Sales Technics - Cold Phone Calls

C'est vrai il y a un moment que je n'ai pas "bloggé" mais la charge de travail des derniers jours de l'année 2012, ne m'a pas permis de me consacrer à cette tâche.

J’ai reçu de la part de Louie Bernstein lbernstein@izenda.com un commentaire sur livre qu’il a édité ces derniers temps. Ce livre est consacré sur les techniques de vente.

Bon, je ne suis pas entièrement d’accord sur tout ce qu’il raconte mais je vous en fais partager une séquence dédiée aux appels téléphoniques de prospection vers de nouveaux clients :

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How many times to call a sales prospect.

Sometimes I’ll look at a sales rep’s activity history and see call after call, showing voicemail after voicemail; sometimes every two or three days.  This type of calling activity really generates a lot of discussion and debate.  I once had a business owner tell me, “We just keep calling every day, sometimes twice a day, until they can’t take it anymore and call us back.” 

While I don’t think the above example is a good way to talk to your prospects, I also don’t think there should be any hard and fast rules applied to this process.  The first question to ask yourself is, "How many times would I need to be called?"   By answering this honestly it helps give you the same perspective as your client.

A couple of other items that should weigh in on your decision:
• Is it a cold call?
• How far along are you in the customer buying process?
• Did they ask you to call them back in X number of days?
• Do you have new (valuable to them) information to speak with them about?

After the initial cold call I use this sequence for making additional attempts:  
• 2nd call – after one week.
• 3rd call – eight business days after that.
• 4th call – 10 business days after that.
• 5th call – 20 business days after that.
• 6th call – 30 business days after that.
• Final call – 60 business days after that.
Note:  An email should be sent after every call that builds on the previous email and voice mail.

Follow up calls, when no timeframe has been given, have a lot of different variables.  Too many for one sales training lesson.  A couple things to remember, however:
1. Don’t be a pest.
2. If you call too much you look desperate.

A few final tips:
1.  A study done by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) revealed the following:   The most successful time to reach an initial prospect is between 8:00am and 9:00am and 4:00pm and 5:00pm their time.
2.  Most sales reps give up after 1.5 to 1.7 call attempts.
3.  80% of sales are made after the fifth call.

Sales Homework – Go through your prospects in your CRM system and set up six automated reminders for your cold or warm prospects for whom you have only made an initial call. 

Sales Managers – Make sure your sales reps understand the balance between persistence and being a pest.

More info : http://www.training.sales-getters.com/