Most people reading this are happy to know that the Do Not Call List does not affect business-to-business calling, and there will likely never be such a restriction.

While most consumers are obviously not in the sales business themselves at home and resent getting bothered to hear a sales pitch, phone calls by businesses, to businesses are a totally different animal.

ALL businesses rely on sales to survive, and most at some point do a form of outbound call prospecting to establish new relationships and get new business. To even attempt to legislate sales calls to businesses would be met with violent opposition by businesses. Even if it were seriously considered, it would be extremely difficult--if not impossible--to clearly define and police which calls would be allowed and which would not.

Suggestion for Professional Salespeople

While B2B calls likely never will be banned, many of the same people

who don't like getting sales calls at home also get sales calls at

their business. And they view the calls with similar disdain.

So, what to do, fellow salesperson?

Easy. Don't SOUND like a typical salesperson.

Let's look at what consumers don't like about calls at home, and

what we can do to avoid the same thing.

Reading a Pitch

An old joke in the telemarketing biz is that some companies use

the "vapor test" when hiring; they place a mirror in front of an

applicant's mouth, and if they create fog on the mirror by breathing

they're qualified and hired. Being able to read and speak well are

added bonuses.

Obviously you don't want to sound like you're reading something.

However, the very thing that some salespeople are afraid of causes

them to not be successful: using a prepared script.

You see, if you know exactly what you're going to say in the first

15 second of your call, and have practiced it so that you can present

it like an Oscar-winning actor delivering her lines, you will be more

successful than the person who just wings it. And, it is beyond me

why anyone would pick up the phone without have prepared and

practiced.

As I always say, the absolute worst time to think of what you're

going to say is as it's leaving your mouth.

Script what you'll say in the first 15 seconds, so you don't sound like

you're reading from a script. And then, everything else you say depends on what they say. Being smooth then requires that you prepare and practice questions, responses to their answers, answers to their questions, and responses to resistance and objections.

It's not easy. That's why everyone isn't good at it. Hopefully you are.

Customize Your Calls So You Deliver Value

Another reason consumers don't like calls at home is because they

get calls for steel siding when they live in a brick house, for example.

And everyone gets the same pitch. I call them talking direct mail pieces.

And there are plenty of business calls that sound the same. It doesn't

need to be, and shouldn't be that way.

If you're prospecting for new business, don't take the "throw it up

against the wall and see what sticks" approach. Target the businesses

who are most likely your best potential buyers. Identify what results

you and your product or service can help them gain, what pains or

problems you can help them avoid, and what other potential value

you can possibly deliver.

Then learn about them. Go to their web site. Do a web search. Talk to assistants, screeners, anyone else in the company and ask questions to gather data and qualitative information before speaking with your potential buyer. THEN you can customize an opening that

addresses them individually ... perhaps an issue they're facing right

now or an initiative they're working on.

Ensure that your calls are prepared, consultative, conversational,

and deliver potential value, and you will never be viewed as the

typical salesperson.

Excepted from Marcus Allen’s, marketing expert, newsletter where he asked Art to comment on a new law about unsolicited telemarketing.