With more than 110 million phone numbers signed up for the Do Not Call list, fewer financial advisors are "cold calling" residences...and with good reason. Studies have shown the individuals who fit the profile of a prospective investor-client, have been among the first to take their names out of circulation.
As a consequence, those financial advisors who are still in the cold calling business, are calling prospects at their place of work. This has created a problematic scenario.
Consider the circumstance...from the reality of a person who works for a typical large corporate bureaucracy.
- With downsizing, corporations are "lean and mean." Managers and executives are doing the work of 2-3 people. Everyone has too much to do...and too little time.
- Imagine yourself as a corporate decision-maker. It's 10:00 a.m., and you have just emerged from your second meeting of the morning. There's a bright yellow Post-It on your phone from your boss...asking you for a status report on the big project that is behind schedule. You log onto your email, and you see that there are 37 new ones. To make things even worse, you check your voicemail and you have 16 unread messages.
What's the likelihood that this harried corporate executive will read your unsolicited cold call...let alone return it? Is it any wonder that you don't get call-backs from your generic, plain-vanilla voicemail message?
Put yourself in the place of the person that you have just cold-called. If you were the previously-described hypothetical executive...would you waste your valuable time to see you?
If not, you need to re-think your approach...and consider these points while you do this:
- Corporate decision-makers want to hear from sellers who can help them achieve THEIR goals and objectives.
- To capture their attention, focus on the DIFFERENCE that your product or service would make in their lives.
- Get to the point.
- Be professional.
- Finally, remember that a switch to you...means more work for them. They won't do this if there is no perceived value.
In the sales business, you never go wrong by putting yourself in the shoes of your prospects.
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