SnogFrog Blog

2 Cold Calls per Day

I received some brilliant advice today.  So obvious.

Do 2 Cold Calls per Day.  1 in the morning and 1 in the afternoon.  If you stick to that, it's 40 cold calls per month!!  If you miss a day, forgive yourself, and stick to 2 cold calls per day, don't recover to 4 calls.

If you're busy for several days or away on holiday, come back to 2 Cold Calls per Day.

What Do You Like about your product/service

Hey I learnt something new the other day.  Something really obvious.  I've spent so long looking at SPIN, and seeing problems, that it was refreshing for someone to give me a new sales acronym. CLING

Current

Likes

Improvement

Need

Go Ahead

"What do you like about your current mobile phone, and what improvements would you like in a new mobile phone?"

I like this idea of asking about what you like in your current product, and then asking for what improvements they'd like to see.  It's a real key to looking at why someone wants something new, and what would drive them to buy it.

"What do you like about your current supplier, and what improvements would you like to see in them, or from us!!"

Engaging in Conversation

Some have it.  And some don't.
That ability to engage people in conversation.  I don't have it, so I consulted an expert today!
He's very good, just like some other people I observe.
They have this innate ability to start talking to people, in queues, in lifts, at supermarkets, in parks.

My expert pointed out to me that you need to pick something about the other person that you notice.  Their tie, maybe they're wearing a badge, their hairstyle, what they're wearing.  In fact, most people by what they wear, are making a statement, and spotting that statement and asking about it, is a practised skill.

So for your homework, go away and observe a few people and work out what statement they're making, and if you're really brave, ask them about it (The thing they're wearing, not the statement they're making!!)

And say something like, "That's an interesting tie, where did you get it from."

Honest Conversations!

Johnnie Moore posted a great link; Truth in Advertising

There’s a conversation going on, A Dance which we recognise and accept, but now one will tell the truth.  That’s why Dilbert and Scott Adams are so good, because they tell a truth we dare not even whisper at work.

Selling is the same. The layers of dance have been inserted into “Selling” which have taken the conversation away. Now in most cases, it’s business as usual, and this dance will go on for most of commerce. Just go watch a customer and seller meet, and work out the hidden conversation!!

What if for one day, like in Liar Liar, we had to tell the truth!!

Conversation before the Kiss!

It came to me in a blinding flash the other day.  Conversation.
We've lost sight of conversation.  We use words like "Rapport" which isn't much of a word we use in everyday conversation.  "I had great rapport today!"  I know, some of us are introvert and shy, so am I, but it is about just having a conversation with people.

We've overanalysed and broken down and built up, what should just be a normal chat with people.  I take my guide from The Cluetrain Manifesto, and those guys (Doc Searls, David Weinberger, Chris Locke) for how it's becoming, plus the Fifth Beatle, Dave Winer.  The first 5 points from the 95 Theses of Cluetrain;

1. Markets are conversations.
2. Markets consist of human beings, not demographic sectors.
3. Conversations among human beings sound human. They are conducted in a human voice.
4. Whether delivering information, opinions, perspectives, dissenting arguments or humorous asides, the human voice is typically open, natural, uncontrived.
5. People recognize each other as such from the sound of this voice.

So I'm doing away with the word "Rapport".  It's a conversation. The category will be "Conversation". My thinking behind this, is, I strongly believe that Selling can be split up into 3 categories through which all the skills can be classified.
1. Qualifying
2. Conversation
3. Networking

And there's a fourth, which is Self Development, which includes things like Getting Things Done.
So now we have the second category of 3 main ones, Conversation, and it's probably Networking, for the next post.