someone elses loyal customer

Yesterday I made a cold call to a prospect and the receptionist told me that they have had the same vender for 30 years and are loyal to them. How do I get them to listen to my pitch or to even think about change?

What was the purpose of your call? Did you conduct any research on the prospective client prior to persuing? In an age when people are busy and customer loyalty is supreme it is vital for you to offer differentiation from others that might call even current vendors.

Call preparation is the single most imperative idea about cold calling. Before you make a call, you should understand the client, the industry, and perhaps any competitive issues. Never call a client without premise. Doing so is as foolish as selling those gadgets and gizmos through television infomercials. Those foolhardy programs are concerned about inventory, where your motive is to establish relationship. In fact, one myth about cold calling is to validate that you call to introduce a possible relationship not to sell anything. Your mission is simply to get the prospective client to continue conversation.

Since your mission is to establish a relationship, you need to consider whom you will call and your call motive. Names of those to call can be purchased through database management systems, or obtained through referrals or reading industry periodicals. However, a name is a good as the paper. You need to determine your topical approach, to develop this gain ideas from reading industry newsletters, reading the regional paper, look at customer relationship systems such as www.Hoovers.com or
www.LeadershipDirectories.com . In addition, consider reading The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post of The New York Times to discover company, economic and industry issues.

This is one of nine steps required for cold calling success. However without proper preparation 87% of cold calls will fail.

Drew Stevens
Author of Split Second Selling

Hello Daran. Tough situation.

The best advice I have been given is to use a cold call to get in front of a decision maker (to get a meeting) rather than to discuss who you are, what you have to sell, and why they should be interested.

When you give your pitch as the reason to meet with you, you get responses like, "we're happy with what we have." When you ask for a meeting rather than give your pitch you generally get questions like "what is this about?"

That is a question that says, 'you can have the meeting if it is worth our time'

I suggest creating curiosity (but not solving it!!) to get the meeting. "I would like to set some time with 'Jeff' to talk about a trend I've started to notice in _________. It's relevant to him because customer retention is relevant to him." When they say, "what is the trend?" respond with "I'll cover that more in the meeting, right now I'm just calling to set the meeting up. Does he have 15-20 minutes later next week?"

The topic above may not make you [Daran] curious so find one that does; one you know will make them [the prospect] curious. And use it to set the meeting. But remember, the minute you solve the curiosity you've lost your grip. Don't give away the details on the cold call.

Curiosity will get you a meeting with someone no matter how loyal they are with their current provider. This technique will get you in. Once you're in, though, its up to you to exercise the sales skills you need to turn them into a customer.

Good luck!

Why are you having extensive conversations with the receptionist? The only person you want to have an extensive conversation with is the prospect.

My recommendation is to stop giving gatekeepers so much information that they (instead of your prospect) make the decision that your services are not needed.

Ask for your prospect by name. If a gatekeeper says, "What is this in reference to?" it is perfectly fine (and actually quite effective) to simply say, "This is something I need to discuss with (prospect's name). Is s/he available?"

If you've sent a letter or email you can also say, "We've had correspondence..."

There are many ways to get past the gatekeepers without spilling your guts. My program, "Getting Past the Palace Guard" which is available at www.wendyweiss.com gives you scripts for this.

daran

This will be a long process and if you really want to put forth th effort here is what I would do: Don't be a pest but get your name in front of the prospect as often as possible but when you do make sure you have something to offer. In other words, don't just go to try and get in to see him and sell him but take him something. Better than that use the mail or fax. Do some research on his industry print it off incude a hand written note and mail it to him. Send him a fax telling him what you can do for his business but make it short and sweet. It will take you touching someone at least seven times before they even realize you are trying to meet with them. But if you are quietly persistent you will get a chance to tell you story to the prospect. Another good thing to do is get to know the employees, listen to them and more often than not they have a wealth of information about the prospect and if they like you they will help you get into to see him.

These are some of the things I would do in your situation but I am interested to hear what some of the real pros on the forum have to say.

MPrince

I think Miss Wendy Weiss summed it up: get around the gatekeeper.

Daran,

You have been given a lot of great advice in previous posts of things to try.

Be aware that there are many companies who are happy with their current supplier, however, statistics show that about 20% will change on a yearly basis. This particular prospect may not be ready yet.

Stay in touch with them on regular basis with a follow up program so you're there when they want to make a change.

I think you are suffering from anxiety and worry far too much about making the cold call and from the language used in your post APATHY is apparent.

I've had this in previous roles, my advice is real world and simple. Keep your head down, and blitz through prospecting lists, dont worry about companies such as the one your referring to above. Just keep an eye on call backs and research the companies, look for different decision makes and be AMBIGUOUS, i'm sorry but a receptionist isnt a decision maker so dont allow yourself to get into her frame and be flexbile in your approach.

One of the greatest tools to aid cold calling is utilising the internet, web services 2.0. Get your email marketing up to speed write individualistic letters whilst not assuming anything about the prospects environment, buying patterns and decision makers. Also if you can use google analytics script on ever page of your website and track the visitors, very useful so you will know exactly who visited and what they viewed and for how long. One last tip in every cold call USE WHAT THEY GIVE YOU!! pm me if you need to talk more.

Daren,

In the future it would be helpful for us to know what Product or Service you are Selling and in what Industry.

[1] I encourage you to replace "pitch" with "presentation" since Carnival workers and Con artists make "Pitches" and Professional Sales Pros make "Presentations".

[2] When the Receptionist said that they have had the same Vendor for 30 years and they are loyal to them you could have used this as your reason for speaking with the Prospect by saying; "That's exactly why I needed to speak briefly with (prospect's name). Since I'm rather new in this Industry I want to develop that same dedication and loyalty with my Customers and I'm sure that (he/she) would be willing to give me a few quick pointers. Is (he/she) available to take my call now?" Remember that your primary goal is to get to speak with the Prospect even if it's to learn how to do your Job better by picking up some valuable tips.

[3] When you do speak with the Prospect be sincere in trying to learn as much as you can about why (he/she) is so loyal and what the other Sales Pro does to continually earn that trust.

[4] Towards the end of the conversation you now know what the Prospect likes best about their Vendor and then you can ask what's the one thing (he/she) would change if they had a Magic Wand. Now you've earned the right to ask; "If I could do all of the things you like and wouldn't do any of the things you didn't like, would you at least provide me the opportunity to compete for a small amount of your future needs?" Remember that the more you listen, the more someone likes you and if they like you enough at this point you just might have earned an "in".

[5] Even if you don't earn the right for any of this Propsect's business the odds are now great that you can at least get several Referrals from (him/her) so you've made this contact Profitable.

[6] If all else fails please remember; "SW, SW, WC, WN" which of course stands for Some Will, Some Won't, Who Cares, Who's Next. In other words, we can't sell everyone.

Make it a "FANTA$TIC" 2009 !
Stan Billue, CSP

Call back. Ask for a department, any department, sales, billing, shipping, doesn't matter. Get the name of whoever answers. Ask whoever answers who's in charge of (whatever your selling). When they give you the name thank them and ask them for that person's extension. Then ask them transfer you. If they don't know and want to send you back to the receptionist ask them to transfer you to another department. Again , it doesn't matter what dept. If they do send you back to the receptionist hang up and call back. Ask for another dept. Keep doing this over and over until you get the name.

someone elses loyal customer

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