The times have certainly changed in my point of view. I have earned all my business from cold calling on a daily basis and would have to say have become extremely good at it. Gone are the days when pushy sales tactics worked to get your way to the decision maker using only the phone. The ” gate keepers” have become very good at what they do which is keep you away from the DM’s.

It is all about the gentle, more subtle approaches now. When i call on a company for the first time I immediately say to the person who answers, ” I was really hoping you could help me” The human psyche naturally wants to respond to a request for help with, you guessed it helping you.

Identify yourself and your company and ask if the company has a preferred method of introducing your company to theirs. I would be willing to bet 80% of the time I get the info I need to climb the food chain.

There are numerous levels of people that can help you, HR is a great department to ask for when no one gives out names ” It’s a company policy”

When I get the DM finally the first thing I say to them is ” I am sorry for the cold handshake, I am only looking for 2 minutes of your time, would that be O.K?”

You now have two minutes to make that all important first impression, use the time wisely and time yourself to only 2 minutes. At this point mention you have reached two minutes to your DM and ask permission to continue or wish each other a good year. If you truly have a product or service your DM needs, or you have shown a PAIN to them and your service or product may solve that, they will give you all the time you need and their guard will be down.

You have to know that these DM’s get 10-20 calls like this a day and it is a waste of their time usually, but they all know there is a diamond in the rough phone call like yours that keeps them curious what you are calling about.

Of course there will always be those people who never take the calls no matter what you try. For these companies don;t just give up. Go back to the gate keeper and ask for someone lower on the foodchain. I call these people champions. They will never be able to actually pull the trigger but they are the ones who likely wil use your service, talk about your product to the right people and I have a number of times been talked about so much the actual DM who never takes calls, all of a sudden is leaving me voicemails and trying to reach me with enthusiasm. Build a champion and they will work very hard for you, just treat them right. A little freebie of your product or service or thanks will go a very long way with your champion.

KAIZEN = continuous learning makes continuous improvements !!”

Contributed by: Steven Boyle,  Senior Business Development at The InfoTech Research Group

For more information visit www.GenerationSalesGroup.com or Contact David Juris at djuris@GenerationSalesGroup.com or at (303) 793-1111.