enx magazine

I was discussing prospecting with a dealer friend of mine and he reminded me that the most productive way (for his group) was to prospect using the phone. It is difficult to get salespeople to do this somewhat painful task. But the rewards are tremendous. Here is the way that he is doing it, and he is very successful.

There are two ways to get a phone list: the poor man’s list, the Yellow Pages, and a purchased phone list.

Using the Yellow Pages.

Sit down, open it up, and start calling. Go for the same information that you go for when you are cold calling person to person. The only difference is that you should call certain business at the most opportune time. For example, you don’t want to call tax accountants during tax season, but should call them in November.

Using a Purchased Phone List.

You can get some pretty fancy lead lists from list companies. You can get lists that give you only new businesses, pointed lists of companies larger than 10,000 employees, lists that include the name of the owner or chief executive. The truth is, you are going to do the qualifying, and you are going to get the proper person that is responsible for purchasing office equipment (not always the owner or president). So it is not necessary to buy an expensive list.

Consistency.

Remember that prospecting only works when it is done on a consistent basis. Keep building your prospect list. Delete prospects that drop off the list, but you must always add new prospects to your list. A little each day gets the job done.

Your contact’s time is valuable and you are about to intrude on his or her day, so you must have a reason to call. Don’t waste your contact’s time.

Here are some effective openings:

Calling For Dollars pg 1 pg 2 Print Word Document

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