When we talk about prospecting for the commercial/industrial sales professional we usually consider these facts. First, numerous studies have shown that sales are made after the 3rd call so the initial calls are simply relationship builders. Second, timely follow up is critical so that you can actually get to that 3rd call. Third, we have found that a low key and repeatable system for prospecting is easiest to measure and track effectiveness. That is also a brief description of our BLITZ CALL® System of Prospecting and Making Cold Calls.

In 1972, I developed what is now our Prospecting System, when I was working in the grocery industry. I was with a large national company at the time and they decided to introduce a new product in June. They told us to present this product to as many of our grocery store managers as possible in 5 days. I was an eager young sales guy then so I thought to myself, "If I have 300 stores in my territory and I have 5 days to present this product, then I will need to call on 60 stores a day."

I made those 60 presentations and ended up selling more product than all the other sales people in Ohio combined. Not that I was so great at selling, simply because I asked everyone to buy. It was simply a Blitz Presentation with a lot of Blitz sales. After I made the presentation about 10 or 15 times, I could do it really really well. The entire presentation only took about 45 seconds and ended with a simple close, "Would you like to try 3 cases of our new …?" I learned early on in my career that is if you ask enough people to buy, you will sell a lot.

Now, the draw backs of this are obvious. You can exhaust yourself easily; I could not have kept up the pace of 60 calls a day. And of course I used a closed end question in my Close, so when someone said no the presentation was over and I was off to the next call, if they said yes I filled out the order and was off.

The whole idea of our Prospecting System today is to get you in front of lots of Prospects so you can begin to use your sales technique. But I find that there are still times when the good old Blitz Presentation is applicable.

This week I conducted our Prospecting Seminar and worked with a group of sales professionals who were blitzing their territory to announce two new services they are offering. They made as many calls as possible simply announcing the new services and inviting the Prospects to an open house at their new service center.

This was a great experience for me because I have not spent much time over the past few years focusing on this type of Blitz activity. I have been emphasizing the imp

ortance of continuous Prospecting throughout the year, making a specific number of calls each week to achieve my goals.

This Blitz Presentation can have many of the benefits of our BLITZ CALL System and I emphasized them to this sales force. They had a real exciting two days of heavy Prospecting; some people made 90 plus calls a day!

I strongly recommended that you make the same basic presentation each time. This way you get really good with your wording. Also, you can then concentrate on what the prospect is saying, read their body language.

Next, keep good records of who you call on. This is a great resource for the rest of your career. Once you have made that initial call you must follow up in a timely manner or you will have to cold call the company again! That is a waste of effort.

We hope that the folks I worked with this week will have a tremendous year with all of the new contacts they made during this Blitz Presentation effort. The more I think about it, the more I realize that many companies could benefit from an effort like this. But you need to do some prep work first so the individual sales professionals reap the harvest available to them.

In conclusion, if you want to give a jolt of excitement and success to your sales force, you should consider the Blitz Presentation and Sale.

Sell Well and Often

Bill Truax

Bill@BlitzCall.com

© Copyright 2006 WJ Truax

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