PHONE- SECTION B



Designate a specific time of day to make your phone sales calls and block it out CONSISTENTLY.  Not only will your day be more organized, but your clients will know when you can be reached.  Let co-workers know your new schedule so they will avoid bothering you unnecessarily during those times, allowing you to stay focused.  Keep a record of how many calls you can make in an hour.  Set a goal of making a certain number of phone calls in that hour each day (if you can make 45 calls, set your goal to 50) and push yourself to reach it.  When you reach that goal, up it to 55, and so on until you feel you've reached your capacity for productivity (and sanity!).  Just be careful not to lose sight of your real goal--helping your clients.


All of your prospects, whether they're A-, B-, or C-level, should be getting consistent phone calls.  With past clients, you should check in with them four times a year.  Find out how they're doing, ask if there's anything else you can help them with, and (of course!) ask for referrals.  With your hot prospects (A's), your phone contacts with them should be tied into their sales cycle (the amount of time before they'll need your services).  Every time you call professional referral sources, ask them two questions.  First, ask if you can help them with anything--marketing, sales, increasing their income, decreasing their hours at work.  Second, ask them for names and phone numbers of people/companies they know who could benefit from your services.  Getting these contacts into a regular follow-up system will help you to reduce your hours in the office. 


Taking specific steps to improve the effectiveness of your sales calls may not magically boost your business, but following these steps will definitely help. This is especially true when developing professional referral sources.  Try these five on for size:

1.  Ask great questions that gather information.
2.  Identify their areas of challenge.
3.  Manage all information in an organized manner.
4.  Use information you already have on hand (or your products and services) to bring solutions to the individual's challenges.
5.  Bring added value every time you connect with the client or referral source.


Before you even pick up the phone to dial a new prospect's number, you should know beforehand if that prospect is likely to be an A, B, or C.  You can decide that by asking a few questions:  Who sent the referral to you?  If it was a reliable professional referral source who consistently sends you good prospects, you're probably dealing with an A or B.  If it was from a family member who mentioned that she had a co-worker who might need your services, you might want to call that family member first to gather some information.  Second, ask yourself how much a sales call costs you.  When you have that information, you're much less likely to be tempted to call a prospect with little potential and get trapped in a lengthy conversation.

1.  Always know the purpose of your call.  It helps to write it down so when the conversation gets into local news or that great new restaurant that just opened, you will remember the information you needed to gather during the call.

2.  After 2 minutes, mentally evaluate the call.  Could you have delegated this call to someone else?   Is this the most productive use of your time right now? Has the purpose of the call been accomplished?  Would it be detrimental if you ended the call now?  Do this again at 4 minutes.  Then at 6 minutes, at 10 minutes, and finally at 20.

Call your past clients 4 times a year.  Are you doing that?  If you're not making a concerted effort every quarter to contact your past clients personally (or through delegation or a system), your number of incoming leads will always fluctuate with the market.  Put your best sales force--past clients--to work on your behalf by reminding them that you're there, you care, and their family and friends will get the royal treatment if they refer them to you.  You may want to make this your #1 goal for this quarter!