Article 101

11 THINGS THAT I FIND ODD, STRANGE OR CONTRARIAN ABOUT
SETTING SALES APPOINTMENTS WITH TOP LEVEL DECISION-MAKERS.

After setting 2,000+ sales appointments and working in many industries, there are some realities and common occurrences that hit me as just plan whaaaaaaaacky... here are some. #11 is the dumbest in my mind.

1. Many, who tell you they are "all set," will in fact buy from a competitor within 2 - 12 months.

Use model responses to resistance to probe behind this response and ID those opportunities.

2. Success has much to do about being setup properly and working efficiently.

Very few give this any attention. I don't understand why someone would torture themselves prospecting for 5 - 10 - 20 hours weekly using a paper system or an excel spreadsheet trying to set appointments and getting little but headaches, but won't spend the one time 3 - 5 hours it takes to setup to work at maximum efficiency all the time. Productivity doubles with this one step. No joke.

3. Sales Manager idiocy...don't get me going. It is incredible to me how often I hear of "sales managers" throwing unqualified lists at people expecting closing magic.

They won't spend the few hours, or simply don't know how to generate a qualified list, yet expect results when 80% or more of sales time is spent talking to totally unqualified suspects. I see this often and the good people always flee these environments.

4. Lack of script preparation.

You only tend to hear 5-7 things on the phone over and over again, yet many have not completely thought out the best response. You kill yourself to get a conversation. To not have a tightly worded powerful response ready is self-defeating. Those who "wing it" every time thinking they sound more conversational are deluding themselves.

5. How many people answer their phones only to tell you they are in a very important meeting and can't talk....

5A. ...and then, after telling you that will schedule a meeting with you... if you know what to say.

6. The number of dials is not the most important factor in appointment setting success.

Making more dials when you have few conversations or convert too few to appointments rarely makes the difference. Once you are in a reasonable range of dials, improving on those other 2 areas... having more conversations, converting more conversations to appointments... typically will get more drastically improved results.

7. How many salespeople do exactly what others who set too few appointments do, yet expect drastically different results.

8. Why people worry so much about "annoying" anyone.

Who cares? Non-buyers will always be annoyed by something they are not interested in. Of course. Worry only about your message to the buyers and communicate well with them. Totally ignore those who are annoyed.

9. There are far more good profitable accounts within that group you speak to but won't meet, than there is in the group you meet with. You should have a "Plan B" offer and follow-up system to tap into these accounts. They call you. It is stupid simple, quick and cheap to do this.

10. How many think cold calling is a waste of time. It is a tool like any other sales or marketing tool. Use it correctly in the right places and it gets results. Incorrectly in the wrong places.. it doesn't. I have seen businesses turn around and lives change
using this tool. To arbitrarily dismiss it in all circumstances seems foolish to me.

11. Not allocating your time to the best quality pool of suspects is probably the biggest mistake I see.

Example: You only have time to call and follow-up on 50 new suspects weekly. You can identify 1,000 suspects who look like your best clients. You can identify 20,000 suspects who fit the profile of your average, low volume or no profit accounts. It is mind boggling to me how many salespeople, who could choose to spend 100% of their prospecting time talking to suspects with a high probability of being good accounts, will slog through calling all the rest saying "I don't want to miss anyone."
It makes no sense.

Well, there are a lot of crazy things that happen out there in prospecting land.
Go make some calls.

Best wishes,
Scott Channell

copyright 2006 2009 scott channell

Article 80	11 Quick Odd Prospecting Things…
	by Scott Channell