Cold calling can be tough. The confidence needed to phone a stranger and tout your product or service and knowing just what to say deters many salespeople from what they view as a chore. Geoff Alexander, sales trainer and founder of Geoff & Associates, has some advice to help salespeople avoid common pitfalls when making cold calls. He writes that “strong professional verbiage” is necessary to coming across as a competent, knowledgeable caller with something important to say. Alexander discusses four phrases that he cautions salespeople against using, writing that the phrases erode “the confidence that the prospect needs to have in you, and you stand to be in danger of losing the business to a competitive rep with more professional communication skills.”
One of the phrases he frowns upon is the following: “I’m new here. (or “new to the territory).” He considers this a no-no because it alludes to the fact that the salesperson doesn’t have all the answers and lacks knowledge about what may be going on. Regardless of not knowing everything about an account or client, avoid using phrases like this that suggest otherwise.
Read the rest of Alexander’s article by clicking here.
Wednesday, Jun 24, 2009
Jessica Helinski