211: Outbound Calls To New Clients During COVID-19

<p>Sales is always a tough job, but not being able to get any new clients during Covid-19 just takes the degree of difficulty right to the top of the scale.  Every company I speak with says the same thing – they cannot get any new clients at the moment, so they are stuck.  Even when the target decision-maker is in the office, it is diabolically difficult to get through the steel wall erected to keep out salespeople.  Today many buyers are safely tucked up at home, just placing them at that even more distant point away from us.  The person who answers the phone when we call, has not the slightest interest in connecting us, in fact, they are hell bent on getting rid of us altogether.  We know they will get scolded by the boss, if they put through a pesky salesperson.  So we have to make sure that we are bringing so much value, that the boss won’t get upset. Here is a Four Step approach to deal with this conundrum.</p> <p> </p> <p>Step One is give your company name, your own name and who your company is.  The who you are part must be brief and overflowing with credibility at the same time.  For example, “Hello, my name if Greg Story from Dale Carnegie Training Japan.  We are experts in soft skills training, globally for the last 108 years and here in Japan for nearly 60 years”.  Key words are “soft skills training”, “global”, “108 years” and “nearly 60 years”.  In one short sentence the key unique selling points have been highlighted.</p> <p> </p> <p>Step Two is why we are calling.  We need to go straight to the pain point facing similar competitors in their industry.  “Recently, we have had many of your competitors calling us asking about leadership training for leaders dealing with remote teams.  The new Covid-19 situation has made leading teams much harder and companies are noticing the substantial drop in productivity. Despite their best efforts they have not been able to find any answers internally.”  Japanese companies are often paranoid about what their competitors are up to, so it is always good practice to