When most people think of direct sales, the feelings they have are not exactly positive. There are so many negative practices associated with direct sales that it has left a bad taste in most people's mouths. I firmly believe that we can revolutionize the direct sales field by letting go of the practices that are viewed as annoying or spammy by others. Today I will be starting a series on these practices. I will show you why they are a bad idea, how they affect your business and what we should all be doing instead.
Today we will be talking about cold calling. We have all experienced this even if we weren't aware of what it was at the time. You receive a friend request from someone you don't know but probably have a lot of mutual friends with. A couple minutes after you accept, you receive a direct message. This message is usually paragraphs long and tells you how they think you would be perfect for their business or how their products will be a perfect fit for you. This is cold calling.
Cold calling still happens to me a couple times a month and it drives me crazy. This person has no interest in me, they don't really want to know me...they want something from me. There is no possible way that they could know if their business is right for me. They don't know me!
Most of the time I block them. If this is a practice you are currently engaging in believe me when I tell you that it does not work. You may get an occasional yes but in the process you are loosing hundreds of people who actually might be right for your business. This practice is costing you leads and relationships.
So, if you shouldn't cold call what should you do instead? You should build relationships. Send out those friend requests but take the time to get to know the person. Have conversations that have nothing to do with your business. Get to know them and build a GENUINE relationship. Only then will you even know if the business is right for them or it's something they would be interested in. Only then will you know what their needs are and whether your products could help them.
When you build relationships you enrich your own life and theirs! Once you have a relationship with the person conversations about business and products can happen naturally.
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