Start In today’s show we are looking at how to prepare to deal with the gatekeepers who will try to block you, the right approach during the call and the importance of having a massive hook to grab attention.
Welcome back to this weekly edition every Friday of "THE Japan Business Mastery Show".
I am your host Dr. Greg Story, Your Corporate Coaching and Training Guy, President of Dale Carnegie Training Japan and best selling author of Japan Sales Mastery and Japan Business Mastery. We are bringing the show to you from our studio in the High Performance Center in Akasaka in Minato-ku, the business center of Tokyo.
This is episode number 2 and we are talking about The Top Three Most Critical Things You Must Do When Cold Calling
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Welcome back, Okay, now its time for the show, Soredewa ikimasho, so let's get going. The Top Three Most Critical Things You Must Do When Cold Calling
Cold calling is dead! No cold calling is not dead! Lots of debate and advice on this subject and many a fortune funded as a result no doubt. For Japan it is not dead but it is diabolically hard. We need to select ideal prospects who are not presently clients. We need to list companies up who are look-a-likes for current clients or fit into our sweet spot. We have what they need, they just don’t know it yet. It is our duty to help them solve their problems with our help.
Step 1. Expect resistance, barriers, fear, timidity, non-cooperation from the young lady who has been designated to answer the phone. Her job is to get rid of you and she doesn’t want to get balled out by her boss by letting you slip through the protective wall. You know this, so you must design a killer opening to woo her to let you speak to her boss.
Step 2. Introduce your name and company, very, very slowly and tremendously clearly. It doesn’t matter what language you are speaking. All that katakana is a total brain whiteout for her. “This is Greg Story, from Dale Carnegie Training Japan”. She was freaking out from the get go that it was a foreigner calling and all she can think about is that she can’t speak English well and then you hit her with all those unfamiliar strange sounding names.
Step 3. Slowly explain what you do and include a massive hook in there to get interest. “We are global experts in corporate soft skills training. We recently worked with XYZ company, your competitor, to increase their revenues by finding new clients. It was a great success and they have seen a 35% jump in new business sales already. Maybe we could do the same for you, I am not sure.
Please transfer me through to your Sales Director, so that he can make a judgment about whether this is something your company would like to know more about or whether you are okay for your rival to grab greater market share? If you are not getting the new business, then that will have a big impact on your business survival. I know your Sales Director won’t want to see that happen, so please let me discuss this with him.
If you don’t allow me to speak with him, then my next call will be to another one of your competitors and so the problem will just get worse won’t it. We don’t want that do we? Please put me through to him”.
Yes it is a bit hard core for Japan you might be thinking, but in cold calling here you need dynamite to blow up that defensive wall. If they won’t put you through, call you back or answer your email, then keep approaching their competitors and one of them will want to hear what you have to say.
So the three steps are: One, mentally brace for getting the bum’s rush. Two, introduce your name and company name very slowly and clearly. Three, explain why you can help them and put a big hook in there to get them to bite.
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In episode three we are talking about Four Easy Ways To Become More Clear When You Present
Onegai Itashimasu please join me for the next exciting episode of the Japan Business Mastery Show
