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The most precious name to any person is their own name! Think about it for a second. If someone calls you in the evening to sell you some stupid product and they first start by introducing themselves, their company name, and a “brief commercial about their offer,” you KNOW that you’re already trying to figure out a way to hang-up. RIGHT??? Or worse yet, they mispronounce your name or ask for the “man of the house, women of the house” or such as a REALLY bad
tele-marketer did to me the other day, asked for anyone available over the age of 18 in the home! YUCK!!! “Hi, can I speak with anyone in your household over the age of 18?” WOW!
Let’s again address our friend back in college. You know what he was doing first and foremost when he wanted to meet someone? He QUICKLY asked them their name, held out his hand, and introduced himself USING THEIR NAME! “Hi. What’s your name?” “I’m Brad. Sherry- it’s nice to meet you!” You know what? Sherry liked hearing her name. HE GOT HER INTEREST. How many other college guys were using this approach? Answer: NONE OF THEM. They were to busy saying dumb things like “What’s your major?”
Applied to the sales arena, we do EVERYTHING possible to know the first and last name of the decision-maker we’re trying to reach, and when the gate keeper answers the phone, we ask for Phil, Don, Betty, Sue, etc by first name if possible! You know what this does? It makes the gate keeper think that we KNOW this person (and aren’t another “dreaded sales person.”) Taken to even another level, we try to know the gate keeper’s name before we even call! (This is called Profile Information in our sales training courses that I highly recommend you review to get total impact from this course!)
So let’s revisit the RIGHT way to cold-call with the RIGHT profile information.
Sales Person: “Hi Sue. Can I talk to Phil for a minute?”
Sue: “Sure, one moment please”
DO YOU SEE THE DIFFERENCE VERSUS:
Sales Person: “Hi. This is Bill Smith with ABC Corporation. Can I speak to your purchasing agent?”
Sue: CLICK
OR, if you don’t know the gate-keeper’s name:
Sales Person: “Hi. Is Phil in?”
Sue: “Can I tell him who’s calling?”
Sales Person: “Julie Smith”
Sue: “One moment please”
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