NLP Podcast Extract : Andy Preston on Cold Calling

Andy is an International Expert in Cold Call Techniques, Objection Handling, Getting Past Gatekeepers, Making More Appointments, and Sales Motivation.

"Cold Calling, to me, is where you have to make an either telephone call, or face-to-face visit, to people that you don't necessarily have any contact with in the past - that aren't likely to remember you, that aren't likely to have had any contact with you, that might not have any idea who you are - and it's a very cold introduction, IE, there's no warmness to it, there's no prior contact, and I'm expecting there to be some resistance in having them engage in conversation with you."

"Well, it's an interesting question Michael because I know a number of my clients, because of my background and success in sales, they come to me because I help to differentiate themselves from the competition. So a lot of the work that I find myself doing these days is in companies having a similar product or service to other companies, be able to differentiate themselves between those companies and therefore get the business."

"So I've become quite a big fan of doing something different, and if every single person is doing things one way, I like to be a little bit contrary and do things a little bit differently. While, certainly when I started my sales career fifteen years ago Cold Calling over the phone, Cold Calling face to face, dropping in on people - was commonplace - it's become less popular, or less cool to do it, particularly with the advent of the Internet, or Internet marketing by sending emails."

"So I think that it's not quite a lost art yet, but a lot less people are doing it. So therefore all of the people that are still doing it are getting very good results."

"Well I actually started off life, quite bizarrely as a professional buyer, which I think gives me a very good insight into why people buy, why buyers almost beat up salespeople and business owners, because it gives me a lot of advantages in the psychological negotiation side"

"I then started off at cold calling over the phone and the top appointment maker for every company I ever worked for, I then did cold calling face to face, in one situation for commission only, which is very hardcore. And then became not only top salesperson in my company but also top person in the industry in what I did. Then as companies do is duly promote the best salespeople to sales manager and sales director"

"So I lost my data range, got very bored of the frustration managing paperwork and moved into sales training, cold calling training, particularly because most of the people that were hiring to train my team were not experienced in sales, some had never been in sales, some had never picked a phone up in their life."

"How on Earth can I bring you in on thousands of pounds per day on teaching my team how to sell, when you've never sold yourself?'' It was very, very strange - and I find generally, that there is not many people who are good at cold calling, there are not many people who are good at training people how to cold call, and there are certainly very few people who are good at both.

Read or listen to the full Andy Preston transcript and podcast on Cold Calling.

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Liam Beale
Business Development Manager
PPI Business NLP: NLP Training and NLP-based Business Training