Dear Joe and Maria,
I hate making cold calls and follow-up calls. It's very difficult to hear the word “No,” over and over again -- especially when most of those calls result in no sales!
I know I have to make the calls if I want to make money, but how can I get past this feeling of frustration and rejection?
Mary, Orange, New Jersey
Dear Mary,
You're not alone. Thousands of entrepreneurs and business owners are going through the same feelings of rejection and frustration like you are, and it's costing them lost sales and income.
Fortunately, there is a solution.
I promise you, when you finish this article, if you apply what you've learned, you will never feel rejected or frustrated by the people you call.
Ready? Let's go.
Sell An Excellent Product Or Service
It sounds so simple and obvious. You have to be proud and enthusiastic about what you are selling if you expect others to feel the same way.
You have to be convinced that your customers will be much better off after they purchase your product or service than they were before they did. In fact -- here's the really important part -- you have to feel somewhat sorry, or very sorry, for the people who don't buy your product or service.
By not purchasing your product or service, those folks are not going to experience the excellent benefits that your product or service provides. They will continue to have the same problem they had before, and that is really too bad for them.
You may think that I'm exaggerating here, or trying to be funny, but I'm not. That is exactly how we feel about the products we sell. When it comes to people who need help in growing their sales, in addition to feeling very good about the enlightening marketing knowledge and results our customers gain, we really do feel badly for those who haven't purchased our Give to Get Marketing Solution.
Why? Because we know from experience that they will, in all probability, waste hundreds, even thousands, of dollars on misguided marketing tactics that can't work. They will continue to feel the pain of financial loss by using the same ineffective marketing strategies and techniques that we see being used all around us every day.
We've put over 25 years of experience and two solid years of writing into it -- we know it works -- so you can bet that we are enthusiastic about the results our customers can obtain from it. If you don't feel that your product or service is excellent, or you don't feel that your customers will be much better off after they purchase it, then either improve your product or service, or find another one that you can feel proud of.
You can't overcome feelings of rejection or frustration if you're trying to sell something you don't believe in 100%.
Target People Who Want What You Are Offering
If you are selling replacement windows and you are calling people who don't own a home, you are asking for rejection. If you are selling season tickets to the symphony and the people you are calling don't have any interest in the symphony, you are asking for rejection. If you are selling expensive cruise vacations, and you are calling people who can't afford those types of vacations, you are asking for rejection.
It's amazing how much rejection is created by marketers who simply target the wrong people -- people who have no interest at all in what they are trying to sell. People must 'want' the benefits of what you are selling, and they must have the means to pay for it. If a person desperately 'desires' a red sports car, and can afford one, he or she would be a perfect target for car dealers who sell red sports cars.
Start with a clear picture of the people who want what you are offering, and you will face a lot less rejection. If you are fortunate enough to be able to attract people who are actively 'searching' for the benefits and solution your product or service offers, you can become very financially comfortable.
It's easy to attract the people who are searching for the benefits your product or service offers once you know the simple steps to take. You'll eliminate rejection, and attract many more customers and sales.
Make An Appropriate Offer At The Appropriate Time
Offering a guest a bowl of soup just as they are getting out of their car in your driveway, is an example of an inappropriate offer at an inappropriate time.
Nothing happens in marketing until an offer is made. But if you are to get a positive response, you have to make an appropriate offer at the appropriate time. If you've been reading our newsletters for a while, you know that you can't sell in one quick and easy step.
People must get to know you, like you and trust you before they will feel comfortable enough to buy from you. That doesn't happen in one step. It happens in several steps. Imagine running up to a stranger on the street and saying, “Wanna buy a blender?” Rejection!
It's no different if you call the same stranger on the phone and ask the same question. You're demanding rejection, so don't be surprised when the person says, “No!” It doesn't matter if you pad your call with your name, your company name, how many years you've been in business, and the fact that your blenders are the best on the planet, the answer is going to be the same. Wrong offer at the wrong time.
If you're like most small business owners you're probably losing thousands of dollars in lost sales by simply making the wrong offer at the wrong time. Those lost sales are sales you'll never see. But from this day forward you can begin converting many more prospects into paying customers by simply making the right offers at the right time.
Determine The Dollar Value Of Each And Every Call
One of the most basic concepts in marketing is the sales funnel. You bring so many people into the wide top of your funnel, and at each stage of your marketing process, people drop off for one reason or another, until you end up with customers at the very bottom of the funnel.
There is a direct relationship between the number of customers you generated at the bottom of the funnel and the number of people who entered at the top.
Let's say that you brought in 100 people at the top, and ended up with 10 new customers at the bottom. Now let's say that you make $100 for each new customer. At 10 new customers that would be $1000 in gross sales. But it's not just 10 new customers that results in $1,000, it's also 100 people entering the top of your funnel that results in $1,000.
Here's where you need to look at the process with a new perspective. Most people focus only on the 'value' of the bottom of the funnel, the customers generated. But in reality, there is a very real value for each and every person who entered the top of the funnel.
Divide the $1,000 generated at the bottom of the funnel by the 100 people entering at the top of the funnel, and you get a value of $10 for each person.
That's a powerful change in perspective. When you Persistently focus on the value generated by each person who enters the top of your marketing funnel, your attitude changes dramatically.
If it takes 100 calls to generate $1,000 in sales as our funnel example stated, then each time you make a call whether the person accepts your offer, or declines, you still made $10. Every time!! Now the only decision you have to make, is how much money do you want to make. Make 100 calls, you make $1,000. Make 200 calls, you make $2,000.
When you focus on this perspective, it's a lot easier to keep making your calls, since every one results in a very real financial reward.
This is the perspective we have used to help us build our Web business to well over one quarter of a million dollars a year. The top of our marketing funnel is represented by visitors to the home pages of our Web sites. For every 100 people who visit our home pages, we generate one sale. We have calculated the dollar value of each visitor by the above formula. So our goal is to maximize the number of people who visit our home pages. Each visitor represents real money.
I really want to emphasize this concept to you, because it can mean the difference between barely making it with your business, or turning your business into a powerful money maker with unlimited potential.
