1. SHUT UP AND LISTEN MORE TO YOUR PROSPECT – It\’s really amazing how much you canlearn from prospects by just letting them do all the talking. Here’s a clue: The letters in the word LISTEN also spell the word SILENT. 2. STOP CALLING LOW-LEVEL EXECUTIVES – Start at the top of the food chain and makeyour first contact with the Business Owner! As they say in the Guggenheim Museum…Start At The Top. Your top level prospect will chime in with ‘Actually you should talk to (someone) who heads up my marketing here’. You have a choice. You can always call them on it and say, ‘Hold on, he will only refer it back to you. YOU are the one who can cut through the red tape and make this happen’. Or you could say, ‘thanks, can you transfer me?’ and then tell this Marketing guy that his boss recommends He talks to YOU! 3. CONTACT PROSPECTS THAT SAID NO TO YOU SIX MONTHS AGO! Remember, all prospect decisions are not set in stone. Also the person who told you no may have moved on, died or come to their senses. They said NO in a situation that was ‘then’. This is ‘now!’ 4. IF YOU DON\”T DO ANY RESEARCH ON YOUR PROSPECT PRIOR TO PICKING UP THE TELEPHONE THEN YOU\’RE STUPID. At least take a minute or two and do some homework. The moreeffort you make when researching your prospect then the more effort your prospect will make to speak with you on the telephone. Don’t do too much. You don’t need to be an expert on what they do. That’s their job. Be an expert on what you do and let them tell you how great they are. 5. NEVER EVER GIVE UP AFTER THE FIRST, SECOND, THIRD, FOURTH AND FIFTH CONTACT! Keep calling your prospect till they say NO. Don’t hang up unless they either buy or die. You would be amazed at how close people are to a yes when they give up. 6. BE ENTHUSIASTIC – HAVE SOME PERSONALITY ON THE TELEPHONE. If you\’re not excitingto speak with on the telephone than how can you expect your prospect to even give you a millisecond of their time? You have to believe in yourself and your product and convey that over the phone. If you sound like you don’t care, they will assume you don’t care and guess what…neither will they! 7. PAUSE LIKE A BROKEN CLOCK – Pausing after your prospect\’s name and while your interacting with your prospects lets your prospect know they\’re important. It lets them know that you have a genuine interest in them. Pausing is a powerful sales tool. Most people find silence uncomfortable. You need to learn to embrace silence. When you ask for the money, STFU! That stands for Shut The Fuck Up. The first one to speak loses. My record on the phone is 3:27 minutes. Face to face? 12:47 minutes. 8. KNOW YOUR PRODUCT/SERVICE LIKE YOU KNOW HOW TO WALK. The more you know about what you sell helps to create an atmosphere of consultative selling rather than product or service pushing. People buy from confident people. If you are confident about your business then you will convey that. People feel safe if they are spending money with someone who is confident. That said, don’t bluff if you don’t know the answer to something. Say so and tell them you will find out. They will like that. Not only because you will appear confident but also because you want to make sure that have the right information and you recognise that the point is important to them. 9. FOLLOW UP WITH YOUR PROSPECTS. Most sales are lost because you don\’t go the distanceto follow up with your prospect. You will be amazed at the amount of repeat business that isn\’t done. Follow up with a reason. If you sent information and you told them you were going to follow up in a couple of day then call them and remind them why you are calling. Don’t just call and pass the time of day. The girl in starbucks is there for that when they buy their latte in the morning. When they buy, and you deliver, call them and thank them and ask for more business. If you don’t ask you don’t get. 10. IT\’S OK TO FAIL – If something doesn\’t work then just try something else. If you fail, learn why and DONT DO IT AGAIN. Cold Calling is not about throwing darts, it\’s about strategy and being innovative. And failure isn\’t failure. It\’s something else. Just like Broke is temporary but Poor is a condition. Failure isn\’t forever. Fail is feedback. When a person says no, that’s when your job as a salesperson starts.