Another Warm Lead

Guest blog by Wendy Weiss
Author of Cold Calling for Women: Opening Doors and Closing Sales
Watch her interview on The Woman's Connection YouTube Vlog

Saturday morning, I sat in my pajamas, sipping strong, black coffee and petting Ms. Kitty Cat. The telephone rang. Usually on a Saturday morning, I screen my calls, but this morning, expecting a friend, I picked up.

The caller was not my expected friend. She was a financial advisor from American Express. She asked if I had received the mailing I'd requested.

Wendy: I didn't request a mailing.

Caller: Did you receive a mailing?

Wendy: I don't know.

Caller: It was from American Express, outlining our financial products.

Wendy: I get a lot of mail.

Caller: So, you're not interested?

Wendy: You should read a book called "Cold Calling for Women."

Caller: This is a "warm call."

We said our good-byes as I choked back hysterical laughter. "Warm Call" … "Cold Call" … However else you might care to categorize it, this was a Failed Call!

I was a qualified prospect. I was not necessarily uninterested. What went wrong?

This caller wanted me, the prospect, to do all of the work. She assumed that because the call was (in her mind only!) a "warm call," I was interested in the products, knowledgeable about the products and ready to move to the next step. Nothing could have been further from the truth! She made no effort to entice or interest me—instead, we had a conversation about whether or not I had received sales literature! 

And then, moving from unbelievable to mind-boggling, this caller assumed rejection! (A standard closing technique is to "assume the sale" and proceed accordingly.) She had it backwards. Because I was not particularly interested in sales literature, she assumed without any questions or attempts to discover what my interests, wants or needs might be that I was saying "no."

This (non)sales process was also unwieldy. Evidently, someone else had originally called me—I don't remember—and sent out some sales literature—I don't remember. What a waste of time and resources! I guess American Express can afford it. You and I cannot!

So, here's the Master Plan for introductory calls:

1. Determine the goal of your phone call.
2. Set yourself up as an expert.
3. Articulate customer-centered benefits.
4. Ask for what you want (see #1 above—Determine the goal).
5. Use sales literature as a backup only. Do not use it as an introduction (see story above).

Asking the Right Questions

Guest blog by Wendy Weiss
Author of Cold Calling for Women: Opening Doors and Closing Sales
Watch her interview on The Woman's Connection YouTube Vlog

On an introductory call, how do you gather all of the information that you need from a prospect? An introductory call is usually fairly short, just a few minutes. You generally do not have the time to thoroughly question your prospect and then also move on to your next step, setting that introductory meeting. So, how do you gather enough information to qualify your prospect and, at the same time, set up the meeting?

First, make a list of all the information that you would like to gather from your prospect. Then, look at your list and decide what information is crucial and what information can wait for
later (either later in the conversation or later at the meeting). Ask the crucial questions first. Then, if your prospect is chatty, you can ask the rest of your questions. If your prospect
is brusque or to-the-point, ask the questions you need to ask, set the meeting date and save the rest of your questions till then. 

You should, as much as possible, "prequalify" your prospect. Find out as much about the prospect and prospect company as you can. Once you've done that, eliminate the questions to which you already have answers.

There is no reason to ask a prospect, "Are you the person who purchases…?" or "Are you the decision-maker?" If you have done your homework and prequalified your prospect, you should know the usual title of the decision-maker and/or in which area or department you will usually find that decision-maker. The rule is always to try to reach the highest level person whom you believe might be the decision-maker. If your decision-maker is usually found in the Human Resources area, ask for the Senior Vice President of Human Resources. When you have a conversation then, there is no need to ask, "Are you the decision-maker?" Of course
they are! Or they may have delegated that authority, and if so, they will tell you that and give you the correct name.

Ask questions that solicit relevant information. There is no need to ask a prospect, "Are you familiar with… (your company, your product/service)?" You won't be getting any useful information with this question. It really doesn't matter if they are familiar. If they say they are, it does not guarantee that they know everything they need to know to understand the value of what you are offering. If you want to make absolutely certain that your prospect does understand the value of your offer, you must tell them. If they are not familiar with your company, why then, you still have to tell them.

It is far better to simply stay in control of the introductory calling process by telling your prospect what you would like them to know. Ask your questions on a real "need-to-know" basis. Keep them short and to-the-point, and then ask for what you want.

Abducted by Aliens

Guest blog by Wendy Weiss
Author of Cold Calling for Women: Opening Doors and Closing Sales
Watch her interview on The Woman's Connection YouTube Vlog

There are situations where it is imperative to reach a particular prospect at a particular time. Perhaps you are trying to reach that prospect to introduce yourself, your company and your
products or services. Perhaps you are trying to reach a prospect to continue a conversation or to follow up on a next step in your sales cycle. You have tried everything. You have called
repeatedly at different times through out the day, you have left messages, you have sent emails. All with no response.

I offer here a last resort letter. When all else fails, try the Abducted by Aliens? letter. It goes like this:

February 7, 2005


Ms. Jane Jones
ABC Company
123 Main Street
Anywhere, USA

Dear Ms. Jones:

You may not know this, but I have been attempting to reach you, almost on a daily basis, for some time now, with no success. You are never available when I call, and clearly, you have been unable to return my phone calls. I am worried about you.

Have you been abducted by aliens?

If you have, and can somehow use the enclosed, pre-addressed, stamped envelope to notify me, I will notify the Coast Guard and alert the media and do everything in my power to obtain your release.

If, however, the problem is limited to a demanding schedule, I am writing to encourage you to call me when you have a free moment. Hopefully, the information I am enclosing will justify that call.

(Information about your company, product or service goes here.)

Don't you agree that if we can show you (Customer Benefit goes here), your time will have been well spent?

It would be nice to hear from you.

Sincerely,



Wendy Weiss
The Queen of Cold Calling & Selling Success


**With your letter, enclose a response card, something like this:

Ms. Wendy Weiss
The Queen of Cold Calling & Selling Success
412 West 25th St.
Suite 1F
New York, NY 10001

Dear Wendy:

You are right!
PLEASE HIGHLIGHT APROPRIATE RESPONSE:

--> Help! I have been abducted by aliens! Please do whatever you can to rescue me!

--> I have not been abducted by aliens. The next time you call, I will be available. I am looking forward to speaking with you!

--> The best time to reach me is ____________ at _______.(day) (time)

Please call me then. I am looking forward to speaking with you!

Sincerely,



Jane Jones

Amateurs

Guest blog by Wendy Weiss
Author of Cold Calling for Women: Opening Doors and Closing Sales
Watch her interview on The Woman's Connection YouTube Vlog

Recently I had a conversation with a friend of mine. She is a former, highly successful model who is now building a highly successful network marketing business. As we are both entrepreneurs, we talk a lot about our businesses, we egg each other on, give each other advice, commiserate.

My friend was feeling frustrated. "Amateurs," she said. "I'm tired of dealing with amateurs."

I knew what she meant. A professional is someone who shows up, no matter what. A professional is someone who gets the job done, no matter what. A professional is someone who does what she needs to do, when she needs to do it, no matter what. An amateur
is someone who lets circumstances, other people and emotions get in the way.

As my friend put it, "When you're a model, if you have a saggy butt, they tell you that you have a saggy butt. Then they tell you to go away. If you want it enough, you fix your saggy butt and go back."

I grew up in the ballet world. It's very much the same. You take class everyday with a teacher whose job it is to criticize you. The criticism is to help you improve, but some times it just
feels like criticism. You dance in front of a big mirror. This is so that you can criticize yourself. 

As an adolescent and even a young professional, I've been called "a cow" because of a few extra pounds. I've had teachers hit an errant arm or leg with a stick because that arm or leg was in the wrong position. (No, they weren't singling me out, they hit everyone.) I've lost dance jobs because I was too tall, too short, or had the wrong color hair. Those of you who read my book, "Cold Calling for Women," know that as a teenager I was not accepted into the renowned Harkness Ballet School because my back was too long. (They told my dad I was a very good dancer, but.) When I cut my hair short (it used to be down to my waist so that I could put it up in a classical ballet bun) I never again, got another job as a ballet dancer. And by the way, when you go to a dance audition they don't let you dance. They simply line you up and look at you and then start eliminating dancers. Once they're done eliminating, the dancers that are left get to actually dance.


When I first started doing sales training and clients would talk to me about rejection and fear of rejection I had no idea what they were talking about. As the years have gone by and I've
worked with more and more clients I do understand that those feelings are real.

Sales can be a tough world. Everyone will not love you or your product or service. Everyone will not say "yes." Sometimes in sales training brochures or on our web sites we get carried away and write, "Overcome every objection!" "Turn every 'no' into 'yes!'" The stark reality is that will not happen every time. Some prospects will say "no." A career in sales is not for the weak.

The key to success is what you do with that "no." You can allow it to stop you, or you can put it aside and continue on. The power is entirely yours. If there are people in the world having success doing exactly what you want to be doing, there is no reason that you cannot do it too. 

Being a professional starts with your mind set, that you believe in what you are selling and that you do not give other people, circumstances or even your own thoughts and emotions the power to stop you. Or as my friend put it, "If you want it enough, you fix your saggy butt and go back."

Twenty Four Buckets

Guest blog by Wickham Boyle

Through the magic of email I received the draft of an article by Noeleen Heyzer, director of the United Nations Development Fund for Women, litanizing what it takes to care for a single AIDS patient in rural Zimbabwe. The message is a clarion call intended to coincide with the conference on AIDS being held this month in Barcelona. The essential message was daunting, stupefying and pointed fingers at all the civilized world for withholding
medicines and even simple running water, further exacerbating the impoverished economics of the sufferers. But beyond those facts was a simple truth; when one women was asked what it took to care for an AIDS patient on a daily basis she calmly replied 24 buckets of water.

This is not 24 light plastic buckets that are filled from a faucet in the bathroom; getting water is a physical commitment. Often a well is not any closer than an long walk from the house. Water is a rare commodity in many parts of Africa and most often it is the women who, in our vernacular, schlep for it. 

Sometimes in summer when the wash from American children who can not abide being dirty or sweaty from camp cloths or spilled ice cream reaches a critical state, I get testy. Why is there so much wash, why are there so many showers, why are the lights left on and the air conditioner turned up to freezer level so we can live our normal insulated lives? I complain about the too much quality of my life as a woman balancing work with the care and joys of a home, but I am stopped in my tracks by the shockingly simple truth that
it takes my counter part in Zimbabwe 24 buckets of hard won water to care poorly for an AIDES patient in her country.

I have lived in Africa. I spent time in countries where streets in a capital city have no street signage because only ten percent of the population is literate, so why waste time with signs. I have witnessed poverty and learned the techniques that allow some of us from the very first world to live or spend time in the most heinous conditions in the rural world. We have to become inured somewhat to the terror or else we could not work and function. We would weep and watch. So one learns to move through what you see and focus on the small tasks at hand.

Seventeen summers ago I was pregnant with my first child, and caring for my first friend to die of AIDS. As I grew more rotund with my daughter, my sweet Greg withered. We knew so little of AIDS then. The hospital rooms were marked with a logo resembling a nuclear attack site and care givers were encouraged to wear protective garb. Somehow I felt divinely protected and so did nothing more than visit constantly wearing big, loose cotton dresses and carrying food. I made custards, pies, casserole and spooned in tiny portions. I rubbed his feet, the only part where there was enough meat left not to be annoyed by
touching. I did so little and in such modern circumstances and still I felt depleted by every visit and by all the crazy machinations I concocted in my head regarding a means to save my dearest friend, the man who was to be my daughter’s god-father.

And no now years later we know how the disease has spread, we have some methods to slows its growth, it is no longer a secret but a dirty shame on all our lips. Still the means to care for and cure seem eons away.

I imagine the woman carrying water at day break does not jump start a chart that ticks off one bucket and keeps a count until around midnight she collapses on her mat finished for the day with bucket 24. Often she will be roused in the middle of the night to serve some need with the howls of fearful animals echoing in the background. No well at that hour. 

To honor and support all the work that woman do in fighting this crisis is my only choice today. To remember my friend as his summer birthday rolls around is a bittersweet joy. And to be mindful, deeply mindful of the water I drew for this coffee, the faucet that flowed to wash my hands and the two loads of wash that lie folded on my clean kitchen table is to celebrate a daily life, sadly beyond many women’s imaginings.      July 10, 2002
 

Triple BrowniesTriple Brownies

Guest recipe by Wonka Exceptionals

Talk about decadent!   (Makes 36 servings) 
These decadent brownies are a “must try” for chocolate lovers, whether you prefer the dark, milk or white variety. 
Aluminum foil Nonstick cooking spray
1 pkg (18.5 oz) Chocolate brownie mix
1 (3.5 oz) WONKA Exceptionals Scrumdiddlyumptious Chocolate Bar
1 (3.5 oz) WONKA Exceptionals Domed Dark Chocolate Bar
1 (3.5 oz) WONKA Exceptionals Chocolate Waterfall Bar

PREHEAT oven according to brownie mix package directions. Line 9-inch-square baking pan with foil (this makes for easy brownie removal); spray lightly with nonstick cooking spray. 
PREPARE brownie mix according to package directions. Spoon half of batter into prepared pan; place chocolate bars in a single layer over batter. Spoon remaining batter over candy bars, gently smoothing down top. 

BAKE according to package directions for 9-inch pan. Cool completely in pan on wire rack. To serve, lift foil from pan and peel away foil from brownies. Cut the square into 6 equal strips; cut strips in opposite direction, making 36 bars.