A cold call gone WRONG!
Someone cold called me today.
They’ve been trying all week but today they finally got through. And I’ll be honest, it was a TERRIBLE call.
And this is nothing against salespeople, or people who cold call. Not at all. And it’s nothing against the guy who called me either.?
He’s just doing his thing, no biggy.
But what went wrong in the call today, is what goes wrong in almost every business at some point, in almost every industry.
And look, I spent 8 years in the selling business. I built a six-figure company that sold many million (￡)’s worth of my clients products.
So I know what I’m talking about with this.
Jim Camp also talks about this “selling mistake” in his negotiation system. Jim Camp was hired by the FBI to handle their negotiations — he’d also negotiate with Intel and other billion-dollar corporations. His books were mandatory reading in Harvard, too.
And in his system he talks about this concept I’m about to mention.
The principles are all THE SAME.
It doesn’t matter if you're selling, negotiating, marketing, or advertising.
So here’s how today’s cold call went:
RING A DING DING!
…
RING A DING DING!
…
*CLICK*
…
“Hello”
Cold call guy: “Hi Jameel it’s [name] from [company], I see that you do email marketing etc etc”
Me: “Yep, ok”
Cold call guy: “Well what we do is video blah blah blah, have you ever thought about using it to grow your biz?”
Me: “No, not really.”
Cold call guy: “You’ve never considered it no?”
Me: “Nah.”
Cold call guy: “Well basically what we do is blah blah blah, we can help you blah blah. And blah blah. If you add this link to your email you can do video and blah blah.”
Me: “Ok.”
Cold call guy: “So would you like to set up an appointment next week for a demonstration? Like 20-25 minutes and we’ll show you how it works?”
Me: “Nah, I’m fine thanks.”
Cold call guy: “Ok thanks for your time.”
- END OF CALL -
A teachable moment.
And again, nothing against the guy who called me. At least he’s picking up the phone and doing his thing.
So, here’s the mistake he made:
He didn’t ask about my PAIN.?
He didn’t dig for my PAIN.
And he didn’t attempt to even discover my PAIN.
And look, I want more leads, customers, and sales like every other business person out there.
But he didn’t even bother to ask me:
“What’s is your single biggest struggle right now growing your biz?”
He didn’t care about me… he just wanted to pitch his software.
It’s an easy mistake to fall into though:
If you’ve got warm blood in your veins then you're probably like the rest of us — we ALL care about Numero Uno.
Me, myself, and I.
But in marketing, selling, negotiating or whatever… it’s about your customer’s PAINS.
Discover that, then you win.
Start every marketing campaign, ad campaign, or selling campaign in “discovery mode”.
Focus on the prospect.?
…and their pains, problems, insecurities, and frustrations.
Finding pains is what I do before I write anything, it's a part of my system for writing emails that sell.
And, actually, before taking on a client I have a consulting call to find the biggest “lost revenue opportunities” in an e-com biz.
The call is to find out what your biggest marketing PAIN is right now.
To determine if you even need my help.
Learn more here, my friend:
Jameel Paul
PS
It was actually Ben Settle aka elBenbo who put me onto Jim Camp and how negotiating, selling, and marketing are all the same.
Kudos!