Business, economic development - the unofficial Chamber of Commerce

In our training workshops we often get questions about how to get “referred leads” so sales professional don’t have to prospect anymore. It seems as if we will go to any length to avoid having to make cold calls.

In the 28 years that I have been training sales professionals, I have seen very few who actually know how to actively pursue referred leads and even fewer who actually do.

Now when we talk about getting referred leads when making cold calls, most sales people will think I am crazy.

We I was cold calling in Houston with a salesman not long ago we got at least one referred lead from every cold call we made. Even I was amazed.

The way I do cold calls, they are simply brief calls made to meet the prospect, introduce myself and my company, get an appointment to comeback, and then get out. We are finding that many times the prospect will give you time right then. The idea behind the my prospecting system is that you should never simply drive past a good potential customer without stopping.

One of the things you find when you make cold calls on a regular basis is that you will have a lot of the prospects sit and talk with you. I am not sure why this is happening more now than before. It is either that people are getting more comfortable making the cold calls or the prospects are not being called enough and welcome the company. Either way, it is really fun to prospect in the field these days.

We were calling on people involved with quality assurance and I could see a plaque in everybody’s office indicating membership in the local chapter of their association.

One of the first prospects we called on suggested that we call on one of his friends from the association in another company. We did and got an appointment two days later which included a complete tour of their testing facilities.

Acting on that premise, everyone that we called on for that week we simply asked, “Is there anyone else that you know in this area that we might call on?” They would give us a name and I would ask if it was all right to use their name. Everyone said it was OK.

My assignment was to help the salesman develop his skill at prospecting, making cold calls. But it turned into a week of going from one cold call to referred lead, after referred lead.

This may not work in every industry, but when you call on people who have a strong tie to a common organization or association, give it a try. The secret is simple you just have to do it.

Who knows, maybe you too will get referred leads when prospecting.

Sell Well and Often!

Bill Truax

Bill@BlitzCall.com
800-253-1214

© Copyright 2006 WJ Truax

Bill Truax is a Sales Management and Field Operations Consultant living in Cleveland, Oh. He conducts Sales Team Assessments, trains Managers and Leaders, and Field Sales Professionals both in the field and in workshops. He has written 3 books on Prospecting and Making Cold Calls and conducts a variety of skill based seminars, workshops, and train the trainer programs. Visit his website at http://www.BlitzCall.com

It’s hard to imagine that establishing a successful Teleconference call can conjure up thoughts of buying ones first stereo, but that’s exactly the sentiment I felt when a group of our employees met to discuss ways to assist our customers in managing their remote “Teleconference” meetings successfully. Let me explain…

Circa 1978, freshly graduated from university and after working at the telephone company for a few months, I had enough money to venture out and buy those Bose speakers I’d read so much about! My dilemma, needless to say, centered on the fact that 8-track’s were still semi fashionable, turntables were mainstream and tape decks were taking off! Do I choose the fashion of 8-track or the industry “buzz” of tape decks over the wood grain/direct-drive turntable the salesmen was promoting. I chose the turntable, a decision I applaud to this day! Despite all three technologies having long given way to CD’s and downloadable music, my turntable is the one piece of technology that still survives in my media set-up. I long ago abandoned playing vinyl on a regular basis, but the sweet sound a turntable can produce on an old Jazz or Blues album is spectacular.

How does the decision to buy the turntable in any way shadow an article on “Successful Teleconferencing”? Well, it begins and ends with the words the salesmen said to me prior to my purchase. “The system is only as good as it’s weakest link”. These words resonated with me, essentially telling me that the Bose speakers might be a wonderful buy, but if any part of the stereo system was less than equal to the speakers, the sound it produced would only be as good as the lesser part, or “weakest” link! These are words that we live by in the teleconference world. Essentially, for a teleconference call to be successful all the components need to be working in harmony and in the teleconference world the components are often the Participants who dial-in!

How the Participants join a meeting, what type of device they call in on, ie: a landline or mobile device, and how they interact in the meeting, has a huge impact on the success of the meeting! I would like to share a list of “tips” that will help you get the most out of any teleconference meeting that you participate in. Please share these tips with other users and Moderator(s) of teleconference calls and I can guarantee you your meetings will be more successful.

Before the call begins:

• Write down your teleconference dial-in number and pin code and place it in a convenient location so you can find it on the day of the call. If you use an electronic scheduler then put it in there.
• It’s always best to use a landline for the call and take the call in a location where you won’t be interrupted. If you must use a mobile telephone, know how to mute your telephone or ask the Moderator of the call if there is a code you can use to mute your telephone.
• Be prompt - dial into the assigned call at the scheduled time. If the call is underway, it is best to say nothing until there is a break, or until the Moderator welcomes you.
• If you are the Moderator of the call, get the call-in details out to Participants well in advance of the call. Establish a clear agenda for the meeting!
• Become familiar with the feature codes of your teleconference provider. Most offer a quick reference guide. It is a good idea to print this off and keep it near your telephone during the call.
• Use a proper speakerphone, one designed for conference calling.

During the call:

• As a Moderator, it is very important to greet users as they arrive, write down the names of people and make sure you incorporate everyone into the conversation.
• Introduce yourself when you begin to speak. Others might not readily recognize your voice.
• Never place your telephone on hold! Participants often forget that they have music on hold and the entire conference will be disrupted as a result.
• Avoid breathing into the mouthpiece, eating food, or placing your hand over the mouthpiece during the call.
• Turn off all ringers from pagers, mobile devices and beepers before beginning the conference.

With the correct processes and procedures in place, a well-briefed community of users employing the proper technology, teleconferencing is a wonderful way to conduct meetings when you just can’t get together face-to-face. Reduce travel costs and increase employee productivity at the same time. Just remember, remove the “weakest link” and you will be guaranteed successful teleconference calling!

David Morris is Managing Partner of Vesta Networks a Teleconferencing Service Provider.

I just had a phone conversation with a client who had a familiar story to tell. He had built his business on the model of an entrepreneurial sales force. Give them a territory, pay them straight commission, and tell them they are in business for themselves, free to develop the customers they chose with the products they wanted.

And for a couple decades it had worked well. The business grew and expanded. More entrepreneurial sales people were added, and the model was duplicated over and over again.

So far so good. But then the growth in sales began to slow down. Three flat or declining years in a row has caused this company president to question the status quo. Not only is business flat, but he’s unable to get his sales force to promote the lines that he wants to promote, he’s unable to get them to use some of the new technology that the company wants them to use, and he’s unable to get them to prospect for new customers. Now he’s faced with an experienced sales force, who for the most part, are unmanageable.

The culpit? A sales model that was built on the concept of the entrepreneurial salesperson. There was a time when this model was effective, but in today’s competitive economy, there are serious difficulties with the entrepreneurial model.

This model works best when the market is growing. As long as there is more and more business out there to be had, the focus of most companies is to grab as much as they can, without caring a whole lot as to which customers and which products make up the business. Employing a group of entrepreneurial salespeople reduces the demands on sales management so that the company’s executives can focus on building the infrastructure necessary to keep up with the consistent growth.

As we all know, this was the case for most of the previous decade. By shifting the responsibility for sales management unto the salespeople, however, you give up much of your management influence. In effect, you cede management of the sales force to the salespeople. And they generally make decisions that are in their own self interest, not yours. The very concept of an entrepreneurial salesperson is that he/she will manage himself. By definition, you abdicate your managerial role and cede management to the salesperson.

Is it any wonder that you can’t direct the salesperson?

As long as business was consistently growing, this wasn’t an issue. But now it is a concern. Most distributors have experienced a reduction in sales volume over the last few years. Many have come to the conclusion that they have to initiate significant changes in their sales organizations if they are going to be profitable and growing.

Now, instead of just more business, progressive distributors want to expand the business in target accounts, emphasize key product lines, and acquire new accounts. In other words, they want to direct the sales force more precisely, to focus them on the behaviors that further the company’s strategic objectives.

At just the time that they want to more precisely focus the sales force, they are faced with a group of experienced salespeople who have become satisfied and content.

These sales people would rather not move out of their comfort zones of established customers and established products. They have no desire to do the hard work of prospecting for new accounts. And many are content with the diminished incomes of the past few years.

The culprit in this difficult situation is the entrepreneurial model. This is not to say that there are no entrepreneurial salespeople. Certainly a certain percentage of every large group of sales people will turn out to be highly motivated, constantly improving, driven to succeed and willing to accept your direction. From my experience, this is about one of 20 sales people. The chances of your entire group fitting this mold are slight. The issue is not the occasional exception to the rule; the issue is the model that no longer supports your strategic interests.

What to do?

The company president on the phone was looking for solutions. How could he change the established routines, attitudes and practices of his experienced sales force? How could he revive the slumbering entrepreneurial drive? How could he gain some degree of directability?

Unfortunately, the answers are larger and more challenging than that which could be discussed in a half hour phone call. Decades of a certain way of doing business have resulted in attitudes cast in granite. Half-way measures can’t be counted on to work.

The solution is going to require strenuous work.

Wipe the slate clean and start over. Begin with the definition of what you would like the salespeople to do. What do you really want your sales force to do? Noodle your ideas onto a blank sheet of paper, and review it for a couple of days. When you have a well-articulated full page of detail, you will have taken a major step forward.

Once you have a clear and specific idea of what you want them to do, then start dealing with implications of that. For example, does you compensation plan support the behavior you want? If not, then change that.

Does you training and development program equip the sales people with the skills that support your vision? If not, it’s time to revise that.

Does you infrastructure support your idea of what the sales people should be doing? In other words, does customer service, purchasing, delivery, operations, sales management, etc., all support the revised job description? If not, make some refinements.

Finally, do you have the kind of people who will whole-heartedly embrace your new vision? If not, then it’s time to begin the process of recruiting new sales people.

Each of these is difficult and challenging issues that speak to the heart of how you have your sales force structured. Designing and implementing these changes can take the better part of a year or two. Each of these initiatives will be met with resistance from some. It won’t be easy. Before you rush into the fray, however, make sure you count the cost. You may decide that you are not up for the task and that it is easier to continue to cede management to your sales people.

Should you decide to revise your sales force, you can anticipate arriving at a focused and directable sales force - an enormously powerful asset for any distributor.

About Dave Kahle, The Growth Coach®:

Dave Kahle is a consultant and trainer who helps his clients increase their sales and improve their sales productivity. Dave has trained thousands of salespeople to be more successful in the Information Age economy. He’s the author of over 500 articles and five books. His latest is 10 Secrets of Time Management for Salespeople. His “Thinking About Sales” Ezine features content-filled motivating articles, practical tips for immediate improvements, useful resources and helpful tips to help increase sales. Join for NOTHING on-line at http://www.davekahle.com/mailinglist.htm.

You can reach Dave at:
The DaCo Corporation
3736 West River Drive
Comstock Park, MI 49321
Phone: 800-331-1287 / 616-451-9377
Fax: 616-451-9412
info@davekahle.com
http://www.davekahle.com

Three times I have revisited Turkey after living in the country for two years in the
1970’s. How could I ever forget? Salespeople everywhere can glean some wisdom
about the unique sales approach by walking through the Grand Bazaar in Istanbul.
At least three unmistakable key sales components are apparent: ask questions, be
persistent and appeal to emotions.

ASKING QUESTIONS

As you revel at the array of products lining the street in the Bazaar, you hear
someone say, “We have a great deal on leather coats today. How would you like to
buy one?” On it’s own merit a question is one of the best ways to begin a
relationship with a new customer. Questions early on show interest and allow you to
gather information. However, at the beginning of getting to know someone, you
want to use what I call high fat questions. High fat questions will usually get more
than a one word response from someone. This question, “How would you like to
buy one?” is headed for either a “sure,” or more likely “no” answer. Now a follow on
question, “But, why?” is high fat. Sure, you could answer it with one word like,
“because.” More likely you will begin to explain why you are not interested or say
what you are really doing is just browsing. Try using “How come?” in place of “why;”
it does the same to inquire in a less heated way.

Questions give the asker power. You can better control the direction of the
conversation. Regardless of how a customer responds to a question you gather
relevant information when you listen. This merchant is going to help one of us buy.

BE PERSISTENT

As a salesperson masters the art of questions, it’s easier for that steadfastness of
purpose you need to help the customer buy. When you ask questions, you nurture
persistence. It becomes pleasing to discover more about your customer.

Most salespeople give up way too soon. Brian Tracy, master sales trainer, states a
statistic that 80% of salespeople quit just at the time when most of the sales are
made. Consider persistence a necessity. You can’t drive a nail into a block of wood
with one try can you? Sometimes it takes more than one try to have your message
take hold.

If you sense your prospect feels pressure or keeps coming up with excuses, then
tone things down. But at least, either state or agree on the next step, even if it
means then the customer says no. Put energy into finding out what your customer
needs and presenting what you have in a way it will satisfy those needs. One
merchant knows that my son is going to buy a Turkish drum and he keeps helping
him to decide which one.

PEOPLE BUY ON EMOTION

Get the customer involved. By engaging your customer you get to the emotion of
how a product or service will make them feel. Their face shows it; their voice lets
you hear it. At a more subtle level, even their breathing lets you know they are a
buyer. The merchants in the Grand Bazaar of Turkey wisely and easily do this. Not
only are you intrigued by their fondling of some products, you want to feel the silk
as well. Between your fingers, on your face, you love the luxurious softness. People
don’t buy a car because of logic. They buy it because it makes they’ll look
prestigious driving in it. Or they love the sound of the stereo. Or they love the way
the leather feels. Create situations so your customer can feel the emotion of wanting
want you have. After tapping several different size drums my son begins to
negotiate for the best price on the drum he’s decided on. His emotion helps him to
want to take this memory home with him.

Whether you sell shoes or insurance, whether your products are tangible or
intangible, and no matter if what you sell takes a minute or a year, its questions,
persistence and getting the customer involved that move sales results from fiction
to fact.

Copyright© Patricia Weber, http://www.prostrategies.com.

Pat Weber is a coach, certified telelcass leader, and corporate trainer. With her
incisive, effective communication skills, her services can help you to accelerate
professional and personal results you want, by helping you increase your choices
and build your self-confidence. With personal coaching, a teleclass, an online email
course or on-site workshop, get what you want, more easily and more often. Visit
her website at http://www.prostrategies.com. Contact her for a free coaching session.

Before you read any further in this article, I’d like you to
take a moment and write down who your biggest competition is.

OK, got it?

I’m going to go out on a limb here and tell you that no matter
what company you wrote down, you’re wrong. Here’s what I’ll tell
you; no matter what industry you’re in, no matter how long
you’ve been selling, the biggest competition you face in selling
is the status quo. The Status Quo; whatever it is your prospect
is doing now - that’s the key challenge you have to overcome in
selling. Recognize this universal truth and you can become much
more effective in your selling efforts.

To really understand why the Status Quo is such a formidable
competitor it helps to explore a bit about the psychology of
decision-making. According to psychologist and author Robert
Cialdini “Once we have made a choice or taken a stand, we will
encounter personal and interpersonal pressures to behave
consistently with that commitment. Those pressures will cause us
to respond in ways that justify our earlier decision.”

Let’s look at how this applies in selling. Getting a prospect to
change what they are currently doing - even if you have a
genuinely better solution - is difficult. Our natural reaction
is to try to show how we what can offer is better, how we can
save them money, how we can save them time, and so on. Yet,
oftentimes the more we try to back up our presentation with
facts and evidence, the more strongly our prospect will seek to
justify and rationalize what they’re already doing. Admitting
that they made a bad (or less than optimal) choice, would create
some real internal dissonance.

The louder that dissonance the greater the search for
rationalization and consistency becomes. This is particularly
true if the decision made is a public one; the more people that
know about the decision, the more the person who made it will
seek consistency and resist changing.

For example, suppose you are selling a software solution that
has been proven to save companies time and money - and you can
document it. You call on the head of IT at a key prospect. He
tells you that he has developed his own solution, which,
according to him “does the same thing that your product does.”
As you show him the proprietary features of your program, he
even admits that yes, it can do things his can’t, and yes, it
would save time and money, and yes, the CEO would really like
the access to information it would provide. Yet, he won’t
proceed with the sale. Why? Well, what you may not know is that
everyone in the company knows that the IT Director (your
prospect) has been championing how great his own system is, and
that his line throughout the company is “Why buy when we can
create this system ourselves.”

Even though he knows intellectually that you may have a better
solution, he will do everything he can to justify his earlier
decision; to do otherwise would cause great internal dissonance
and discomfort.

So, then, how do you deal with this situation?

1.Recognize that your job in selling is to understand what
people do - and to work with them to help them do things better.

2.Don’t try to sell by showing that your product or service is
better than the competitors’ (or whatever else they might be
doing).

Wait - that sounds inconsistent, you say. First you say that I
should help him do things better, but I shouldn’t show them why
my product is better?

The seeming inconsistency resolves itself when you remove
yourself from trying to “sell your product” and shift your focus
to understanding what people do, why they do things that way,
and what they’re hoping to accomplish in the future. Your
questions should be squarely focused on the prospect - not on
you.

The best way to bring these seeming contradictory goals into
alignment is to show your prospect how you can ENHANCE what they
are already doing. By showing how you can enhance, in essence
what you are saying is “Hey, you’ve got something that’s working
here, and I’m not going to upset your apple cart. My goal is to
help you take what you’ve already got, and help you make it even
better.”

By taking the approach to enhance you accomplish two important
things. First, you are helping the prospect maintain their sense
of consistency which will make you an ally. Second, by starting
with this approach, you may make a small sale initially but you
now have the door open to larger sales and the beginning of a
long-term relationship.

As Cialdini sums up “For the salesperson, the strategy is to
obtain a large purchase by starting with a small one. Almost any
small sale will do, because the purpose of that small
transaction is not profit. It is commitment. Further purchases,
even much larger ones, are expected to flow from the commitment.
”

“(Howard) Hughes never learned how to convert his knowledge to practical application. Instead he sought a perfection that assured failure.”
- From Empire: The Life, Legend and Madness of Howard Hughes
by Donald L. Bartlett & James B. Steel

How many times have you heard someone (it may have been you) proclaim or complain that he/she is a perfectionist? You may have noticed that going for perfection is a fool’s game. You simply cannot win when you set perfection as your standard.

There may be rare and unusual situations where perfection is assumed to be an appropriate standard. Frankly, I can’t think of one - no, not even life and death situations such as heart surgery demand perfection in the process. Each stitch does not have to be sewn perfectly in order to affect the outcome. Perfection is present in the ultimate result, as evident in the patient’s survival or death, not in the process.

When “perfection” is the goal it is usually out of an exaggerated desire to be right, to avoid criticism or risk. The focus is on “how am I doing?” rather than on producing a specific outcome. Excellence, on the other hand, is a way of life. It is the context in which high achievers and peak performers produce and contribute to the quality of life. High achievers and peak performers get things done by taking action looking for appropriate outcomes and measuring their success based on the quantity and quality of their results.

The bad news is that being a human being means we have the abilities and the failings of human beings. We make mistakes. We get tired. We get distracted. We fail to communicate clearly and accurately. When we set perfection as our goal, all of our actions are based on attempts to conquer our natural human limits with little or no intention on the ultimate outcome. The search for perfection limits our ability to act meaningfully.

Acting in accordance with standards of excellence allows us to produce superb results and opens the door to experimentation and creativity.

Ruth Zanes has been a Business, Career and Personal Success Coach since 1985. Her broad range of experience prior to coaching includes consultant, business ownership and corporate executive for some of the world’s largest corporations. Contact Ruth at: http://www.unlimitedresourcesinc.com

Several weeks ago I asked my Newsletter subscribers to send me their biggest sales challenges. So far, I have received 275 challenges. While I am still in the process of categorizing them, Inoticed that a number of them mentioned “Closing the sale” as yourbiggest challenge.

Closing the sale, cinching the deal, tying up all the loose ends, and getting to a yes decision is an important skill in the selling process. Even getting a “No” decision is better than holding onto an everlasting pending one.

Joe K., a friend and former client, discovered the importance of an effective close at an early age. Joe has been the president of major corporations and currently serves on several corporate boards - so pay attention to his comments.

Here’s what he has to say about closing the sale . . .

“When I was in high school in downtown Philly, I went into a men’s clothing store to buy a new suit. Obviously, many of the salespeople are career salespeople, and know all the lines and closing techniques. After trying on one suit, I came out of the dressing room and looked into the three-way mirror. The salesman approached me, smoothed out the back of the suit, tugged a little on the cuffs, and told me, “On you it looks good.” I continued to look in the mirror, and moved from side to side, and he sensed some reluctance on my part. That’s when he came up with the best close I have ever heard. He said,” If you don’t buy that suit, you are insulting yourself.” So, not wanting to insult myself, I bought the suit.”

Finally, it’s not as important how you say what you say. What’s more important is that you know exactly what you’re going to say - during the “Close.” Preparing and practicing in advance will always, and I mean always beat out on-the-spot improvisation.

Optional homework assignment - if you want to improve your closing technique and take it up to the next level grab a pen and a yellow legal pad. First think and then write how you plan to ask for the order in the future. Review and edit what you have written each day for four consecutive days. My guess is you’ll have an incredible and powerful closing statement by the fourth day.

If you skip the assignment your approach to closing the sale will continue to be a “Wing it and sing it” one. It’s not a big deal for me. But I guarantee you every customer/prospect can tell the difference between “preparation and improvisation.”

Jim Meisenheimer is the creator of No-Brainer Sales Training. His sales techniques and selling skills focus on practical ideas that get immediate results. You can discover all his secrets by contacting him at (800) 266-1268 or by visiting his website: http://www.meisenheimer.com

Reward Power refers to the ability to deliver rewards or benefits to influence others. These can be financial, material, or psychological rewards. Reward Power is the fastest way to persuade.

This power is the opposite of Coercive Power. With Coercive Power you punish, and with Reward power you offer incentives. Reward Power is based on utility, which is an understanding that in every transaction there is a potential for exchange. Basically, utility power recognizes that there is always something I want and something you want. We can meet each other’s needs by swapping what we have for what the other wants. Prizes are a form of utility power. They are a way to reward people for doing what you want them to do. The reward becomes the incentive for compliant action. Examples of utilities include sales bonuses, paychecks, incentive clauses on contracts, bonus miles on airlines, and bonus points on credit cards.

It is important to understand some incentives will work well with one person, but not with another. To some people, money is the reward. Still to others, recognition is the reward. As a persuader, you need to find the motivating force or reward for each person you work with - you must understand the desires of the person or group. Reward Power is extremely effective in changing human behavior and in increasing your ability to persuade. You get what you want with minimal effort. Let’s face it - everyone has their price.

There are several inefficiencies to note, however, when using rewards. First of all, the law of diminishing returns quickly takes over when you employ this type of power. Diminishing return means the more you use the reward, the less powerful it becomes. When people become accustomed to an incentive, they can become bored with it and either expect more or drop performance standards if the incentive is removed. One example is the common practice of offering children rewards for reading in elementary school. They win pizza or other prizes after they have read a certain number of books. These incentives often backfire because many of the children think they need a reward to read. Reward Power ultimately leads to the desired outcome, but the incentive generally has to be repeated each time to get that desired outcome. The reward is only effective as long as the person doesn’t see a “better deal.” Your incentive will always be compared to the next person’s offer. Rewards reinforce behavior, so as long as you are employing them, expect your prospects to keep demanding them.

Reinforcement Theory has a lot to do with Reward Power and Coercive Power. Basically, if a person knows a positive consequence will follow a certain action, then they will perform that action. Consequences influence behavior. The type of consequence involved influences what actions people will take and what actions they will avoid. There are three main rules of consequence. They are:

(1) Consequences giving rewards increase behavior.

(2) Consequences giving punishments decrease behavior.

(3) Consequences giving neither rewards nor punishments extinguish behavior.

Remembering these basic rules can be an excellent guide for deciding what to do in certain situations, depending on the desired outcome. Just be sure you take into account some of the Reinforcement Theory’s limitations. Some examples of such limitations are listed below.

Limitations of Reinforcement Theory

1. What is considered reward or punishment will vary according to who you’re working with and what the exact circumstances are.

2. As mentioned earlier, rewards can lose value over time. Instead of feeling rewarded, the person will feel like you owe her something.

3. Other sources of reward or punishment may interfere. For example, an employee may value the reward of esteem and friendship from other less productive employees more than what you have to offer.

4. If a person is just responding to a reward, then there has not really been an internal change. They will revert back to their old behavior if the reward doesn’t remain part of the new routine.

5. Punishment is difficult to deliver well. It is a powerful tool, but it must be executed appropriately. Punishment must have the following elements to be effective: a) immediate, b) strong or firm, c) unavoidable, and d) consistent.

6. Punishment can breed anger, fear, and hopelessness. These negative emotions will be associated with the person inflicting the punishment.

The challenge you face when using rewards is the decrease in internal motivation. Once you condition them to expect something for their compliance, your prospects will always seek external rewards for their behavior. This causes them to do it only for the reward and not for any other reason. We have found that even if the person was willing to exhibit the desired behavior without the reward, once the reward was given the subject would not perform the desired behavior without the reward. An experiment proved this concept. Subjects, sitting together at a table, worked on a puzzle for a half an hour.

After the half hour was up, the experimenter told the subjects the solving session was over and they had to leave the room. The experimenters then began to monitor the behavior of the subjects when they went into the waiting room. What would they do during their free time? Would they play with the puzzles? Would they choose other activities? They study found that those subjects that were paid for doing the puzzles were far less likely to play with them for fun during their free time in the waiting room. And those who did not receive an external reward for their efforts were far more likely to play with the puzzles during their free time in the waiting room. Persuaders know that a behavior chosen out of free will last longer than a behavior rewarded by an external reward.

Learning how to persuade and influence will make the difference between hoping for a better income and having a better income. Beware of the common mistakes presenters and persuaders commit that cause them to lose the deal. Get your free report 10 Mistakes That Continue Costing You Thousands and explode your income today.

Kurt Mortensen’s trademark is Magnetic Persuasion; rather than convincing others, he teaches that you should attract them, just like a magnet attracts metal filings. He teaches that sales have changed and the consumer has become exponentially more skeptical and cynical within the last five years. Most persuaders are using only 2 or 3 persuasion techniques when there are actually 120 available! His message and program has helped thousands and will help you achieve unprecedented success in both your business and personal life. If you are ready to claim your success and learn what only the ultra-prosperous know, begin by going to http://www.PreWealth.com and getting my free report “10 Mistakes That Continue Costing You Thousands.” After reading my free report, go to http://www.PreWealth.com/IQ and take the free Persuasion IQ analysis to determine where you rank and what area of the sales cycle you need to improve in order to close every sale!

If you asked me to point to the heart and soul of a startup company, I would not say it’s the people, the culture, or even the product. I would say it’s the pitch. The pitch is that one message that, when delivered, makes people say “wow, that’s a great idea!”. The pitch gets everyone in the room excited about getting on board with your product and your company. It’s the inspiration that carries everyone along for the ride.

The pitch also determines whether or not the company’s offer has any viability in the market. For this reason the pitch should always precede any other developments or decisions. Your pitch is your divining rod that helps you make decisions on where to go next. So working on the pitch should always be the first step toward introducing any new concept.

Pitch Early

Pitching early is about as close as you can come to having your own crystal ball to see into the future. Getting a customer to say “yes” today, even though the product may not exist yet, is as important as getting them to say “yes” when it’s actually available. This process allows you to probe your customers’ objections early and understand where the fatal flaws in the model or product offering exist. Better to find out now that customers aren’t dying for your product than after you’ve mortgaged your house to finance your idea!

Pitch Everyone

For the pitch to work, you need to see how it resonates with all of the usual suspects - customers, investors, and employees, in just that order. Each of these constituents thinks about your pitch slightly differently and for good reasons. Customers are interested in how your service improves their life. Investors want to know that your idea can turn into a profitable enterprise. Employees want to know that selling your service will create a great (and steady) place for them to work.

The reaction of each member of this trifecta merits careful consideration. For example, if your customers love your product but investors don’t see how you’ll ever make money, you have a potential problem. You will need to successfully pitch all of these groups eventually, so pitching them effectively early on is critical toward refining your offering and insuring its later acceptance.

Build the product with the pitch in mind

Knowing the pitch allows you to make much better decisions when developing the product. If what you’re building doesn’t add to the pitch, think twice about adding it at all. In a startup environment you have limited resources, so you need to concentrate your time and effort on features that will lead directly to the customer’s, investor’s and employee’s decision to say “yes”. Your product should always be built with the pitch in mind.

Sculpt the pitch

French author and aircraft engineer Antoine de Saint-Exupery once said a designer knows he has achieved perfection not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away. Sculpting your pitch is no different. Keep paring your pitch down to just the most critical elements that make or break a customer’s decision to buy. Anything else is just excess waiting to be scraped away, or worse yet, confuse the customer. Your pitch has become a masterpiece when it is as short and to the point as possible. The faster it hits home, the more powerful it will be.

Keep it flexible

A good pitch is like a chameleon - it adapts and responds to a changing environment. You may find that what you once thought were the perfect selling points get morphed into a message that sounds quite different but is more effective. Don’t sweat it. There’s nothing wrong with changing the pitch over time as long as it continues to be more effective. There are no points won here for “getting it right the first time”, but there are plenty to be lost for never fixing it. Some of the best pitch masters out there are not only great at speaking, they are great at listening to what customers say and modifying their pitch accordingly.

If they won’t buy the pitch, they won’t buy the product

It’s rare that you will be present every time your customers are considering whether or not to buy your product. That said, if you can’t convince someone to say “yes” while you are standing there giving your pitch in front of them, you can rest assured you’re not likely to get a “yes” when you’re away. A good pitch should be so tightly integrated with your offering that it’s able to sell itself without coming from you. And it should be so infectious that customers can’t help but sell it to their friends.

Remember - if you can’t sell it, it doesn’t really exist!

- Wil

Wil Schroter is a serial entrepreneur, author, and public speaker. Wil has been recognized as U.S. Small Business Person of the Year, twice as the Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year (1999 & 2004), and is a member of the Business First Top 40 under forty. Connect directly with Wil at wschroter@yahoo.com. Visit http://www.goBIGnetwork.com.

These tips will help to boost your telemarketing sessions and improve your cold calling results..

Physiology or should it be Fizziology!

- If you wear a collar and tie, loosen this off

- Have plenty of water next to you when calling, as drinking cold water keeps your voice fresh and clear

- Sit up straight! Don’t slouch over when you are calling as it constricts your diaphragm, this in turn will affect your breathing and how you sound

- If you are about to make what you perceive to be a difficult call - stand up and move around. This will change your state and get the blood pumping

- Keep a level head when calling - no literally, lift up your chin, it helps to project your voice more clearly
Take regular breaks away from the telephone, every 20 minutes or so to walk around as this will reenergise you.

Psychology

- Measuring your results is important, otherwise how will you know if you are improving, or how many calls it will take to close new opportunities? Keep a tick sheet handy next to the telephone to record dial outs and results

- Call somebody you know first as this will warm your voice up and put you in the right mood

- Making qualification and information gathering calls at the start of a session really helps

- Set a clear target for each calling session, either number of calls or number of opportunities generated

- Break down the calls you need to make to hit today’s target into several mini sessions of say 15 calls per session

- When you get a YES, and you will get straight back and call the next person as your enthusiasm will come through in your voice

- When you have achieved your target make sure you give yourself a reward

A number of people hate receiving cold calls and this is due to bad practice from a small number of people in the cold calling industry. However, if you approach cold calling professionally, and you can genuinely help the person you are trying to reach, there shouldn’t be a problem.

Most people don’t like cold calling because they fear rejection. If you would like to find out how we can help you and your team to get more results with less effort and deliver the right proposition to the right person at the right time call us on or fill in our contact form and we will be in touch.

Written by John Bancroft

John has over 15 year’s experience in cold calling and runs regular telemarketing training courses for private companies as well as Intellect IT Association. You can reach John at john.bancroft@incognate.com or visit his website http://www.incognate.com.