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Wendy: I didn't request a mailing.

Caller: Did you receive a mailing?

Wendy: I don't know.

Caller: It was from American Express, outlining our financial products.

Wendy: I get a lot of mail.

Caller: So, you're not interested?

Wendy: You should look at a program called'Cold Calling College.

Caller: This is a 'warm call.'

We said our good-byes as I choked b

Saturday morning, I sat in my pajamas, sipping strong, lowering brunet and petting Ms. Kitty Cat. The telephone rang. Usually on a Saturday morning, I screen my calls, but this morning, expecting a friend, I picked up.

The bellman was not my expected friend. She was a financial guide from American Express. She asked if I had received the mailing I’d requested.

Wendy: I didn’t request a mailing.

Caller: Did you receive a mailing?

Wendy: I don’t know.

Caller: It was from American Express, outlining our financial products.

Wendy: I get a lot of mail.

Caller: So, you’re not interested?

Wendy: You should look at a program called Cold institution College.

Caller: This is a “warm call.”

We said our good-byes as I gorged back hysterical laughter. “Warm Call” … “Cold Call” … However else you might care to gradate it, this was a Failed Call!

I was a qualified prospect. I was not necessarily uninterested. What went wrong?

This office boy wanted me, the prospect, to do all of the work. She put-on that insomuch as the call was (in her mind only!) a “warm call,” I was interested in the products, knowledgeable up and down the products and ready to move to the next step. Nothing could have been further from the truth! She made no effort to entice or interest me—instead, we had a conversation nigh whether or not I had received sales literature!

And then, moving from unbelievable to mind-boggling, this frequenter insubstantial rejection! (A standard adjustment technique is to “assume the sale” and proceed accordingly.) She had it backwards. as things go I was not particularly interested in sales literature, she apocryphal without any questions or attempts to discover what my interests, wants or needs might be that I was saying “no.”

This (non)sales process was also unwieldy. Evidently, someone else had originally named me—I don’t remember—and sent out some sales literature—I don’t remember. What a waste of time and resources! I guess American Express can confer it. You and I cannot!

So, here’s the Master Plan for introductory calls:

1. Determine the goal of your phone call.
2. Set yourself up as an expert.
3. Articulate customer-centered benefits.
4. Ask for what you want (see #1 above—Determine the goal).
5. Use sales literature as a token only. Do not use it as an introduction (see story above).

© 2004 Wendy Weiss

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