"Keep the information you've found and your ideas in mind and listen carefully to your conversation partner to understand their needs before you start selling. You should know your customers and be prepared, but most importantly, keep an open mind. They may come to you for a completely different reason than you originally thought!"
Remember: While you should be diligent and research all leads to better understand their needs, it's more important to listen and understand how and where they see their own challenges. Then you'll know how your products can best help.
5. Don't forget cold calling
Cold calling has fallen out of favor. And there are several good reasons for this. We all know one: it can be annoying, which is not exactly good for protecting a company's reputation. But the other has played at least as big a role in the fall of cold calling: the legal regulations have become more stringent. But it is not completely prohibited. Section 7 of the UWG, paragraph 2.2, states: "[Unreasonable harassment is always to be assumed] when advertising with a telephone call to a consumer [...] or to another market participant without at least their presumed consent." In practice, this cryptic "presumed consent" is usually interpreted in such a way that one can introduce oneself to companies that could have a genuine interest in one's own service. For example, as a construction equipment rental company, I can basically only approach construction companies, but as a caterer I have a wider field because every company probably hosts an event at some point. Very important here: If your contact person says that they are not interested, politely end the conversation immediately, because then you can no longer assume that consent has been given. This is not only common sense, but also, to be on the safe side, the individual norm already cited in Section 7 Paragraph 1.
Cristian Renella is CEO and co-founder of MejorTrato . He says MejorTrato was able to increase B2B sales by over 37%, with an improved cold calling strategy playing a big role.
So how do you wake up the sleeping giant so that he can actually be good-natured and willing to be harnessed to the cart? Rennella recommends turning cold acquisition into warm acquisition:
Cristian Rennella
Cristian Rennella
"Our best tip is this: Send your lead a creative gift to the office about 10 days before you call them cambodia telegram data This way, your potential customers will not only know exactly who is calling, they will also listen to you first, because we are wired to do something for people who have done something for us."
According to current legislation, sending letters is expressly permitted as long as the recipient has not objected to it.
The best option is something that is directly related to the work environment or that can be beneficial to the entire office.
Remember: cold calling can be a valuable tool if done right, but you should make sure your prospects have heard of you before you contact them. Small gifts build friendship.
And last but not least, but this is actually obvious: no means no, even when it comes to acquisition. Make a note of this in your documents if necessary, so that you can leave the companies in question alone in the future and avoid getting into trouble. Also check that your plans are GDPR compliant.
Set priorities for your sales team
Just because cold calling is back on your mind doesn't mean that your sales people should just go through the Yellow Pages. Not even within the limits allowed. Especially for small teams, it's usually more productive to focus on the most promising possible contacts.
Manny Medina is the CEO of Outreach and brings us the following advice: