Getting Past The Gatekeeper

One of my friends is a salesman through and through. He pounds the phones day after day cold calling businesses, trying to make appointments, get past secretaries, and gatekeeper to speak to the main man. He has some good days, but mainly they are bad.

Even when he does get the appointment he so desperately seeks, he’s still walks into the appointment on the back foot, his potential customer is still giving him a sideways glance and my friend has to spend half the meeting simply convincing the client that he’s trustworthy enough to even do the job, before he even gets onto the product he’s trying to sell.

Look – If cold calling really, actually works for you, then I suppose you should do
more of it.

Adverts that win awards rarely generate sales.  And adverts that sell rarely win awards

But most of the time, the phone calls aren’t really working that well in the first place.
And doing more of what already isn’t working is just dumb.  Plus, unsolicited phone calls just annoy people.

If you’re doing this right now, if this is you’re only marketing strategy, then chances are you’re wasting thousands.

Advertising is a crucial ingredient, yet it actually works against most companies.
But when it works in your favour, amazing things can happen.
All advertising MUST do one of two things:

1) Generate Sales or
2) Generate Sales Leads.

And do so in a measurable, quantifiable way.

If you do either of those things, you’ll have no problem ‘getting your name out there’
and you’ll also make money in the process.

But if you simply attempt to get your name out there, it’s very likely that you won’t generate sales OR sales leads.

Adverts that win awards rarely generate sales.  And adverts that sell rarely win awards.

People don’t expect nearly enough from their advertising, and they don’t hold it accountable for results.  So they waste thousands mainly because they don’t know any other way.

Then they start pounding their sales people for orders on the 26th of every month.

Most companies also try to make their advertising do too much.  Let me explain.

When you’re generating sales leads, you must remember that all you’re really trying to do is get people to raise their hands and identify themselves as someone who has a problem – and tell you who they are.

Anything beyond that dilutes the effectiveness of your ad.

So don’t make the mistake of telling them too much.  The purpose of pure lead generation advertising is NOT for you to tell them all about yourself – not in the first step anyway.

The purpose is for them to tell you who they are.

When you do this correctly, it’s simple, elegant, and outrageously effective.  And most importantly, nobody feels like you’re chasing them.

One last thing:
Everything you say in advertising must be very, very specific, including what you do , who you do it for and what you want your prospect to do.

If you’re busy being all things to all people then you’re probably not going to sell anything to anybody.

You must define a niche for your-self that’s reasonably unique, what can you offer your prospect of significant value to them which will help them take that first step.