Selling and Marketing

My favorite part of the game. Many people have difficulties opening doors to places they have never been and these same folks find themselves hard pressed to make their pitch to strangers.

I have never been one of them. I find the challenge of a cold call to be extremely exhilarating. The butterflies in the stomach are normal and most sales people will tell you that they still get them from time to time.

There is an excellent blog by Tony Wilson
In it he lists 50 questions over a series of posts to help you define some of your goals, outlines and marketing programs. It is a read I strongly recommend. Print it out and put up by your pc or telephone.

Some of my tips to make sales easier.

Keep it light and use a little humor. Smiles will melt the most frosted hearts. Don't be afraid to do the Dangerfield act on yourself. A little self-depreciating humor shows you can roll with the punches and take the heat. Don't go to far with the jokes either, too much and you will come off as buffoon.

Make sure you have your pitch down and can deliver it with interruptions. Practice, preferably in front of a mirror. Watch your facial expressions while your reciting the lines. Do it again and listen to your tone, does it sound monotonous? Does it sound like it is something you memorized and are just repeating? Work on inflections in your voice an delivery, put the emphasis on the key points.

Have your answers ready, nothing disappoints me more than having a salesman run through his pitch and when I ask a simple question he has to dig into a super giant binder of fact sheets for the answer. Know what you are selling and know it well.

Finally, you can avoid cold calling jitters by not making cold calls. It's really simple when you do a little research first. First find the companies you want to market to, then do some research either online or within the community and find out what the company does, what they manufacture or service. Now with that information in hand, make a phone call, tell them that you know what they do and how you can benefit them. The goal of the first phone call is to come away with somebody's name that can put you on the right track for doing business with them.

Now, open your dialog with that person via the mail or email. Tell them a little about you and your service. Wait a few days and call them the 2nd time to confirm that they received the information and see if they have any questions. Now tell them you are going to be in their neighborhood meeting someone else on Thursday and can you stop in before or after that appointment? "How's 11am sound? No? Then 1pm is better?" It's one of my favorite lines and leaves them with very little room to get out of it. Even if they respond that Thursday is no good then I say " So, Tuesday at 10am is better?" Again, it's not being aggressive it's being confident that they need you and what you provide. The Sales blog is another good source of tips and ideas on selling.

Visit JustSell.com and sign up for their free 50 sales leads via email . They may not all be in your area but as you go through the lists and the materials you may pick up more tips and selling information. I also like David Harkins blog on sales too, it's where I learned about JustSell.com

Good luck and watch for new updates early next week.
As always thanks for stopping by and reading and you can post comments or questions here.
Ken