The Key Sales Cold Call Is The Gatekeeper

The key to getting past the gatekeeper when cold calling potential clients is practice and confidence. Do you have the confidence to call a perfect stranger and make it sound like a personal call?

Can you stay positive and sound confident?  Do you know that any hint of uncertainty or apology will kill you?

Tips To Get Past Gate Keeper To The Decision Maker

• Use his or her first name only and your full name, but no company name. If you say your company name, it makes it obvious that he doesn’t know you. (For simplicity’s sake, I am going to use the word “him” or “he” for the rest of the article.)

• Follow up on previously sent information or a message. Leaving a message on the voicemail will never result in a return call, but it will give you the ability to honestly say that you are following up on a previous discussion.

Gatekeeper: “Can I tell him what this is regarding?”
YOU: “I’m following up on a prior conversation with Paul.”

• Sometimes the best thing to do is send a mailing piece, then call so you can answer this question honestly.

Gatekeeper: “Is he expecting your call??”

YOU: “I sent him some information and am checking in to see what he wants to do next.”

YOU: “He should be, based on the info I gave him.”

• If you keep calling and continue to get the runaround and the “he’s not available” line, then try this:

YOU: “Listen, I’ve called a million times and am sorry to be driving you crazy. How does Paul decide who he talks to?”

• Maybe you can cut a deal with the gatekeeper. “If I send some information to you, would you walk it in and hand it to Paul? If you promise you’ll do it, I promise you’ll only get one more unsolicited call from me. My last call will be to find out whether he’s willing to talk.”

• This is my favorite technique to get through to the gatekeeper. There are no tricks or games here.

YOU: “Hi! My name is Deb. I am a sales rep who would like to schedule an appointment with Mr.________. Could you please help me?”

Then just shut up and wait. Asking for help and using silence is a great, great way to force her to make a decision. You need to have the confidence to wait. If you speak first, you lose. If you hold your silence, the gatekeeper may become afraid that if you’re really somebody that will help them, she doesn’t want to be the one who turned you away.

Cold Call Techniques

• Know the decision maker’s name
• Know what benefit you have to offer the decision maker
• Make it personal
• Never sell to the gatekeeper
• Be confident
• Take ownership of the next contact

Remember to treat the gatekeeper the way you would like to be treated!  After all she or he is just doing the job! I read somewhere that most corporate decision makers receive up to 150 unsolicited calls per week.  Actually, based on the number I get in my home office, that seems to be a lowball figure!

Direct Sales Power

What kinds of techniques have you used to get past the gatekeeper when making cold calls?  Tell us in the comment section and you will be entered in the “Direct Selling Power” sweepstakes. Every comment on the blog is automatically entered to win the hot new summer direct sales training “Direct Selling Power.” We are giving away a fully autographed book to some lucky visitor. Learn more about the Direct Selling Power and the 9 ways to enter.

Please comment below with your “cold calling” and “gate keeper” techniques!

Direct Sales Team Motivation

If I could put motivation into a gift bag I would gladly “gift” it to everyone I know in direct sales!  However, reality is very different.  You can inspire others, however motivation isn’t something you can give to another, motivation comes from within oneself.

It’s not a level playing field in direct sales.  People choose direct sales for different reasons.  Some people stumble into direct sales thinking it will something fun to do, others want extra pocket change, some want a new career or to replace lost income, some can see the potential to grow a large business and create financial freedom and some want to meet and mingle with other people.

I could give you a success plan for you to attain, consisting of what I think is success for you, however would you be motivated to work my plan or would you be motivated to work your plan, with your dreams and goals?

Sales Team Motivation

The key to motivation is to find out what drives each member of your sales team.  What are their short-term and long-term inner dreams and goals?  Those are the motivating factors you will need to discover within each team member.  Some people aren’t even aware of what their inner desires are because generally people don’t allow themselves to dream big because they think “oh that’s never going to happen!”

I’ll share a story with you about a woman whose dream is for her 14-year old daughter to become the first person in her family to attend college, but money for tuition and books is very expensive, and she doesn’t have the money now and if she started saving the little bit she could now she wouldn’t have enough money saved by the time her daughter graduates from high school.  Listening to her talk about this dream, I sensed her strong desire for her dream as well as her defeating thoughts and words.

I asked her if I could show her a way for her dream to become a reality, would she be interested in hearing it? Together we worked on a 3-year plan with actions she could take in her business to make this a reality.  She was amazed that she could actually make her dream become a reality by creating her plan with consistent effort in her business.

She has motivation!

“When you know what you want and want it bad enough, you will find a way to get it.”  Jim Rohn

Sales Team Motivation

So quit trying to make people “get motivated”, it doesn’t work!  Each person on your sales team is motivated differently.  Motivation comes from within and from a belief in one’s dream.  Find out what that dream is, show them the path to make that dream a reality, and they become motivated!

Team Trainer And Coach, Merilyn Strange

Merilyn Strange is a Avon leader and a team trainer. As a regular contributor to the site as one of our direct sales team coaches Merilyn brings us motivational team building techniques that create a team with a leadership focus. Contact or learn more about Merilyn by visiting her site or her Cash Flow Show expert page.

Nicki Keohohou Kicks Off Direct Sales Training

Nicki Keohohou, founder of the Direct Selling Women’s Alliance, motivated hundreds of direct sales consultants, corporate executives and industry vendors at the 2010 DSWA Celebrations conference. Held this past weekend in Los Angeles, the leading direct sales and marketing educational event was a huge success. In this video Nicki shares her inspirational message and encourages the direct sales professionals to reach for their dreams and connect with their goals. Achieve success by reaching for more and empowering yourself by being authentic and operate from a place of strength.

Best Sales Marketing Training

Nicki’s presentation was only the beginning of an action-packed conference, featuring some of the best marketing trainers and educators. Spotlighting education from a wide variety of speakers including Mark Victor Hanson, Neil Dana Phillips, Noah St. Johns and Dr. Steve Taubman, the event was attended by corporate executives, sales leaders, direct selling vendors and suppliers, as well as those new to the industry.

Direct Selling Women’s Alliance

Nicki Keohohou is one of the Cash Flow Show experts and contributing authors. DSWA is the second-largest direct selling association worldwide and is a major influence in the industry. My personal experience at all of the Direct Selling Women’s Alliance Celebrations is that the event is MORE inspiring than a company-sponsored national conference, due to the wide variety of companies represented. The learning experience is leveraged tremendously due to different corporate perspectives networking together. I strongly recommend that you attend next year. Usually held the third week in April, I will post the actual dates of next year’s event as soon as I get the information.

If you were at the 2010 Celebrations, please make a comment below about your experiences. Every comment made on the Cash Flow Show prior to May 1st is an entry into the direct sales sweepstakes! You may win the “Stop Recruiting, Start Sharing” training program. We look forward to hearing about your Celebrations experience.

Sorry That Your Missed The Direct Sales Sweepstakes

The NEW LOOK direct sales sweepstakes is over. We are tabulating the submissions. We had hundreds of submissions and will post the winners soon. So, watch this page, join the RSS feed or the newsletter so you get the announcement when it comes!

200 NEW LOOK Entries

I hope you are one of the winners in the NEW LOOK sweepstakes. There are over 100 entries in just a few days. At least 10 lucky visitors will receive the “Stop Recruiting… Start Sharing!” training program because 1:10 will win! You have up until May 1st to enter as often as you want.

These are the entries that we have received so far in the NEW LOOK Recruiting Sweepstakes:

1. 7 new comments: All direct sales blog post comments made on any article on the site receive another entry!
2. 58 entries in the direct sales marketing survey.  Take the direct marketing survey published on the CreateACashFlowShow.
3. 36 sweepstakes entries already submitted through the Twitter and Facebook sweepstakes entry forms. Enter through the Facebook promotions sweepstakes or Twitter sweepstakes.
4. There have been 10 “refer a friend” entries. When you refer a friend who adds your name, email, Facebook profile, or Twitter profile to the application form, comment, or survey form listed in the above sweepstakes entry form, you get another entry!
5. There are 15 new fans on the fan page. Don’t forget to send me a direct message with your email so I can add you into the sweepstakes! Join the fan club at Facebook.
6. Become a new follower of http://www.Twitter.com/DebBixler . No one sent a message yet. There are new followers but I need your email to enter you in the drawing, so send a direct message with your email address to activate the Twitter entry.
7. 7 other people have received the grand prize for FREE by purchasing a $97 product!.
8. There have also been over a dozen or so entries by visitors who found and reported a technical issue on the website. Doing this will also bring you another entry!

Click this link to send an email with a tech issue!

Learn more about sharing the opportunity and win the FREE consultant recruiting training program “Stop Recruiting… Start Sharing!” that will help your business. Enter the Direct Selling Sweepstakes! 1:10 who enter WILL win!

Home Party Consultant Bookings

Based on the huge response that we had for last week’s Speakers In The Park teleseminar on getting more party plan bookings at your show it is obvious that BOOKINGS are always an important topic for home party plan consultants.

Home Party Planning Bookings Audio Training

This audio recording is one of our power hour seminars that was recorded last year on the topic of home party planning systems for finding BOOKINGS! All of the tele-seminars are available by MP3 download in the Elite Club. The following audio on how to find party plan bookings was one of the MP3 downloads which the Elite Club members were able to download after the bookings seminar took place. I just put it into the Elite Club again. The Elite Club includes many home party consultant training topics that are covered in the regularly scheduled Power Hours.

Please remember while you are listening to the recording that all specials and time references were made last year and are “old news”.

Home Party Plan Business = Unlimited Bookings

There is an unlimited supply of bookings for you home part business. You just need to know where to look for them. Enjoy the free bookings audio recording here. You can download all of the Speakers In The Park recordings as well as this one and all of the Power Hour seminars in the Elite Party Plan Training Club

Share Bookings Training Call

Are you enjoying the call? Link to this page from your website, share it with your friends, share it on your favorite social site, book mark it and spread the word so your team can grow their business too.