Or should I hit ‘zero’ and be connected to the operator?
If you’re not familiar with our philosophy and approach to appointment setting, we are all about being as effective as we can on each call so we are as efficient as we can be over time in the process of pursuing many targets simultaneously. The reason is that very few of us have extra time to sit and make appointment setting calls, nor do many of us like doing it. Ergo, the fewer the dials we need to make and the less time we need to set aside to do it, the better. Continue reading “Dial by name directories – should I use it or not?”
Should we canvas for Initial Appointments or use the phone? In environments that require a lot of appointment setting with new targets, it’s a question that gets asked a lot. So what’s the answer? 
There is a concept in psychology called, ‘Learned Helplessness‘. It means that when we experience something often enough, we can develop a belief that supports that experience. With cold calling, we hear the following comments from people all the time. “Cold calling doesn’t work.” “Leaving voicemails doesn’t work.” “I won’t use scripts because it makes me sound canned, like the proverbial telemarketer reading their script.” 
This actually happened to me yesterday. I received a cold call and my administrative assistant took the call. She asked if she could take a message and was told to tell me “It’s personal.” 
My wife, Nancy, and I love to hike in the mountains and a little while ago we were in Sedona, Arizona doing just that. (It’s beautiful, by the way if you like rocks. Many, many rocks. They even have mountains named as rocks like Red Rock and Cathedral Rock.) Anyway, as we were hiking up this one trail, I stepped on a fairly smooth rock and my boot lost a little traction, causing me to slip. Being a conscientious hiker, I proceeded to kick it off the path after regaining my balance as I certainly didn’t want someone else to have the same experience. But as I did it, I noticed that there were millions; no make that gazillions more of them, so I quickly gave up on my crusade to make hiking through Sedona safe for everyone. 
Ever had a target for an Initial Appointment respond by asking you to send them some information first on your solution when you ask them for an appointment? If you’ve been setting appointments for any period of time, you have because it works on most sales professionals. As a matter of fact, most think they’ve got a ‘hot one’ when someone asks for information. 
Many times acquired lists (or certainly lists of companies we compile on our own) will not have the name of the person we want to meet with. So, where do we go to get this information prior to placing the first call to H.E.R.B?