The Key to Making Cold Calls
Cold calls - the very sound of it probably sends chills down your spine. 80% of sales reps have found hundreds of ways to procrastinate and avoid making cold calls, but the top 20% understand the correlation between calls and deals.
And they understand the importance of measuring and tracking their call numbers.
Quick - how many calls did you make yesterday? And the day before? How many contacts (with decision makers) did you make last week? Last month? How many leads/prospects did you generate? How many calls did you have to make to generate a lead? What is your closing ratio? If you can’t answer these questions, then chances are you’re not tracking your calls.
Tracking your calls is one of the easiest and most important habits you can develop, and it is a characteristic of all top sales producers. It ensures that you have a systematic routine on which you can rely to maximize your sales.
Here’s what you do: At the top of a piece of paper, simply create three columns - Calls, Contacts, Leads/Deals. Down the left margin, simply create one hour time frames - 8-9 am, 9-10 am, etc, throughout your work day.
Then, each time you dial the phone, put a mark (or stick figure) for each call, and after four marks, make the fifth a slash through them to group them by five. Only put a mark under the contacts column when you reach the person you were calling for. Leads/Deals should be obvious.
Keeping track of your calls in this way will force you to be honest with yourself, and it will help you to create urgency in your day, and with your time, and that is the hallmark of all top producers. Don’t underestimate the simplicity of this, and even if your company automatically tracks the number of calls you make, it’s up to you to take responsibility for your success.
Sales is still a numbers game, and the more calls you make the more sales you will make. It’s ultimately that simple. As you get in the habit of keeping track of your daily calls, you’ll come to see that the key to making cold calls, is in tracking and measuring them.
Start today, and by this time next week, you’ll have a whole different attitude about making calls. If you don’t believe me, try it and see for yourself!
Mike Brooks, Mr Inside Sales, helps business owners turn under-performing inside sales teams around by teaching them Top 20% core sales skills. Visit: http://www.mrinsidesales.com/cd_page3.htm