From Cold… to Gold
Posted by Shane Murphy on Monday, July 24, 2006
It’s a rare day here on AccountHUNTER that I consider blogging something related to cold calls, but this piece from RainToday.com certainly seemed worth your time.
Face it, we all hate the dreaded cold call. One day, a magical fairy may appear to take care of all those prospecting needs (oh, how I long for that day!). But until that fairy arrives — no matter how organized, how smooth, or how sharp we are — cold calling will always comprise part of our lives.
Oh, how I hate it…
But today, as I read the linked story, I realized that maybe it’s me that’s causing some of my own angst over this time-honored method of account hunting.
“All too often, service professionals go into a cold meeting expecting the ultimate – an immediate sale. If they do not get the sale from that first meeting, they consider the entire exercise a waste of time and effort. As a result, they do not plan to succeed over the long-term… and thus they fail.“
I know that I have been guilty of the above more than once in my time, and I’m sure you have as well. I’ve picked up the phone, gotten in front of a prospect, got pushed off… and given up. Long term, that’s not the way to do this!
Seriously, take a few moments to read the RainToday piece. Hopefully, it’ll get your mind thinking a bit differently.
Friday, July 28, 2006 at 10:26 am
[...] There’s a good post at Shane Murphy’s blog that reminded me of the importance of gaining some sort of a commitment as the outcome of every sales appointment. You do this not to ultimately persuade someone to buy something they don’t need, but to test how seriously they are taking your discussions. [...]