Did you know that word of mouth marketing drives $6 trillion of annual consumer spending and is estimated to account for 13% of consumer sales? Word of Mouth marketing impression results 5x more sales than a paid media impression and people are 90% more likely to trust and buy from a brand recommended by a friend.
In former sales, the majority of our sales leads were inbound, which made our life easy all we needed to focus on was conversion. It was remarkable how many times I would as the prospect how they heard about us and they would tell me that someone in their circle had used the service/product and old them that they needed to us because we made the process easier. Sure this only surly works if you have a great product/service. Nevertheless, many sales rep after a deal has converted fail to ask for the referrals.
If you are confident about the solution you provide then you should be more than able to ask the client to recommend you. In most cases, they will be more than happy to if you have provided an amazing customer experience and the likelihood that they will have industry peers who are facing the same problem as new did prior to their interaction with you is high. Even more so they will probably have peers who are with product/service providers who are currently unhappy with their solution
The moral of the story and where most sales professionals fall short os they simply do not go for the ask. You have to play to win
Cold calling
‘Cold calling is dead. No, it’s not. Now download my ebook on how to tailor the perfect script’ This is a back and forth you have seen on social media or in any sales professional community
The bittersweet truth is all sales channels can be effective for your company and you as a sales professional if done well and the output and input measured. Some channels will drive more success than others, some will be clear leaders (2/3) and you should double down on those and reap the benefits while spending time analysing their channels and understand why they aren’t succeeding and what you can do better to improve the
When you are “cold meeting” a prospect for the first time, a strategy is for you to “go in naked.
Don’t Attempt To Sell On Your First Cold Call
On your first call, you should never attempt to sell. Focus on information gathering. Unless you are selling something inexpensive that requires little thought, you want to interview the prospect by asking questions. Take notes and tell them you will come back to them.
Taking a data-driven approach to cold calling is the best method. Please look at some data-driven conclusion provided by Gong.io
https://www.gong.io/blog/cold-calling-tips/ (off-topic they have an amazing outbound sales strategy using social media)
- Buy As Much Time As Possible
- State Your Full Name And Company Name
- DON’T Ask: “Did I Catch You At A Bad Time?”
- DO Ask: “How’ve You Been?”
- Open With The Reason For Your Call
- Do Your Research
- Avoid Discovery
- Make Your (Targeted) Value Prop
- Book Your Meeting With This Closing Question
- A Quiet Prospect Isn’t A Bad Thing
- The More Interaction, The Better
- It’s Okay To Ask “How Are You?”
- Spend More Time Scheduling Next Steps
- Use Collaborative Language
- Make Cold Calls On Specific Days
- Make Your Cold Calls During These Times
- Always Make One More Call
Cold calling is the top funnel activity and when done correctly will open the doors with many leads for you. It’s then down to you mid to bottom-funnel activity to convert these leads. There are a few tips that have lead to some anecdotal success with cold calling:
- Practise your phone etiquette — you want to come across as confident, succinct, charming and knowledgable
- The Gatekeeper is not your friend, however, they can be your champion
- Start conversations with ‘Is now a bad time’, the aim is to get the prospect to use a salesperson least favourite word ‘NO’ as soon as possible
- Learn names & use them often — this helps with building rapport & allowing people to feel known and cared for
Bedroom 2 Boardroom 🚀 