Here’s a call I received from a guy who sells search engine optimization. His model was apparently to call as many people as he can and give them the same pitch, without knowing anything about the companies or people he called, or their existing degree of sophistication regarding their web marketing.
While his opening statement contained an adequate benefit—front page exposure on major search engines resulting in a tremendous amount of traffic—he had no idea what we did, how we did it, and he had never even visited our site.
Which seems odd, given that he is selling something that will enhance websites.
As you heard, he did not get very far with me on this call, even defending his stance that it doesn’t really matter to him what a company does, since to him, “A website, is a website, is a website.”
Perhaps, but he misses a very important point: As a buyer, I want to know that the salesperson and company I am entrusting my money with understands my business and what I’m looking to do.
This guy certainly isn’t the only one out there placing calls and not being prepared to do so. Which is mind-boggling to me. Today, we have so many tools available to us that easily and quickly allows us to gather some intelligence before our calls.
My philosophy is that when you are prospecting, the more you know about the company, industry, and individual you are calling, the greater your chance of making a connection, touching on something that is an issue in their world, and customizing your questions so that you can uncover needs that are unique to them, perceived, or otherwise.
And, this shows the prospect that you are different from every other caller who is just smilin-n-dialin, giving everyone the same pitch, like our friend on the recording.
I have a resource for you to help you collect this type of information before calls. For the Platinum members of my Telesales Success Inner Circle, I interviewed Sam Richter, author of the book, “Take the Cold Out of Cold Calling.” Sam is an expert at using the web to gather business intelligence that will help make prospecting and sales calls more effective. In this interview/audio seminar, Sam shared lots of little-known tips and secrets for using the web to get information on people, industries, and companies. I was a bit shocked at how much information is actually available, IF you know where to get it.
You can get a copy of this one-hour audio seminar, and until Wednesday night, it is part of our Scratch and Dent sale and you can get it at a nice discount. Go to http://www.BusinessByPhone.com/scratch09.htm and scroll down to the “Take the Cold Out of Cold Calling” audio seminar.