The term ’forcing’ comes to the mind of many when they think about sales. Salesmen, at least talented ones, know, however, that this is a misconception. If you could force people to buy then that would be a dream scenario for any salesman. The truth of the matter is that people cannot be forced to do anything that they don’t want to do.
A good salesman knows how to make a cold call into a warm one. Sales can be very personal when it is aimed at the correct target market and when the product or service is tailored to the needs of the customer. Cold calls, however, are not the correct strategy for every type of sales situation. A good salesman has an act for cold calls and he is able to handle rejection and to make sales personal. There needs to be faith in the effectiveness of cold calls or they won’t work for you. When we go away from personal selling then we move into the field of sales. Although sales and marketing are often seen as the same thing, they are two very different things. By actively practicing personal selling, a salesman can sell to those who were not convinced by the company’s marketing efforts.
Many are convinced that we should rid ourselves from the ‘traditional’ ways of selling. We are of the opinion that one should use new sales techniques when they prove to be beneficial, but that doesn’t mean that we don’t believe in traditional methods of sales. We do strongly believe that traditional methods work as well. We do cold calls ourselves and they have worked very well in our case. By doing so-called cold calls we avoid any misconceptions and manage to reach our target audience effectively. Phone conversations can have powerful effects when they are done correctly. The skill of communicating over the phone is important to learn, because not every conversation is necessary to do face-to-face.
Cold calls are often associated with magazine sales over the phone where young inexperienced salesmen ‘force’ the person at the end of the telephone line to subscribe to useless magazines. This, however, is an out-dated perspective. Very few products and services can be sold without sales, so the challenged (and rewards) of sales should be taken bravely. Sales work has a lot of variations and it isn’t always about forcing people to buy magazines over the phone.
Happy selling to all you salesmen out there! Remember, be confident!