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How to Stop Your Cold Calls From Losing Steam
by Ari Galper, Founder of Unlock The Game®
We’ve all had the experience where everything seems to be going well during a cold call, and suddenly the person we’re talking to “hits the brakes.” They raise an objection and we start to panic, thinking we’re about to lose the sale.
We then fall back into the old traditional cold calling approach. We try to overcome objections and keep things moving forward. The notion is that if we’re persistent enough, we’ll make the sale.
Keep pushing?
In this old traditional cold calling mindset, we keep pushing. We try to present more information until we “close” the sale. We try to bypass people’s objections and concerns because we’ve already decided for them that they should buy what we have to offer.
However, in the new cold calling mindset, we know that sales pressure is always a recipe for disaster. Instead, we respond to objections by first trying to understand whether they’re genuine concerns or resistance to sales pressure. Until we do this, we have no way of responding appropriately to someone’s objections. We especially have no way of tackling the underlying cause of resistance, which is a reaction to sales pressure.
Genuine concern is about the product or service. Resistance is about a person’s mindset.
The old cold calling approach doesn’t distinguish between “genuine concerns” about what you’re selling, versus “resistance” to how you’re selling it. Nevertheless, this is crucial. If a potential client is genuinely concerned with something about your product or service, then you address it thoughtfully and directly.
However, if they’re resisting the process itself, then they’ve felt sales pressure in some way. Resistance is almost always a negative response to perceived sales pressure. We therefore need to consider how we’ve introduced that pressure, or how we can reassure them we’re only focused on helping them solve their problems.
Different responses
When potential clients raise objections about what you’re selling (pricing, delivery, quality, etc.), these are genuine concerns. They’re rooted in the client’s world. Therefore, you must take them seriously rather than overriding or ignoring them.
When someone is resistant to the conversation itself, then you’re dealing with a reaction to sales pressure. This needs addressing, but in a different way. This is what I would call real “resistance,” because clients are resisting the whole cold calling process. They think that you’re trying to ‘sell’ them.
A tricky distinction
What gets tricky is when people raise objections that sound like genuine concerns. But what they’re actually doing is resisting perceived sales pressure.
On the surface, comments like these sound as if they’re about your product or service,
don’t they?
• Send me more information.
• Sounds good. Let me think about it.
• Your price is too high.
• Great. Let me talk it over with my co-workers.
They may actually be code words for “I’m feeling pressured by how you’re selling.”
Your potential client probably isn’t going to tell you the truth. After all, when was the last time someone said, “You know, I feel as if you’re really focused on getting the sale here and that’s making me feel pressured. It’s creating a slight tension in my stomach. Therefore, at this point, I don’t trust you.”
Fortunately, you can figure out whether potential clients are raising genuine concerns or covering up their discomfort. Just do these two simple things:
1. Assume pressure is always present, even when you’re doing everything you can to create a pressure-free environment. People expect sales pressure, and we can’t always immediately diffuse that expectation 100%.
2. Trust your intuition and instincts. Over time, you’ll learn to be able to tell whether potential clients are telling you the truth. You’ll start picking up signals that they’re feeling pressured, such as giving you short answers.
As you learn to distinguish between genuine concerns and resistance, you’re likely to hear fewer and fewer “objections.” You’ll stop triggering evasive responses or false concerns when you stay focused on what’s actually being communicated. You will also get far better reactions to your cold calling efforts.
To your success,
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Is Selling Painful For You?
It's not your fault -- and there is a better way
Is this how selling is
starting to feel like for you?
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Old "tried and true" cold calling and sales techniques that were once successful have completely lost their effectiveness over the years. That's why I developed a new sales mindset and cold calling approach that will quickly and automatically put you ahead of the game and instantly in a league above your competition.
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OLD SALES GURU MYTH # 1 - "Cold calling is a numbers game." But, sales is only a numbers game when all you know is traditional selling. Yes, you can call people over and over, chase them until they listen to you so that you just go away. However there is a better - easier method of building trust and getting your product or service message across - all on one call. Simply by changing your sales approach you'll make FEWER CALLS and MORE SALES.
OLD SALES GURU MYTH # 2 - "Use a sales script to cold call." People can tell when you're reading from a script, even if you think you're pretty good at it and getting away with it. There's nothing personal about it and people can pick that up. Being artificial just puts you into the typical "Salesperson" category. If you can learn to get your message across in a different way, you'll eliminate the negative triggers that can lose your sale within seconds.
OLD SALES GURU MYTH # 3 - "Focus on closing the sale." Are you "going in for the kill" with your closing sale technique? - If you are, you could end up killing your deal instead. Old sales techniques do nothing more than pressure the client or prospect, and as a result they naturally want to retreat away from that pressure - and that pressure is you. By learning to avoid the "push and pull" dynamic between you and your prospect, you'll be able to move the sales process forward to get the result you want.
Welcome to Unlock The Game™
Unlock The Game is a radically honest sales and cold calling approach based on integrity and common sense. It challenges traditional sales thinking and helps you achieve better sales results.
It's the missing link -- a new mindset and language that converts selling into a natural conversation between you and your prospect.It offers you a new way of thinking about selling, from cold calling -- the most dreaded selling experience of all -- to the end of the sales process.
You don't have to abandon the selling skills you already know -- Unlock The Game gives you a new approach and new tools to help you let go of old behaviors that bring you negative results.
It's incredibly effective.
Best of all, it's easy to learn.
"Unlock The Game is a breakthrough that takes the rejection out of cold calling"
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"In a new age of frustrating and difficult selling challenges, more specifically the fear of cold calling, and starting new conversations without feeling rejected, Unlock The Game gives us all the answers to a natural way of engaging new prospects over the phone. Keep up the good work Ari!"
Brian Tracy is a leading authority on personal and business success. As Chairman and CEO of Brian Tracy International, he is the best-selling author of 17 books and over 300 audio and video learning programs. |
Brian Tracy |
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