(By Rick Fink) Trying to set appointments can cause a lot of fear and trepidation for most salespeople, especially those new to the sales game. In many cases when new reps fail, the blame can be attributed directly to the fear of cold-calling and the inability to set appointments.
Cold calling, by definition, is “the activity of calling or visiting a possible customer to try and ‘sell’ them something without being asked by the customer to do so.” The selling part includes… setting appointments.
In his article “21 Mind-Blowing Sales Stats,” Brian Williams, PhD, suggests it takes an average of 8 cold calls to reach a prospect, and 80% of sales require 5 follow-up calls after the meeting. 44% of sales reps give up after one follow-up.
People prefer to do business with people they know, people they trust.
Knowing full well that people who are familiar with you and trust you are more likely to say yes to your sales presentation, doesn’t it make sense to do everything you can to build your trust with them?
The more people who trust you and who agree to see you, the more people you will be able to make presentations to. The more presentations you make, the more yeses you’ll receive, assuming you’re making quality presentations!
Our business of selling media is no different from our clients attracting new customers. The more they know you, the better your chances of them considering doing business with you.
Do your potential prospects know you? Do they TRUST you? What are you consciously doing to continually build that trust?
Rick Fink from ENS Media can be reached at 605-310-2062 or at [email protected]. Read Rick’s Radio Ink archives here.
