Melissa, That's good advice and it helped a lot today. Thanks very much. I got some good calls made. I'm waiting for a decision from a big account and I had very much hoped it would happen today. So far, no joy, but if that comes through it'll make everything else easier, for sure. Of course, I'm filling the waiting time working another one, so either way, I'm hoping for some results very soon.
I'm am currently involved in a position for a bank doing business development. My problem is that the bank only has 2 offices and they are 30 minutes apart. Being that we are so small, my competitors are everywhere, giving convenience to my clients where we don't. My job has ended up being 95% cold calling and I am expected to bring the numbers in. I have done well in the last 6 months but the bank wants more! I do believe it is my cold calling efforts that are hindering me. The residents in the one location are very bank loyal to their local bank and resist changing even if I can do better for them. Can anyone give me any tips to my cold calling? I go in to each business, introduce myself, talk about the things that surround me to get some conversation going, leave reference material, get a decision makers name for a follow-up, finish our conversation and leave something that is free from our institution. I follow-up but get shut down when I mention I am from a bank. "They already have one!" What makes me unique is that I am THEIR personal business shopper. I try to shop banking or make products that will help them. I try to save or make them money. What can I do to get that appointment? I feel as if nobody wants to go through switching their accounts unless they are fed up with their current bank. I am apparently doing something wrong and don't have a mentor or training. Just reading books and trial and error. Any suggestions are appreciated! Thanks in advance :)
It never ceases to amaze me the amount of people that say cold calling works, and yet the sheer volume of posts on this board alone prove otherwise. It isn't that you are doing "cold calling" wrong. You are probably great. It is cold calling is just that much a waste of time. Now, others here will disagree and understand this is MY PERSPECTIVE. But it has worked for me. My corporate bank is just like yours it has 2 locations, they are kinda far apart, and they are smaller. But their service is awesome and they really make their clients (me) feel like a family. What they do is heavy involvement in the chamber of commerce (not just attending events, but leading them) as ambassadors. It is a great way to develop RELATIONSHIPS and get well known in the community. Any reader of Jeffrey Gitomer will tell you that it's who knows YOU, not the other way around. As an ambassador of my local chamber I get a list of new businesses monthly that I can call and "welcome" to the chamber. I simply say "hi, I'm an ambassador with the chamber and wanted to swing by and learn a little about what you do and introduce myself. Maybe I can refer some business to you.". Bam, I just got an appointment to go talk to a business owner. I don't go with the agenda of promoting my stuff, but it always comes up and you get to do a free commercial. WAAAY better than cold calling mind you. And if you can give them some business, they will reciprocate. Not always,but sometimes. You could also do small business seminars at local rotary clubs, and other civic groups. If there is an entrepreneurial center locally call them and ask to hold a talk there. I work in one and yesterday we had 8 banks giving free advice for small business and signing people up! Good luck!
I can imagine you're in a tough sales environment. I'd say job number one is to determine and learn to communicate what your bank has or does that the competitors do not. If the only answer is "we have a branch at third and main and the other guy's is way down at fifth and main" then you're stuck with a geographic/convenience sales model. Differentiating your product, then articulating that difference in a way that potential clients can relate to will be a big key for you. Once you have that, read The Sales Bible's cold calling chapters, as that formula works well and isn't annoying to the potential customers. When you drop off literature, make sure that it is very brief (no longer than a postcard or flier) and specifically targets their business and what you can do to make banking better/easier/more fun/faster for them. When you do the follow-up call 24 - 48 hours later, you'll have the name of the person in charge so you can ask for them. Instead of saying, "So... How 'bout it?" which works in sales about as well as it works in nightclubs, try "I wanted to see what you thought of our ..." and let them talk. Then you might be able to ask if their current bank offers that. (Since you know they don't.) Although it might feel like you're asking them about banking (and you're the expert) when it comes to their business, THEY are the expert. Treat them like such. Hope that helps! I can see from your post that you've been at this and you're making headway. You can do it!
Just wanted to thank Jeff G and Shad M for your posts. I will definately try some of the things suggested and let you know how it goes. :):)
In what way does the sheer volume of posts on this board alone prove that cold calling doesn't work Shad? Are you intimately familiar with each poster's skill level in cold calling or the executive of these skills in each instance? Did you even ask? If a volume of posts on this board were from people who were not successful in referral prospecting would that alone prove that referral prospecting doesn't work? Someone posted it before and it's worth repeating, "Prescription before diagnosis is malpractice". The previous poster stated, "I go in to each business, introduce myself, talk about the things that surround me to get some conversation going, leave reference material, get a decision makers name for a follow-up, finish our conversation and leave something that is free from our institution." and Shad replied, "It isn't that you are doing 'cold calling' wrong. You are probably great." NOTICE TO EVERYONE READING THIS POST: If you believe that qualifies as great cold calling then you're in for a rude awakening. This wholesale "Cold Call Bashing" needs to end and since this is Jeffrey Gitomer's forum I challenge Jeffrey Gitomer to get involved and address this issue. I can't imagine that Mr. Gitomer would align with such a generalization as, "Cold calling doesn't work" but if he does then this is as good a place as any for a little schooling on the matter.
Salty, your point is well-taken. Gitomer has already created what is to me the definitive work on cold calling, and you can get it on this website. Read the full description at Books/Products>Audio>Cold Calling CD. He basically states that even if you get rejected 99 times out of 100, you can still succeed by using each rejection to learn what you did wrong, and fixing it the next time. Yes, cold calling is tough sometimes, but nearly every salesperson goes through it, so why whine about it? Instead, have fun with it, and use it as a boot-camp style learning tool toward building your full pipeline of leads and referrals.
This is tough because your bank is demanding expectations that you can't deliver on because they don't respect or understand the sales process. A bank is NOT a sales organization, despite what many people believe. With cold calling, my goal is to always secure a first meeting. I never ever try to sell them on anything during the cold call except on a first meeting. I target specific businesses. I do my research first. Then, I ask the prospect a few targeted questions, build some rapport, and secure a commitment to spend quality time together at a later date, all within a maximum time of 2 minutes. And if I don't get to meet the principal I at least make sure I meet the secretary, who I will build rapport with, and hopefully turn into an ally, so that when I do follow up, she is comfortable with me. I always follow up with a letter, thanking the prospect for the time and reconfirming the meeting. I also phone the secretary to say it was nice meeting her and to alert her that I am in fact meeting with the principal, and thanking her for introducing me. Trust me, every time I call and she answers, I get a better response than if I hadn't invested the effort in getting to know her. If I don't get to see the principal, I will do 3 phone follow ups. If there is no activity, I will send a Gitomer special. This involves a letter and a lottery ticket. I follow this up with a drive by, and if I am still unable to get the attention of the principal, he or she goes on my drip list and I move on. I think too many salespeople try to be salespeople. They have been conditioned to sell on the very first face to face opportunity and it doesn't work. "This may be the only chance I get to sell them!" is a common thought. If you listen to the prospect and work on a solutions oriented track, you shouldn't be "selling" until the presentation. Not sure if this all applies to your specific situation but good luck and keep smiling!
In your ever increasing need to try and prove to me that cold calling works you forgot one thing (and since you obviously haven't read Jeffrey's books let me clue you in a bit). Jeffrey Gitomer says in his book The Little Red Book of Selling on page 68 says "Many salespeople looking to emerge are frantically trying to "market" themselves from brochures to direct mail to cold calling to networking. Expensive frustration." Need more, same book page 83 talking about networking "If networking is so important, why are you not doing more of it?" He lists four reasons, #3 is "you think cold calling is a great way to prospect" (sarcastically). More still? Jeffrey also says "Cold Calling is the worst way to make a sale, but the best place to learn". I don't disagree with that. By the way, you also recently said on another post that buying leads was a great way to get business. Just to show the others Jeffrey's thoughts here is his answer to that question from his Ezine on 9/4/07 "DO NOT buy leads. If they were any good, the people selling them would be in the mortgage business. Keep working at developing relationships with agents. Become known as "the woman who gets the deal done." Agents will generate consistent business. Find a few who you have things in common with -- get them to give you a shot and build from there. Best of luck (created by hard work), Jeffrey" Rather than attacking me, why not just disagree, offer your point of view and go on with your life. I feel I'm right, you feel your right. Can't we just leave it at that?
Dear Shad, I have no interest in proving to YOU that cold calling works. However I do have a challenge with several of the posts here, many of which you were party to, that equate to "misinformation". If Jeffrey Gitomer chooses to allow such "misinformation" to fill the pages here I'm sure I can find another sales training forum via Google that will suit my tastes. By the way, if you're going to quote me then please be accurate. You wrote that in another post I said buying leads was a great way to get business. Since I don't recall that post please be kind enough to point it out. Feel free to cut and paste my exact words. In addition, your assumption that I haven't read Jeffrey Gitomer's books is incorrect and since we're giving out clues let me give you one... and I've quoted this before... "Prescription before diagnosis is malpractice". Do the people who are asking for help a favor and start asking questions to better understand the situation BEFORE you start giving out advice.
Bank Lady, I think you should lead your prospects by asking questions. I'm not in the banking industry, but I am a car salesman for the past 10 years. If you don't know what they want you can't begin to make an offer that they will like to hear. I always ask permission to ask my questions. It's help keep objections to a minimum. And I know that the prospect is following my lead. Do forget the person asking the questions is the one that is in control of the sale. In time you will learn the open ended questions that work best and maybe even ones that get you to the sale quicker. That comes with experience. And no I've not read any of Jeffrey's books yet. Sorry about that this is also my first time at this forum so I can say because I've posted I'm starting to like this. I hope this insight into cold calling or first contact works for you please let me know how it works for you.
I see it all the time in my sales organization -- Sales people will sign customers up as quick as possible and then later realize that they're not compatible with our service or our systems. In my opinion, the discovery and question asking should come prior to the customer signing up, not after. This will minimize the chances of them getting upset later in the process. I think it’s harder to fix something than to do it right from the start. Am I way off or on the path to greatness….
You are on the path top greatness. I had a friend who was recently told he absolutely had a pretty large sale if he could deliver in 3 weeks. My friend KNEW it would take a minimum of 6 weeks no matter what he did. To his credit he told the customer, "sorry, I just can't do that". He will be rewarded somewhere down the line, it is a fact of life. Sales is so results based that people with weak character are pushed until they break and do unethical things (that they wouldn't usually do) or gloss over the problems to get a sale. I applaud you for recognizing the issue on the front side, you are (in my opinion) on the path to greatness! Good Job!
I think in a situation like this, you get two choices - Your salespeople can qualify the accounts, or your products can be tailored to the individual needs. That largely depends on your product and business, so I can't really tell which would work for you. Also, it may be that your sales people have incentives to bring in clients whether they're good, bad or indifferent. If you're in a position to do so, perhaps you can tweak the incentive plan to help motivate your sales team toward getting customers that fit well with your business.
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