You wake up bright and early, motivated to get out in the field and then you open the window shade and see a blanket of white snow everywhere! The roads are icy, your car is stuck, what do you do? This is one of those rare times when cold calling over the phone is much more productive than getting out in the field. Here are some tips to help you have a productive inside day on the phone.
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#5 – Think about what your competitors are doing. This is an easy one! You know exactly what all the other independent agents in your market are going to do today. They are going to sit inside on the coach nice and cozy and watch TV. So, if you want to be better than average and succeed, you need to do something different! It is time to get your calling list in order and start making a productive day for yourself.
#4 – Pick some business types to call based on the time of day and the time of year. If it is the Tuesday or Wed before black Friday or it is the week of Christmas, avoid retail businesses on the phone. It will be almost impossible to talk to the right person. If it is noon, you wouldn’t want to call fast food or pizza shops. If it is 5 to 7 pm you wouldn’t want to call fine dinning restaurants. Here is what I like to do. I like to build my list from 9 to 10am using google maps and I just print out the results I come up with. Then at 10am I start calling pizza shops for an hour or so. Usually there are plenty of pizza shops within a 20 mile radius to take up an hour of calling and this is the perfect time of day to catch the owner before they are swamped with lunch orders. Next, I move on to auto repair for an hour or so. I love auto repair for cold calling because the decision maker almost always picks up the phone. Once I get through this list, I will try specialty retail (depending on the time of year) or a general list of restaurants because restaurant owners normally come in at 1 or 2pm and stay till 7. I call restaurants and retail till 4pm, then take the rest of the day off to enjoy the late afternoon and evening with my family. From a day like this, I can usually create 5 to 8 appointments for myself which will result in at least 2 to 3 sales.
A snow storm
#3 – Get passed the gate keeper. Here is my opening pitch: “Hi, my name is James Shepherd, I do the credit card processing for XYZ Company, I am going to be out in (City Name) later this week once the snow clears up and I was hoping I could stop by to drop off some information about my services, who should I ask for when I stop by?” Response: “Ask for Bill he is the owner.” Agent: “Ok, great, I tell you what just to make sure I come at a good time for him, is Bill in right now?” Response: “Yes, he is hold on.” Pitch to Owner: “Hey Bill thanks for taking my call, I just have a quick question for you. I do the credit card processing for XYZ company and I am going to be out in your area on Thursday. I was hoping I could stop by and drop off some information about our free equipment and low price guarantee for credit card processing, is there a time you might be in on Thursday?” Response: “Yes I will be here” Agent: “Great, I will make sure I stop by, one other quick question do you mind if I ask who you are using right now for credit card processing?” From this point try to strike up a conversation and build some connection.
#2 – Don’t be picky about the quality of the lead. I will usually set 5 to 8 good appointments from a day of calling like this but I will also have another 5 to 8 where I simply spoke to an employee who gave me the owners name and the best time to stop by. This is extremely valuable information and in a week with bad weather you can use this information to manage your time more effectively and stop in at those businesses on the right day and at the right time with the name of the right person.
#1 – Follow up!!! – Don’t let this information go to waste, make sure you do follow up later in the week as promised and go in with an assumptive attitude that you have an appointment, you already spoke to the owner and now you are going in to make a presentation and collect the statement and possibly even close the sale on the spot!
P.S. Take a little time to share this information with your spouse, significant other or family members who live in your house and explain to them that on “Snow Days” you get off an hour early but you do still work from 9 to 4 or whatever hours you choose. If you don’t effectively communicate this plan with those in your house they will be frustrated by having to spend a snow day walking quietly around the house while you make phone calls so you will need a plan here especially if you have young children of how they will be kept occupied while you make some phone calls. Even if you decide to work less hours than this on a snow day plan how many you will work and communicate this to the family ahead of time.
I hope these short tips help you close more merchants during this winter season!
James Shepherd
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