Successful Ways to Open Your Sales Cold Call

Successful Ways to Open Your Sales Cold CallSuccessful Ways to Open Your Sales Cold CallThe most important part of any cold call you make on the phone is the first fifteen seconds. If you cant get your prospects focus and attention during that time period, then they will stop listening to you and the odds of your getting an appointment drop dramatically. Thats why you need to come up with a hook, an opener that will grab a prospects attention and give you time to do the actual selling later in the call. Strong Opening Statement A good strong opening statement is critical to cold calling. It piques the listeners interest and gets him thinking about you as someone who can do something for him. Many prospects will automatically say no thanks and hang up as soon as they realize youre trying to sell them something. However, if you can break through that automatic response with an opening statement that engages the prospects brain and gets him thinking instead of reacting, you can get the call moving in the right direction. Surprising Benefit Approach One approach that often works well is the surprising benefit approach. Heres an example from an actualreal estate broker cold calling script Them Hello?You Would you like to save an additional $10,000 this year?Them Who is this?You My anthroponym is You, and I show people how to save an additional $10,000 would you like to learn how to do it?Them Whats this about?You Its about saving an additional $10,000 this year would you like to learn more about it?Them Is this some sort of scam?You No, I can show you how to save an additional $10,000 this year, its what I specialize in. Would you like to learn more?Them Who are you with?You Im with your company, and I specialize in showing clients how to save an additional... The idea here is to get the prospect to permit you to tell them more. The surprising benefit approach as used in the above example can be risky because it tends to be confrontational, and prospects ca n find it annoying if you refuse to answer their questions. But depending on your product and market, it can be a very effective opening approach. You can also try a milder version of the surprising benefit approach (meaning less resistant to answering the prospect) and see if it works better for you. Utilize a Question Most successful cold call openers include a question. If you ask the prospect something, it tends to jolt their mind into gear and get them thinking about the answer (or at least about the question). Ideally, the opening question will provide a reason for the prospect to want to hear more. And if you know your prospects name, work it into the opener. By saying their name, youve already customized the call a bit and told the prospect that you at least know who he is. To use this style of an opener, include the prospects name (if you know it), your company name, what you sell, and how your product can benefit the customer, followed by a request for permission to as k the prospect some qualifying questions. An example might look like this Mr. Customer, my name is your name, and I am your local what you sell representative. I have helped a lot of local businesses here in your city bring more customers into their stores. May I ask you a few questions to see how we can do the same for you?

Dealing With Mental Health Issues in Your Workplace

Dealing With Mental Health Issues in Your WorkplaceDealing With Mental Health Issues in Your WorkplaceMental health in the workplace is something that many people would like to ignore, but just like physical health, good mental health is critical to workplace success. When you understand the sources of stress and their impact on your mental health in the workplace, you can take steps to ensure that you are healthy mentally. A poorly run workplace can exacerbate mental health schwierigkeits, or even induce a problem in a part who would otherwise be healthy. A study by Mind the Workplace found that mental health problems cost businesses $500 billion per year in lost productivity. Realistic Workloads The Mind the Workplace Study found shocking information about how people feel about their workloads. 83% of employees answered sometimes, rarely or never to the statement, My company appropriately deals with coworkers who are notlage doing his or her job.64% of employees answered someti mes, rarely or never to the statement, If things get hard my supervisor will support me.66% of employees answered sometimes, rarely or never to the statement, I trust my team or coworkers to support my work activities.72% of employees answered sometimes, rarely or never to All people are held accountable for their work, regardless of their position in the company. In other words, people feel overworked, their managers and coworkers dont support them, and they resent the fact that not all employees are held accountable for their work. No wonder people are stressed and frustrated with their jobs. These are issues that you can fix, but fixing them requires good managers. Some managers find it easier to pile work on good employees and ignore bad employees, but this contributes to increased stress and reduced productivity. Managers need to handle issues when they come up. If an employee makes a mistake, thats fine- mistakes happen. But rather than having the star performer in the depart ment simply fix the mistakes, themanager needs to help the person who made the error solve the problem. (Of course, there are times in which a deadline is critical and you dont have time for training and development. But, overall, managers need to expect accountability from each employee.) If managers step up to the plate and manage fairly, support their employees, and encourage their employees to help each other, not only do you foster increased productivity, you reduce stress. Reduced stress means a reduction in employee mental health issues. Workplace Stress Influences Home Life In the cited study, 81 percent of respondents said that workplace stress impacts their friends and family relationships, at least some of the time. Employers know that stress goes the other way. This is one of the reasons for laws like the Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA), which allows people to take time off when they or a family member are seriously ill. If an employee is going through a divorce or b ankruptcy, employers provide an Employee Assistance Program (EAP) to help. Employers know that reducing outside stress helps increase work productivity. But, stress can spiral. If your employee is stressed at the office, he goes home and takes out his stress on his family. If hes acting short with his family, his family starts becoming short with him. That adds stress, which he then brings to the office, making it more difficult to do his work, which puts him further behind, which increases his stress. This is a never-ending spiral. It goes on until the situation changes. 63 percent of respondents said that their workplace stress resulted in a significant impact on their mental and behavioral health. Workplaces have an impacton the mental health of employees, and the relationship is quite clear. Recognition and Reward Affects Employee Mental Health Paying employees accurately and fairly reduces stress as well. 36 percent of executives, 43 percent of mid-level employees, and 45 p ercent of frontline employees say that people are being unfairly recognized while others with better experience or skills dont get recognized (e.g. praise, promotions always or often. The difference between frontline and executives is worth noting. It could indicate that the problem is not, necessarily, a lack of fairness, but a lack of communication between senior leaders and frontline staff. When employees dont understand why and how promotions and pay raises come about, they consider them unfair. Transparent Communication Affects Employee Mental Health For example, John may think that hes duefor a promotion to management because hes been in the department the longest. He finds it unfair or possibly even sexist when Helen receives the promotion. She has only been in the department for two years, compared to his 10. What John doesnt understand is that tenure isnt the deciding factor, but the ability to do the job is. Helen performed at a higher level than John and has demonstra ted leadership qualities. Thus she received the promotion. When management keeps the decision-making process for promotions and career development a virtual black box that employees cant see to understand, they rightly or wrongly see the process as unfair. Employees only fare well mentally when they can see and understand what they need to do to ensure their eligibility. If not, then they feel the system is unfair and it affects their workplace mental health and their sense of fair treatment. Its important to have a properly run, transparent workplace, to reduce stress and other mental health stressors for your employees in the workplace. - Suzanne Lucas is a freelance writer who spent 10 years in corporate human resources, where she hired, fired, managed the numbers, and double-checked with the lawyers.

5 Key Ways to Grow Your Career

5 Key Ways to Grow Your Career5 Key Ways to Grow Your Career We all want to expand our knowledge, learn something new, prove our worth and move up the ladder. How do you get started? Knowing the right company that fits your culture, passion, and industry is the first step. But once you find the right company, how do you work your way up? Here are 5 tips on how to cultivate your career. Relationships are an essential part of your partal and professional life. Whether its with your current or former employer, building a solid foundation of professional connections is critical. Clients, peers, and subordinates, in addition to your management team, can all validate the quality of your work. Thoughtfully build your network and continue to learn from every level. Make LinkedIn work for you. If you havent already, create your LinkedIn profile , add your skills and contributions to beef up your profile. Endorse your colleagues and request their endorsement. A nod from you r peers, or a positive review from a previous client, speaks volumes on LinkedIn. Be proactive. schauplatz goals for your professional career are critical. Start small and add new goals each year. Find your passion and connect with others that share your ambitions. By sharing with others, youll have an even greater network to leverage expertise and resources. Look for opportunities to try something new and step outside your comfort zone. Are there any classes or trainings available at your company? Does the company offer tuition reimbursements for a class youre interested in taking? If you dont know, ask When you have a passion for growing your career, take a shot on a stretch assignment. Whether its contributing to an additional project, or taking on a whole new role, this stretch assignment will add to your skillset, give you exposure to other people in your company, and allow you to gain insight into the expectations and daily work associated with a different position. A coach or mentor can be a person thats in, or outside, of your organization. They should be a trusted advisor that can help guide you to the next stage of your career. Identify who that person is in your life and see if theyre interested in committing to your growth . You can have more than one. Keep in mind it should be someone that can help you develop your personal and professional skills. Consider a person that is in a current role that youd aspire to, or a person that can support your professional development, in preparation for the next step. Be receptive to feedback. Look at any constructive criticism as positive. Remember your coach or mentor has your best interest at heart. Be open-minded when listening to their suggestions this can have a lasting, positive effect on your relationship with them and help you identify talents in yourself that you may not have previously realized. Are you ready to grow? Sometimes you need to take the leap and find out. Before you do, mak e sure you can land on your feet. Have you excelled in your current role? Have you grown to your full potential? If you answered yes, its time to move on to the next stage of your career. Before presenting your interest to your manager, prepare to reference any positive comments from others about your wertzuwachs to solidify your next move. Include any past performance evaluations to add credibility. If youve truly mastered your current role, then moving into a larger, or a new position will seem like an obvious next step. In speaking with your manager about your next move, ask what tools youll need to succeed. When looking at the big picture, plan effectively, build relationships and execute a growth strategy with guidance from your manager and mentor to progress to the next stage in your career . By executing strategic goals, a new path to success will unfold. By implementing these steps, you can significantly impact your growth opportunity and challenge yourself to reach the next stage in a successful career.Yolanda Walker is the Talent Acquisition Manager for Eurest Services , a division of Compass Group. With internal promotions reaching nearly 40% in 2017, Eurest Services provides employees with the career advancement coaching and classes needed to excel. To learn more about the company culture and employment opportunities, click here .