World Pace Business Services

Cold calling. Most people hate to do it and there is a cottage
industry of people making a profit by selling ideas on how to
generate business without cold calling. They’re making money
because they are using a basic marketing tactic that most of us
have forgotten how to use – give your customer what they want!
Tell a salesperson that they can get appointments without making
cold calls, tell them to buy your book, and you’ll make money
hand over fist. Why? Because it’s a solution that fits what that
market wants.

The fact of the matter is that there are many things you can,
and should, use to help generate leads. However,
business-to-business cold calling will always be an effective
basic tactic that will help you get an appointment with your
prospect.

Get Back to Basics

Here are 4½ steps that are so easy and basic that we have a
tendency to be suspicious of them. But if you just follow along
the steps, you’ll be on your way to doubling your sales
appointments in record time.

½ Step) Put yourself in the place of your prospect. Think about
what it will be like to get a call from you. You know your
product/service inside and out and are hopefully excited about
and believe in it. Your prospect isn’t excited about your
product/service and doesn’t believe in it yet! Also, you have
set aside time in your day to make calls, but your prospect
hasn’t set time aside to take your call. That’s why it is very
important to make the call all about them. Give them what they
want out of a cold call – hint: the solution to what they worry
about at work.

Step 1) Identify your ideal customer and their critical wants
and needs. At the very least you should have some generic
information about the markets that you serve and the obstacles
that they face from industry magazines, trade associations, or
industry analysts to help you target your cold call message.
This is just the starting point, but a great way to determine
how to give them what they want.

Step 2) Ask the “cold sweat” question. “What is it that wakes
your prospects up at 3AM in a cold sweat and in such a troubled
state that they would give anything to solve that problem?” If
you answer this question within the first 7 seconds of your
call, you will be more likely to gain the attention of your
prospect and be that much closer to gaining an appointment with
them.

Step 3) Once you have figured out what wakes your prospects up
at night, create multiple positioning statements that focus on
solving your prospect’s most difficult problem or achieving
their most important goal.

Step 4) Test those positioning statements and determine which
one results in better dialogue with your prospect and gets you
the appointment.

Here’s a very successful sample cold call script that I’m using
for my own business based on the 4½ steps:

Good morning Mr/Ms. VP of Sales, this is David from EMDCO.com
here in Chicago. We are the major B2B lead generation firm in
the area. Because of our expertise in your industry, we’re able
to solve the problems of the call reluctant/time constricted
sales force by delivering quick, reliable, and affordable lead
generation services. The reason I’m calling you today
specifically is to set up an appointment so I can tell you the
way in which we’ve been successful with (name client(s) that
prospect would recognize) companies. How’s (day) at (time)?
That’s it! I mention that I can solve what most owners,
presidents and sales directors worry about. They are always
thinking about the revenue numbers they have to hit, they know
they have sales people that don’t make sales calls for various
reasons and they know they want a reliable source of leads. I
know I’m not wasting my prospects time with a telephone
introduction like that.

By using this simple 4½ step process, it will help you formulate
your own quick introduction, allow you to quickly answer any
questions they have about you or your product/service, and
redirect the call back toward getting the appointment.

David Wells
http://www.articlesbase.com/sales-articles/4-12-steps-for-doubling-your-B2B-appointments-2279.html