Michael Campanile is the Inside Sales Manager for ReminderMedia. In his first year with the company, he made $94,000 from cold calling. Seven years later, he leads a team of 50 sales callers.

Today on Stay Paid, Michael discusses how he keeps those callers motivated, while offering advice that will help you take your cold calling game to the next level.

Key Points:

• Motivating a team begins with your ability to motivate yourself.
• Practice your pitch so that you can make a strong first impression.
• Get your prospects to relate to you on a human level, so they’ll be more receptive to the value you offer.

Motivating a Team

According to Mike Campanile, motivation is the easiest thing in the world. You just have to show people you actually care about them. Celebrate their small victories. Give them shout-outs. Let them know you believe them in them.

It’s also important to motivate yourself.

“I realize that if I have a frown on my face, I’ll affect 50 people,” Campanile says. “I have to smile. I have to keep the game face on, because it’s contagious.”

If you believe you can’t do something, you won’t do it. But if you can keep yourself in a positive mind-set, it will pay dividends.

Cold Calling Principles

People think of sales as manipulation. But, in actuality, salespeople are sharing a value proposition—a product or service that will resolve pain or add joy to their customers’ lives. Most people are scared to cold call because they don’t believe they are changing somebody’s life.

Of course, getting great at cold calling takes time. You only get 4–5 seconds to make a good first impression on the telephone, which means it’s important to practice your pitch. It takes an average of 10,000 hours to master a skill. How many salespeople have spent even 200 hours honing their pitch?

Expertise is also incredibly important. Are you the subject matter expert in your local market? If you’re not, no one will believe that you’ll take them to the next level.

Ultimately, success is the accumulation of small efforts. If you consistently put in the effort, day in and day out, you’ll find success.

Closing a Deal

Sales isn’t easy. Successful salespeople train themselves to be comfortable being uncomfortable. But, if you truly believe in what you’re doing, you can become a great salesperson.

Being direct with callers is incredibly important. State your intention at the beginning of the call. When you do this, you give the other person a chance to offer objections. Then, you can work to overcome those objections and reemphasize your value.

Ask questions. If you can’t get a prospect to open up with you and let their guard down, you won’t win.

There’s a fine line between being assertive and aggressive. Most people who cold call don’t deal well with objections. They get defensive and wind up losing the deal. This is why you need to be patient. If you end things on the right note, you might close the deal on a follow-up call.

If you’re talking on the phone to a prospect who is driving, ask them to pull over to have a conversation with you. The only reason someone won’t pull over is because the inconvenience outweighs the value presented. When you get that scale to turn in your favor, they’ll find a way to pull over and buy.

Resources:

Phone Scripts

Action Items:

• Pick up the phone and do a cold calling power hour, consisting of at least 25 calls of different types (e.g. expired listings, FSBOs, people in your sphere of influence).