Best Practice: Not Interested? What to say to this response while cold calling

No matter how polished your cold-calling skills may be, you will always get the following responses:  "I'm not interested" or "We're happy with our current vendor."
Expect this and prepare for it.
Resistance after hearing an opening statement from any unknown caller is a natural, conditioned response for many.
These are called Resistant Reflex Responses.
Trying to counter this with logic is often ineffective.  For example:  "What are you not interested in, I have not given you anything to be not interested about yet?"  This seldom if ever works.
What should you do?
Get them talking - this moves them away from their reflexive response.
It is proven that disrupting the pattern is the most effective way around this.
2 Examples:

PROSPECT - "I'm not interested."
SALES PERSON - "I see, who is your current vendor?"

PROSPECT - "We're all set."
SALES PERSON - "Oh? (pause) When was the last time you reviewed your current program?"

Remember - tone of voice plays a key role in this and you should never sound confrontational.  Use a soft, almost surprised sounding tone.

Best Practice: Linkedin Discussions - Post Interesting News on Group Sites

Post articles that catch attention using Linkedin discussions within Industry related groups.  This has the potential to accomplish the following:
1.  Attract potential prospects that may contact you.
2.  Attract potential prospects that may post a "like" or a "comment" to your posting.
3.  Establish you as an expert in your field.
4.  Boost your credibility to an audience of prospective buyers within any industry segment of your choice.
5.  Add name recognition and free marketing.
6.  Think of this as a "spider-web" that can attract flies (ie: prospects)

How to post discussions to a linked industry group (step-by-step)
1.  Join a group (example: Automotive Repair Professionals)
2.  Write a title that will attract interest (inclued a call to action - such as "Contact me today for more details or discussion")
3.  Write a description with a little more detail (you could even copy and paste from an article found online)
4.  Attach an article related to the topic (this indicates that you are also in the know and an industry expert by staying on top of such publications)
5.  Watch for responses via "like", "comment", or email
6.  Seek out members within the group and connect with them (you have the common thread of being members of the same group)
7.  Sell more

Best Practice: Tripping the Sales Radar - DO NOT DO THIS

While cold calling, are you getting responses such as?
"We are all set"
"Not Interested"
"We get calls like this all the time"

Very likely, you are Tripping the Sales Radar!
Your "30 Second Commercial" a.k.a. "Elevator Speech" is not effective and it sounds too much like every other competitor of yours.

SOLUTION:  Create a compelling 30 Second Commercial that gives you a chance.
Example:  "Hello, ______, I work with businesses like yours in the _____ industry, and once we talk, they often discover that they are frustrated by paying excessive fees and surcharges or find it difficult to understand their visa/mastercard acceptance statements, this wouldn't be true in your case would it?

Best Practice: Blamestorming? Stop Blaming - Start Doing

Spirit Lexicon has “blamestorming” defined as;
1. Business meeting that devolves into finding fault for projects gone wrong rather than looking for successful results.
2. A discussion between colleagues involving major finger pointing. Its usage example reads a follows: Blamestorming can last hours until a culprit is identified for each step of a failed project. In excess, it can be characteristic of weak management. See also: ‘Postmortem.’

Best Practice: Disqualify Prospects - Don't Qaulify Them

Learn to disqualify when you qualify and "disqualify people who are not legitimate prospects out."
How? A simple four-step qualification (disqualification) process:

1. Respond to their initial question about what you do by delivering a "60 second booth snapshot" that includes what your product is, what it does, how it is used, and what its value or benefit is to the people who buy and use it. Be crystal clear and simple.
2. Ask them what they do in relation to your products.
3. Tell them in 30 seconds, in greater detail, how your products solve problems or satisfy needs of people who do that, including what is unique about them.
4. Ask them if they can see the value of what you just told them in their situation.

If they say no, which many of them will, then politely move on to someone else who really needs what you offer. Don't try to make converts out of people who are such remote candidates for your products that they "take your best shots" and fail to see or recognize the value in what you offer.
Concentrate your sales energies on people who are legitimate, qualified candidates for your products. You'll need all of the energy and focus you can muster to educate and motivate them to take positive action.



Best Practice: Last Look

First of all, the ideal prospect would be considering you, and only you, to do business with right?  Unfortunately this isn't always the case and many times you are unable to avoid a bidding situation pitting you against your competitors!
What can you do?
Why not insure that you get the "LAST LOOK"?
How do you do that?
ANSWER:
By achieving excellence in the basics: building powerful, positive business relationships with those key contacts, by understanding their needs in deeper and more detailed ways than any of your competitors, by doing everything you can to assure that your company is highly respected by the customer, and finally, by asking for the opportunity.
What you are really asking for is the preference of the customer. You are assuming that there is no difference between you and your competitor, and there is no reason for the customer to pay a little more to do business with you. Your only hope is that the customer will prefer to do business with you, providing you are the lowest price.
You want the customer to prefer to do business with you, so that they call you for a last look and potential revision of your proposal.
Ask yourself why the customer would prefer you. Then set about becoming the supplier that your customer would want to do business with. And, continually ask for the opportunity to have a last look.



Best Practice: Avoid Assumptions

The most dangerous word in the English language for salepeople is "assume."  If you find yourself thinking, "They won't sign with me if I offer them this program," or "I know they won't be happy if I save them only this amount," you're assuming a response before it happens.  Every time you do this you build a mental hurdle blocking your sales success.  Second-guessing yourself creates indecision.
Remember, people buy for their reasons, not yours.  If you make assumptions about a response, your assumptions are most likely based on your objections or your reasons.  Your merchant doesn't need to tell you no - you're doing it for them.
Eliminate all negative opinions from your thoughts and approaches.  Eliminate assumptions.  Once you accomplish this, your confidence will rise.