Speaker 1 0:19

Welcome to the Toilet Paper Salesman Podcast. My name is Mike Merarki and I'm your host. I'm thrilled you're with me today, and today we'll be talking about cold calling. Now, when we talk about cold calling, the number one thing we need to talk about is your comfort zone, because obviously, making cold calls, either by the phone or in person, however you're going to do it, requires you being out of your comfort zone. It's not something that we're naturally comfortable doing. My expertise is business-to-business sales, so everything I'm going to be talking about today is business-to-business. If you're in business-to-consumer, that's okay. You'll still pick up some good tips, but just so you know, the perspective that I'm talking about is business business. So let's talk about comfort zone.

Purpose of Sales Calls

Speaker 1 1:04

Comfort zone is the key, because you'll never be successful inside of your comfort zone. Your success will always lie outside of your comfort zone, and the more you can expand your comfort zone, the greater success you'll have in life, in your personal life, in your relationships, in every part of your life. You need to expand your comfort zone Because your life is like a tree it's either growing or dying. In everything your business, your sales territory, your life is all like a tree it's growing or it's dying, because a lot of times what happens? People unpack, they think they're in a good spot, they stop expanding their comfort zone and automatically, life is like an incline right Automatically, if they stop, they'll start sliding backwards. It's like growing your business. You need to continue to grow your business in order to thrive and to be successful, because if you're satisfied with no growth, you're going backwards. Just from an inflationary standpoint you're going backwards. So it always has to be growing and working towards growing and thriving your business in order to get the greatest success.

Speaker 1 2:11

One of the things that I talk about a lot is your purpose. Why do you make sales calls? What's your purpose in making sales calls? And most times when I ask that question in a seminar, the answers I'll get is to make money, to get the sale, to get an order and they are true answers. But it's not the answer that's going to help you to be the most successful. The answer is my purpose in making a sales call is to help my customers be successful, whatever that means to them. So there's two types of sales calls. The sales call number one is you walk in and you say, hey, do you need anything this week? You don't need anything, do you. That's a type of sales call. The problem with that sales call is there's no preparation. You're just walking in, you don't have anything that you're really trying to sell to a customer and you're just pushing products. The second sales call is how do I help my customer be more successful? That's a totally different sales call because there's preparation involved.

Speaker 1 3:10

There is a concern with the customer's business, there is questions that you're asking about how you can help. There's a plan, there's all kinds of steps that take place when your focus is helping your customer be successful and at that point you become the person that they look to. You become their advisor. You have a consultant-type relationship versus a sales-type relationship, building trust and that relationship that allows you to squeeze out your competitors because you're the man or the woman that they're trusting in your business.

Moving from Satisfaction to Success

Speaker 1 3:49

If you think about sailing and you want to go from one side to the lake to the other on a sailboat, you're not going to go straight across the lake. You're going to tack, you're going to go left, you're going to go right, depending on the wind, and then you'll get over to the other side. If you're trying to get from point A to point B, you need to go to C. And what's C? C is helping your customer be successful. So if your goal is helping your customer be successful, if you go there, then you'll automatically get to the other side. You'll automatically get success in sales. You'll automatically build customer trust. You'll automatically build relationships, because you're doing all the things in their world to help the customer be successful, not in your world to get the order to make money. What does that type of a sales call look like? Number one you're going to ask a lot of questions because you want to uncover what the needs are of the customer, where they need help, particularly in your product area and even generally in their business. How can you help that customer? How can you get them to the next level? And then how could you use your tool belt and your products and services to help them to get there. Once they know the customer knows that that's your intention, then the trust and the relationship builds automatically.

Speaker 1 5:03

Customer satisfaction is not good enough. There's a company that has a slogan that says success through customer satisfaction. Now, on the surface, that seems like a good statement success through customer satisfaction but what I would do is switch two words satisfaction and success. What I would say is satisfaction through customer success. You can satisfy a customer right out of business. You walk in every day. You're satisfying a customer. You're giving them what they need. They're satisfied. They're satisfied. You go back in the next week and they're closed. Success in customer satisfaction versus satisfaction in customer success there's a huge difference between those two. One is in my world and one is in the customer's world, and we always want to stay in the customer's world.

Cold Calling Strategy Essentials

Speaker 1 5:56

So, first of all, when you're talking about cold calling, you really have to understand there's three different ways to do that. You could do it by phone, you could do it by email, you could do it by an in-person call. Those are the primary three ways. I'm sure there's other ways through. Linkedin is another way, and now social media has become a bigger part of that.

Speaker 1 6:15

The idea, then, is what is your goal initially? What are you trying to accomplish? And so let's talk about a physical cold call. If you're out in the field and you happen to drive by a customer and you decide that you're going to stop in, what's your goal? What are you going to try to accomplish? It's really very simple. The only thing that you want to do when you walk in cold is. You want to just get the information that you need to go to the next step. So what you need to find out is who do I need to talk to, when's the best time to get in contact with them and could I have their contact information? That's it. If you can get those three pieces of information, that's a very successful cold call.

Speaker 1 6:55

If you happen to have the opportunity to speak with someone, that is icing on a cake. There is no expectation for that on your first cold call, because you have to remember that it's a respective time issue. You're walking in cold, they're in the middle of a hundred things, they may or may not have time for you, and if they don't, that's okay. All you want to do is gather that information and then what you're going to do is then follow right up on that immediately and set up an appointment and come in and have a proper sales call. So really, the cold call is only to gather information and to get understanding of who, what, where and when. Right, who do I need to talk to, when do I need to get into contact with them, how's the best way to contact them, what's the best time to contact them, all that information and if you can get a business card, even better, because then you have all their contact information.

Speaker 1 7:48

Consistency is the key and we've talked about this in other episodes. I have a whole episode coming up on this. Consistency builds confidence, confidence turns into trust, trust becomes a relationship and once you have a relationship, the business flows. When's the best time to cold call? You know, what we find is that sometimes on the phone early in the morning, before eight o'clock, is good for some buyers.

Speaker 1 8:13

Friday afternoon is usually a great time to cold call, and you know why? Because a lot of time buyers are winding up for the day. There's no activity Friday afternoon. Most other salespeople aren't doing cold calls and that's a really good time to get a hold of a buyer and have a decent discussion with them. Believe it or not, the best thing I could tell you is experiments never fail. If the morning doesn't work, try the afternoon. If the afternoon doesn't work, try the afternoon. If the afternoon doesn't work, try the morning. If you need to send them something, if you're having trouble getting through, send them a gift, send flowers, send candy, send food, just something to get their attention, something to put your face in front of them or put your business in front of them in a different way. Sometimes you have to get creative in that.

Speaker 1 8:58

What's the preparation that you're going to do before you go out and actually make a cold call? The most important thing is to first go on their website. I always go on their website and check through and see if I can find products and see if I can find out about their business as much information as you can gather. You want to gather pre-call. You want to check out their social media. You want to connect with them on LinkedIn. You want to connect on Twitter the other social media platforms. You want to gather information from other sources, like suppliers and brokers and other people that you're dealing with who may have information, and then you're ready to approach the account. So let's talk about a little strategy.

Why Customers Change Suppliers

Speaker 1 9:38

So now you get into the account, you go in, you make a cold call, you find out who the buyer is, you do your research and then you actually get an appointment. And then you're going in and you're in a sales call and a customer is saying, oh, distributor number one has about 75% of my business, distributor number one has about 75% of my business, distributor number two has 20% and distributor number three has 5%. So the question is which competitor are you gonna try to attack? Most people will say they're gonna go after the top one, distributor number one with 75% of the business. I say you wanna go after the distributor where the customer has the least satisfaction, because where they have the dissatisfaction is how you get your foot in the door. Sometimes that guy that's got 75% of the reason. There's a good reason why they have that much business and it's because the customer loves them.

Speaker 1 10:33

And if the customer loves them, it's going to be very hard to get their business. You might get an order from them. You might get one product and this has happened to everybody. You go in, customer likes you. You go after the main competitor. You get one or two items, they give you an order and then the next week no orders and then the next week no orders. Why? Because the competitive salesperson walked in, who has 75% of the business, and said hey, what happened to my dinner napkins? What happened to my toilet paper? And the customer says, oh, so-and-so came in and they beat your price and they go. What do you mean? They beat my price, they beat my price and then they go and match your price and then they take the business back, then they take the business back. But if you go after a competitor who does not have good standing in the customer and now you take their business, first of all the customer will be happy when the competitive salesperson walks in because he's able to throw them out the door. Finally, and number two, when the 75% guy comes in, or gal, and sees your product, they're going to be like, hey, what are you doing, buying from that guy? And the customer goes hey, don't worry about it, that's not your product. Now you've got your foot in the door. And once you've got your foot in the door, then you're going to Pac-Man them. Then you're going to beat up the competition because now you're in the door, now you have weekly deliveries and you could start working within the account to build the account base.

Speaker 1 11:57

Making a change from the customer standpoint very difficult. It's very challenging. So why do customers change? What's, the most of the time, the reason why a customer will make a change? 1% change because of death. 3% change because they move their business. 5% buy from a friend. 9% sold by the competition. 14% is on price or product. 68% of all customers switch because they feel like you don't care about them. That is a huge number and 100% the truth. So what happens is is that you run into a customer. They have a problem, you don't fix it or address it properly. Now, all of a sudden, you're at a deficit and then you don't call them back again. Now you're really at a deficit and now the customer feels like you don't care. The competition walks in the door, you're out.

Speaker 1 12:53

We all have a bank account a personal bank account, a business bank account with each other and it's like, if you think about scales right, they're a balance.

Speaker 1 13:02

There needs to be a balance in our bank account. I talk about this in a relationship with my wife. Back in the day I used to go to NASCAR races. When my kids were young, my buddy and I would go to a NASCAR race. It'd be a Friday afternoon. My wife would be all happy for me to go. She'd be fine, you know, yeah, have a great time. And then I'd go to the NASCAR race and then Sunday afternoon I'd come home and she's got two days alone with the kids and she's not so friendly anymore. You know, it's not so nice because she's just had a hard time with the kids anymore. It's not so nice because she's just had a hard time with the kids and so now my bank account is down with her. So I need to build that up. So what do I do? I do the dishes, I sweep the floor, I buy her flowers, whatever I need to do to get that bank account back up. If I came home and said, hey, I'm going drinking with the buddies, what do you think would happen? I'd come home and the luggage would probably be in the front yard.

When to Walk Away

Speaker 1 13:51

So the bank account's really important and that's where the 68% they feel like you don't care. If your bank account gets out of whack, then you're going to really be in a deficit, to the point where you're going to lose business. So you have to make sure that the customers really believe you care, and this happens usually with your best customers. Your best customers are the least needy. They don't ask for anything. They're the easiest customers and they're the easiest customers to take for granted. The first step out the door is when you take your customer's business for granted. Your foot's halfway out the door and your other one's on a banana peel You're going to lose the business.

Speaker 1 14:29

Eight reasons why you want to walk away from a prospect. Number one the prospect is not respectful of your time. So you walk in, you have an appointment. They make you wait a half an hour, 45 minutes. You know there's no respect of your time and that works both ways. You have to respect the customer's time, but the customer also has to respect your time. Number two credit is really important.

Speaker 1 14:54

I discuss it on the first call. I discuss it early and often. Why? Because I really need to understand if this is a customer who is not going to pay their bill on time, I'm not going to waste my time doing any amount of work for them because I don't need a headache. Because I don't need a headache. So it's really important to understand that. And the way you understand it is by saying to the customer hey, our terms are X, we're really firm on a way that we offer our payment terms. We expect our customers to pay their bills on time and most customers, if they're good, they'll say no problem, I discount all my bills. That's what you want to hear. If the customer's saying, oh well, I need 60 or I need 90 days, then you know that that's not going to be a good prospect unless you could figure that out.

Speaker 1 15:39

Customer is very demanding upfront. If the customer is very demanding upfront, then how are they going to be once you start doing business with them? And by demanding I mean they're calling up your customer service. They're asking for this. They're very demanding upfront for different things. I want pricing before I put in my credit application and I've had customers that I haven't opened up because of this. I had a customer who was calling my customer service people and they were being nasty to them before I even opened them up as an account because they're trying to get pricing and information before I got the credit application. You know that's not going to be a good customer.

Speaker 1 16:17

Prospects too eager to do business. You walk in and they go oh great, I have an order for you. You've got to be suspect. It's not 100% true, but chances are they might be a credit issue and looking for suppliers. If they're that eager to do business with you, something doesn't feel quite right about the transaction. That would be another reason You're going through the transaction. You're going through but something's not sitting well with you. There's something there. In that case, you're not saying a definite no. But this is where you have to re-examine the customer and make sure that you've got all your T's crossed and your I's dotted and that you're going in the right direction. The next reason would be the prospect sets an unreasonable deadline.

Speaker 1 17:00

So you walk in, you have an opportunity to do business with a new customer and they say to you hey, can you get this product within a certain amount of time? And I had this happen to me when I sold China. I walked into a new prospect and he said hey, I'm opening my restaurant. Here's the date I have this order for China. Can you get it to me? Before the opening date I talked to my buyers. My buyers said they thought they could, so I promised them that they'd have it. Big mistake. And then what happened? The China got delayed. They didn't get their China for their opening. I never got another order.

Speaker 1 17:36

You got to be very careful when a customer is demanding something, because if they're coming to you with this issue, chances are they can't get it from all their other suppliers. So here's the new guy coming in and they're saying, hey, maybe I can get it from this guy. The impossible thing. So it's better off being straight up with your customers and telling them what you can do and what you can't do and you try to help them as best you can. But if there's something that is absolutely unreasonable and you can't do it, then you shouldn't.

Speaker 1 18:03

The prospect is focused 100% on price would be the next reason. When the prospect is focused 100% on price, then there's no relationship. If it's 100% about price, then what else are you offering? Like you say, well, if you have the best price, then you'll get the business. Yes, I get it. I need to be competitive. You're never going to be the lowest on everything. Your pricing needs to be competitive within the market, but you're never going to be the lowest. So a customer who demands the lowest price on every item is generally not going to be one of your A or B customers. And then, finally, companies are not a good match, and this will happen.

Speaker 1 18:43

Sometimes They'll say, hey, do you have manufacturer X? And you go no, I have Y. Do you have this? No, I have that. We're deliver on Wednesday. No, I need it on Thursday. The delivery time is in the morning, I need it in the afternoon.

The Theory of Scattering Mice

Speaker 1 18:58

Everything's wrong, everything, no matter what. You just can't get on the right footing with this customer. Not to say that sometimes that doesn't work, but most times what I find, is when you're on so far off of kilter with that customer that generally that customer is not going to work out. You could try to work through the issues, but it's just something to be aware of. So I have a theory. It's called the theory of scattering mice.

Speaker 1 19:24

So what the theory of scattering mice is is when you're in high school and you had a boyfriend or a girlfriend that you were dating, you found that you could get anybody. They were all available. It was like, wow, I'm dating this girl, but, man, there's three or four others that want to go out with me at the same time. What happens when you break up with your current girlfriend is the rest of them seem to scatter like mice. And why is that? The reason why that is is because when you have a girlfriend or a boyfriend, you're not needy.

Speaker 1 19:56

When you break up, you become needy and you become less attractive. And it's the same thing. If you're too needy to get a new customer, then you're going to be unattractive as a salesperson. It's just natural. You don't need customers, don't even realize that. It's subconscious. You want to get new customers, you want to earn new customers' business, but you don't need new customers, right? Even though you do, you got to have the mindset of not needing but wanting. That's what I have today. I hope you enjoyed this podcast. Who says selling toilet paper isn't glamorous? Thanks a lot and have a great day.