I've been working with a sales team for an online marketing agency - they build websites, mobile websites, online marketing campaigns, and so on.
The first problem I found is that their reps had no idea how to find new clients. My initial presentation to them was about how to identify ideal prospects, and when I was ready to move into developing those prospects into customers, everyone said, "Wait! We have no idea how to prospect in the first place! We have no idea how to contact them"
Okay... I asked what they were doing, and it turns out they were... [drum roll]... COLD CALLING!
I asked about the success rate: about 1 in 200.
At that point someone said, "Keep practicing at it until you get to 1 in 100 and then you'll start seeing results." I ignored this prize idiot, and instructed the sales reps to stop cold calling altogether, and to devote that time to networking instead, because I know from experience that in-person networking, for some reason, is unusually effective in the online marketing business.
Fast forward a week... I talked with one of the reps this week and he was whining that networking just isn't working.
I asked him what he's telling people when he shakes hands at events. His reply: "I tell them I do online marketing for local businesses."
B-O-R-I-N-G
I gave him an all-new opener to use when networking, or anytime someone asks him what he does for a living: "I get your website printing money for you."
I think that's a lot more attention-getting. I know from my own experiences as a business owner that it'd get my attention, for sure. Especially if I was one of the majority of small business owners whose website is doing nothing.
Get Prospects Interested - Stop Boring Them!
Think about what you're telling prospective customers. Is your introduction boring? Do you sound like every other sales rep they've met with? Or are you getting their jaw-dropping attention with something similar to, "I get your website printing money for you"?
If you're not, then follow these two action steps immediately:
1. Develop an opener that blows people away. Differentiate yourself from all of your competitors, who are all saying the same boring crap to people.
2. Flood yourself with a never-ending supply of hot leads, with prospects who are highly qualified and need what you have. Then use your new killer opener during the initial conversation with them.
In case you're asking just how to fill your voicemail with hot leads, it's easy: Take your all-new, hard hitting introduction, and go to as many networking mixers as you can. Breafkast, afternoon, and happy hour events. Never pass on an opportunity to go to a networking mixer, cards in hand, well-dressed, and armed with your new conversation starter. Do that and your sales will explode!
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Frank Rumbauskas is the author of the New York Times best-seller Never Cold Call Again and has won numerous accolades, such as Readers Choice for Business Book of the Year from 800-CEO-READ, and has been named one of Fast Company's top 30 most influential people online. To learn more, and to download a free 37-page preview of his Never Cold Call Again lead-generation system, visit http://www.nevercoldcall.com
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