Take the Lead in Conversation Part 1
First things first. Hello! Welcome to Take the Lead.
How are you? It’s so good to see you here. Do tell me a bit more about yourself. What’s the best thing about what you do? I’m Interested!
Are you making calls in your business?
Me? I love talking to strangers. I also love helping people build their own confidence and strategies to speak to others they don’t know yet.
With all the different roles we need to play in business I find cold calling often hits the bottom of the to do list. Why? Because we don’t feel good about it.
We’re taught and encouraged to follow our gut, only put effort into what makes us feel good or that we’re passionate about.
That’s great, to a point. But be honest. Apart from me, who do you know that’s passionate about cold calling?!
Consider this, if you don’t have new conversations you’re severely hampering your new customer opportunities.
Networking and social media are a great resource to do this however often lacks the volume and commitment in following up.
Traditional telephone training is loaded with processes and script patterns. This alone makes us uncomfortable and forms the first barrier to it being hard. But, let me tell you, it doesn’t have to be that way.
When I work with my clients we find the heart of the conversation that makes them feel good about sharing it. And we have fun in the process!
With the world in constant turmoil, economic doom and gloom reported across the major news channels, it can be hard to stay upbeat. Let alone reach out to people you don’t know, who might judge you for being desperate.
Here’s where that narrative must change. Because it doesn’t have to be hard. In most instances the excuses we give ourselves are simply not true.
Working together with other people across multiple disciplines creates a network without the corporate constraints. Taking away the huge overheads, HR and Finance burdens,
Choosing the people we want to do business with creates strong relationships in a heavily guarded community. Put a tick against every corporate department without them being an employee.
Protecting the people we work with has a compound effect and attracts more like minded people. Broadly speaking we can work with a design person but that can be niched further to expanding to video or branding experts.
All this from reaching out cold. A term I personally don’t like but true nonetheless.
We start out in business and know either very few people or no-one. Yet we can work with experts on any given service we need.
Going to an event is cold.
Posting on social media is cold.
All until you make a start and build your audience.
Thinking about using the telephone is the same….that’s why I recommend making a start by phoning one person a day in my book if you’re not already doing it.
What are your thoughts on this point?
Making Conversations Count – How To Sell Over The Phone – Training Book | WAG Associates
It’s also why I don’t like it when I get a call from an unknown number. Why do they not leave a voicemail? I might not answer because I’m busy. Yes, I do that too! But I also think like you, they’ve not left a message because they’re trying to sell me something!
One of the biggest improvements I help my clients with, is in fact, how to leave a voice message. Rates of getting through on subsequent calls improve 33%+ That’s a heap extra than the average 6% by not leaving one…which would you prefer?!
When it comes to picking up the phone you have a choice. Do it or don’t do it. Or find someone else to do it [I’ve got lots of thoughts on that one from the last three decades too).
Now let me ask you this?
Would you rather know how to do something yourself? In principle. To discover you will enjoy doing it after all because you get it.
Or pay someone to do it for you where you have no understanding?
I’d really like to know.
What questions do you find the hardest to answer when speaking to new people? You are going to enjoy the mini masterclass in this recent podcast episode with Marcus Sheridan, author of ‘They Ask You Answer’ If listening is not your thing you can read the interview via our dynamic transcript on the same page.
Key Takeaways you will get from listening to this episode to help you Take the Lead:
“When people buy, they worry more about what might go wrong…”
The elephant in the room
“Start with a pencil”
The Conversation that counted for Marcus
“Carrying on the Conversation – but only on Linkedin.”
Some say I’m infectious. You’ll hear it for real in my podcast interviews. I often laugh because it’s got to be the best kind of ‘spreading’ if it inspires people to go and pick up the phone to do business or take some action from the guest expert.
As you’ll realise I am naturally curious and ask lots of questions. I’m also acutely aware this is not as short and snappy as I had planned! But I want you to be able to gauge whether it’s worth sticking around.
Getting to know what makes people tick fills my own energy banks up. It’s also a great way to approach your new business development too – full of curiosity. Your time is as precious as mine which is why we all make judgement calls on where we spend it.
I do trust this newsletter offers advice, wisdom and a good dollop of common sense and I’ll get to chat with you soon.
Remember, you never know where a conversation will lead…so, take the lead.
Speak soon,
Wendy
Take the Lead and get in touch, here’s how:
Now, if you fancy a ChinWAG use the diary link: www.calendly.com/wag-associates/ChinWAG
Don’t let worry get in the way of your business building new relationships with customers. Take a look at my PowerUp sessions, they are a fantastic starting point to get your strategy into shape and lead perfectly into my 12 step programme where we work together on a deeper level. Find out more on the website along with free tips
With 34 years doing, 17 of those years running my own business, I’ve started approx 2 million conversations, helped 1000’s of people through my training sessions. Read my case studies and testimonials
or check out my Recommendations section on LinkedIn.
All this from the WAG Works aka the log cabin in my back garden in the banner photo since 2011.
NEXT TIME ON TAKE THE LEAD…WHAT’S THE 4R FORMULA?
…Pop back soon for part two of Take the Lead
We’ll be diving into my 4R Formula and why it’s a great barometer for making your conversations count
Follow-on resources to get you started for ‘not quite’ free lead generation
Grab a copy of my best-selling book “Making Conversations Count: How to sell over the phone”. It’s a great place to start making the right first impression.
Free lead generation resources from me
How ironic! I have a free resources page with free downloads (no email address required) video snippets and guest interviews where I give lots of take away tips.
Send me an email if you have want to comment on any of the details in this blog.
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