Hot Sales Call Success Despite A Summer Recession
It's summer! We've cleared the Independence Day celebrations and we're now fully into the lazy, hazy days of mid summer.
Or, are we...
? I've talked with a lot of people lately who have made the comment (actually, it's an excuse) that this is not a good time to be making sales calls to prospects because so many people are on vacation.
Wait a minute.
I thought nobody was traveling or buying things because we're in a recession! My experience has been that in slower economies not as many people take as many vacations - or at least not as many long ones during the summer.
And, it seems that is true right now.
People may be taking short three or four day weekends, but not the weeks at a stretch that were so common just a year or two ago.
So that means it's actually easier to find viable prospects available to talk with.
And, you have fewer competitors calling your prospects now.
Some of them may be out of business or perhaps just too convinced that the bad economic news will doom their business to imminent failure.
I don't know.
All I know is that I work with growing businesses every day that are busier than ever and their clients are obviously spending money and growing.
You're not making excuses for your 'dip' in sales are you? If so, it's time to stop.
Right now.
Take an honest look at your sales activity for the past 30 days.
Is there a lot of 'fluff' in your calendar? Or have you been making the calls and following your defined sales process that you know builds your success? If you made 30 sales calls last week, try to talk with 20 or 30 extra people this week.
That's only 5 or 6 extra calls each day! C'mon! Turn up the sales heat! You'll immediately see your schedule begin to fill up with new business opportunities and you know it! Here are three commonly known but rarely used ideas that really do work when actually deployed: 1.
Call early and call late - Many managers and business owners know they will not be interrupted by a lot of phone calls or meetings during 'off' business hours.
They also do not have receptionists and other 'gate keepers' on duty to put your call directly into their voicemail.
That means if you call prior to 8:00 AM or after 5:00 PM you may have a better shot of talking directly with the decision maker.
2.
Call often - This is a tactic that works well when you know you are not calling someone's cell phone number.
Without leaving a voicemail, try calling your prospect every 15 or 30 minutes until they pick up the phone.
As I said, this only works if you know you're not calling their cell phone - otherwise they might see your number in caller ID and think you're a stalker! 3.
Call with a purpose - Instead of calling to just make your 'pitch' try calling and offering some useful information that your prospect will appreciate.
Maybe it's an article you read about her industry that you just saw in your email alerts and you wanted to ask her if she'd heard about it yet.
Or perhaps it's an invitation to a conference or webinar that you think she would find interesting.
And, always be sure to do this with existing and previous clients.
They are the ones most likely to buy from you in the future and refer you to new business.
So, as you can see, we are now in the midst of one of the hottest (selling opportunity) summers we've seen in several years.
Even though not as many of us are spending as many days at the beach as we may like, there are plenty of us who are working smart and making money...
perhaps to spend on a nice long trip to the mountains this fall!
Or, are we...
? I've talked with a lot of people lately who have made the comment (actually, it's an excuse) that this is not a good time to be making sales calls to prospects because so many people are on vacation.
Wait a minute.
I thought nobody was traveling or buying things because we're in a recession! My experience has been that in slower economies not as many people take as many vacations - or at least not as many long ones during the summer.
And, it seems that is true right now.
People may be taking short three or four day weekends, but not the weeks at a stretch that were so common just a year or two ago.
So that means it's actually easier to find viable prospects available to talk with.
And, you have fewer competitors calling your prospects now.
Some of them may be out of business or perhaps just too convinced that the bad economic news will doom their business to imminent failure.
I don't know.
All I know is that I work with growing businesses every day that are busier than ever and their clients are obviously spending money and growing.
You're not making excuses for your 'dip' in sales are you? If so, it's time to stop.
Right now.
Take an honest look at your sales activity for the past 30 days.
Is there a lot of 'fluff' in your calendar? Or have you been making the calls and following your defined sales process that you know builds your success? If you made 30 sales calls last week, try to talk with 20 or 30 extra people this week.
That's only 5 or 6 extra calls each day! C'mon! Turn up the sales heat! You'll immediately see your schedule begin to fill up with new business opportunities and you know it! Here are three commonly known but rarely used ideas that really do work when actually deployed: 1.
Call early and call late - Many managers and business owners know they will not be interrupted by a lot of phone calls or meetings during 'off' business hours.
They also do not have receptionists and other 'gate keepers' on duty to put your call directly into their voicemail.
That means if you call prior to 8:00 AM or after 5:00 PM you may have a better shot of talking directly with the decision maker.
2.
Call often - This is a tactic that works well when you know you are not calling someone's cell phone number.
Without leaving a voicemail, try calling your prospect every 15 or 30 minutes until they pick up the phone.
As I said, this only works if you know you're not calling their cell phone - otherwise they might see your number in caller ID and think you're a stalker! 3.
Call with a purpose - Instead of calling to just make your 'pitch' try calling and offering some useful information that your prospect will appreciate.
Maybe it's an article you read about her industry that you just saw in your email alerts and you wanted to ask her if she'd heard about it yet.
Or perhaps it's an invitation to a conference or webinar that you think she would find interesting.
And, always be sure to do this with existing and previous clients.
They are the ones most likely to buy from you in the future and refer you to new business.
So, as you can see, we are now in the midst of one of the hottest (selling opportunity) summers we've seen in several years.
Even though not as many of us are spending as many days at the beach as we may like, there are plenty of us who are working smart and making money...
perhaps to spend on a nice long trip to the mountains this fall!
