“I’m looking for the owner.” Excuse me, but that is no way to start off a telephone call where you expect the outcome to be an order. Let me tell you more about this phone call so that you can glean as many phone sales tips as possible.
This particular call I received got even “better.” As I listened to “Ryan,” he said he was calling on behalf of some company I had never heard of and he wanted to send me a report telling me all about “my” website. That’s pretty pathetic.
First of all, he insulted me by asking to speak with the owner. Maybe he should have done his homework first. Then he really insulted me by implying the information he was going to send me was incredibly specific to “my” website. To say I was skeptical is an understatement. If Ryan doesn’t even know who the owner is, how in the world is he going to convince me the information he has is specific?
My point is not to rip on Ryan. Honestly, I’d rather rip his employer for thinking he has any chance of being successful.
If you’re going to cold call, then make it a good cold call or don’t do it at all. That means that it is going to take more than starting off with something like “I’m looking for the owner.” In today’s world of so much information that is easy to access, there really is no excuse for not finding out the name of the person you’re trying to call. And if you can’t secure the name of who to call, at least have a meaningful question that engages the other person to create some interest.
One more thing — Ryan’s accent. If you have a heavy accent or dialect, then you need to be even more mindful when you call, because your enunciation is going to be under a lot of scrutiny. The best way to overcome this is with enthusiasm and voice strength and a lot of practice in learning how to enunciate words in the same manner people you’re calling enunciate words. Am I picking on people? No. I’m just saying it’s pretty hard to sell to anyone if the other person can’t understand you.
Okay, I feel better now. I just had to rant a little bit about the pathetic sales call I received. Let me know your thoughts regarding some of the pathetic sales calls you’ve received.
Copyright 2011, Mark Hunter “The Sales Hunter.” Sales Motivation Blog.
