In the fall of 2011, the Keller Center for Research at Baylor University in Texas carried out a study to quantify the importance and effectiveness of cold calling as a tool to acquire customers on a totally unqualified list.
The experiment involved 160 agents from all over the United States. Each agent was provided with a standard script and required to reserve at least one hour a day—for seven days—to make cold calls in their respective area of jurisdiction to numbers never previously contacted.
At the end of the experiment, 50 participants had made a total of 6,264 cold calls. Of these, 28% had received a response, 55% had no response, while 17% were non-existent numbers.
Thus, between non-existent numbers and no answers, as many as 72% of the calls made had turned out to be dead ends. Only 28% of phone calls (1,774) had actually resulted in conversation.
Out of these 1,774 opportunities, the agents were only able to fix 19 appointments + 11 referrals. All of the others were called again later, but they either didn’t show interest or refused to provide further information.
As you can see, so much effort in the face of poor and not very encouraging results.
But let’s go even deeper. This data is relative to the average seller that operates in the American market, where customers are much more accustomed to welcoming salesmen and representatives, and where the barrier of distrust is much lower.
If the same research had been conducted in Italy, in fact, the results would have been even more troubling.
You’re sure to have noticed it too, but the Bel Paese is NOT exactly the most receptive place in the world for the work of salesmen and entrepreneurs—unlike Anglo-Saxon countries.
But then, is there a way to forget cold calls and door-to-door sales? To only attract people and potential customers who are already determined to do business with you, on your terms?
The answer is yes and it is directly related to the power to call people to action.
Just how you feel most relaxed when you are operated on by a top surgeon in medicine rather than by a nurse who has only ever taken blood samples.
The truth is that you have to become the reference point for your industry.
Nothing is more important (and effective) if you want to forget cold calls, door to door sales and the classic, old-fashioned sales attempts once and for all.
If you think people say, “I have to think about it,” at the end of the appointment because they really want to go home and think about it… I’m sorry for you, but you’re completely off.
The customer does NOT want to go home to think about it. You see, all of the aspects of sale that even you can’t bear and that embarrass you are the same ones that customers can’t stand.
The problem is that most sellers and entrepreneurs do not understand this fundamental detail.
Customers want certainty.
They want to close.
They want to give their money to those who guarantee them a good job, accompanied by excellent assistance and maybe even a bullet-proof guarantee.
When people go around on weekends to look for a new mattress, they’d rather avoid visiting twelve different stores and lying on twelve different mattress models.
They’d simply like to rely on someone who can prescribe them exactly what they need. And they are willing to pay any amount when they find an authority in the industry who has this power.
In fact, the truth is that people do NOT like to bring up the price with the seller. They DON’T like to waste dozens of hours browsing hundreds of stores and collecting quotes.
And the only reason why they look at dozens of options before buying is because NONE of the players in the running are actively working to gain preference from the customer.
Not even you.
And if the options before them all look the same… then they will prefer the one that costs less.
But consumers do NOT like this. Just as entrepreneurs and sellers don’t like it. The problem is that they don’t know how to get out of this vicious cycle.
But what do you really need to become an authority in your industry?
Obviously, it’s NOT a result you can get in one day.
And no, posting photos with your arms folded on Facebook does NOT automatically make you a guru to whom people will want to blindly wire money.
And that’s why the 2019 edition of Winning Salesman will focus on all the real tools, most concrete strategies and necessary procedures that you need to implement in your company now in order to acquire the power of authority.
In a nutshell, everything you need to:
- be able to sell a greater amount of products or services per transaction, without resistance from customers and without having to cut prices to do so;
- be welcomed by even the most prestigious or important clients who wouldn’t even look your way in the past;
- give a sense of urgency to all customers, who will suddenly stop postponing and want to get started immediately, with deposits and substantial advance payments ready.
And this is only an infinitesimal part of what I will help you achieve during the next Winning Salesman, to be held in Barcelona from November 28th to December 1st, 2019.
If you are dying to find out what other promises I’m committed to making you, and if you want to immediately book your spot in Barcelona, click on the button below.
Rock ’n’ Roll!
Frank