough.
David picked up on something very important. Assuming that someone out there is buying, a lack of prospecting results can only result from three things.
1. You are targeting the wrong group to prospects.
2. Your process, your system of calls, voicemails, dials, faxes maybe, emails, coding, time allocation, spacing of calls etc… is not breaking through and needs to be changed.
3. Your value message stinks.
In David’s case he was sure he was calling his highest probability targets, he felt that his calling process was good, so he focused on his value message. He tested script options until he found one that struck a chord. Once he made that change to better communicate value, the flood gates opened.
Are any of those three areas an issue for you?
Tale #2, Jim from PA in IT went from 2 meetings to 15 meetings per week making less than 40 calls a day. Gets an appointment with every 2.3 conversations. Closes 1 in 3 meetings. Sweet.
Jim wrote to me…
“Scott-
Here is what stands out to me as the difference your program has made. Keep in mind I only used your free material. I was starving in a dungeon waiting for every scrap of knowledge you were willing to throw. In hindsight I should have just bought the damn seminar, and likely still will for training purposes. Plus I’m sure there are a few pearls I have missed out on.
Thanks for everything,
Jim Sides”
Read his before and after as he gave it to me, then my comments following.
Results “before”
- 2 appointments a week average. 60+ calls per day.
- Closing ratio: 1 in 10.
Results “after”
- Never less than 12 appointments per week. Average about 15 per week and never make more than 40 calls per day.
- I get an appointment every 2.3 conversations w/ decision maker.
- Closing ratio: 1 in 3, with many irons in the fire.
Since I was not doing the job I was hired to do effectively, I was unable to take on any other responsibilities or show any other strengths. Cold calling Hell.
I now create all marketing materials for my company and recently my CEO took me to an ad agency because he liked the extracurricular work I now have time to do. Because of my cold calling success, I have created my own position. Business Development Specialist. I am currently training a new telemarketer and am a key figure in our inside sales department, quoting computer hardware for a very large client of ours. I still cold call because I am good at it.
Before
Weekly “sit downs” with the boss on my failure. Had to hear “it’s a numbers game” about a hundred times. Basically, I was on the brink of unemployment daily.I am lauded as a “beast” on the phone. I hear news about accounts that I have created daily. I now get a percentage of the final sales instead of a flat rate. In the IT business, this has meant thousands of dollars to me over the last few months. Totally disorganized. Switching programs constantly, manually writing and then losing lists, no cohesion in my letters and emails.
Now
I am the companies go to guy for questions on our database software, ACT. You stressed the importance of a program like this, and I set myself to mastering what the company had.
Before
Gave up after the third call. Sometimes after entering a name in the database that sounded intimidating I would never call them. I remember calling #’s with automated systems and listening to the message over and over just to make it look like I was making calls. Each “no” was a severe letdown, and the more I got, the worse it became. No matter what, I finish the cycle of calls. Many times I have noticed I have set an appointment on the sixth or seventh call. (I cannot stress more the value of completing all the steps you commit to)
Before.
Fear. Insecurity. Loathing
Now.
Confidence. Esteem. Money.
What should you learn from Jim?
– More appointments typically also mean a higher closing ratio. Why? More qualified decision-makers. Better value communication.
– Cold calling stinks. If you are cold calling without a process, you are in hell. Many do this successfully. There is no reason you cannot.
– Unleash “the beast.” If you have to do it, why not get good at it and make more money? Jim made thousands extra recently and Craig added 50K to his income last year. Why can’t you?
– Tweak your process. Get congruent with what successful appointment setters do. If you don’t know — learn. Jim got these results from just my free stuff. There is no excuse.
Times are not easy, but remember…
– People are still buying from your competitors.
– Companies are switching vendors for better deals and improved relationships.
– You can find and sell those that are buying.
– You can take advantage of the “client churn” in this economy.
– If you are calling unqualified targets, unorganized and not working a total system, you need to get the basics in order first to experience significant improved sales results.
Best wishes for good selling,
Scott Channell
