How to Cold Call Sales Appointments for Direct Selling

How to cold call sales appointments when selling direct to the public will give you fresh ideas and proven techniques to fill your diary.

Here you'll see free training on:

• How to make as many sales appointments as you want
• Getting it right - The most important line of your call
• Avoiding mistakes that are costing you sales and money now
• Pick up that phone and make your cold calls with confidence
• Create your own successful unique cold call and use it today

Plus links to more pages with real examples of calls and techniques used by successful Direct Sellers and professional appointment makers.

And, all these pages are great for anyone that hates cold calling or wants to improve their skills.

In this section of the site the techniques are aimed at Direct Sales prospects. Calling people at home to make appointments is a different call to when you are selling B2B (Business to Business)

Business people expect calls about doing business, the public in their own home often need more motivation to listen to your pitch.

This is just one page of the telephone appointments section of the site. You can see links to the full appointment call process in the right hand column.

So let's get started with the most important line of your Direct Sales appointment call...

How to cold call is all about getting this one key element of your calls working for you.

Think about the calls that you get from sales people trying to arrange appointments with you. What is their Introduction, their first few lines.

Many cold callers start by asking you how you are. If you're like me you probably just want them to get to the reason why they are calling you. After all this is a stranger, are they really interested in your health or how you feel today.

You can always test their sincerity by telling them about every ache and pain you have or all the problems you were dealing with before their call interrupted you. Then see how interested they are.

Using an Introduction that attempts to start a conversation without giving the prospect a reason for the call is a big mistake.

Call centers that have poor training on how to cold call ofen make this mistake.

Your Direct Sales prospects are just like you, they're busy people and they have to prioritise their time.

To get their attention, and to have any chance of getting a sales appointment, you have to make what you are saying more interesting, and more important, than what they were doing when you called.

You have to get to the point, the reason you are calling them, so that they can make a decision on whether they have an interest in what you are saying.

So the most important line of your call is...

Actions to create a great Direct Sales Introduction:

Take these actions on how to cold call Direct Sales prospects and create an interest grabbing Introduction.

List your benefits

List all the benefits of your service or products that you could use in your introduction as a reason for cold calling a Direct Sales prospect. Think about how a customer could gain from what you sell. Use the bigger more general benefits that will have an impact on more prospects.

Positive and negative benefits

Your reason for calling can be to help the prospect gain a positive benefit, or to help them avoid negatives. In your own mind clearly define each of your benefits and which of these categories they fall in to.

Select the ones with the most impact

Choose the benefits that will have the most impact on your Direct Sales prospects. Knowing how to cold call means understanding that you need something big and bold as a reason to call a prospect.

A common mistake

Do not use: I will be in your area, or we are in your area, as the reason for your call to the prospect. This is a common mistake and it will not make the prospect want to listen to the rest of your pitch.

It says to the prospect, you are not worth travelling any distance to see. There is no other reason for me calling you other than it fits in with my travel plans.

How to cold call with confidence

To add power to your reason for calling you must sound confident. Any hesitation in your voice, weak words in your call script, or a less than positive tone, will be picked up by the prospect.

A confident Introduction will have: A brief introduction of you, your product or business, a reason for calling, and a link to the next stage of your call.

Get this important part of your call right and you will be able to make as many sales appointments as you want.

By now you can see how important this part of your appointment setting call is, and how much you can gain from getting it right.

You can get professional help online to create a confident Introduction stage for your calls, and then the rest of the stages leading to winning a sales appointment.

Take a look at a sales training course that many Direct Sales people around the world are already using to give them an advantage: cold calling techniques for Sales Appointments...

Examples of Reasons for Calling

You can see a full page on creating a Reason for Calling that gives you examples of what appointment makers use in different Direct Sales markets.

You can also see the ideas and techniques that help to create a really good reason for calling. To see the examples and ideas go to Telephone sales training for Direct Sales...

The next stage: Ask a question

You've given a great, brief Introduction on your Direct Sales appointment call, so what's next.

The next stage is to keep the propect's attention while you move them to the questioning stage where you qualify them as someone that you want to meet with.

See the next stage and more free sales training, at Direct Sales appointment techniques...

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