Cold calling

_________________________________________________ Overcoming the Fear of Cold Calling 1

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Overcoming the

Fear of

Cold Calling

Jeffrey J. Mayer

From the author of Opening Doors with a Brilliant Elevator

Speech, Winning The Fight Between You and Your Desk

and Creating Opportunities by Networking

Learn how to use the telephone to create

new opportunities, close more sales

and make more money.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0070411298/jeffremayerautho








Overcoming the

Fear of

Cold Calling

NOTICE: This Training Manual is licensed to the original purchaser only. Du-

plication or distribution via e-mail, floppy disk, network, printout, or other

means to a person other than the original purchaser is a violation of International

copyright law and subjects the violator to fines and/or imprisonment.

Copyright

Copyright © 2003 by Jeffrey J. Mayer and Succeeding In Business, Inc. All

rights reserved. No part of this eBook may be reproduced in any form, by any

means (including electronic, photocopying, recording or otherwise) without the

prior written permission of the publisher.

Published by

Succeeding In Business, Inc.

50 East Bellevue Place

Chicago, IL 60611

312-944-4184

[email protected]






mailto:[email protected]




Copyright ......................................................................................... 2

Table of Contents ............................................................................. 3

Jeffrey Mayer’s Tele-Mentoring Program.......................................... 7

eBooks by Jeffrey J. Mayer ............................................................... 8

Books by Jeffrey J. Mayer ................................................................. 8

Your Comments About This Training Manual ................................... 8

Overcoming The Fear Of Cold Calling ............................................. 9

Getting The Most Out Of This Training Manual .............................. 12

Review The Training Manual From Beginning To End .............. 13

A Short Quiz .................................................................................. 14

I’ve Been Selling For 30 Years ....................................................... 15

Learn To Love The Phone ............................................................... 18

The One-Percent Rule .................................................................... 18

You Must Be Prospecting Every Day......................................... 20

Your Goal Is To Search For Prospects

Who Are In The Market TODAY........................................... 21

Expect Rejection, But Don’t Take It Personally......................... 22

Search For People You Like ...................................................... 23

The Rule Of A Hundred ................................................................. 23

Your First Pass Through The Stack ........................................... 24

Your Second Pass Through The Stack ....................................... 25

Making The Rule Of A Hundred Work For You ........................ 27

Deciding When To Discard A Name .......................................... 28

Your Goal Is To Find Large Numbers Of Prospects ........................ 30

Table of Contents









Processing Your Leads ................................................................... 33

Put Each Lead On A Separate Piece Of Paper ............................ 33

Record Detailed Notes Of Every Telephone Call ....................... 34

Use Cryptic Marks To Save Yourself Time ................................ 38

Finding People You’ve Left Messages For ................................ 38

Don’t Leave Voice Mail Messages ............................................. 39

Working Your Lists Of Names .................................................. 40

Don’t Write Names And Addresses By Hand......................... 40

Don’t Work Your List From Your Database.......................... 40

Don’t Research Your Prospects Prior To Calling Them ........ 41

Getting The Most From Your Business Cards ....................... 41

Getting The Most From Bingo Or Reader Response Cards ........ 42

Working The System.................................................................. 43

Keeping Track Of Your Telephone Activity ............................... 44

Schedule Time To Make Your Calls ................................................ 45

Schedule An Appointment With Yourself .................................. 46

Adding Prospects To Your Database ............................................... 47

Putting Your Prospects Into Your Database............................... 49

Finding People In Your Database .............................................. 50

Write Notes of Meetings And Conversations ............................. 50

Schedule Follow-Up Calls and Things To Do............................ 51

No Naked Records: Keep In Touch With Your

Customers, Clients And Prospects ........................................ 51

You Need A Great Elevator Speech ................................................ 52

Passing The SO WHAT! Test ..................................................... 54

Keeping The Conversation Going.............................................. 55

Examples Of Good Elevator Speeches ...................................... 55









Create Your Elevator Speech ..................................................... 56

Do You Have A Moment ................................................................ 57

Blowing Through Leads ............................................................ 58

Five Words That Changed My Life ............................................ 58

A Simple Yes Or No Question ................................................... 59

Making Your Telephone Call .......................................................... 60

Step 1: Do You Have A Moment? ............................................. 61

Step 2: Deliver Your Elevator Speech ....................................... 61

Step 3: I Was Calling to See If I Could Take a Moment... ........... 61

Step 4: Use A Turnaround Question .......................................... 62

Using Turnaround Questions .......................................................... 63

Start With Soft Questions .......................................................... 64

Then Ask More Pointed Questions ............................................ 65

Examples Of Client’s Questions ................................................ 66

Robert Helps Companies Get Income Tax Refunds ............... 66

Steve Sells Commercial Real Estate...................................... 66

Chris Lends Money ............................................................... 67

Mark Helps People With Their Financial Planning ................ 67

Gregg Sells Stainless Steel .................................................... 68

Turnaround Questions Stimulate Conversation ......................... 68

Create Your Own List of Turnaround Questions ....................... 68

How Do You Come Across on the Phone? ..................................... 69

Your Feelings And Emotions Come Across Loud And Clear..... 69

Keep A Smile On Your Face ..................................................... 70

Be Enthusiastic ......................................................................... 71

Hear How Others Hear You ...................................................... 71

Make Your Voice Sound Interesting .......................................... 72









Add Depth And Power To Your Voice ....................................... 73

Improve Your Productivity By Using A Telephone Headset ....... 75

Get On The Phone .......................................................................... 75

Getting Through To Your Party ................................................. 76

Take Notes Of The Conversation ............................................... 77

How To Call A Stranger ................................................................. 77

Your Call Goes Through ........................................................... 78

You Get Voice Mail ................................................................... 79

You Get The Secretary ............................................................... 79

Make The Secretary Your Friend ........................................... 80

Dealing With Voice Mail ................................................................ 81

The Telephone Is Your Friend ......................................................... 84

Your Comments About This Training Manual ................................. 85

Jeffrey Mayer’s Tele-Mentoring Program........................................ 85









Jeffrey Mayer’s Tele-Mentoring ProgramDo you want to improve your prospecting and networking skills?

Cold calling? Telephone techniques? Time management skills?

Do you want help with your strategic business planning?

Do you want to learn how to ask better questions? Reach

decision makers? Overcome objections?

One-on-one Tele-Coaching is now available for business own-

ers, corporate executives, sales managers and salespeople.

Jeffrey Mayer, president of http://www.SucceedingInBusiness.com, coaches

business people on how to grow their business, close more sales, and make more

money.

Call 312-944-4184 for more information. Or send e-mail - with a phone num-

ber - to [email protected].

“Jeffrey Mayer really understands the essentials of running a successful and profitable business.

He knows how to focus in on the key business issues to generate maximum profitability.”

Norman R. Bobins, Chairman, President & CEO, LaSalle Bank, N.A. Chicago IL

“Jeffrey Mayer has become my "Agent of Change." His concepts are intense, thought

provoking, deep and far reaching. Over the past year I had tried a bunch of things.

Nothing worked. Out of desperation I called Jeff. In the first month we worked together, I

tripled my business. If you want to grow your business, give Jeff a call!”

Mark Pallar, President, Paller Financial Services

“My sales have doubled, my profits have tripled, and I'm working fewer hours, since I

started working with Jeffrey Mayer.”

Gregg Russell, Owner, Hopps Colonial Pharmacy, Homer MI

“My monthly sales doubled from $20,000 to $40,000 after working with Jeffrey Mayer

for only three weeks. His up-selling techniques helped me increase the average size of

my sales from $2200 to $3200. This was a great return on my investment.”

Dave Boekholder, Sales Manager, Digital Canal

“Jeffrey Mayer, is "The Answer Man." He is so totally amazing. After our conversations,

I always wonder how can we bottle or clone this man's brain. I sell to the manufacturing

industry which is so cyclical it makes me wonder why I do it, but Jeffrey, always gives

me creative, insightful advice that actually turns my doldrums into profits every time! In

the worst times ever, this is the man to call!”

Judy Griggs, President, Preferred Machine Tools






mailto:mentoring@SucceedingInBusiness




eBooks by Jeffrey J. MayerOpening Doors with a Brilliant Elevator Speech

Winning The Fight Between You and Your Desk

Taking Control of Your Day

Creating Opportunities by Networking

Successful People Have A Dream

Setting and Achieving Your Goals

Succeeding In Business

Customizinq Your ACT! Database

Growing Your Business With ACT!

http://www.succeedinginbusiness.com/catalog

Books by Jeffrey J. MayerSuccess is a Journey

If You Haven’t Got the Time to Do It Right,

When Will You Find the Time to Do It Over?

ACT! 2000 For Windows For Dummies

Time Management For Dummies

Winning the Fight Between You and Your Desk

Find the Job You’ve Always Wanted

in Half the Time with Half the Effort

Your Comments About This Training ManualWhat are the BEST useable ideas you gained from this Training Manual?

How do you plan to apply these ideas?

How will these ideas help you close more sales and grow your business?

Please send your thoughts/comments to

[email protected].






http://www.succeedinginbusiness.com/catalog/







Overcoming The Fear Of Cold CallingFred was very successful in business as a computer consultant.

But the one thing that really bothered him was the fact that he

was unable to schedule appointments with people over the tele-

phone. He was always great in face-to-face meetings. His closing

ratios were very good. But getting that face to face interview was

very challenging.

When Fred had to call on someone he didn’t know — with the

goal of talking with them over the telephone — he was a nervous

wreck. He would do almost anything he could to avoid picking

up the phone. From doing miscellaneous paperwork, to writing

letters and reading e-mail.

And when he finally got up the courage to pick up the phone,

and actually found someone who would take his call, the conver-

sation went something like this:

“My name is Fred Smith, and my company helps busi-

nesses with their computer networking needs. I was

wondering if you had any computer problems.

The person he was speaking to would usually respond by saying

something like:

“Thanks for calling Fred, but we’re all taken care of.”

And the conversation would end in five to ten seconds.

The more Fred got on the phone, the more flustered he became,

and his results got worse. He went through hundreds and hun-

dreds of leads. He didn’t get many appointments. His business

was down. He wasn’t making much money. He was squandering

business opportunities.

One day — out of desperation — he called me, asking for help.

As we talked, he told me of his tale of woe. I asked him why he

felt so comfortable when he was face-to-face with a person —

getting good results — but had such a terrible time when he had









to pick up the phone and make a “cold call.”

Fred explained that when he walked into a prospect’s office, he

would sit down in a chair, make himself comfortable, and look

around the room. He then began asking the customer questions

about:

� The knickknacks he saw on the desk,

� The pictures of the sailboats on the credenza,

� The golf clubs or tennis racket in the corner,

� The mementos from numerous vacations on the book

shelves,

� As well as the pictures of the person’s family, and the

sunsets in the Caribbean or Hawaii on the wall.

This made Fred comfortable, because he needed the PROPS

that he saw in the office to generate conversation. Once Fred

broke the ice, he was then able to start talking business.

But when he called someone on the phone there weren’t any

props for Fred to talk about. He couldn’t see the person’s desk,

he couldn’t see the pictures, the mementos, the trophies. The

only thing Fred saw was his office. He didn’t know what to say.

He was stumped.

Fred had five basic problems:

1. He didn’t know — or understand the methodology of —

how to use the telephone to get appointments, create

opportunities, close sales, and make money.

2. He didn’t know what to say to a person when he got her

on the phone.

3. He didn’t know how to keep the conversation going by

asking brilliant questions.

4. He didn’t understand the importance of having a large









universe of people to call on.

5. He didn’t have a proven system for finding new pros-

pects.

In just a couple of weeks I taught Fred how to love to use the

phone for cold calling. He learned the art of asking great ques-

tions on the phone, and he learned the importance of having a

large prospect base.

Today Fred loves using the telephone. He sets aside about an

hour a day, and starts calling. His goal is to dial the phone at

least 30 times each day. He’s reaching people, finding opportuni-

ties, closing sales, and making money.

This training manual is going to do the same for you. By the time

you’ve finished reading this training manual you’re going to love

using the telephone. You’ll reach more people, find more oppor-

tunities, close more sales, and make more money.

Here are six questions I want you to answer. It’s OK for you to

write down your answers inside the training manual. (If you

haven’t printed this training manual out, I suggest you do so

now.)

� How much time do you spend each day on the telephone

looking for new business?

� How many times do you dial the phone each day?

� How many new people are you calling on? People that

you’ve never spoken to before.









� How many people are you calling that you’ve spoken to

before — either on the phone or met in person — who

didn’t buy from you?

� How many telephone calls do you have that end in less

than five seconds? Ten Seconds? Thirty seconds? Sixty

seconds?

� How many leads are you going through during the course

of the day, a week, or a month?

Spend more time on the phone, improve your techniques, stop

wasting your leads. You’ll close more sales and make more

money.

Getting The Most Out Of This Training

ManualThis training manual is filled with powerful information that will

help you become much more successful. But it’s going to take

you a bit of time to make these money-making ideas, concepts,

techniques, and strategies your own.

It’s going to take some work on your part as you unlearn old

habits, and learn some new ones. Have faith. These telephone

techniques have worked for me for more than 20 years and have

worked for my consulting clients, who have paid thousands of









dollars to learn them. Put them to use, and they’ll work for you

too. Guaranteed!

I know you can read this on your computer, but it’s my recom-

mendation that you print it out so you can highlight important

information, and write notes to yourself in the margin.

Every once in a while I’m going to ask you some questions, and

I want you to take a few moments to think about and answer

them. You can write your answers in the space provided, or on

the back of one of the pages of this training manual.

Review The Training Manual From Beginning To End

Before you dive into this training manual, take a few minutes to

review it from front to back, so you can get an overview of all

the material that’s being covered.

Study the table of contents, look at the headings and sub-head-

ings. Look at the sections that interest you the most. If you like,

read them first.

If you become engrossed in specific parts of the training manual,

it’s okay to read them. Then go back and start reading the train-

ing manual from the beginning.

As you are reading the training manual, begin to put the informa-

tion to work... IMMEDIATELY. Pick one or two ideas and start

using them. Then pick a third or fourth idea and begin applying

them.

After you’ve completed reading this training manual the first

time, I would also suggest that you reread it a second time, and

even a third time. You’ll be amazed at how much new informa-

tion you’ll pick up with each additional reading.

Within weeks — or maybe a few days — you’ll see dramatic

changes in your results as you begin to put these powerful ideas,

techniques, strategies and concepts into action. In no time at all









you’ll be reaching more decision makers, creating more opportu-

nities, closing more sales and making more money.

A Short QuizI’ve a short quiz for you. Here are eleven reasons why most

people hate cold calling. Put a check mark by the ones that apply

to you:

� It’s always hard to get started. I just don’t want to pick up

the telephone.

� I don’t know what to say.

� I don’t have people to call.

� I’ve already called the people on my list a dozen times and

it’s depressing to look at their names again.

� I don’t know how to explain the benefits of the products

or services I have to offer.

� I’ve never been trained in how to use the telephone to

reach decision makers, schedule appointments, and close

sales.

� I don’t know what to say because I don’t have a sales

pitch, don’t have a script, or don’t have a great Elevator

Speech.

� I’m afraid of getting rejected, and my fear of failure

causes paralysis.

� I’m not comfortable picking up the phone because I feel

I’ll be interrupting the prospect.

� I can’t reach people because I always get voice mail.

� I don’t like calling people because I feel that telephone

salespeople are slimy, and I don’t want to be like all the









other tele-marketers. You know, the ones who are calling

just as you’re about to sit down to dinner.

If you like, you can add more items to the list, but I think I’ve

covered most of the major reasons why people don’t want to

pick up the phone and call prospective customers.

I’ve Been Selling For 30 YearsI’ve been in sales for 30 years now. I started in the property and

casualty insurance business in the early 1970’s and inherited my

father’s insurance agency when he passed away. After several

years, I sold his agency and joined the Northwestern Mutual Life

as a Special Agent.

At the Northwestern Mutual, we were taught that the most effec-

tive way to sell was to send letters of introduction to new pros-

pects and referrals, and then follow-up with a phone call several

days later. I did this for about six months, and then it dawned on

me that nobody — myself included — ever got around to mak-

ing the calls.

We searched for every excuse we could come up with to avoid

picking up the telephone. As a result, many good opportunities

were never captured. Sales weren’t made. And there was no

money in the bank.

One day I came up with a novel idea:

Don’t send the letter

— which took time and cost money —

just pick up the phone and make the call.

Much to my surprise, I started reaching people and scheduling

appointments. While everybody else was sending letters, I was

actually meeting with prospects and closing sales.









I remember one instance where I phoned Joan Brown, and had

got an appointment. She had recently gotten a promotion and her

name, and photo, had appeared in the newspaper. When I

walked in, the first thing she did was hand me a letter she had

received from Mike, a colleague of mine whose office was down

the hall. While my good friend was sending letters, I was getting

appointments — and closing sales.

In the early 1980’s I came to the realization that selling life insur-

ance wasn’t to be my calling in life. In 1983 I started my consult-

ing, coaching and mentoring practice where I helped people

manage their time, set their priorities and get focused, so they

could grow their business, close more sales and make more

money. (How’s that for an Elevator Speech?)

It was then that I really learned how to use the phone. One day

— as I was making a sales call — it dawned on me, if I didn’t

close the sale, I had wasted my time. I had wasted the other

person’s time. And I didn’t make any money. There had to be a

better way.

I further realized that my goal wasn’t to just get an appointment,

but it was to get an appointment with a person who was inter-

ested in buying something from me.

Have you ever had a meeting with someone, and you

looked at them. And they looked at you, and you both

knew that this wasn’t going to work? Like a bad blind

date?

Well, it’s happened to me a number of times, and after a

lot of analysis, I finally understood why. When I called

and asked for the appointment, the other person said

YES.

But what I failed to do was ask enough questions to

qualify the person as a viable prospect prior to going out

to meet with them.









I know that all the sales training books say you should meet as

many people as you can. Your sales manager and/or your boss

want you to have FACE TIME with your prospects.

But what’s your goal? To meet as many people as you can, or to

meet with people who have an interest in purchasing your prod-

uct or service? And how much time is being wasted. Travel time?

Waiting time? Unproductive meeting time?

Wasted time. Wasted effort. Wasted energy. And no money!

By using the telephone more effectively you can improve your

results... geometrically.

During a phone call with a prospect I asked him what his

closing ratios were. He said about 1 in 6. About 15 per-

cent.

I pointed out that with a 15 percent closing ratio, 85 per-

cent of his selling time was wasted. If he were only to

waste 75 percent of his time he would double his income.

He hired me on the spot.

How do you better qualify people over the phone? You ask

better questions. (More on that later.)

But before you rush out to meet with people, here are eight

questions you need to get answered:

� Do they have a need for your product or service?

� Why would they need it?

� What is the problem you will be solving?

� Do they want to solve the problem? Is it their problem to

solve?

� What will be the value to them if the problem is solved?

Or what will be the cost to them if they do nothing?

� What is their position within the company or organization?









Are they a decision maker? Do they have the authority to

sign a check?

� How do they go about making decisions?

Learn To Love The PhoneMost people hate using the telephone for cold calling. And their

results become self-fulfilling prophecy. But I look at the tele-

phone as a wonderful time-saving tool.

When used properly, it enables you to separate buyers — people

who are going to do business with you — from tire kickers,

those who are going to ask lots of questions, have you jump

through hoops, waste lots of your time, but never place an order.

This does two very powerful things for you:

1. You’ve more time to spend with the people who are going

to buy from you. This helps you to close the sale because

you’re more focused on the customer’s needs.

2. You’ve more time to get on the phone to look for — and

find — more prospects (people or businesses) who are in

the market to buy from you... TODAY. You can do this

because you quickly identify the people who aren’t going

to buy from you, before you spend 30, 60, or 90 days

chasing them.

Change your perspective. Learn to love the phone. The tele-

phone is the most effective time management tool you have. Use

it more effectively, and your income will soar.

The One-Percent RuleEver since I started selling, more than 30 years, I’ve always

wondered why sales people who were very successful early in









their career never continued their meteoric rise into the strato-

sphere. At some point their production always flattens and levels

out. And then, after a period of time, it actually begins to decline.

After studying and analyzing this, I came to the conclusion that

most people stop prospecting, i.e. looking for new customers.

Here are four reasons:

1. They get bogged down with paperwork, service work,

and all other types of miscellaneous activities.

2. They spend hours of time creating proposals and presen-

tations for people who don’t buy. Then after the

presentation’s are made, the customer says “Let me think

about it.” and the sales rep spends the next 30, 60, or 90

days diligently following up on a person who will never

place an order.

3. They stop doing the activities that made them so success-

ful — like getting on the telephone and looking for new

customers — in the first place. I’ve known many sales-

people who couldn’t wait to hire an assistant so they

wouldn’t have to get on the phone and call their “custom-

ers.” But whose business is it anyway? The salesman’s or

the assistant’s?

And who is better equipped to determine whether or not a

person is indeed a prospect? The salesman or the assis-

tant?

4. They get the “I’m so successful, I don’t have to prospect

anymore” attitude. They feel that they don’t have to cold

call. They develop ATTITUDE. How many salespeople

have you heard say, “I don’t cold call anymore?”

My wife and I were looking for a new car.

Actually, she was the one who wanted the new









car. I was invited along just to pay for it.

After test driving many different cars we (she)

decided to purchase a Mercedes-Benz. Dur-

ing one of our meetings with Bob, the sales-

man, he said to me, “I’ve read a number of

your ACT! and time management books,

knew that you lived only three blocks away,

and often thought about calling you.”

“Why didn’t you?” I asked. Bob explained that he doesn’t do

any cold calling. (With attitude.) How stupid I thought!

You Must Be Prospecting Every Day

To be successful in sales — and in business — you must be

prospecting every single day. I don’t mean calling on the same

people over, and over again. I mean calling on people whom

you’ve never spoken with before. Yes, I know lots of people

who say they work only by referral, or get the majority of their

business by referral. But I’ve yet to meet anybody who finds

enough prospects to keep their business — or income — grow-

ing by leaps and bounds.

Furthermore, when the referral sources dry up, or the rate of

referrals slows down, the salesperson has no new source of

leads. For most salespeople — and even business owners — it’s

been so long since they’ve looked for new prospects that

they’ve forgotten how to do it. As a result, their business — and

income — suffers terribly.

On the other hand, when you aggressively look for new business

day-in and day-out you find it.

To be successful in sales, you must have a large universe of

prospects. This guarantees that you will never run out of people

to call.









From this realization I created my One-Percent Rule:

You Will Sell One

Out Of Every 100 Prospects.

When you know you’re only going to sell one out of every

hundred prospects, you need to create a system that enables you

to find a lot of people to call on. When you’re calling on new

people every day, your success is almost guaranteed. With this

knowledge, you’re always prospecting. If you want to make two

sales, you must have 200 prospects. To make three sales you

need 300 prospects.

Now, I do want to say that I’ve found the odds to be a bit better

than one out of a hundred. Sometimes it may be three, four, or

five percent.

But when you realize that you’re only going to sell one out of

every hundred prospects, then you need to create a methodol-

ogy for processing lots of names quickly and efficiently. That’s

where the telephone comes in. By having great telephone tech-

niques, you save yourself time because you’re better able to

qualify your prospects. This enables you to spend more time

with buyers and much less time with non-buyers.

Your Goal Is To Search For Prospects Who Are In The

Market TODAY

The goal is not to meet as many people as you possibly can,

because traveling to — and meeting with — people who were

not going to buy is a huge time waster.

The goal is to use the telephone to identify and qualify people

who are in the market today, and then have additional meetings

with them — either by phone or in person — to determine their

level of interest. When you know that only one out of every









hundred people is going to buy from you, the challenge is to find

the one person who will become a customer and eliminate the

rest. Then find another hundred prospects to call on.

SalesGoal: Find a prospect a day. Imagine how successful you

would be if you were able to find a good prospect every day.

Five prospects a week. Twenty prospects a month. When

you know that only one of every hundred prospects is going

to buy from you, your challenge is to go through that pros-

pect list as quickly and efficiently as you can.

Expect Rejection, But Don’t Take It Personally

One reason people hate cold calling is that they don’t like being

rejected. Don’t take the rejection personally.

When someone says they aren’t interested, they aren’t rejecting

you. They’re just stating that they don’t need whatever it is your

selling.

What’s the worst thing that can happen to you? They can yell at

you. They can hang up the phone. But ninety-nine times out of a

hundred, the person will be polite. And if the person’s nasty or

abusive, you can always hang up on them.

� Not everybody’s going to be happy that you called.

� Not everybody’s going to want to talk to you.

� Not everybody’s going to have a need for whatever it is

you sell.

The beauty of using the telephone, is that you can find this out

quickly, without investing a lot of time, effort and energy on

someone who isn’t going to buy. When you know that only one

in a hundred are going to buy, this prospect is just one of the 99

who aren’t.

Remember: Only one of every hundred prospects is going to

buy from you. So this person is one of the 99 who aren’t. So









don’t let a bad call get you down. Be thick-skinned. Expect

rejection.

Search For People You Like

One of the great benefits of using the One Percent Rule is that it

enables you to be selective. It enables you to search for people

that you like.

You goal is to fill up your database with people who like you,

and people that you like, so all of you can have some fun and be

more successful.

And because you’re always looking for new prospects, no single

opportunity becomes that important to you. If this one doesn’t

close, you know that you’ll be able to find another.

And don’t succumb to Big-Case-Itis. Life is much easier when

you’re doing business with lots of smaller customers, than a

handful of very large — and demanding — customers.

SuccessTip: Spend your whole life looking for people that you

like, and like you. You’ll have a wonderful career.

The Rule Of A HundredMy Rule Of A Hundred goes hand-in-hand with my One Percent

Rule. The Rule Of A Hundred explains what happens when you

process 100 leads.

Let’s assume that you had a list of 100 prospects. Now this list

of 100 names isn’t printed on a few pieces of paper — like a

spreadsheet, or in columns. Instead, you have 100 pieces of

paper and on each piece is the person’s name, address, phone

number(s), and other information.

In the old days, 30 years ago, I used to hand-write names

on 3x5 index cards. Then I would put the stack of cards









on the top of the desk and start calling the prospects one

at a time as I worked my way through the stack. We called

it “dialing for dollars.”

Let’s further assume that you had a stack of names all of whom

were prospects that you had never called on — or attempted to

reach — before.

As you sit down at your desk you start with the name at the top

of the stack, and begin calling one person after another, as you

work your way from top to bottom.

Your First Pass Through The Stack

On your first pass through the stack, you will reach about 30

percent of the people, meaning you will actually speak to 30 of

those 100 people. As you talk with them you’re going to find that

these people fall into one of four categories;

1. Good Prospects. One, two, three or maybe even four of

them are really interested in the products or services you

have to offer. (Your ability to find real prospects does in

fact depend upon the quality of you’re telephone skills.

But that’s why you’re reading this training manual.)

2. Potential Prospects. You’re also going to speak to a

handful of people — maybe one, two, or three — who

will ask you to call back in one week, two weeks, or a

month and they’ll actually be interested in buying some-

thing.

3. Time Wasters. This group of people will ask you to call

back at a later time, or maybe ask you to send something,

and when you do, they will in fact show no interest in

talking to you. These become huge time wasters.

4. No Interest. The balance of the people will say that they

have no interest at all. It’s my recommendation that you

throw their names away. Your goal is to find people who









are in the market — or have a need — for the product or

service you sell at the very moment you call them. When

someone tells you they aren’t interested, let them go and

continue your search for a better prospect.

Your Second Pass Through The Stack

You’ve gone through your stack of prospects once and have

spoken with 30 people. There are 70 people who you have not

yet reached. As you work your way through the list a second

time you should expect to speak with about 20 more people, (30

percent of the those remaining).

Of those 20, once again you are going to find one, two or maybe

three people who are real prospects. The rest have no interest.

To summarize where we are so far, you started with a list of 100

people. You’ve spoken with 50 of them and have found four,

five, or maybe six people — prospects — who are sincerely

interested in doing business with you. As you work your way

through your sales process one, two or maybe three of them will

make a purchase and become a customer.

Trying To Reach The Remaining 50 Percent

You now have 50 people left from the original stack, you’ve tried

to reach them twice and have been unsuccessful. What do you

think your probability of getting through to them on the third,

fourth, fifth, or the sixth time will be? Do you think you’re odds

get better? Or do they get worse?

You are now facing what economists call the Law of Diminishing

Returns. The more time you spend trying to reach these people,

the poorer your results. You are attempting to reach people who

are not reachable. And if a person is not reachable, even though

they may appear to be a great prospect on paper, they aren’t a

prospect.

This is why so many sales people complain about their inability









to reach a prospect. They have already spoken to the people

who are available, and are now calling the group of people who

are always

� In a meeting,

� On the phone, or

� Away from the office.

And though they leave voice mail messages, the messages are

never returned.

They are spending all their time trying to reach people who are

NOT available. People who

� Don’t return phone calls,

� Don’t respond to voice mail, and

� Don’t respond to e-mail messages.

Is it any wonder why they aren’t creating new opportunities,

closing sales, and making money?

It has been my experience that these are the group of people that

are largely unreachable. And should you be fortunate enough to

get one of them on the phone, the person usually says something

like:

� “I can’t talk to you now. Please call me tomorrow.”

When you call tomorrow you are told by the person’s

assistant that they’ve gone on vacation for two weeks.

And you think that they didn’t remember they were leaving

town when they spoke with you the day before? They

were just blowing you off. or

� “I can’t talk to you now. Just send me something.”

You being the good soldier that you are, put together a

presentation and mail it out because you think you’ve a

real prospect. Then you start the follow-up process within









the next few days.

The problem with this scenario is that once you put this

person into your follow-up system you continue to follow

up with them on a regular basis. You call and they don’t

answer their phone. You leave voice mail messages and/or

messages with the person’s assistant that are not re-

sponded to. You send letters, faxes and/or e-mail mes-

sages that are ignored.

All in all, you end up wasting a whole lot of time, effort, energy

and money. It gets depressing. And because you think you’ve a

prospect, it keeps you from calling someone else. Worst of all,

you don’t have any money in your pocket.

Making The Rule Of A Hundred Work For You

This is how you make the Rule Of A Hundred work for you. You

start with your list of 100 prospects. You work the list, and on

the first two passes will speak to about 50 percent of them, i.e.

50 people.

Of the people you speak to, you are going to find five or six

people who will have an interest in your products or services.

You will probably sell one, two or three of them.

The likelihood that you’re going to have much success creating

opportunities from the remaining 50 people, the ones you

haven’t been able to reach yet, isn’t very good. (If you don’t

believe me, keep your own records and test it out. I describe

how to process lists of prospects in the section on Processing

Your Leads.

As you work your prospect list — calling for the forth, fifth,

sixth or twelfth time — you will find that it gets harder and

harder to reach the remaining people. They just aren’t available.

And should you be successful in reaching one of these people,

the likelihood that you’ll actually create an opportunity and close









a sale is rather remote.

It is my recommendation that you set a limit as to the number of

times you try to contact a prospect. When you reach that limit,

it’s time to throw the name away, and find a better prospect.

For myself I usually try and reach somebody three, four, or five

times over the course of a three to four week period. Afterwards

I throw the name away and move on.

Deciding When To Discard A Name

You need to set your own limits as to the number of times you

want to attempt to reach somebody before you decide to dis-

card the name and move on. Maybe my limit of four or five

times is too low for you.

Perhaps you should try six, seven or eight. Or maybe ten, fifteen,

or twenty. But at some point you must come to the realization

that you’ve invested enough time, effort and energy on this

person. You haven’t gotten through. You haven’t created an

opportunity. It’s time to move on.

This is probably why you’re having so much trouble getting your

calls returned. You continue to call on — and leave messages for

— people who aren’t available, or have no interest in talking with

you.

Back in the days when I was selling life insurance for the

Northwestern Mutual, we were trained to write each

prospect’s name, address and phone number on 3x5"

index cards.

When I called somebody I wrote the date and a brief

summary of my attempt to reach them on the card. When

I ran out of space on the front of the card I wrote on the

back.

When I ran out of space on the back, I continued on a









second card which I stapled to the first one. At 9:00 a.m. I

would get on the phone and start calling my 30 prospects,

just like I was supposed to do. But I was calling the same

30 — unreachable — people every day.

Within fifteen to thirty minutes I had called everybody,

leaving messages — that weren’t returned — with most of

them. It was now 9:30 a.m. and I didn’t know what to do

next. It never dawned on me that at some point I should

throw the name away and find a better prospect.

I know you’ve been taught that to be successful in sales you’ve

got to be persistent. Calling prospects over and over again until

you reach them.

Some people are more than persistent, they’re just plain stub-

born. Their attitude is: “I’m going to call on them till they buy

or they die.”

But life is too short.

�� STOP trying to reach people that aren’t reachable!

�� STOP trying to sell people that don’t want to buy

from you!

�� STOP trying to force a square peg into a round hole!

Look for someone who is available to talk with you on the

phone. Look for someone who is interested in hearing what it is

you have to say. Look for the person who is in the market to do

business with you... TODAY.

Yes, I know of people who have gotten major accounts because

they called on them for years. In fact, I was doing a speech in

New York for a title insurance company, and one of the members

of the audience said with a great deal of pride, “It took me ten









years to get my biggest customer.”

Okay, this guy was successful in getting a customer after chasing

him for ten years, but how much time, effort and energy was

expended? How many other sales could he have made with

people who would have been happy to work with him?

Also, when it takes a salesperson that long to get a customer, it’s

telling me something else:

� He didn’t go in there with the idea of solving the

prospect’s problems.

� He didn’t find out what the prospect wanted or needed.

� He didn’t offer viable solutions.

He was just waiting for the current supplier to screw up big-time,

leave the business, or die. Then he was hoping he would be able

to come in as the replacement supplier.

Your Goal Is To Find Large Numbers Of

ProspectsTo be successful in sales, you need to have lots of prospects. If

you don’t you’re forced to call on the same people over and

over again, and it doesn’t take long to wear out your welcome.

One day I had a conversation with a woman who sold

commercial printing. Her sales manager had given her a list

of 50 commercial accounts to call on and told her that

these were the only companies that were viable prospects

for her company.

As we talked, I asked her what she would do after she had

spoken with all 50 companies. (Assuming a few would

buy, most would have no interest, and the remainder

wouldn’t be reachable.) She said she didn’t know.









When you’ve a small number of prospects, every one of

them becomes very important to your overall success.

You become a prisoner to them.

Use your imagination to find prospects. Remember, if only one

out of every hundred leads are going to do business with you,

your challenge is to process that list of 100 people as quickly as

possible, find those who will buy from you, then find another list

of 100 people to call.

Here are ten sources for business leads:

1. Go Through Your Customer List. Most business- and

salespeople do a terrible job of staying in touch with their

customers. Go through your customer list and see how

many people you haven’t spoken with in the past six to

twelve months. Give them a call.

2. Work Your Database. Go through your database and

look for the prospects you haven’t called in months. Give

them a call and find out what they need.

If you don’t have a good database program issued get

yourself a copy of ACT!.

3. Buy Lists of Names. Go to your favorite search engine,

and type in Business Leads or Mailing Lists. Here are

some places you can start with www.infousa.com,

www.zapdata.com, www.goleads.com, or

www.hoovers.com .

4. Buy a Directory. Buy lists from a manufacturer’s direc-

tory. (Go to Google enter Manufacturer Directories, and

you’ll have a huge list to choose from.) Let me add this:

You want the list as a computer file, not a printed list or a

big-thick book. That way you can print out the list and

have one prospect on a single page. (More on this in a

moment.)






www.infousa.com

www.zapdata.com

www.goleads.com

www.hoovers.com




5. Join Business and Trade Organizations. Join local

business organizations such as the Chamber of Com-

merce. Get involved in your industry trade groups and

associations.

6. The Book of Lists. The American City Business Journal

publishes a Book of Lists, giving you essential information

on the leading buyers, businesses and employers in over

60 of the U.S.’s most dynamic markets. Here’s the link:

http://www.bizjournals.com/sales_prospecting

7. Your Local Newspaper. Look through your local news-

paper, for the names of people and/or companies that are

doing things. Give these people a call.

8. Your Trade Journals. Look through your trade journals,

and/or industry publications for the names of people and/

or companies that are doing things. Give these people a

call.

9. Network. Become a better networker. If you want some

help improving your networking skills, get yourself a copy

of my eBook Creating Opportunities by Networking.

Here’s the link to order a copy.

http://www.SucceedingInBusiness.com/catalog

10. Capture Leads From Your Web Site. Another great

source of leads is the Internet and your Web site. I have

designed my SucceedingInBusiness.com Web site to

capture as many leads as I can using fill-in-the-blank Web

forms.

When someone clicks the Submit button, I immediately

receive an e-mail message with the details of the informa-

tion that was filled out on the Web form. I then print out

the e-mail message, and have a prospect sheet with the

person’s name, address, and phone number for me to call.






http://www.bizjournals.com/sales_prospecting





I read an article one day of a company that has taken Web

forms to an even higher level. When a prospect completes

the form and clicks the Submit button a message is imme-

diately sent to the sales rep’s cell phone where he calls the

prospect — and tries to answer questions, or close the

sale — while the prospect is still looking at the Web page.

SalesTip: These two Web form questions changed my life:

WHAT DO YOU NEED? and HOW CAN I HELP YOU?

Put them on your Web site and your prospects will tell you

exactly what they’re looking for.

Processing Your LeadsTo be effective when cold calling on the telephone you need to

have an easy-to-use methodology for processing your leads.

Going back to my One Percent Rule, when you know that only

one out of every hundred prospects are going to buy, sales and

prospecting becomes a huge numbers game. Your goal is to

process your names quickly and efficiently.

This is what you do:

1. Work your way through the list of prospects.

2. Find those who are interested in buying,

3. Discard those who aren’t interested.

4. Come up with another list of names.

In the previous section, I discussed different ways that you

could find leads. Now we’ll cover how to contact them.

Put Each Lead On A Separate Piece Of Paper

I’ve found the most effective way to process lists of names is to

have one name per piece of paper. This could include the

person’s









� Name,

� Mailing address,

� Phone number,

� E-mail address,

� SIC code information,

and any other information that may have been included in your

purchased list.

By having each prospect’s name on a separate piece of paper —

as opposed to working from a list with 15 to 20 names on it, or

from a database — you can efficiently work with each prospect

individually. This flexibility enables you to shuffle the pieces of

paper, like a deck of cards so to speak, as you work your way

through the list of names.

This is how it works:

� When you call someone, and they aren’t in, put the piece

of paper at the bottom of the stack. (I discuss how to

keep notes in a moment.)

� When you call someone, who isn’t in, and you choose to

leave a message, put the piece of paper at the bottom of

the stack and hope they call you back. (I discuss leaving

messages in a moment.)

� When you speak with someone and they’re interested in

having further conversations with you, add them to your

database and schedule your meeting or follow-up activity.

� When you speak with someone and they’ve no interest in

having further conversations with you, throw the name

away.

Record Detailed Notes Of Every Telephone Call

You want your leads on separate pieces of paper because it









enables you to write notes to yourself about each person as

you’re trying to reach them. The more detailed your notes, the

greater your ability to separate buyers from non-buyers. Your

notes would include such information as:

� The date you called. Should you speak with an assistant

or receptionist, and they tell you the person you’re trying

to reach is on the phone or in a meeting, you may want to

record the time you called. Then try to reach them in

another 15 to 30 minutes, or whenever you think it would

be appropriate.

� The names of people you may have spoken to, i.e secre-

taries, receptionists or assistants.

� Any specific information you may have obtained from the

secretary, receptionist, or assistant. This could be any of

these five things:

1. If the boss is on the phone, you could ask if she’ll be

long or short, i.e. should you hold for a moment, or

call back later.

2. If the boss is out of the office, you could ask when

she’ll be returning.

3. If the boss is in a meeting, you could ask how long the

meeting will run? Or when do you expect the meeting

to be over? Or will she be tied up for the rest of the

morning or all day?

4. If the boss is out of town, you could ask when she is

expected to return?

5. If you’ve tried to reach someone a number of times —

and have been unsuccessful — you could ask when

would be the best time to try reach her?









Important: Whenever you speak with a secretary, recep-

tionist, or assistant, always ask if the person you’re try-

ing to reach has a direct number or extension. Once

you’ve got the person’s direct number or extension you

no longer have to talk with the gate keeper or screener.

� Details of any messages you may have left with a secre-

tary, receptionist, or assistant, or as voice mail.

� When leaving a voice mail message, pay attention to the

prospect’s outgoing voice mail message. If she’s kind

enough to leave her cell phone or pager number write it

down and give them a call.

The more detailed your notes, the easier it will be for you to

determine the best time to try to reach your prospect.

For myself, I use a red felt-tip pen and always jot my notes in the

upper right-hand corner of the page.

� If you left the person a voice mail message, write a quick

summary of your message on the person’s prospect

sheet.

� If you spoke with the person’s assistant and left a mes-

sage, make a notation of what you said and with whom

you spoke..

TelephoneTip: When you leave a voice mail message, always

leave your phone number twice. Once at the beginning of

your message and again at the end.

If you learned from an assistant or receptionist that the person’s

going to be out of town for the next week, jot that information

down and write a note to give them a call after they return. Then

put the piece of paper at the bottom of the stack and call the next

person.









On Wed Dec 5 09:57:33 2002,

The following information was submitted:

Host: 206.19.24.279

name = Stephanie Morse

company = Delta Communications

position = Business Development Specialist

address = 8761 N. First Street

city = Orlando,

state = Florida

zip = 32819

submit_by = [email protected]

phone = 407-798-3388 ext 198

comments = I am not afraid to pick up the phone,

but I have yet to come up with a script that

grabs the person on the other line. I would like

to ask questions that will 1. qualify my prospect

2. That will lead to an appointment.

Would you please send me more information

about business coaching.

Kind regards

Stephanie

Here is an example of one of my prospect sheets.

12/5 -Left voice

mail message

12/11 - Ret’d my call,

but I wasn’t in. Called

and left another voice

mail message

12/16 - Ret’d my call. We

talked and scheduled a

phone call for 12/17.

12/9 - Left a 2nd

voice mail

message









Use Cryptic Marks To Save Yourself Time

To save yourself time, and make it easier for you to record your

telephone attempts, use cryptic marks or notations as shorthand

for your telephone activity.

It’s important to keep track of how many times you tried to

reach someone — and left messages — because you don’t want

to be calling the same people over and over.. After a certain

number of tries you must move on and find a better prospect.

Once again, to summarize the Rule Of A Hundred, if you’ve 100

prospects, you’ll speak with about half of them on your first two

attempts. The remaining 50 prospects will be much more difficult

to reach. When you’ve reached your limit for attempting to reach

these people, throw the name away and call on somebody new.

Finding People You’ve Left Messages For

Once you’ve left a message for someone, you need to have a

methodology for finding the piece of paper with the person’s

name on it, should they call you back. For myself, I keep col-

ored highlighters on my desktop. This is how you use them to

indicate that you’ve left a person a message:

1. When you leave a message for someone, draw a stripe

down the left-hand edge of the page with the marker. (See

sample prospect sheet on page 37.

2. Write a note to yourself that you left a voice mail message.

3. Put that piece of paper at the bottom of the stack.

4. Call another prospect.

Should the person call you back, look through the stack, starting

from the bottom, and search for papers with colored lines. When

you find one with a colored line, look for the person’s name. If

it’s not the person you’re looking for, keep searching through the

stack.









With this system you should be able to find the person you’re

searching for within just a few moments. This method has

worked very well for me for the better part of the past 15 to 20

years.

Until you’ve actually spoken with someone, and determined that

they’ve an interest in having further conversations with you,

don’t put the prospect into your database. Typing name and

address information into your computer for people who aren’t

going to be doing business with you is a huge time-waster.

Don’t Leave Voice Mail Messages

In the previous section I explained how to find people that

you’ve left voice mail messages for. Here are my three reasons

why I don’t recommend leaving voice mail messages:

1. Most people never get around to returning phone calls.

And as a salesperson it’s your job to reach them. It isn’t

their job to reach you.

2. If a person were to return your phone call, what’s the

likelihood that you’ll be available to take the call? Not very

great, because you’re going to be on the phone, in a

meeting, out of the office or doing paperwork. So they

leave a message and the two of you end up playing tele-

phone tag.

3. During the time it takes you to listen to the prospects

voice mail message, and then leave your message, you

could have dialed two or three more people.

Remember: Your goal is to call as many people as you can, as

you search for someone who is available — at this very

moment — to talk with you on the telephone.

I discuss leaving voice mail messages later on in this training

manual.









Working Your Lists Of Names

If you’ve purchased a lists of names, don’t work from a printed

list. Perform a mail merge from your word processor or spread-

sheet and have the output go to one prospect per page, as if you

were printing an envelope or writing a letter.

When you buy your list of names, you’ll probably get several

thousands leads, so only print them out in groups of one or two

hundred at a time. You don’t want to be swamped with so many

leads that you feel overwhelmed.

Don’t Write Names And Addresses By Hand

Your whole objective in cold calling is to process as many names

as possible in the shortest period of time as you try to find

people who may have an interest in the products or services that

you sell. Any time spent writing names and addresses on pieces

of paper by hand is wasted time. This keeps you from getting on

the phone, looking for prospects, and making money.

Almost all of my leads come from my Web site. When

someone fills out a form and clicks the submit button, an

e-mail message is instantly generated and sent to me.

The information on the completed form is also sent to a

database on the Web site for downloading at a later time,

so that I can add them to my newsletter mailing list. I then

print out the form and I’ve my lead sheet. This was shown

on page 37.

Don’t Work Your List From Your Database

I know of many people who have purchased lists of thousands

of names and then imported them into their database only to find

that the whole process of calling them becomes unwieldy and

unworkable. It also slows their database down to a crawl.

It’s OK to import the list if you’re going to perform a mail

merge, so that you can have one prospect name on a single piece









of paper. However, if this is what you are going to do, I would

suggest that you import the list into a new database, not your

everyday database, that way you won’t fill up your everyday

database with thousands of people you’ll never be working with.

Don’t Research Your Prospects Prior To Calling Them

I know many sales trainers who recommend that you research

every prospect prior to contacting them. This could include

visiting their Web site, requesting corporate brochures and cata-

logs, and reviewing annual reports and 10K’s for public corpora-

tions.

From my perspective, I think this is a terrible waste of time.

Remember: When cold calling, your goal is to attempt to reach

— and speak to — as many viable prospects as you can.

Once you’ve spoken with a prospect and have determined that

they have an interest in your products or services — and will

have continuing conversations and discussions with you — you

can then begin researching their company as the two of you get

to know each other better.

Since only one in every hundred prospects are going to do

business with you, don’t waste your valuable and precious time

learning more about the 99 prospects who won’t be interested.

This will free up hours of your time, so you can spend more time

on the phone looking for people who want to learn more about

how you can be of help to them.

Getting The Most From Your Business Cards

As a good networker, you should be meeting people every day

and collecting business cards. After you speak with someone,

write notes to yourself on the front or back of the person’s

business card about who they are, what they do, and whether or

not you think they are a prospect.









If they are someone you want to keep in touch with, add them to

your database ‘and schedule a follow-up to give them a call as

soon as you get back to your office.

The single greatest failure most networkers have is that they

never follow up with the people they meet. If you want to be-

come a great networker visit by my www.SucceedingIn

Business.com Web site and pick up a copy of my Creating

Opportunities by Networking eBook. Here’s the link to order

your copy: http://www.SucceedingInBusiness.com/catalog

As an alternative to taking the time to enter all of your newly

collected business cards into your computer, you can scotch

tape each card to a blank piece of paper and then add them in

your stack of prospects to call. I like scotch tape better than

staples because tape sticks better on the card and they lay flatter.

Once you’ve spoken with a prospect and they’ve an interest in

having additional business conversations with you, add them into

your database.

TimeSavingTip: If you collect a lot of business cards and want

an easy way to put them inside your computer, get yourself a

business card scanner.

Getting The Most From Bingo Or Reader Response

Cards

Many businesses get leads from Bingo or Reader Response Cards

that they use as advertisements in business or industry trade jour-

nals. When a prospect shows an interest in a company’s product

or service, she fills out the card and mails it in.

Once again, I think it’s a big time-waster to enter the prospect’s

name and contact information into the company database before

you’ve had a chance to talk with the prospect to determine her

level of interest.






http://www.SucceedingInBusiness.com






I would recommend that you handle the lead the same way you

handle a business card. Scotch tape the card to a piece of paper

and place it at the top of your stack of people to call. Then

handle it in the same manner you would any other business lead.

Working The System

Your goal is to have such a large stack of leads that no one

person, business, or opportunity becomes very important to

you. When you’ve a huge universe of prospects you’ve freedom

and independence.

You must, however, continue to add fresh leads to your stack. It

does you no good to have a list of 30, 50, 100, or 250 people,

each of whom you’ve tried to reach a dozen times. For your list

to stay alive you must constantly be pruning it. Adding new

people and removing those that aren’t interested or aren’t reach-

able.

This is how you work the system:

1. Add new people to your stack of leads every day. This

can come from referrals from clients or spheres of influ-

ence, networking activities, your Web site, Bingo or Refer-

ral Cards or other sources.

2. Schedule time to get on the phone every day and search

for people who are interested in your product or service.

People who have a problem that you can solve.

As you spend time on the phone — working your pros-

pect list — your stack of leads will get smaller. With each

call one of three things will happen:

1. The person you are speaking to becomes a prospect

with whom you will have additional conversations. You

put the person into your database and schedule a









meeting or an appropriate follow-up. Hopefully, it will

turn into a sale.

2. You speak to the person and they indicate that they

have no interest. You throw the name away.

3. After having tried to reach the person a certain number

of times you decide it’s time to move on. You throw

the lead away and stop calling them.

Keeping Track Of Your Telephone Activity

If you want to keep track of your dialing activity, here’s a tech-

nique you can use to see how effective you are on the telephone.

At the beginning of each day take a blank piece of paper and do

the following:

1. Place a dot on the paper each time you dial an outbound

call. For ease of record-keeping, place 10 dots on a line,

and then continue on the following line.

2. When you speak with someone, put a check mark through

one of the dots.

3. When you find someone who is interested in having addi-

tional conversations with you, place a hash mark through

the check mark.

4. When you schedule an appointment, place two hash

marks through the check mark.

This is how it would look on your page.

� � � � � � � � � �

At the end of the day, record the total of how many times you

dialed the phone, how many people you spoke to, how many

had an interest in talking with you further, and how many people

��| | |









you schedule appointments with. Then record your telephone

results in a word processing document or spreadsheet.

Over time, you’ll develop your own statistics for your telephone

efficiency for reaching prospects.

If you like you can modify this system to your tastes, by using

different colors or by using multiple hash marks. The only thing

that’s important is that you maintain accurate records.

Your success in reaching people increases when you call on

fresh leads — individuals you’ve never spoken to before. Calling

on new people keeps you bright, fresh, alert and on your toes.

Schedule Time To Make Your CallsSalespeople will find any — and every — excuse they can think

of to avoid picking up the phone and cold calling. But if you

want to be successful, if you want to get ahead, if you want to

earn more money, you’ve got to overcome your fear of cold

calling.

The best way to do it is by picking up the phone. And the best

time to get on the phone is any time you’ve got some free time.

When I started my career with the Northwestern Mutual

Life, I was told that you’re only in the business when

you’re on the phone trying to schedule an appointment

with a prospect, or you’re having a face-to-face meeting

with a prospect. When you’re doing any other activity or

task, you’re not in the life insurance business.

Jack Welch, the former CEO of General Electric used to

say, “Everything we do is either aimed at getting a cus-

tomer or keeping a customer.” Michael Dell, Chairman and

CEO of Dell Computer, spends 40 percent of his time

with customers. Why? Because it’s his job!

How much of your time is spent getting or keeping a customer?









Convert your wasted time into productive time and you can

easily double your business.

Your sole purpose is to get on the phone and find people who

need the products and services that you’re selling. When you’re

doing anything else, you’re not in the business.

Yes, I know that you’ve got to create proposals and presenta-

tions, and do customer service work, but that should be a sec-

ondary activity to getting on the phone.

Schedule An Appointment With Yourself

The best way to guarantee that you get on the phone and look

for customers is to schedule an appointment with yourself.

Block out time on your calendar and keep the appointment. It’s

the most important meeting you’ll have.

Get on the phone early in the day. Do it first, before all the fires,

emergencies, crisis and disasters appear. Plan to have a success-

ful — and profitable — day... every day.

Set aside time for yourself every morning — Monday through

Friday — from 9:00 a.:m. to 11:00 a.m. Schedule the time on

your calendar.

� Don’t allow yourself to get interrupted.

� Don’t allow yourself to get distracted. And,

� Don’t schedule meetings or other appointments during

your phone time.

for if you don’t get on the phone and look for customers, there

won’t be anything else for you to be doing.

And if you’ve no appointments in the afternoon, get on the

phone. Your job is to create opportunities, not to waste your

valuable time doing meaningless paperwork.

I can remember many days when I was still on the phone —









trying to schedule appointments — while everybody else in the

office had gone home. Much to my delight and surprise, I often

found a prospect on what was supposed to be my final call of

the day.

Some days I got up at the crack of dawn and got on the phone

before 7:00 a.m. because I knew my prospects got into the

office early.

One day in February 1989, I got on the phone and

reached Fred Hills, a Sr. Editor at Simon & Schuster.

Fred’s assistant wasn’t around and Fred — who was

sitting at his desk eating lunch — answered the phone

when it rang.

I had only 45 seconds to make my pitch for the book I

was writing, If You Haven’t Got The Time To Do It Right,

When Will You Find The Time To Do It Over?. Fred gave

me permission to send him my proposal, and a few weeks

later he offered me a literary contract — and a $10,000

advance — that launched my literary career.

So don’t look for excuses NOT to get on the phone. Look for

opportunities to speak with people who could have a need for

the products or services you offer.

Adding Prospects To Your DatabaseOnce you’ve spoken with a prospect and determined that

they’ve an interest in having additional conversations or discus-

sions with you about how your products and/or services can be

of help, add them to your database.

If you’re still using a paper-based follow-up system or a daily

planner with a fancy leather-bound binder, I suggest that you

start putting your all of your names, addresses and phone num-









bers into your computer using either a database, contact manager

or a Personal Information Manager (PIM).

I would like to take a quick moment to explain the difference

between a contact manager and a PIM. The difference is how the

information within the program is connected. Each of the pro-

grams have separate modules for:

� Contact name and address information,

� Notes of meetings and conversations, and

� Scheduled meetings, things to-do, and people to call.

The primary difference between a Contact manager and a Per-

sonal Information Manager is that in a Contact manager these

separate modules are automatically linked together. In a PIM,

you must manually link a note, meeting, or to-do with a contact.

For example, ACT! is a true contact manager, it is designed to

help you manage your relationships, and keep track of your

things to do.

Outlook and Palm-type devices are PIMs. They are designed to

store name and address information, keep your list of your

things to-do, and your appointment calendar. They are great

productivity improving tools, but because the separate modules

aren’t automatically linked together, they make managing relation-

ships a bit more challenging.

Now I must offer this disclaimer — and confession — I’m a

long-time ACT! user. I’ve written numerous ACT!.for Dummies

books and ACT! eBooks. So I’m not unbiased.

The reason I use ACT!, and have recommended it over the years

is because it makes the process of staying in touch with custom-

ers and prospects easy.

That said, you should know that ACT! can be used with both









Outlook and Palm-type devices so it’s easy to use these pro-

grams together.

On the following pages, I’m going to describe the way you

should keep track of your contacts and how to manage your

opportunities. If the system you’re using is working for you, by

all means continue using it.

If leads and opportunities are slipping through the cracks, you

should definitely make a change.

For convenience, I’m going to refer to contact managers and

PIMs as a database.

Putting Your Prospects Into Your Database

When you’re speaking with a prospect over the phone, and they

indicate that they’ve an interest in having further discussions with

you about your products, immediately add them to your data-

base.

When you enter a person’s contact information, you should

record their

� Name,

� Company,

� Position/Title,

� Direct Phone, cell phone and fax number,

� Mailing address,

� E-mail address, and

� Web site.

You can also customize your database so you can store addi-

tional information, as desired or needed.

When you’re speaking with a prospect, you can say

something like: “Let me make sure that I have the correct









spelling of your name. Your first name is [ ], and I’ve

your last name spelled [ ], and do you use a middle

name or initial? And what is the full name of your com-

pany?” And so on.

Finding People In Your Database

Once you’ve added your prospects and customers to your

database, you find them by utilizing the lookup feature. You can

locate people by

� First or Last Name,

� Company,

� City, State or ZIP Code,

� Phone Number,

or almost any other criteria.

Being able to find people is important, because when you want

to reach someone, it’s got to be easy to locate their name and

phone number. When you want to send a letter or e-mail you can

use the database’s mail merge feature to automatically insert the

name and address into the letter, saving you time, effort and

energy.

Write Notes of Meetings And Conversations

To aid your memory, always record a brief note to yourself

about the details of your meeting or conversation each time you

speak with someone. This enables you to keep track of every-

thing that has gone on between you and hundreds — or thou-

sands — of people, because the notes of every meeting and

phone conversation are at your fingertips.

Don’t forget to enter any notes you may have made on your

prospect sheet into your contact’s record once you’ve added

the person to the database.









Remember: The more detailed your notes, the easier it will be

for you to separate buyers from non-buyers.

Schedule Follow-Up Calls and Things To Do

To be successful in business and sales, you must stay on top of

all your opportunities, and keep in touch with the people who

want you to keep in touch. The easiest way to do this is to reli-

giously schedule your follow-up calls and things to-do in your

database.

By scheduling your calls, meetings and to-dos in your database

nothing will ever slip through the cracks. You’ll stay on top of all

your things to do and people to call so that you capture all of

your opportunities.

I can’t stress this enough, if you want to be successful, you

must have a great follow-up system.

No Naked Records: Keep In Touch With Your Custom-

ers, Clients And Prospects

If you fail to schedule follow-up calls or to-dos you have Naked

Records... People who are in your database that you’ve no

scheduled follow-up for. Naked records are bad!

If you haven’t scheduled a future follow-up call, you’ll quickly

forget about the people who you should be keeping in touch

with. Make it a point to keep in touch with everybody who you

could do business with you, or are in a position to refer business

to you.

You may want to call some people once a week, others once a

month. A third group you may call quarterly.

You’ll probably have people in your database who may not be

real good prospects today, but have the potential of becoming a









good customer in the future. Schedule a follow-up call once

every six months, or maybe just once a year. This guarantees that

you won’t forget about them.

You Need A Great Elevator SpeechNow that you’ve an understanding of how to process your

leads, it’s time to talk about what you say when you get on the

phone. The first thing you need to have is a great Elevator

Speech.

The following is a brief summary of how to create an Elevator

Speech. It comes from my best-selling eBook “Opening Doors

with a Brilliant Elevator Speech.”

An Elevator Speech is a brief description of what you do and

who you do it for. It describes how you offer value, benefit, and

quality to your customer or client.

It is short and concise. It rolls off your tongue. It comes out so

naturally, that you can repeat it in your sleep. You are your Eleva-

tor Speech and your Elevator Speech is you.

And most importantly, you phrase your Elevator Speech in such

a way that the other person can’t say:

� “That’s nice, but I’m already doing business with...” or

� “We already have someone who does that in the office.” or

� “Thank you, but we don’t need any.”

Your Elevator Speech buys you time so you can keep the con-

versation going. It keeps your telephone conversations from

ending in five, ten or fifteen seconds.

Once someone says,

“Thank you for calling, but we don’t need any. We’re

all taken care of.”









your opportunity is over.

Here are some examples of introductory statements that are not

elevator speeches:

� “My name is Sharon, I sell life insurance and am a

financial planner.”

� “My name is Dave, I’m a consultant.”

� “My name is Phil, I work for the ACME Printing Com-

pany.”

� “My name is Kelly, I’m in sales.”

� “My name is Tom, I’m a lawyer [banker, accountant,

doctor].”

Yes, these statements may say what you do, but they don’t

describe how you help your customers improve the quality of

their businesses or their lives. They don’t describe how you add

value. They don’t offer or describe any benefits.

Most importantly, they don’t stimulate conversation!!!

Here are some more examples of bad introductory statements.

What kind of response do you think these generate:

� “My company is in electronics.”

� “My company sells medical equipment.”

� “We’re a manufacturing company.”

The customer rolls her eyes, yawns and says to herself SO

WHAT!

And then the salesperson continues by stating:

� “We’re the best at...”

� “We’ve been in business for 25+ years.”









� “We do business with X number of companies in Y num-

ber of states.”

Or some such phrase — all designed to improve the person’s

credibility. Once again the customer rolls her eyes, yawns and

says to herself SO WHAT! This is only the 3rd person who has

said that to her this morning, and it’s only 10:30 a.m.

Passing The SO WHAT! Test

Here’s a good way to determine if you’ve got a great, good, or

poor Elevator Speech. I call it the SO WHAT! test.

If you can say SO WHAT! after the Elevator Speech, you’re not

selling a benefit to your customer.

Look back at the previous examples. Can you say SO WHAT!

after each one? You bet!

And you wonder why you’re getting blown out of the water

every time you speak with someone new. Craft a better Elevator

Speech and you’ll open doors that have been closing on you.

Now what if Sharon, the life insurance agent and financial plan-

ner, said something like this:

“I help families save money so their kids can go to col-

lege and they can retire and enjoy their retirement.”

Or Dave, the consultant, said:

“I help companies find ways to improve their manufac-

turing processes so they can reduce their overhead and

improve their profit margins.”

Or Phil, the sales rep from ACME Printing, said:

“At ACME Printing we help companies save time and

reduce costs by making it easier for them to print their

invoices and accounts receivable forms and process their

payroll checks.”









Or Kelly, the sales rep for Specialty Products, said:

“My company, Specialty Products, helps businesses

improve the way they market and promote themselves so

they can find more customers and close more sales.”

Keeping The Conversation Going

The Elevator Speech is designed to buy you time. You want to

keep the person talking because once your prospect says,

“Thanks for calling, but we’re not interested.”

the conversation is over. You’re road kill.

Think about it, when was the last time someone ended a conver-

sation when they were the person talking. It doesn’t happen.

When you’re successful in getting a person to talk about him-, or

herself, he’ll talk forever. When you’re talking about yourself,

they’re bored to tears.

Examples Of Good Elevator Speeches

Here are some examples of Elevator Speeches created by my

consulting clients:

� Mark, a financial planner says, “We help people save

money and reduce taxes.”

� Robert’s company secures income tax refunds for his

clients, he says “We help companies get income tax

refunds from the state of California.”

� Chris, a banker says, “I help businesses with their money

needs.”

� Steve, a commercial real estate broker says, “I help cus-

tomers make money in commercial real estate.”

� Jack, who is an executive recruiter says, “I help great

organizations find top-tier people/talent.”









� Dave, who sells software to builders says, “We help

companies cut their design and estimating costs.”

� Carolyn, who owns an employment agency says, “We’re

in the business of helping companies find great employ-

ees.”

� Cheryl, who sells computer technology says, “We help

companies improve their production processes.”

� Dana, who sells products and services to the telephone

and cable TV industries says, “We help cable TV &

telephone companies make their central plants work

better.”

� Joe, who sells encrypted e-mail communications says,

“We help companies secure their confidential informa-

tion communications.”

As you can see from these examples, it’s impossible for the

prospect to say, “We’re all taken care of.” or “We don’t need

any.” These Elevator Speeches guarantee that the conversation

will continue.

Create Your Elevator Speech

I would like you stop reading this training manual and take some

time to create your Elevator Speech. With a great Elevator

Speech the quality of your telephoning results will improve

dramatically.

As you’re working on your Elevator Speech think about the

benefits your customers derive from using your product or

service. Don’t focus on the features and wonderful bells and

whistles that you offer.

Remember, you just want a quick statement that keeps the con-

versation going when you call a prospect on the phone. Nothing

more.









As long as the other person doesn’t say “Thanks for calling,

but we don’t need any.” you’ve created a great Elevator

Speech.

Do You Have A MomentShelly, one of my consulting clients, and I were talking recently.

She was telling me that she’s been having a hard time scheduling

appointments with people over the phone and was becoming

depressed and despondent.

“What are these people saying to you?” I asked.

She explained that she seems to get the same answer with

every phone call: “Thank you for calling, but we’re all

taken care of. [or we don’t need any.] Good Bye!”

And in three to five seconds the call is over.

“What are you saying when you speak to your prospects

that elicits this response?”

Shelly told me what she had been trained by her sales

manager to say,

“Hello Mr. Smith. My name is Shelly Johnson. I’m with

A-1 Personnel and was calling to schedule a 15-minute

appointment with you so I could tell you about our per-

sonnel services.”

“And how well has this telephone script worked for

you?” I inquired?

Shelly said that she’s been using this same script for the past six

weeks, with little to no success, and unfortunately, her sales

manager hasn’t had the time to give her more telephone training.

(The truth is, she didn’t have much confidence in him as a sales









trainer. That’s why she called me in the first place.)

Blowing Through Leads

When you’re using telephone techniques that aren’t getting

results you can blow through a lot of qualified leads in no time at

all.

Think about it. If your calls are ending in 10 seconds or less, you

can go through two or three dozen good leads per day. Hun-

dreds per week.

At this rate you can go through a year’s worth of leads in less

than a month.

Is it any wonder why people HATE using the telephone to make

sales calls?

Five Words That Changed My Life

Over the years I’ve discovered five-words that have changed my

telephone-sales life:

“Do You Have A Moment?”

I’ve been asking that question for at least 20 years and it works.

Whenever I call someone, and she answers the phone, I always

say, “Hi Ms. Jones. My name is Jeff Mayer. Do you have a

moment?”

I’ve heard many people use other phrases, such as,

� “Is this a convenient time to talk?” or

� “Am I interrupting you?” or

� “Hope I’m not disturbing you.”

I don’t like these phrases for I feel they put the salesperson at a

disadvantage.

With these phrases you’re placing yourself in a weak position.

You’re not approaching the prospect as an equal.









But since your goal is to do business with this person, you must

believe — from the very beginning — that the two of you are

equals. No matter what the person’s position at the company.

A Simple Yes Or No Question

I know that “Do you have a moment?” is a yes-no question. But

you want a yes-no answer. You want the person to tell you if

she’s free to talk for a few moments.

I deliberately don’t mention my company name or the purpose

of my call because I want to find out if she’s available to talk

BEFORE she knows who I am and why I’m calling.

If there is a long pause, I know the person’s thinking to herself,

“Who is Jeff Mayer? Why is he calling me? And what

does he want?”

I will often say, before she can express her thoughts,

“Do you have half-a-moment?”

At least 90 percent of the time the person chuckles and says,

“Sure, what’s on your mind?” or

“Why are you calling?”

The chuckle is a very important part of this technique. It’s not

only an ice breaker, but it’s a signal as to whether or not you’re

communicating with your prospect.

When you don’t get a chuckle, you know the call is not starting

off on the right foot and it’s an indication that you’re going to

have to work harder on this call to get a favorable result.

Also, make it a point to sprinkle laugh-lines throughout your

phone conversations. When you’re able to make someone laugh,

it’s an indication that the two of you are relating/connecting.

If, on the other hand, the person says she can’t talk because









she’s in a meeting or on the phone, respond by saying,

“That’s OK. I’ll just call back at another time.”

and end the call immediately.

Each time someone interrupts their meeting to answer the

phone I ask myself why did this person take this call?

Why did the person allow my phone call to interrupt her

meeting?

Furthermore, if I was someone else — someone she

wanted to speak with — would she have taken the call and

interrupted her meeting? This doesn’t say much for the

person’s consideration of the people she was talking, or

meeting, with.

Should the prospect then ask, usually in a quick, short, brisk

manner,

“Who are you with, and why are you calling?”

just say,

“Since you’re tied up [on the phone or in a meeting],

I’ll just call you back at a later time.”

Don’t try to engage the prospect in conversation because no

matter what you say, the response will be,

“We’re all taken care of.”

Making Your Telephone CallWhen you make your call — and reach a prospect — follow this

simple four-step approach. Study these four steps. Memorize

them. Practice them.

Put them to work for you and your life will be forever changed.

These four steps are magical.









Step 1: Do You Have A Moment?

The first thing you say when a person answers the phone is

“Do You Have A Moment?”

When she says Yes, she has now given you her permission to

speak. You’ve bought yourself five to ten seconds of time.

Step 2: Deliver Your Elevator Speech

This is when you deliver your Elevator Speech, your brief five-

to-ten second description of who you are and what you do.

The purpose of the Elevator Speech is to keep the prospect

from saying “We’re all taken care of.” or “My brother-in-law

handles that for us.” or some such phrase and hanging up the

phone, thus ending the conversation.

Step 3: I Was Calling to See If I Could Take a Mo-

ment...

After you say your Elevator Speech, you then say the following:

“...and I was calling to see if I could take a moment to

tell you a little bit about what it is I [or my company]

do?”

This statement is very important because you’re asking for the

prospect’s permission to continue the conversation. Since

you’re only asking for a few moments of time, it’s not threaten-

ing.

Memorize it. Practice it. Use these words verbatim. Don’t

change them.

Ninety-nine times out of a hundred, the prospect will say,

“Sure, what’s on your mind?”

and that gives you the opening to continue.









I want to take a moment to explain why this phrase isn’t threaten-

ing.

� You’re not asking for an appointment.

� You’re not asking who the prospect does business with.

� You’re not asking if they use the product/service that you

sell.

� You’re not asking how much they spend on the product/

service.

� You’re not trying to sell anything.

The only thing you’re asking for is a few moments of the

person’s time. They’ve now given you another thirty or sixty

seconds of time.

Step 4: Use A Turnaround Question

The prospect has just given you permission to tell her a ‘little bit

about yourself,’ and the logical continuation of the conversation

would be to begin talking about you. But that’s not what you do.

Instead you begin asking the prospect about her and her com-

pany.

I know this sounds a bit awkward, but it works. Up until now,

the prospect hasn’t really been listening to you, but by asking a

question you begin to engage her in conversation.

Most sales people spend too much time talking, about them-

selves, their company, and the products or services they sell. By

the end of the conversation the prospect may know a lot about

what you do, but what do you know about the prospect’s needs,

wants, desires or problems. Not much!

Your goal is to see if you can engage the prospect in conversa-

tion and by doing so find, or identify, any needs or problems the

prospect may have that you may be able to solve.









In the next section I’m going to give you examples of some of

the questions I’ve developed for my clients, but first I want you

to start practicing these four simple telephone steps.

1. Do you have a moment?

2. Deliver your Elevator Speech.

3. ...and I was calling to see if I could take a moment to

tell you a little bit about what it is I [or my company]

do?

4. Use turnaround questions.

Using Turnaround QuestionsThe reason I like asking questions is that it gives you control.

The person who asks the questions controls the conversation. In

addition to having control of the conversation, I feel it’s much

more important that you know all about what the prospect does,

than that they know what it is you do.

I want to add, that even though you may know a great deal about

the prospect and/or his business from information you obtained

from other sources such as the person who referred you, a

newspaper or magazine article, the Internet or the company’s

Web site, it doesn’t count.

It only counts when the person volunteers the information him-

self.

Ask the questions anyway. Your goal is to

1. Have a conversation.

2. Develop rapport.

3. Discover if they’ve any problems that you may be able to

solve.

When you ask a question — and listen to the answer — you’re









focused on the other person. So ask a question, and LISTEN to

the answer.

Then, based upon what the person says, you ask a second and a

third question, as you drill down deeper. This is how you be-

come a great listener and a brilliant conversationalist.

By asking questions you are showing that you are interested in

learning about the other person.

Many salespeople jump from asking questions to telling their

prospect about how wonderful their company and product(s)

are, and try to close the sale at what appears to be the first open-

ing.

Don’t do it! Continue to ask more questions, instead.

Start With Soft Questions

When I speak with a prospect on the phone, I usually start by

asking these soft questions:

� “What does your company do?”

� “How long have you been in business?”

� “What is your position/title with the company?”

� “How long have you been there?” (Whatever they an-

swer, I usually say “That’s a long time in today’s world.”

This is one of my laugh lines. I want to see if it draws a

chuckle as I measure how they respond to it.)

� “How has business been?”

I call these soft questions because they’re rather easy and are

non-threatening.

You want to test the waters by asking these types of questions to

see how the conversation is going. You don’t have to go for the









kill — or the sale — within the first thirty seconds of a phone

conversation.

Then Ask More Pointed Questions

As the conversation continues, I’ll ask questions like:

� “What are your closing ratios?”

� “Where do you find your prospects?”

� “Why do people buy from you?”

� “What are the three biggest challenges you face in grow-

ing your business?”

� “What are three things, that if you could implement them

today, would dramatically improve your business?”

Because these questions are open ended, they encourage con-

versation. I’ll listen to the person’s answer and then ask a sec-

ond, third, or fourth follow-up question.

With each additional question I dig a bit deeper — drilling down

— as I try to discover if I’ve a prospect for my consulting,

coaching or mentoring services.

Don’t be afraid to ask questions. I know a lot of salespeople

who feel uncomfortable asking a prospect personal questions or

questions about their income or financial situation.

But don’t let your fears or apprehensions keep you from asking

a question. Ask the question and see what happens. If the ques-

tion is relevant to the topic of conversation, more often than not,

you’ll get an answer.

And if you don’t get the answer you want, or the person declines

to give you an answer, it’s a good indicator that you haven’t got

a prospect. He’s one of the 99 that aren’t going to buy. (See the

One Percent Rule.) You just saved yourself days, weeks, or









months of wasted effort trying to close someone who isn’t going

to buy.

When you ask great questions it’s much easier for you to sepa-

rate the buyers from the non-buyers.

Examples Of Client’s Questions

Here are examples of some of the questions my clients ask:

Robert Helps Companies Get Income Tax Refunds

Robert helps companies get income tax refunds. These are some

of the questions he asks:

� “How many employees do you have?”

� “Are they at this location or another location?”

� “What types of taxes have you been paying to the state of

California?”

� “Do you have any idea how much money you paid in

California state income taxes last year? The year be-

fore?”

Steve Sells Commercial Real Estate

Steve is in commercial real estate. Here are some of the ques-

tions he would ask a law firm about their needs for space:

� “What type of practice does your firm specialize in?”

� “How long have you been in business?”

� “How is business?”

� “How many lawyers do you have in your office? Parale-

gals? Secretaries?”

� “How many square feet do you have?”

� “When does your lease come up?”









� “How much is your lease?”

� “Why did you pick the building you’re in?”

Chris Lends Money

Chris is a banker. Here are some of the questions he asks a

prospect:

� “How has business been?”

� “How many employees do you have?”

� “How do you finance your accounts receivable?”

� “How do you finance your inventory?”

� “How do you finance your buildings, machinery and

equipment?”

� “What are your biggest challenges to growing your

business?”

� “How do you manage your money so you get the great-

est return on it?”

Mark Helps People With Their Financial Planning

Mark helps people with their financial and estate planning. Here

are some of the questions he asks:

� “Do you have children? What are their ages? How do

you feel about planning for their college education?”

� “What are your thoughts about planning for your old

age?”

� “How do you feel about investing in the stock market?

Mutual Funds? Bonds? Real Estate?”

� “What have been your best investments? Your worst?”

� “If something were to happen to you, what do you think

your family’s needs for income would be?”









Gregg Sells Stainless Steel

Gregg sells stainless steel, here are some of the questions he

asks:

� “How often do you buy stainless steel?”

� “What do you make with it?”

� “What kind of steel do you buy?”

� “How do you decide whom to buy it from?”

� “What quantities do you buy?”

Turnaround Questions Stimulate Conversation

Take a look at the previous lists of questions. Study each of

them. Not a single one can be answered with a yes or no, nor

can they be answered with a “We’re all take care of.”

Each of these questions is a legitimate business question, and

based upon the answer, could generate several more follow-up

questions as you dig deeper into the prospect’s situation.

And though they appear to be rather innocuous, each of them

will tell you something valuable about the person’s personal or

business situation.

Create Your Own List of Turnaround Questions

I would like you to take a break from reading this training manual

for a few minutes and start writing your own list of turnaround

questions. This is what I want you to do:

1. Write your questions in your word processor. Don’t write

them on a pad of paper because it’s too time consuming

to rewrite them.

2. Each of your questions must be open ended. They can’t

be answered by a yes or no. To make a question open

ended use any of these words, Who, What, Why, When,

Where or How.









You can also use phrases such as, “What do you think

about...” or “How do you feel about...”

3. Make a list of at least ten questions. What are the key

questions you want answers to? What is the single most

important piece of information you want to learn that will

tell you if you’ve got a real prospect? How would you

phrase your question so that you’re able to extract this

piece of information during a five to ten minute phone call.

4. Rewrite your list of questions so they appear in a logical

order or sequence. Softer questions first followed by

more detailed or specific questions.

5. Read your questions out loud. How do they sound to

you. Read them to your friends, colleagues or coworkers.

What do they think of them?

6. Practice asking your questions. When you get on the

phone keep a list of your questions on the top of your

desk.

How Do You Come Across on the

Phone?I know you’ve been using the phone since you were about 4

years old, but have you ever thought about how you come

across on the phone? And no matter how good you are on the

phone, you can still work on improving your telephone tech-

niques.

Your Feelings And Emotions Come Across Loud And

Clear

Have you ever been really angry about something and then gotten

on the phone to call someone else — who had nothing to do









with the source of your anger — and then let this poor unsus-

pecting soul have it?

I know that I have, and usually I felt so bad about it afterwards

that I often called to apologize for my rude behavior.

Well, whatever your feeling is inside — happy, sad, joyful, de-

pressed — it will be reflected in your voice as soon as you pick

up the receiver and start talking to someone. If you were speak-

ing with an individual face to face, he or she would see — and

respond to — your nonverbal messages, such as your facial

expressions, eye movements, and posture, as well as the ges-

tures you make with your hands, arms, and legs.

And when you’re on the telephone, even though the party at the

other end of the phone can’t see these nonverbal gestures, your

attitudes, feelings, thoughts, and opinions are immediately trans-

mitted by the tone of your voice, it’s pitch, the speed with which

you talk, and even your choice of words.

So whenever you’re speaking on the phone, you’re going to be

conveying a message. It may be one that indicates that you’re

happy to talk and want the conversation to continue. Or the

message could be one that indicates that you’re bored and disin-

terested, and have a desire to be doing something else at this

very moment.

Keep A Smile On Your Face

You may find this hard to believe, but you’ll come across much

better on the phone when you can keep a smile on your face and

project that smile onto the other person. People warm up to you

when you meet them face to face and smile. They’ll do the same

thing when you smile at them through the phone.

PhoneTip: For many years, I’ve kept a picture of a smiling face

in front of me as a reminder to smile. It helps me sound more









friendly and open. My suggestion to you: Put a small mirror

on your desk so that you can watch yourself smile.

Be Enthusiastic

Have you ever had conversations with people who sound as if

they’ve just come back from a funeral or a wake? They’re talking

in a very dull and dreary monotone. The tone of voice is com-

pletely void of life and energy, and this is when they’re calling to

tell you good news! I don’t know about you, but when I get

these kinds of calls I want to crawl under the desk and hide.

So when you get on the phone, put life, energy, and emotion in

your voice. Express yourself verbally and emotionally. Make

your voice so interesting that the person at the other end of the

phone wants to hear what it is that you’ve got to say.

Like laughter, enthusiasm is contagious. Let your enthusiasm

about your job, career, product, service, or business show in

your voice, your gestures, and in your energy level when you’re

talking on the phone. When it’s apparent that you enjoy and are

excited about what you do you’ll keep your prospect more

interested in the things you’re saying.

PhoneTip: Have fun when you’re on the phone. Be yourself.

Let your sense of humor show through and don’t forget to

laugh. Laughter can be a great ice breaker.

PhoneTip: Always take a deep breath before you begin to

speak. Your voice has more depth and power when you have

air in your lungs.

Hear How Others Hear You

I know that up until now, you’ve probably never given a

moment’s thought to your telephone technique, but it can be a









real ear-opener when you record some of your calls and hear

yourself as other’s hear you.

You would be amazed at how many times you said things such

as “you know,” “and,” and “um,” during each sentence. Then

there are the sentences that you start but never complete. And

finally, there’s your voice itself. What does it sound like? Is it

energetic and enthusiastic, or does it come across like a limp

washed-rag?

But no matter what your voice sounds like today, with just a little

bit of practice on your part, it’s very easy to improve your ability

to express yourself and communicate with other people over the

phone. When you play back a tape of yourself speaking on the

phone and hear what you’re saying and how you’re saying it,

you become much more aware of the speech habits you’ve

picked up.

For just a few dollars, you can go to an electronics store — like

Radio Shack — and purchase a phone adapter that enables you

to record telephone calls. (Before you start recording your calls,

however, you should find out if you have any legal responsibility

to inform the other party that the call is being recorded.)

The first few times I recorded myself I was appalled at how I

thought my voice sounded, and to this day, I still don’t like

hearing my voice on tape. But as I thought about it, I realized

that I had been speaking with people for years, and most of them

enjoyed talking with me, some for even hours at a time. So the

concern that I had about the tone of my voice was my problem,

and nobody else’s.

Make Your Voice Sound Interesting

Most people make decisions based not only on what a person

says, but on how that person says it. And when you’re speaking

on the phone you want the other person to listen.

When you can make the sound of your voice more interesting —









by varying the volume, pitch, modulation, and intonation — it’s

much easier to keep your listener’s attention.

� Pay Attention To The Speed At Which You Talk.

Don’t talk too slowly or you’ll bore your listener to death;

but don’t speak too quickly either, or they may not catch

everything you’re saying. Just try to speak at the same rate

of speed that you use when you’re talking to a friend on

the phone, about 150 to 200 words per minute.

� Change Your Pace. Vary your pace to fit the content or

mood of what you’re saying. When you’re talking about

something that’s exciting, sound excited and speak a little

quicker or faster. And when you’re talking about some-

thing that’s serious, sound serious and slow things down.

� Raise And Lower Your Voice. To keep your listener

interested in what you’re saying, change the volume at

which you’re speaking. When you get excited, it’s okay to

speak loudly; and when you want to make a very impor-

tant point, speak softly, or even whisper. When you whis-

per, people listen!

Pronounce your words clearly, cleanly and distinctly. Keep

enough air in your lungs so you end your sentences with power

as you put em-PHA-sis on the last syl-LAB-le of the last word.

Doing so enables you to speak with power and conviction.

Remember: Take a deep breath before you begin a new sen-

tence and a deeper breath before you begin a new paragraph.

This gives you an extra moment to collect your thoughts, in

addition to keeping you from talking too quickly.

Add Depth And Power To Your Voice

Here are three easy and simple exercises that will help you add

depth and power to your voice:









� Humming Down. To lower the normal pitch of your

voice, so you can speak with more authority, hum down

the scale to the lowest note you can reach and hold it for

as long as you can. Do this three or four times a day as

you’re getting dressed in the morning. Within a few

weeks, you’ll find that you’re speaking with a deeper

voice.

� Give Your Lungs A Work Out. The greater the volume

of air you have in your lungs, the richer the tone of your

voice, the deeper the pitch of your voice, and the more

powerful the volume.

To increase your lung capacity, take a deep breath and, in

a whisper, start counting very slowly. With your first

breath, you may be able to count to 6, 7, or 8. Take a

second breath, and you should be able to count to 10, 11

or 12.

With a third breath, you may get up to 15 or 16. And with

your fourth or fifth breath, you’ll probably be getting to

20. Do this for just two minutes a day, and within two

weeks, you should be able to count to 30, 35, 40, or even

higher on a single breath.

� Count Out Loud. To make your voice sound more inter-

esting, practice counting aloud. Start by counting from 1

to 10 and do this over and over again (and then from 1 to

20, and from 1 to 30).

As you say the numbers, make each one sound different from

the previous number. Say some louder, others softer, some with

a higher voice, and others with a lower voice. Try to make each

one sound interesting.

With these three exercises, you’ll increase your lung capacity,

add power to your voice, and make it sound deeper and stron-

ger.









Improve Your Productivity By Using A Telephone

Headset

Does your neck ever get stiff from cradling the telephone hand-

set between your ear, chin, and shoulder? Do you find it difficult

to take notes while you’re on the phone — because you just

can’t find an easy way to hold the phone to your left ear, use

your left elbow to keep the pad of paper from moving, write with

your right hand, and remain comfortable, all at the same time?

Do you experience increased muscle tension as you try to enter

information into the computer while speaking with someone on

the telephone?

If you answered “Yes” to any of these questions, you should be

using a telephone headset instead of the traditional handset. In

fact, if you spend any time at all on the phone, you should be

using a telephone headset. I’ve been using a headset for years

and have found that it’s not only comfortable, but it has greatly

improved my productivity and efficiency as well.

Today’s headsets are so light and comfortable that after you put

one on, you’ll quickly forget that you’re even wearing it. And

when you’re on the phone, you’ll have the use of both your

hands, so you can concentrate on the conversation instead of the

pain in your neck or the tenderness in your ear.

Get On The PhoneThere are three questions that every salesperson asks when it

comes to getting on the phone:

� When should I get on the phone?

� How much time should I spend on the phone?

� How many people should I call every day?

There are certain times during the day when you’re most likely to









find a prospect sitting at her desk and available to take your call.

As a general rule, people are usually in their offices from 9 a.m.

to 11 a.m. and from about 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. Block out those

times on your calendar so you can get on the telephone and

make your calls.

But don’t limit yourself to those times. If you want to become

more successful get on the phone early in the morning, call

people during the lunch hour and call late in the day.

Remember: If you’ve nothing on your calendar, you should be

spending your entire day on the phone looking for customers.

Getting Through To Your Party

If there’s someone you want to speak to, it’s your job to track

him or her down. Just because you left a message doesn’t mean

your call will be returned — your call may be much more impor-

tant to you than it is to the other person — and even if your call

is returned, the odds aren’t very good that you’ll be there to

answer that return call.

So, when you need to speak to someone, here are five tech-

niques you can use to increase your odds of getting through.

� Work With The Secretary. If the person you’re trying

to reach is always in meetings, try to find out when she’ll

be available to take a call. If she’s on the phone, ask the

secretary if he or she has any idea how long the call will

last. Then ask whether it would be better for you to be put

on hold for a few moments or call back in 15 minutes.

When the secretary says, “Let me take your number, and

I’ll have Ms. Jackson call you back.” Just say, “Thank

you. I’ll call back later,” because Ms. Jackson probably

won’t be calling you back any time soon.

� Get A Direct Number. Try to get the person’s direct









number, extension, or cell phone so you can bypass the

secretary, administrative assistant, or switchboard entirely.

� Call Early In The Morning. Many business people are

at their desks as early as 7 a.m. each morning. So ask the

secretary if the person you’re trying to reach is an early

bird.

� Call Late In The Day. Many people are also working

long after 5 p.m., so perhaps you can get through if you

call after 5:30 p.m.

� Call During Lunch. Many people work through lunch or

eat at their desks. So give it a shot and try your luck by

calling at 12:30 p.m.

Take Notes Of The Conversation

I know that I’ve said it before but I’ll say it again, when you

speak to a person on the phone, you should keep notes of your

conversation. Jot down a note on the prospect’s call sheet, or

enter it into their contact record in your database.

How To Call A StrangerFor many salespeople, calling a stranger can be an absolutely

terrifying experience. And even though they’ve been selling for

years they still don’t like doing it.

Here is a simple four-step approach you can use to make calling

a stranger less terrifying:

1. Get The Person’s Name. The first thing you need to do

is get the name of the person to whom you would want to

speak. To do this, you should place an exploratory call to

the company’s main number. Then you ask the person

who answers the phone (probably a receptionist, operator,









or secretary), “What is the name of the person who is the

. . . [president of the company, head of human resources,

and so on]?”

2. How Is It Spelled? Then you ask for the correct spelling

of the person’s name. If the person who is giving you this

information starts to ask you lots of questions like, “Who

are you?” or “What do you want?” or “Why do you

want this information?” just say “I want to send Ms.

Jackson a letter.” Then say, “Thank you so very much

for your help” and hang up the phone.

3. Call Later In The Day Or Tomorrow. Now that you’ve

got the person’s name, call later in the day or the following

morning, and ask whether he or she is available.

4. Does The Person Have A Direct Phone? As you’re

asking whether Ms. Jackson is in, you can ask in an off-

handed way, “Oh, by the way, what is her direct phone

number?”

Now that someone has put your call through, one of several

things is going to happen:

� The person is at his or her desk and will actually take your

call.

� You get the voice mail system.

� A secretary will answer and screen the call.

Let’s explore each situation.

Your Call Goes Through

Let’s say your call is put through, and you find that the person

actually answers her own phone. You start by saying “Hi Ms.

Jackson, My name is [ ]. Do you have a moment?” This is









explained in detail in the “Making Your Telephone Call” section

of the training manual.

You Get Voice Mail

More likely than not, you’re going to get the person’s voice mail.

Now you have to decide whether or not to leave a voice mail

message. However, if you do leave a message, don’t expect to

receive a return call. (I’ll be discussing voice mail in the next

section.)

You Get The Secretary

A good secretary is trained to screen the boss’s calls, so you

should be prepared to answer a few questions, but you don’t

want to volunteer much information.

When the secretary says, “Hello, this is Ms. Jackson’s office,”

you ask, “Is Ms. Jackson available?” (With this question, you

want to try to learn whether she’s in the office, on the phone, in a

meeting, or away from his desk.)

The secretary then asks, “Who’s calling?” To which you reply,

“This is Mr. Mayer. Is she available?” (You repeat the question

because you want the secretary to give you information without

volunteering any information yourself.)

At this point, the secretary may put your call through or possibly

put you on hold to tell the boss that you’re on the phone.

If the secretary comes back and asks you the name of your

company and why you’re calling and then puts you on hold

again, it’s a pretty good indication that the boss is having her

calls screened. Another possibility is that the secretary may start

to ask you more questions. It’s at this point that you want to try

to make the secretary your friend.

Remember: Most secretaries feel that it’s their job to protect the









boss from unwanted telephone calls, and they’re trained to

say “No” to whomever is calling.

Make The Secretary Your Friend

Now you have to make the secretary your friend. When the

secretary starts asking you questions, the first thing you should

say — in a nice and friendly voice — is, “To whom am I speak-

ing? Are you Ms. Jackson’s secretary or assistant?” (Write

down the person’s name so you won’t forget it.)

If you’re speaking to a temporary secretary or someone who’s

just filling in, just say, “Thank you very much. I’ll call back

later.” (You don’t want to waste your time talking with someone

who can’t be of much help to you, so get off the phone as fast

as you can.)

If you are speaking with the secretary, he or she will probably

begin by asking you questions as to who you are and why

you’re calling.

To these questions you should give short, concise answers and

once again ask, “Is Ms. Jackson available?” At this point, the

secretary will probably say that Ms. Jackson is in a meeting and

ask if you would like to leave a message.

Now you’ve got two choices: To leave or not to leave a mes-

sage, that is the question. What you choose to do depends on

the situation and how comfortable you feel in talking with the

secretary.

You may want to go into detail as to why you’re calling and see

whether the secretary can be of help to you. Perhaps she can

refer you to someone else within the company.

You may decide to end the call by saying,

“Thank you very much for your help. I’ll just call back

later. Will Ms. Jackson be available later this afternoon,









or would tomorrow morning be a better time to call?

And by the way, does Ms. Jackson come in early in the

morning? And does she have a direct phone number or

cell phone?”

(Again, you want to try to discover when the person may be

available to receive a call.)

Remember these three tips:

� Don’t try to sell your product, service, or idea to the

secretary. The boss is the decision maker, not the secre-

tary. Your job is to sell the secretary on putting your call

through to the person you want to talk to.

� If you aren’t having any luck getting past the secretary, try

calling another department to see whether you can get

someone to give you the prospect’s direct number.

� Call the office of someone who is higher than the person

you’re trying to reach and use that person’s name as your

referral. Then you can say something like, “I was speak-

ing with Mr. Smith’s office and he suggested that I speak

with Ms. Jackson. Is she available?”

Dealing With Voice MailThe lamentation of every salesperson is that they can’t reach the

people they’re calling and always get voice mail. Then when they

leave a message, it’s not returned.

Let’s revisit two important concepts that were explained earlier in

this training manual:

� The One Percent Rule. The One Percent Rule states

that only one in every hundred prospects is going to buy

from you.

� The Rule Of A Hundred. The Rule Of A Hundred states









that as you work you’re list of 100 prospects, you’re only

going to reach — speak to — about half of them. Those

that remain will be unreachable. They’re always in meet-

ings, away from their desk, out of the office, or on the

phone.

It is these people that you’re going to have the biggest frustra-

tions with because they’re the ones you’ll be leaving voice mail

messages for. Voice mail messages that will never be returned.

That is why it is so very important for you to have a large uni-

verse of prospects to call on. After you’ve tried to reach a per-

son a specified number of times — you set the limit — move on

and look for a better prospect.

Now, I’m not saying that you shouldn’t leave a voice mail mes-

sage. What I am saying is that you shouldn’t expect that person

to call you back. Furthermore, it’s your job to reach the person.

It’s not their job to return your call. So leave a message, and

schedule another follow-up in your database so you can call the

person in a few days, because they probably won’t be returning

your call.

However, if you choose not to leave a message, you can call

them over and over until you do reach them. (This is much easier

to do when you’ve their direct number so you don’t have to go

through the switchboard or speak with the person’s assistant.)

Here are ten tips on how to leave better voice mail messages:

1. Think about what you want to say and how you want to

say it — before you make the call. Each time you make a

call, assume you will be getting voice mail.

2. Don’t begin speaking — leaving your message — until

you hear the machine beep. ( I know that almost every-

body should know this, but you would be surprised at the









number of people who start talking before the outgoing

message is finished.)

3. Before you start speaking, take a deep breath so that your

lungs are full of air. This gives your voice more depth and

power.

4. When you speak, speak slowly, clearly, and distinctly so

that the person will understand what you’re saying. Don’t

swallow your words.

5. Make your voice sound interesting. Speak with enthusi-

asm. Put some energy into your voice.

6. Always give your phone number twice, once at the begin-

ning of the message and again at the end. Though many of

the people you call already have your number, they may

be calling in for their messages and may not have your

number with them.

7. When you leave your message, state the most important

points first, with the lesser points following. Use your

Elevator Speech to describe who you are and what you

do. Phrase your message so that it offers a benefit to the

person. Give them a compelling reason why they should

return your call.

8. When you leave your name, in addition to saying it, spell it

out. (“This is Jeffrey Mayer, M A Y E R.”)

9. If you’re including your mailing address, speak slowly and

spell out the name of your street and city after you say the

address. (“50 East Bellevue Place, B E L E V U E,

Chicago, Illinois.”)

10. Leave a specific time, or a window of time, when you’ll

be available for the person to call you back. For example:

“I’ll be in my office and available tomorrow morning.”

Or “I’m always in my office every afternoon after 2:00.”









Remember: Be energetic and enthusiastic. Let your personality

brighten the other person’s day.

PhoneTip: If you leave voice mail messages several times for a

person and they aren’t returned, try to talk with the person’s

assistant, someone else in the department, or the receptionist

to find out if the person you’re calling is in town and avail-

able. If you’re unable to reach this person, try to get the name

of someone else with whom you can speak. Don’t sit around

waiting for a return call that won’t be forthcoming.

The Telephone Is Your FriendThe telephone is your friend. It’s the most effective and efficient

tool that you have for finding new customers. Get on the phone

every day. Prospecting — and looking for new business — is a

full-time job.

Play the law of large numbers. Put the One Percent Rule and the

Rule Of A Hundred to work for you. Develop a great Elevator

Speech and learn how to ask great questions.

In no time at all you’ll be finding more prospects, creating more

opportunities, closing more sales and making more money...

Guaranteed!









Your Comments About This Training ManualWhat are the BEST useable ideas you gained from this Training Manual?

How do you plan to apply these ideas?

How will these ideas help you close more sales and grow your business?

Please send your thoughts/comments to [email protected].

Jeffrey Mayer’s Tele-Mentoring ProgramDo you want to improve your prospecting and networking skills?

Cold calling? Telephone techniques? Time management skills?

Do you want help with your strategic business planning?

Do you want to learn how to ask better questions? Reach

decision makers? Overcome objections?

One-on-one Tele-Coaching is now available for business

owners, corporate executives, sales managers and salespeople.

Jeffrey Mayer, president of http://www.SucceedingInBusiness.com, coaches

business people on how to grow their business, close more sales, and make more

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Call 312-944-4184 for more information. Or send e-mail - with a phone num-

ber - to [email protected].

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“My sales have doubled, my profits have tripled, and I'm working fewer hours, since I

started working with Jeffrey Mayer.”

Gregg Russell, Owner, Hopps Colonial Pharmacy, Homer MI








mailto:mentoring@SucceedingInBusiness




“My monthly sales doubled from $20,000 to $40,000 after working

with Jeffrey Mayer for only three weeks. His up-selling techniques

helped me increase the average size of my sales from $2200 to $3200.

This was a great return on my investment.”

Dave Boekholder, Sales Manager, Digital Canal

“Jeffrey Mayer, is "The Answer Man." He is so totally amazing. After

our conversations, I always wonder how can we bottle or clone this

man's brain. I sell to the manufacturing industry which is so cyclical it

makes me wonder why I do it, but Jeffrey, always gives me creative,

insightful advice that actually turns my doldrums into profits every time!

In the worst times ever, this is the man to call!”

Judy Griggs, President, Preferred Machine Tools






Cold calling

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