Cold Calling – Schedule More Phone Appointments By Adding This ONE Magic Word To Your Opening

You have spent years of hard work learning and perfecting your craft. You’ve racked up tons of hours building your career: expanding your knowledge, upgrading your skills, upgrading your technology, expanding your customer base, and providing the best service in your industry. You finally have the fancy office, the thousand dollar suit, the gold watch and pen, and the fancy title. However, when a prospect picks up the phone to answer his cold call and hears his strange voice for the first time, he instantly becomes a stereotypical, annoying, unreliable $8 an hour telemarketer.

There is a ton of material on how to overcome objections over the phone and all sorts of tips, tricks and magic scripts on how to schedule appointments over the phone. The problem, however, is that by the time you’ve said your name, most prospects have already formed a mental picture of you, and it’s not a good one.

While I’ve never been one to shop at the golden script wave Magical word or phrase theory, this word added to your introduction will give you instant credibility and dramatically increase your effectiveness in scheduling appointments over the phone. However, before giving you the word, you must understand the reasoning behind its power.

First, understand that it’s not the call itself that’s upsetting the prospect. Rather, the problem stems from the prospect’s preconceived, negative image of you, the caller, in his or her mind. Disregard the possibility of feeling that a low-level “telemarketer” is calling them. In your mind, you’re sitting there, going through a long “list” of names and numbers, calling everyone on the list and saying pretty much the same thing. This person feels like they are nothing more than a “number” to the telesales person. That’s why you hear people say to you, “Take me off your list!”

The fact is, the less important the caller is, the less important the customer feels. Think about it. If the company assigns the lowest paid, least experienced and most expendable person in the company to call you, how important are you to that company?

On the other hand, the more important the caller is, the more important the prospect feels. Imagine getting a call from Microsoft support after you buy some software and the tech says, “We just wanted to call and check if everything is okay…” That would be nice. However, imagine if you pick up the phone and the recognizable voice says, “Just Bill Gates. I just wanted to call you.” myself to make sure you are satisfied with my product…”

Wow! You should be impressed. It is obvious that this important person does not sit and make 100 calls all day to everyone. However, she found time to call you! You would feel important and whatever you bought would have gone up in value significantly.

When the prospect gets a call from an “everyday” or “newbie” salesperson, they don’t feel special enough. You need to project the image of an important VIP. Using this word will help you project the image of a very important executive without misrepresenting his position in the company. The word is:

“Personally,” as in “I thought I’d call you personally, Mr. Prospect…” with little emphasis on the word personally.

It can look like this:

Me: “Bill Smith, please.”

Prospect: “This is Bill.”

Me: “Yeah Bill, Steve Smith with ABC Copiers. Bill, I thought I’d give you a call.” personally. You will see…”

The result this produces is amazing. In a sense, you’re projecting the image of someone who has an assistant, a large staff, or an entire company that usually handles your regular, non-essential, common phone calls. However, THIS prospect, THIS account is too important for you to let anyone else you; the VIP, the main boss, the main principle, make this call!

This completely sets you apart from every call this person has received, makes them feel important, and gives you instant credibility.

Sales rep: “Yeah, John, Mary Waters, ABC Life. John, I thought I’d call you.” personally about this matter… do you have a minute?”

This prospect may have received a thousand calls from insurance salesmen, but none of them have ever called him. personally! Give this a try and notice the warm reception and openness you get. This word really works like magic.

Also, while I’m not a big fan of leaving messages on cold calls, if you do, try this:

Sales Representative: “Mrs. Jones, Bill Salesexpert, with BBB Financial. Mrs. Jones, I thought I should give you a call.” personally about this. There are some big tax changes next year that I think you should know about. Call me please…”

If you want to make more phone appointments or close more sales, DON’T COLD CALL…CALL PERSONALLY!