FEARLESS Cold Calling

Copyright © 2005
By Paul Borgese

paul@FEARMarketing.com
www.FEARMarketing.com

Sales Career Training Institute

www.SalesCareerTraining.com

No part of this material may be reproduced, transmitted or presented in any

form or by any means without prior written permission from the publisher.

It is licensed solely to the registered subscriber who downloaded it.

To encourage others to download this document, please suggest that they

visit http://www.FEARSelling.com for their own licensed copy.

Distribution and/or duplication of any part of this material by any form or

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Sales Career Training Institute

20 River Court, Suite 1007
Jersey City, NJ 07310
201.533.9282

To license and/or private label this material for use at your company,
please call 201.533.9282 or email
the author at paul@FEARMarketing.com.

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About The FEARLESS Series of
Special Reports
Typically, we recommend that salespeople and marketers who want to
improve their selling skills should consider studying FEAR Selling since
its individual components work synergistically as an effective holistic
system.

However, we recognize that there is a demand by some for help in specific

areas of the sales process, and so we have excerpted and modified sections
of the FEAR Selling System into these three Special Reports:

- FEARLESS Cold Calling

- FEARLESS Relationship Building

- FEARLESS In Qualifying Prospects and Handling Objections

Each Special Report provides an introduction to some of the basic

philosophy that underpins the FEAR Selling System and then focuses on
the relevant process.

For more information on FEAR Selling, please visit http://

www.FEARSelling.com.

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Who Needs FEAR Selling?
Life is all about sales. You must persuade:

· your kids to go to bed early

· your boss to give you a raise
· someone to give you a job
· your staff to work harder
· your husband to mow the lawn this weekend
· your wife to spend less money
· your car repairman to do a good job.

The FEAR Selling System has been designed to help anyone who is trying
to persuade someone else – anybody else - to their way of thinking.

We will focus on what you should do in your role as a salesperson, but

don’t forget that these strategies and tactics are applicable to any situation
in which you must try to persuade someone to do something.

Why Everyone Needs To Learn How

to Sell
Leadership, management and sales all use the same set of people skills.

Some might say that a boss has more control over her employees than a
salesperson has over his prospects, but only the illusion of control
separates the two situations.

Many managers believe that because of the employer/employee

relationship they have a certain amount of power over their employees, and
that is true – but that power is limited.
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We are a mobile workforce. It is a freelance economy with no loyalties.
Unless you are in Japan where there is a cultural expectation of lifetime
employment – and even that sense of entitlement is fading fast due to
economic pressures - you must remember that all jobs are temporary.

If you don’t perform, or if your boss doesn’t like you, you could be let go.
Similarly, if you as an employee find a better job tomorrow, you can quit
and move on.

In today’s mobile economy, if you want to stay employed you have to

possess the skills that are in demand – and be able to persuade others that
you have those skills. So, persuasion skills are more important than ever.

Competition is fierce. If you are looking for another job, remember, there
are dozens of other candidates with similar backgrounds to yours. The
question is: how can you position yourself so that you stand out from the
crowd?

Similarly, as a salesperson, don’t be fooled into thinking that your product/

service is so much better than other competing products/services. It is
difficult nowadays to differentiate one product from another in the mind of
your prospect – but this is exactly what you have to do.

Learning What They Don’t Teach

You In Business School
At the time of the writing of this second edition of FEAR Selling, most
business schools in the United States still do not offer a substantive sales or
sales management course in their curriculum.

From our experience in reviewing a great number of business school

marketing courses, we have found that many of them do not adequately
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cover the human dimension of marketing and sales. They do not pay
enough attention to the consumer-behavior aspects of the process.

Marketing and sales skills– and the core skills of writing and speaking
which underlie the marketing/sales processes - are crucial in today’s service
economy.

Yet one of the most common complaints of employers is that their

employees do not have good communication skills. They can’t write well
or present well. They lack good basic persuasion skills.

This is why the Scholastic Aptitude Test (S.A.T.) is being modified to test
writing and other language knowledge such as grammar. The S.A.T. is being
changed in order to meet the needs of a changing world.

Most undergraduate colleges and universities require that applicants

provide S.A.T. scores. In our discussions with employers, we have
discovered that many companies are already – or are planning to – require
job applicants - including salespeople - to submit their S.A.T. scores. They
want people who can write well, present well and persuade effectively.
FEAR Selling will help you in all of these areas of persuasion.

Political Skills Versus Technical Skills

In our early surveys of salespeople, we asked how many of them had taken
a psychology course or had taken part in persuasive communications
activities such as joining the debate team at school. Fewer than 14%
responded that they had.

Understanding human psychology, specifically how to influence others, is

the key to sales and marketing. Yet our business schools focus more on
technical rather than political (or people) skills.

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Why is that?

Well, for one, it is easier to test technical skills like how to value a
company by using the mathematics of discounted cash flows than it is to
test political skills like making a sales presentation that will close the sale.
Valuing a company by means of a certain mathematical technique has only
one right answer. But judging whether or not a sales presentation was
effective is very subjective.

Focused as we are on measuring progress through testing, we gravitate

toward teaching subjects that can easily be tested. It is much easier to
attach a grade to one’s knowledge of financial mathematics than to the
person’s actionable understanding of sales skills.

Similarly, it is relatively easy to teach technical skills such as the steps you
should take to launch a new product or do an initial public offering. But
political persuasion skills are far more elusive. How do you teach someone
to conjure the magic ingredients of charisma, rapport and credibility?

This is where the FEAR Selling System comes in. This System is designed
to fill this all-too-common gap in our formal education.

Who Leads? Sales or Finance

As we mentioned earlier, the same persuasive skills needed to lead are the
same ones that are needed to sell.

Interestingly, during our research into sales effectiveness, we also

discovered that there has been a change in the types of people chosen to
lead organizations over the last three decades.

It used to be that financial professionals – chief financial officers (CFOs),

treasurers, chief accountants - were the ones who would rise to the top
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leadership positions more often than any other professionals in a company.

Nowadays, however, a majority of leadership slots in Fortune 500

companies are filled with individuals with sales backgrounds.

To run complex organizations, you need significant political skills – skills

similar to those that a salesperson needs to persuade.

What Is FEAR Selling?

If you’re reading this right now, odds are that you have hit a brick wall – or
at least some of the pretty big speed bumps and potholes that await anyone
on the road to success in sales.

Whether you are a novice salesperson or a battle-weary veteran, FEAR

Selling can help you.

First off, let me say that we don’t presume to have all the right answers.
Anyone that tells you that their system works for every type of product or
service, in any economic environment and with every type of buyer (and
many desperate sales consultants will tell you that their system will) – is
selling you a dream.

As we will see, the famous Greek philosopher, Socrates, knew how to get
to the truth – and it’s not by having the right answers but rather by asking
the right questions.

And what we can guarantee you is that by the end of FEAR Selling, you
will know most – if not all – of the right questions to ask, and perhaps
more importantly, how to ask them.

FEAR Selling is a flexible framework that you can adapt to your product
or service, depending upon the specific economic conditions, competitive
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situations, and buyer objections that you face in your day-to-day life as a
salesperson.

How Was FEAR Selling Developed?

In my more than 16 years as a business consultant, I have found that
increasing sales is the biggest challenge that my clients have to face.
Cracking the sales code has been a problem I have been grappling with
since my earliest days in the business world.

So early on, I began to study the sales process from several angles.

First, I first studied at the Wharton School of Business and focused on

marketing. Oddly enough, at that time, most business schools, including
Wharton, didn’t offer courses in sales. And even as I write this, most
business schools still do not have serious sales or sales management
programs.

I quickly learned that sales is all about psychology and communication

skills, so I concurrently enrolled in the liberal arts program at the
University of Pennsylvania to develop my persuasion skills as a writer and
speaker.

I continued my education by obtaining a master’s degree in English at

Cambridge University as a British Marshall Scholar, a master’s degree in
public administration at the University of Pennsylvania as a Fels Scholar,
and finally an MBA in marketing and finance at New York University’s
Stern School of Business.

All told, up until my last day of graduation, I had spent nearly 14 years of
my life and had obtained more than $250,000 worth of education – but all
that education didn’t seem to do me much good in the real world.

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I obtained most of my five degrees on a part-time basis, while I worked full-
time as a marketing and salesperson. My formal education had given me a
good foundation in sales, marketing, communication and psychology
theory, but I was still fairly clueless when it came to applying all I had
learned about human nature when I was under pressure in front of a
prospect.

It was depressing when I finally realized that even after all that time and
money spent, I had not even scratched the surface of all there was to know
about the selling process. It was only later when I gathered the experts
necessary to piece together the entire FEAR Selling System did I
appreciate how important this formal foundational education was.

Sales Training, Sales Training

Everywhere
I next began to read all the books, newsletters and self-study programs that
I could get my hands on. I listened to all the popular and most of the lesser-
known sales tape series in my car, on the train, anytime I had a free
moment.

I spent tens of thousands of dollars attending courses, not only on sales but
on psychology, marketing, philosophy, leadership and business strategy. As
you will see, this multidisciplinary approach to sales is what makes FEAR
Selling more powerful in influencing buyer behavior than the majority of
other systems that you may have already encountered.

My results as a marketer and salesperson improved significantly because of

all of this reading and training, but I knew I could do better. I knew that I
was familiar with the individual tactics that worked but wasn’t really sure
when to use them or if they could be more effective if I used them in a
different way.
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Piecing Together The Sales Puzzle
My situation reminded me of that old Indian tale about the blind men who
bump into an elephant and try to figure out what it is by touching the
different parts of the body. One of the blind men puts his arms around the
elephant’s legs and thinks it’s a tree. Another feels its long trunk and thinks
that it is a snake. A third feels the elephant’s side and thinks it’s a wall.

I felt like those blind men, fumbling around in the dark. I knew bits of the
sales puzzle, but I also knew that the big picture was eluding me. And
because I didn’t have the proper perspective, I was blind to the real power
of having an effective sales process. I knew tactics but didn’t know how to
piece them together into an effective overall strategy. But I at least knew
that I didn’t know. And I knew that I needed a system.

Surveys From The Trenches

About six years ago, my colleagues and I at the Sales Career Training
Institute decided to conduct a series of surveys, which our organization
continues to build upon even today to keep up with trends in marketing
and sales. The purpose of the surveys was to determine the biggest
problems that salespeople were encountering as well as the main reasons
why buyers weren’t buying.

Following is a summary of the seven most prevalent problems encountered

by salespeople as reported by sales managers and salespeople:

1) Our sales cycle is too long.

2) Our closing ratio of proposals to actual sales is too low.

3) Too often we are dealing with prospects that don’t have decision-
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11
 making power.

4) Our prospects use our quotes to get better prices from our
competition.

5) We constantly must compete on price and so we must discount to win

business.

6) We can’t get enough qualified leads.

7) The prospects we do get into the pipeline never seem to develop into
actual sales.

These are all very common problems that salespeople encounter, and we
will address each of these issues and many more as we delve into the FEAR
Selling System. But we can only begin to understand how to solve these
problems by studying buyer attitudes and behavior.

Following is a summary of the five most prevalent reasons for not buying as
reported by prospective buyers:

1) I get worried when salespeople don’t take the time to get to know my
specific problem.

2) I don’t feel that salespeople have my best interests in mind.

3) I’m afraid that they won’t be able to deliver what they say they can
deliver.

4) My job is on the line, so I can’t trust new vendors.

5) I don’t trust salespeople that talk at me instead of with me.

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As you can see, the majority of the answers to this survey revolve around
fear and mistrust.

Our research on buyer behavior and attitudes – as well as many other

studies that we will reference throughout FEAR Selling – reveals that
people buy emotionally rather than intellectually.

The decision to buy or not to buy is more subjective than you might think.
We have found that despite bidding processes and return-on-investment
analyses that your prospects might demand, they typically buy based on
emotions.

The Promise of the FEAR Selling

System
As we explore in the FEAR Selling System, one of the top reasons that
salespeople fail is that they don’t have a system.

Even though we suggest that you use the FEAR Selling System because of
its multi-disciplinary approach to influencing human behavior and its
extensive field-tested, results-oriented tactics, our greatest piece of advice is
to use a system – even if it’s one that you’ve developed on your own.

As difficult as it sounds, you must test and track your results to avoid
wasting time with strategies and tactics that just don’t work.

According to our research - as well as that of dozens of other credible sales

effectiveness researchers and organizations - is that having a system – with a
constant feedback loop, which will tell you if the system is working or not
– is necessary if you are to achieve success in sales.

FEAR Selling will take you step-by-step through such a system.

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 Before we compiled these best-practices in sales into this edition of FEAR
Selling, the Sales Career Training Institute’s students paid thousands of
dollars for participating in our Webinars, teleconferences, live seminars and
Boot Camp to discover the short-cuts to what works and what doesn’t
when it comes to sales.

Now, with help from the professional affiliates of the Sales Career Training
Institute, we are able to offer this comprehensive course at a fraction of the
cost of attending an SCTI-sponsored event.

The FEAR Acronym

The FEAR Selling System is based on this basic concept of pacing and
leading. First you must get your prospect’s attention and build trust, and
then you can lead your prospect to the sale. The F and the E in the FEAR
acronym are all about pacing; with the A, you will be pacing and then
leading; and the R is about leading.

So as a quick overview, the process is as follows:

Find and Focus On Your Prospect’s Hopes and Fears: How To

Uncover Your Prospect’s Emotional Hot Buttons And Use Them To
Grab Their Attention

Empathize With Your Prospect: How To Build Your Credibility By

Making Your Prospect Feel That You Understand Their Hopes and
Fears

Ask The Right Questions At The Right Times In The Right Way: How
To Find Out Your Prospect’s Specific Hopes And Fears That You Can
Then Use To Sell To Them
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Reveal The Hope Of Your Solution: How To Position Your
Presentation So That You Play Off of Your Prospect’s Hopes and
Fears

As you will see, the first three steps in the System focus more on listening
while it is only at the end of the process that you launch into your
presentation.

Typically, salespeople use the complete opposite strategy. They talk at their
prospect from the beginning without gathering the crucial information that
can close the sale at the end. They immediately plunge into presenting first
– providing their prospects with information without gathering the key
information about their prospects’ hopes and fears that they should be
inputting into their presentation.

If you follow the FEAR Selling System, you will avoid this all-too-
common mistake since the System forces you to ask questions and listen
upfront as much as possible.

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 FEARLESS
Cold Calling

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Before we get started, we want to note that many sales training
organizations teach you that the first step in the sales process is to bond
with your prospect. Typical sales training systems start with the second step
in the FEAR Selling System, which is the Empathy Step (covered in the
Special Report, FEARLESS Relationship Building).

Our research shows, however, that one of the most difficult aspects of
selling involves prospecting through cold calling and networking. So the
FEAR Selling System starts with how to approach a prospect in order to
get them to sit down with you, listen to your pitch, give you the
opportunity to bond and qualify them as a potential prospect.

FEAR Selling doesn’t jump the gun by assuming that your foot is already
in the door. So, let’s first talk about strategies that you should use to get the
attention of your target prospects and get that first meeting.

Everyone Talks Strategy, But Few

Walk the Walk
Here’s the best definition of sales strategy that we have found throughout
our years of research.

Sales strategy is about Targeting and Positioning:

1) finding the right people to talk to who are most likely to buy your
product/service – this is the Targeting aspect of strategy.

2) crafting a persuasive message to get their attention, build their interest

in your product/service, create an emotional desire to purchase your
product/service and then take action by buying your product/service –
this is the Positioning aspect of strategy.
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 Let’s tackle Positioning first.

How do you represent your product/service in order to get a prospect’s

attention?

How The Media Uses Fear Tactics To

Get You Curious Enough Not To
Switch Channels
If you have ever seen a commercial for a news program, you have probably
had this technique used on you. They typically tease you with a news story
that invokes some fear. A killing, a robbery, a rape, a terrorist threat –
anything graphic that will get your attention since it may affect you and
your loved ones.

They don’t tell you too much in the commercial, but rather just enough to
get you interested to stay up and tune in at 11 o’clock that night. They
might tease you with the latest terrorist threat. And so, you might be
anxiously awaiting that nightly newscast so as to ease your fears about the
situation. Maybe you’ll find out something from the news that will help
you avoid injury or even death. That’s how the news networks keep you
glued to your TV set. It’s all about fear.

For a more in-depth look at how the media uses fear to get your attention,
you might want to refer to the book, The Culture of Fear, by Barry
Glassner, Professor of Sociology at the University of Southern California.
Glassner has written for many magazines and newspapers, including The
New York Times, The Los Angeles Times and The Chicago Tribune.
Through his studies and broad experience with the media, he gives a
detailed inside look at how the media sells itself by using fear.
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Now that you are aware of this technique, look out for it being used by
your local TV news stations. Understanding how to use fear in order to
grab attention will undoubtedly help you sell more and sell faster.

Cutting Through The Clutter

As we all know, we live in a cluttered, confusing and competitive world, so
you must get your prospect’s attention first before you even have a chance
to engage them in conversation.

Getting people to raise their hands and ask you to pitch them on your
product or service is getting more and more difficult. Generating leads for
salespeople to call on typically falls into the realm of marketing. (For more
on how to get people to call you, check out the book, FEAR Marketing.)

If you are lucky enough to have a great marketing department that funnels
you leads – or if you know how to take advantage of Internet-enabled lead-
generation strategies like pay-per-click advertising or affiliate marketing,
then you are in good shape, but nowadays, we find that salespeople are
doing more and more of their own prospecting. You typically must take the
first step and call on your prospects. (But for more on how to use the
Internet to generate leads, check out the book, FEAR Marketing Online.)

The first step in the FEAR Selling System is all about how to grab your
prospect’s attention.

Getting In The Door By Creating

Curiosity and Trust
In order to get your prospects’ attention, you must understand what drives
them – you must understand their fears and hopes.
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 In the third step of the FEAR Selling System, the Ask Step (covered in the
Special Report, FEARLESS In Qualilfying Prospects and Handling
Objections), we will show you how to explore a particular prospect’s fears
and hopes through what we call the Values Elicitation Process, but
before you get to question and qualify your prospect face-to-face you have
to get a meeting with them first.

So, how do you get that initial meeting?

You need to create two things in the mind of your prospect: curiosity and
trust – both of which are related to their fears and hopes.

By creating curiosity, you will tap into a fear – the fear that they might have
of missing a potential opportunity. Or, if you look at it from the flip side,
you are tapping into a hope – the hope that you have some product/service
that can help them reach their personal goals in a faster and easier fashion.

But that hope is not easy to conjure. They are not going to get excited
every time a salesperson calls them. You must differentiate yourself from
the hordes of other salespeople that ring their phone every day. In addition
to curiosity, you must create trust.

By creating trust, you will ease other fears that they might have – fears that
you aren’t credible – that you will waste their time or make them
uncomfortable with a sales pitch for something they don’t want or need.

So how do you create curiosity and trust?

Let’s talk about three specific attention-grabbing and credibility-building

tactics:

1) Know Your Prospects’ Fears and Hopes

2) Expertizing Yourself
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 3) The Machine-Gun Client List

We will show you specifically how to use these tactics together in the
context of an actual prospecting call when we show you how to create your
30-Second Commercial later, but for now, let’s explore each one in turn.

Curiosity and Credibility-Building

Tactic #1: Know Your Prospects’
Fears and Hopes
When writing a speech, you must know what your audience is interested in
hearing. It’s the same with sales. It starts with market research.

When trying to prepare yourself to speak to your audience – your prospects

- you must ask yourself:

Generally, what types of problems, pains, fears and hopes do my

prospective customers have?

We suggest that you focus more on problems, pains and fears because once
you know what they are trying to avoid, you typically understand the other
side of the coin – what they want, what they hope for.

Plus, every salesperson is out there talking about product benefits, which
are related to prospects’ hopes. With FEAR Selling, you’ll differentiate
yourself from the hordes of other salespeople by focusing on your
prospects rather than your products. And by focusing on their emotional
hot buttons – their fears, you’ll have a better chance of capturing their
attention.

By_____________________________________________________________________________________
showing prospects that you understand their problems, you will have a
21
 better chance of getting them to trust you a bit and getting them curious
enough to meet with you.

And don’t just limit your thinking to the problems, pains, fears and hopes
that your product or service can solve. The key is to focus first on your
prospect rather than your product’s benefits. If you focus on product
benefits first, you may fall into the trap of assuming that a prospect has the
problems or fears that your product can solve. What you want to do is hear
about your prospects’ problems and fears from their perspective first, and
then tailor your pitch appropriately. This is a much more effective strategy.

So what are your prospects’ needs? What are they concerned about? What
are their worries? Their problems? Their fears? Their hopes?

So at the very beginning, when you are first starting to sell something new,
before you make your first prospecting call, before you step out onto the
street to visit your first prospect and try to make your first sale, you need to
gather as much information as possible about the personal problems and
aspirations of your potential buyers in a general sense. With this
information, you will create what we call your Prospect Fear and Hope
List.

Gathering Information For Your

Prospect Fear and Hope List
You must get your prospect curious enough and trusting enough about you
and your product/service first so that you can keep them on the phone long
enough to engage in a conversation and then get them to invite you in for
that first meeting.

We will show you how to use your Prospect Fear and Hope List to arouse
their curiosity, but first let’s talk about how you conduct the market
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research needed to create the List.

There are two main sources that you should tap in order to gather the
information that you need to create this List:

· yourself and your colleagues

· your prospects and customers

Ask Yourself and Brainstorm With

Your Colleagues
In the very beginning, you can only make educated guesses about what
really concerns your future prospects. You are limited to exploring this
issue by asking questions to:

· yourself
· your fellow salespeople
· your colleagues in the marketing department – if you are lucky
enough to have one
· others within your company who may stimulate your thinking.

Keep in mind that such self-questioning is not the best type of market
research. You are relying on what you and your colleagues think are the
problems that your prospects need to solve. At this point, you are asking
people who are one step away from the real problems. You are asking
people who are emotionally divorced from the true pains and fears that are
haunting those who are really experiencing them in the industry.

But you have to start somewhere, and thinking about these issues before
talking with prospects will help prepare you to better gather information
once you are in front of a prospect.

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 Again, you are only making assumptions as to the worries, concerns, fears
and hopes of your prospects. And if you’ve read The 7 Deadly Sins of
Selling, you will recall that making assumptions, which is related to the Sin
of Pride, is the most deadly sin that you can commit in sales. If you make
the wrong assumptions about your prospects upfront, you will pitch to
them with ineffective positioning and almost undoubtedly lose the sale.

Ideally, you want to hear it straight from the horse’s mouth – from
prospects and customers themselves. But at first, you must rely on those
who have made the calls before you and have already talked to or
conducted some form of research on your prospective customers. Just
remember not to simply rely on what your more-experienced colleagues
tell you is the truth about your prospects’ problems. You have to find that
out for yourself. So again, asking yourself and your colleagues lots of
questions is only the first step in an ongoing process of market research.

Ask yourself and others:

“From a personal perspective, what are our prospects’ biggest fears,

problems or challenges?”

“How do those problems affect them personally? Do those problems

cause our prospects to work more hours? Do those problems put their
job in jeopardy? Do they cost them money personally?”

“What are our prospects’ hopes? What are they trying to accomplish on
a personal level?”

Ask Your Prospects and Customers

Many successful salespeople start – not with prospecting calls – but rather
with simple information-gathering calls – so that they can find out how to
position themselves when approaching future prospects. They may begin by
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interviewing current customers if they are lucky enough to have any when
they first start a new position.

We recommend this strategy since our studies have proven that the more
time and effort salespeople spend in developing their Prospect Fear and
Hope List and generally getting to know what makes their typical prospects
tick, the better their chances are of engaging and then closing their future
prospects.

Once you are on the phone or out in the field, think of yourself as a
detective. You are trying to find out as quickly as possible the kinds of
frustrations that your target market of prospects are facing everyday as well
as what their aspirations are. So you must ask lots of questions.

Once you are in a conversation with a prospect, ask for their help. Say
something like:

“I was hoping you could help me out. Could you give me some advice?”

Pause – wait for them to give you permission to ask your question.

And remember, don’t be shy about this – people love giving advice. You’re
stroking their egos by asking them for their help. You’re basically saying:
“You’re smarter - and therefore better - than me in some way – can you
help me?” This is very appealing positioning since people like to have their
egos stroked. People like to see themselves as smart and important.

Typically, your prospect will say something like:

“Sure, how can I help you?”

Then you can ask:

“I’m just trying to get a better sense of what is currently going on in the
industry…what do you think are the top three problems that people in your
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25
 position are facing right now?”

This is a sly way of asking them what their specific pains and fears are
without coming right out and asking. They may tell you their specific
problems or they may share with you problems that they have heard or read
about that are relevant in their industry.

Either way, listen and make a note of what they tell you, because you are
going to use this information later.

And always politely ask for more…

Whether they tell you one problem, three or a dozen, always ask: “Is there
anything else? Are there any other problems that you see coming down the
road for you and others in your position?”

You never know what you might find out.

Then, go through each of their answers and ask:

“Maybe you can share with me – how does that problem affect you
personally?”

Once you have explored the negative (problems, fear) side of the equation,
ask them:

“So what do you hope to achieve over the next year?”

The objective here is to gather the material for your Prospect Fear and
Hope List, which you will use to open new doors and engage new
prospects.

Remember, as it says in the Bible, “Ask and it shall be given.” This research
is priceless because the information that you gather now is going to help
you seal more deals later.
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26
Your Prospect Fear and Hope List will help you build trust with your
prospects since they will feel that you have some understanding of the pain
that they are going through. As we will discuss later in the Empathy Step,
by asking such questions, you are “feeling their pain” and walking in their
shoes. As Stephen Covey says in his best-seller The 7 Habits of Highly
Effective People, you must “Seek First To Understand, Then To Be
Understood.” In other words, you want to understand how your prospect
thinks before you try to sell them your product/service.

So remember, focus first on research. At this stage you are trying to get a
sense of the problems, fears and hopes of a typical prospect. And keep in
mind that you are constantly gathering information about your prospects’
fears and hopes. It is a never-ending process. This List is a work-in-progress
because companies and industries are always undergoing changes, and so
your prospects’ fears and hopes might change over time.

You Are Selling To People, Not

Organizations
When conducting this research, it is important that you ask and think about
your prospects as individuals rather than as part of an organization. You
must think about your prospects’ problems on an individual, personal
level.

Don’t start by thinking about how your product can make or save their
organization money. Stop thinking of organizations as entities unto
themselves. Instead, think of your prospects as individuals with personal
pains, fears and aspirations. Don’t think of yourself as selling to IBM or the
Government. Think of yourself as selling to Bob Johnston, an individual, -
who happens to work for IBM – but more importantly someone who has
personal goals that he wants to achieve, in addition to satisfying his
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27
 company’s needs.

Think about the person who is sitting across the table from you. What are
their problems, pains, fears and hopes?

For example, they may want:

· To avoid having to work overtime;

· To avoid having to take work-related calls on weekends when they

would rather be spending time with their families;

· To avoid screwing up on the project they are working on;

· To look good in front of their boss;

· To get a promotion; or

· To simply keep their job.

You must think on this personal level primarily and on an organizational

level secondarily.

Of course, you will position your product/service as a benefit to the

organization, but you must first prove to the person whom you are selling it
to that it is going to help them achieve their goals, their hopes - or avoid
their fears - first.

This sounds obvious, but too many salespeople whom we have studied and
consulted to waste their time and energy trying to sell logically to an
organization rather than emotionally to a person.

We’ll cover this more in depth later in the Ask Step, but for now, keep
reminding yourself that you are a person selling to other individuals.

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Creating Your Prospect Fear and
Hope List: An Example
Now, let’s show you how one of our top-performing students gathered
information and created his Prospect Fear and Hope List. It’s easier to show
you an example of how to create the List rather than simply explain it to
you abstractly.

Steve is a salesperson for a graphic design firm that helps companies create
their marketing and advertising materials – business cards, brochures,
presentation materials, etc.

Remember, here are the types of questions that Steve asked in order to
elicit the responses he needs to form his Prospect Fear and Hope List:

“What do you think are the top three problems that people in your position
are facing right now?”

“Maybe you can share with me – how does that problem affect you
personally?”

“What do you hope to achieve over the next year?”

By using these questions, Steve pulled together a list of possible problems

that a typical buyer of his services - a corporate marketing executive or
business owner - might have. This list was drawn from interviews with
colleagues as well as with prospects and current customers.

Remember, do not simply make this list up based on what you think the
problems are. Take the time to find out what your prospects’ real
frustrations and aspirations are. It will be worth the effort.
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29
 Here is Steve’s Prospect Fear and Hope List. Remember, Steve works for a
graphic design vendor, and so, as you can tell, the List is from his
prospects’ perspective:

1) Our graphic design vendors are inconsistent when it comes to quality

and service. They waste my time because I am forced to maintain
relationships with lots of vendors just in case my current one drops
the ball. And I have to always be looking for new ones to replace the
ones that aren’t giving me the attention I need. I wish I could find one
good, reliable firm to work with so that I wouldn’t have to worry
about each job I give to them.

2) We compete with organizations that have bigger budgets than we do,

and therefore they have better marketing materials than we do. It
makes me look bad in front of my boss when he compares our
brochures to those of our competitors. I wish I could get more bang
for my buck with my marketing budget.

3) Our graphic designers don’t turn around projects quickly enough, I

often have to stay late at work or work on weekends to meet
deadlines, and so lose precious personal time with my family. I’d like
to hire a more competent graphic design firm.

As you can see, Steve asked not only about the problems his prospects are
facing, but the personal consequences of having to deal with those
problems as well as their hopes.

Finally, in order to increase the emotional impact of the statements in his

Prospect Fear and Hope List, he edits each one down and then begins each
one with what we call emotional verb phrases. You’ll notice that they are
all verb phrases, which express various degrees of discomfort.

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Here are some examples of emotional verb phrases that you can use to start
the statements in your List:

- Uncomfortable with - Frustrated with - Annoyed with

- Afraid of - Concerned about - Worried about

- Unhappy with - Unsure of -Dissatisfied with

Finally, generalize the statements so that they flow from the following
sentence:

“We work with people/business owners/corporate executives who:”

Think of each statement as a small portrait that you are painting about a
potential prospect. Try to describe their pains, fears and hopes. You will
use these little stories again and again to show future prospects that you
understand their pain – and that you can work with them to alleviate that
pain – that you can give them hope.

So here is what Steve’s List looks like at the end of the process:

We work with marketing executives who:

1) Are frustrated with graphic design vendors that give them inconsistent
quality and service. Our typical client is looking for one reliable firm
so that they don’t have to waste time maintaining a lot of vendor
relationships or worry about constantly searching for new design
firms.

2) Are concerned about competing with organizations that have bigger

budgets than they do. They want a designer who will be able to get
them more bang for their buck and make them look good in front of
their bosses.
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31
 3) Are annoyed with graphic designers who don’t turn around projects
quickly enough. They don’t want to have to stay late at work or work on
weekends to meet deadlines just because their designers screw up.

Remember, the objective here is to find painful issues that your prospect
can relate to - things that could happen to them, things that they are afraid
might happen to them in the future.

Again, we’ll show you how to use this Prospect Fear and Hope List later to
position yourself when talking to a prospect.

Now let’s explore another tactic that will help you create the trust and
curiosity needed to keep the conversation going with a prospect.

Curiosity and Credibility-Building

Tactic #2: Expertizing Yourself
By finding out what the problems are in the industry and being able to
discuss them intelligently with your prospects, you will create a level of
trust that you need as a foundation before you can move on to sell to them.
Remember, you must pace before you lead. Building credibility is part of
pacing and getting in synch with your prospect.

You want to position yourself as someone who is out on the frontlines

talking to others in your prospect’s field. You will thereby position yourself
as an authority, who possesses competitive information that your prospects
don’t have access to – information that they need in order to avoid failure
and achieve success.

Think about it, business owners and companies spend millions each year
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32
sending their employees to conferences to find out what’s going on in the
industry. As an expert who is calling on lots of prospects and is willing to
share your knowledge, you’re saving them time and money by taking
critical industry information right to them so that they don’t have to seek it
out themselves. So become a respected resource to your prospects.

One of the most effective ways of expertizing yourself is to create

intellectual property – books, survey reports, magazine articles, special
reports or newsletters about problems and solutions in your industry.

Then use what one of our more successful students calls the GIA Strategy –
Give It Away Strategy. You want to distribute this intellectual property as
far and wide as possible. Make it accessible on your web site, write lots of
articles for trade magazines and then get copies of them to hand out to
prospects, conduct surveys and share the information when you talk to
prospects. And, of course, always have your contact information on this
intellectual property so that interested readers can get in touch with you.
This is a great way to generate leads.

By positioning yourself as an authority in your field, you will gain the trust
of your prospects – and you will get them curious. They will want to pick
your brain, and so will be more likely to invite you in for a meeting.

We will cover more credibility-building tactics in the next step in the FEAR
Selling System, the Empathy Step, but for now, remember that you must
position yourself as an authority in your field, not in a cocky but rather in a
confident fashion.

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33
 Curiosity and Credibility-Building
Tactic #3: Your Machine-Gun Client
List
As one business owner we work with likes to say: “People are sheep.”

What he means by this is that people have a herd mentality. If they hear –
through word-of-mouth - that other people and companies are using a
particular product/service, they are more likely to get curious about it and
want to find out more.

They’ll follow the rest of the herd of people to try to find out what’s so
special about that product/service. (For word-of-mouth marketing tactics
that work, check out the books, FEAR Marketing and FEAR Marketing
Online.)

So as a saleperson, how can you take advantage of this herd mentality?

Well, you can build trust and generate curiosity simply by having a client
list to rattle off to a prospect. If you can fire off anywhere from three to five
current (or past) clients that you have helped, you have a chance to trigger
their curiosity and build credibility.

And make sure that you have a story to tell to back up each client name
that you mention. You want to be prepared with mini-case-studies that
touch on how you were able to help each client in ways that would be
interesting to your current prospect.

For example, if you are pitching a new technology to a large retail chain,
and you can say that you have worked with Sears, Wal-Mart and Macy’s,
your prospect will be curious as to how you might be able to help them. Of
course, you may not be able to share details of previous projects you
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34
worked on due to confidentiality agreements with your clients, but
typically, you can drop their names and speak generally about how you
helped such former clients.

So be ready with what we call a Machine-Gun List of former and current

clients that you can fire off when talking to a client. With such a list, you’ll
be able to overcome at least some of the resistance that a typical prospect
will have when talking to you early on in the sales process.

And what if you don’t have a long list of former or current clients to rattle
off?

Well, to solve this common problem that many start-up companies face, we
turn to the advice of a master marketer and salesman, Herschell Gordon
Lewis. In his book, Direct Mail Copy That Sells, Lewis refers to the word
“verisimilitude” as “the magic word that can make you rich.” Verisimilitude
is not truth, but rather the appearance of truth.

Now this might all seem a bit underhanded, but, to paraphrase Lewis, the
cornerstone of successful sales isn’t truth but having your prospect regard
what you say as truth.

Now of course, we are not advocating that you outright lie to your
prospects, but you could say that you have “consulted to” or “worked
with” companies including former employers, or perhaps former clients of
companies that you worked for before you started selling this new product
– as long as you had some input into dealings with these “former clients.”

Whatever you do, don’t say that you don’t have any clients. This is a sure-
fire way to lose trust and let your prospects’ curiosity slip through your
hands. The common expression is: “Fake it until you make it.”

Now that you have been introduced to these three powerful curiosity and
credibility-building tactics, let’s move on and show you how you should
weave these tactics into your 30-Second Commercial for maximum impact.
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35
 The Dreaded Cold Call
As many of the top salespeople we interviewed tell us, the difference
between a cold call and a warm call is 30 seconds – that is, if you know
how to fill that first 30 seconds properly.

We’ll get to exactly what you should say during your cold calls in a
minute, but first, let’s talk a little about cold calling generally.

Cold calling is one of the most dreaded aspects of selling. However, if you
want to be successful in sales, prospecting is usually necessary to find and
talk to the right people before being able to introduce your product, make a
presentation, and close a sale. And so, in order to get to the close, you must
start by prospecting - constantly and relentlessly.

Cold calling simply means to call or contact anyone with the purpose of
selling something. In cold calling, leads come from anywhere and
everywhere - from the yellow pages, from reading trade journals, from
finding lists of potential prospects on the Internet – anywhere.

Normally, salespeople do not reach their prospect on the first call, so they
should use the call to gather information if they reach a gatekeeper like a
personal assistant or perhaps a colleague of the prospect. And then you
may want to leave a message, which will provoke a response. After you
understand how to craft your 30-Second Commercial, you’ll be in a better
position to avoid Voicemail Limbo – that is leaving messages that are never
returned. With only a little modification, your Commercial also will act as
an effective voicemail message.

From our surveys, we have found that the vast majority of salespeople
don’t like cold calling. If you think about it, you might not like cold calling
because you know how annoying it is to be on the other end of a cold call.
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36
No one likes to receive an unsolicited call that may come to you after work,
when you’re having dinner and trying to relax with your family.

Everyone has experienced receiving an unwanted cold call, so you’re

probably at least a little uneasy about making cold calls yourself. But as a
salesperson, it’s your job to interrupt others, and hopefully help them solve
a problem that they have – or that they might have down the line. So think
of it as performing a service. You’re only interrupting your prospects in
order to make them aware of a potential solution to their problems.

In order to make cold calling bearable, many salespeople we spoke to

suggest carving out a certain number of hours in the day every day to make
cold calls. From our research on time management for salespeople, we
agree that getting into a routine is the best way to ensure that you keep
prospecting on a consistent basis. This will take discipline – and so you
must motivate yourself to make prospecting calls every day – even when
you think you are too busy with current deals, because you never know
when your pipeline is going to dry up.

As you may already know, cold calling can be frustrating and discouraging,
especially when not done correctly. And while cold calling is by no means
the most effective way of reaching a prospect, it sometimes is the only way,
making it a necessary evil that you must get comfortable with.

Capturing Attention With Your 30-

Second Commercial
In the following sections, we are going to show you how to craft what is
known in the sales profession as your “30-Second Commercial” or
“Elevator Speech.”

Some salespeople call it their Elevator Speech because the objective is to

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37
 be able to tell people about the problems they or their product/service
solve in a short yet powerful way. So as we walk you through the
preparation of your 30-Second Commercial, think of yourself as if you are
on an elevator engaging someone in a conversation. You don’t know if they
are going to get off on the next floor or ten floors from now, but either way,
think of yourself as only having 30 seconds to present yourself.

Writing your 30-Second Commercial is like writing poetry. It must be

concise yet powerful – and every word must count. Remember, you must
hit hard and hit fast because if they are getting off on the next floor, you
want them curious enough to hold the door open and listen to your
Commercial. (Or, like some of the gutsier salespeople whom we know, you
can always just get out of the elevator when your prospect gets out and
finish your Commercial.)

Either way, make sure you have a 30-Second Commercial and that you are
constantly practicing it so that you are ready when opportunity knocks.
And by the way, you never really know when opportunity is knocking so
give your 30-Second Commercial to everyone and always ask for referrals.

Before we get started showing you how to create your 30-Second

Commercial, it is important for you to realize that your Commercial is a
work in progress. You must keep refining it as you learn more about what is
of interest to your prospects and what is not. Remember, you want it to be
short and powerful.

Your Commercial is like bait that you dangle in front of a prospect to hook
them into engaging in a conversation with you. You must cut through the
clutter and make a good impression with your Commercial. So, we’ll show
you how to structure it so that it makes the greatest impact in the shortest
period of time.

You also must remember that you have to be flexible with your 30-Second
Commercial. You may encounter prospects in different industries that have
different problems, pains, fears and hopes than your typical prospects. You
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38
must be prepared to customize your presentation to get the person in front
of you curious.

In the next couple of sections, we are going to dissect the 30-Second

Commercial so that you understand exactly why you are saying what you
are saying. If you understand what your objectives are at each step, you are
more likely to achieve those objectives, even if you decide to stray from our
formula for your 30-Second Commercial.

The 30-Second Commercial Formula

Overview
But before we dive into the nitty-gritty of exactly what to say and why each
step works, here’s the formula for the 30-Second Commercial along with
some of the key phrases to use at each step. Remember, slightly modify this
formula based on the situation – for example, a cold call, a voicemail, a
networking event, etc.

1) Brief Introduction

“Hi, (prospect’s first name), this is (your full name).”

2) Introductory Permission Questions

“Maybe you can help me, did I catch you at a bad time?”

“Maybe you can help me find the right person in your organization that
might be interested in speaking with me?”

3) Personal Fear and Hope List

“I work with (people, business owners, entrepreneurs, corporate executives,

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39
 etc.) who are:

· Frustrated with…
· Struggling with…
· Trying to avoid…”

4) Open Up The Conversation

“Are either you or maybe a colleague of yours having to confront any of

these challenges?”

Either get them to tell you about their challenges:

“That’s interesting, could you tell me more….”

Or ask for a referral:

“Maybe you can help me then… who do you know who may be
experiencing these challenges?”

5) Machine-Gun Client List

“We have done work with (three or four company names from your
Machine-Gun Client List).”

Be prepared to share mini-case-studies.

6) Ask For The Meeting

“We’re constantly doing surveys and research on the most effective

solutions to these problems. Would it make sense for you to invite me in, so
I can share some possible solutions with you, and then maybe we can see if
there is a way we can work together?”
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40
Don’t Do What Most Lazy,
Unsuccessful Salespeople Do: Don’t
Wing It
The underperforming salespeople who come to us for training typically
have one thing in common:

They wing it.

Instead of preparing what they are going to say before they pick up the
phone or go to a networking event, they simply decide to say whatever
comes to mind at the time.

When we asked why they don’t prepare, they usually say that they want
to sound natural or that all situations are different and so they want to
be flexible in their presentation.

In some ways, they are right:

1) You do want to sound natural; and

2) You need to be flexible in your presentation of your products and

services depending upon the situation.

But that doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t

3) Be prepared.

You should invest a significant amount of time planning and writing your
30-Second Commercial.

Just like a commercial on TV, the goal of your 30-Second Commercial is

to:
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41
 1) capture your prospect’s attention

2) build interest and curiosity in your product/service; and

3) start the rapport-building process with your prospect.

Is Your 30-Second Commercial

Written Correctly?
We’re assuming now that we have convinced you of how important it is
to be prepared with a 30-Second Commercial. It’s our job now to help
you craft an effective one.

Through our ongoing research with the Sales Career Training Institute,
we have found that the majority of salespeople spend too little time in
researching, crafting, practicing, using and rewriting sales collaterals like
sales letters, sales scripts and 30-Second Commercials. (The FEAR
Selling System provides you with the formulae for each step in the sales
process, so you no longer have any excuse not to be prepared.)

Of the low percentage of salespeople who actually write out their 30-
Second Commercial over 70% are saying the wrong things from the very
beginning of the sales process.

When you are in a networking situation or making a cold call, you are
looking for prospects and/or people who may be able to refer you to
prospects. Your Commercial might be the only opportunity you have to
grab their attention and create interest in your product or service.

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42
The Main Goal of the 30-Second
Commercial
Now, let’s go step by step through putting together your 30-Second
Commercial. It is important that we walk you through the process slowly
and explain not only what to say, but also why each step works.

You many not be completely comfortable using the exact words and
phrases that we present here, but if you understand the purpose behind
each step, you’ll be able to craft your own effective 30-Second
Commercial.

Each step, each thing you say, is moving you toward your main goal of
capturing your prospects’ attention so that they’ll want to engage in
further conversations with you and hopefully invite you in for a face-to-
face meeting.

1) The Brief Introduction

So how do you start?

You must first give a Brief Introduction that leaves them curious.

Many novice salespeople start with something like this:

“Hi, Tom, my name is Bob Smith, and I am with XYZ Corporation. We

produce widgets and…”

This does not keep your prospect curious for long. Too many
salespeople launch into their pitch without permission. You’re not going
to do this. When you don’t pause to ask for your prospect’s permission,
their defenses will probably go up immediately.
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43
 You will invoke fears in them, but they will not be the type of fears you
want to generate. You’ll create the fears that are usually associated with
salespeople:

• The fear that you are going to waste their precious time with a sales
pitch.

• The fear that you are going to be pushy and try to get them to buy
something or get an appointment with them.

• The fear that you are going to put them in the awkward position of
having to reject your offer.

As we will discuss, the objective of your 30-Second Commercial should

be to invoke a fear, but not these fears. You want to invoke a fear that
gets them to want to hear you out.

You want them to get curious. You want them to fear hanging up on you
because you might have something that could help them and they don’t
want to miss out on the opportunity to better themselves.

What if it was their boss or a friend who suggested that you call them?
They wouldn’t want to be rude to you. So they’ll want to find out who
you are before telling you that they don’t have time for you. Keep them
in suspense for a bit regarding exactly who you are.

And don’t just fly into your pitch. Don’t label yourself as a salesman
right off the bat.

So instead…

You want to say, “Hi Tom, this is …” and then say your full name but
nothing more.

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44
Resist the urge to even say, “Hi Tom, this is Bob Smith with XYZ
Company.”

Think of yourself as just one human being talking to another. You don’t
know what kind of relationship you will have with the person. Don’t
label yourself as a salesperson right off the bat.

If they do ask you what company you are with, then tell them, but at
least you will have engaged them in an initial back-and-forth
conversation. This is better than just rolling into your pitch.

Right after your Brief Introduction, the second step is for you to…

2) Ask Introductory Permission

Questions
But before we go into the Introductory Permission Questions, let’s make
sure that you understand why asking for permission works.

This is the first of many times in the sales process that you will be asking
for your prospect’s permission. You ask for permission to give your
prospect the sense that they are in control of the process. This will make
them more comfortable with you and thus more willing to accommodate
you.

People want to be in control. Think about it – if you had a choice

between being in control or not in control, which would you choose?

In control, of course. Being in control gives you power. Being out of

control causes fear. Remember, typically, people want to move away
from the fear of uncertainty, the fear of being out of control and toward
the certainty and security of being in control.
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45
 So give the other person the power – make them feel in control.

The truth of the matter, as you will see later, is that the person asking the
questions is always the more powerful person in a dialogue because they
lead the direction of the discussion.

But by asking permission, you are giving your prospect the illusion of
control.

So, the next thing you want to do after your Brief Introduction is to get
their permission to engage in a conversation.

Let’s explore this a bit more before moving on…

As you will see throughout the FEAR Selling System, it is important to

get your prospect’s permission every step of the way.

Always be asking Permission Questions that begin like this:

• “Is it okay if I…?”

• “Would you be alright with…?”

• “It seems like the next logical step is to…?”

• “Maybe what I should do next is…?”

Or some variation of these Permission Questions that you are

comfortable with and that are relevant at the time.

The main objective is to always get their permission to move forward in

the sales process. Or, if you don’t get their permission, at least you’ll
find out a little more about how they like to make decisions. We’ll

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46
explore the importance of eliciting decision-making strategies in the third
step of the FEAR Selling System, the Ask Step.

But for now, keep in mind to ask Permission Questions when

appropriate:

• Ask them if it’s the right time for you to introduce your product or
service.

• Ask them if it’s okay for you to take notes.

• Ask them if it’s time for them to consider your proposal.

You should be asking for permission throughout the whole sales process.

You’ll see. It’s magic.

Your prospect will feel in control. They will feel more comfortable with
you because they will not group you with the typical salesperson who
just bursts right into presenting their product without asking permission.
They’ll think that they have a choice, and they will.

But by positioning Permission Questions correctly, you will have some

advantage in getting your prospect to move forward with you to the next
step.

So let’s see how this works with your Introductory Permission

Questions.

Right after your Brief Introduction, say something like:

“Maybe you can help me? Did I catch you at a bad time?”

Then wait for their answer. If it is a bad time, ask them when you can put
down in your schedule to call them back.
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 If your prospect gives you permission to proceed, ask:

“I don’t know if you are the right person to talk to, but maybe you can
help me find the right person in your organization who might be
interested in speaking with me?”

Again, wait for their response.

You’re right if you are thinking that this flurry of questions might be
confusing to your prospect. We have found that typically when someone
is a bit confused, they’ll give you permission to proceed.

Now, let’s take a second and explore why asking for help is a good
strategy for gaining their approval to move forward.

The Rescue Society: Please Help Me

Some sociologists describe our culture as a “rescue society.” Many
researchers have observed that people feel uncomfortable when they are
around others who are clearly uncomfortable.

To ease their own discomfort, people will usually try to reach out and
help a person who is struggling. And not only does seeing others in
uncomfortable situations make us uncomfortable, but helping them
makes us feel better about ourselves.

Think about it from another perspective…

When you ask for someone’s help, you are basically saying, in one form
or another, that that person is “better” than you – at least at that point in
time. You are acknowledging that they are more powerful than you, that
they have more information, or more ability than you do.
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By asking for a prospect’s help after you briefly introduce yourself, you are
flattering them. By asking others for advice, you are showing them respect.
You are saying: “You are wiser than I am…please help me.” And typically,
people will offer their help to those in need.

Asking for help is powerful. Our religious, governmental and charitable

institutions reinforce this rescue-society mentality. We are supposed to help
those who are not as fortunate as we are. So there is a strong societal
pressure to help those who ask for help.

It may seem that we are long-winded in our explanation of why these

techniques work, but we have found in our training that it is very important
for you not only to know the technique, but also understand why it works.
In this way, you can expand your abilities by applying these human
motivation techniques beyond the basic situations that we can cover here.

So again, you must ask for help:

“I don’t know if you are the right person to talk to, but maybe you can help
me find the right person in your organization who might be interested in
speaking to me?”

What else does this question do?

In addition to tapping into the natural human motivation to help others, it

also presents the prospect with a small challenge that they can probably
solve quickly.

Here is what they are probably thinking when you ask this question: “To
help this person, all I’ll probably have to do is transfer them to the proper
person in my organization. If I do that, I’ll feel good about myself.”

Remember, you are presupposing that they are not the right person to talk
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49
 to. This will lower their defenses. Even if they think you are a salesperson
from the get-go, they’ll assume that all they have to do is pass you off to
someone else.

A Powerful Bonding Twist When

Asking For Help
One of the top salespeople whom we know that uses this technique usually
throws in another twist if she is calling into a large organization. She says
something like:

“I don’t know if you are the right person to talk to – I’ve been transferred
around to so many people in your organization. Maybe you can help me?”

Everyone has experienced the frustration of being transferred around to

different people in an organization only to be transferred to more and more
departments. Because everyone has experienced this, they typically will
sympathize with you, and try to help you out.

They will give you permission to proceed. They’ll want to help.

Remember, your goal is to get their attention - to interrupt them - to break

the pattern of whatever they were doing at the time. In NLP, this is known
as a Pattern Interrupt. And it can be a powerful technique if used properly.

Asking for help can help you capture their attention.

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3) The Prospect Fear and Hope List:
Getting Your Prospect
Comfortable… And Uncomfortable
With You
After gently getting their permission – which is a type of pacing because
you are starting to get them to be comfortable by interacting with you, you
must then lead. They have given you permission to lead – at least for the
moment.

In the next several seconds, you must make them comfortable and
uncomfortable at the same time.

Let’s explain these seemingly paradoxical goals…

What you are going to do is talk to them about the personal fears that you
gathered when conducting market research as we discussed at the very
beginning of this section.

What does this do?

First, it may show your prospect that you understand their common fears
and problems. It may get them more comfortable with you because you
understand their situation. Maybe.

When it comes to knowing what a particular prospect’s hot buttons are,

you really don’t have much to go on. So what you are going to do is take
your best guess by floating some of the problems on your Prospect Fear
and Hope List in front of them. Again, prospecting is like fishing. You have
to dangle some delicious-looking bait in front of them and hope they bite.
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51
 Even if they don’t have the problems that you mention, you want to play
on the fear that they might have those problems in the future – or that they
have those problems now but are not yet aware enough about them. Even if
they don’t have those problems now, you want to plant a seed in their mind
that they might have that problem later because others in that industry
already have the problem.

Again, think about it – why do people go to industry conferences?

They want to mingle with others who are in their same industry. They want
to find out what problems others are having, and they want to find out
solutions as to how others are solving those problems. Their hope is that
they’ll find out how to solve the problems others are having before they
even happen to them. They want to allay their fears and prevent future
pain.

Conference planners are having a difficult time getting people to come to

their conferences lately. Companies are under budget pressures so they
send their people on less trips if they can. Some people don’t want to fly as
much because of the fear of terror attacks like those of September 11,
2001.

So what is the substitute for going to a conference? You can always read a
book on the topic or magazines or search for articles about your problems
online. But typically, these are one-way information flows. You read the
book or the article, but you can’t ask about your specific situation.

So what’s the next best thing?

Sucking information out of salespeople.

The Sales Career Training Institute conducts a wide variety of surveys but
not only of salespeople. They also ask buyers questions to find out what
motivates them in their buying strategies.
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One senior vice president at a large bank told us that one of the main
reasons he agrees to listen to cold-calling salespeople or to invite them in is
to “pick their brains” about industry trends.

Once we heard this story, we conducted several surveys around this issue,
and were surprised to find that many potential buyers carve out time for
salespeople, not with the expectation of buying anything from them but
rather simply to stay current on industry problems and solutions.

Savvy salespeople take advantage of this information-gathering motivation

on the part of buyers. You should do the same. You must position yourself
as an authority – or, if you are uncomfortable seeing yourself as an
authority in your field, think of yourself as simply as a reporter.

Think about it…the prospects you are pitching to can’t go over to their
competitor and share war stories too easily. People in the same industry
sometimes resist sharing competitive information due to the fear that it
might be used against them.

But here you are, someone who talks to their competitors every day. If they
are smart, they’ll want to pick your brain. You just have to give them the
opportunity to do so.

And remember, you’ll be even more credible if you have created some
intellectual property – a book, magazine articles or even just survey results
- on issues that may be important to your prospects. All you have to do is
get them to think that you know even just one thing that they don’t know
that might help them.

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 Curiosity May Have Killed The Cat,
But It Opens The Door In Sales
Remember when you were a kid - did one of your brothers, sisters or
maybe a friend taunt you by saying repeatedly: “I know something you
don’t know…I know something you don’t know”?

Maybe it drove you crazy – you wanted to know what they knew.

Why? Maybe because it was something that could give you an advantage
that you didn’t want to miss out on. You were motivated to find out
because of your curiosity – because of your fear that they knew something
about the situation that could help you or maybe even hurt you.

It’s the same concept in cold calling. You want the person on the other end
of the line to think: it might be better for me to stop what I’m doing right
now even for just one minute to find out what this person might want
because it might be in my best interest to do so.

Also, dropping names helps in this process – especially if you drop the
name of a superior of theirs. If they hear the name of an authority figure in
their minds, they might be thinking – I should listen to what this person has
to say because they might have access to someone who can make my life
miserable for me.

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Using the Prospect Fear and Hope
List to Fish for Your Prospect’s Needs
Remember, all the market research information that we taught you how to
gather at the beginning of this process? Before sitting down to write your
30-Second Commercial, you must have a powerful Prospect Fear and Hope
List.

We are going to put that inside information to good use in getting your
prospects interested in continuing the dialogue with you – or perhaps even
inviting you in to see them.

Remember that we’ve already discussed how dredging up people’s fears is a

way to get people to move out of their Comfort Zones and get them to take
action. Well, your 30-Second Commercial is where you start the process of
getting people out of their Comfort Zones.

Think of yourself as fishing right now. You are casting out personal fears
that you know from your market research that others like your current
prospect have. You are hoping that they bite on one of them – that they
either are currently experiencing one of those fears or are in a position to
experience one of those fears in the future. If your prospect can identify
with one of the fears that you mention – one of the frustrations, pains or
annoyances – that someone else has, then that fear can be transferred to
them.

It is a well-researched phenomenon that imagined situations that you

conjure in someone’s mind can trigger emotional responses. And this is
what you want. You want your prospect to think: “Yes, that is happening to
me now, I’m in that same fearful situation, or may soon be in that
situation.”
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55
 That’s how you get someone’s attention. By hitting them with something
that they can relate to that is very emotional – very fear-inducing. If you
strike the right chords, and hit on the right fear, you will have their
undivided attention. That’s is what your exploring for in this step. You
want to find their own personal fear.

4) Open Up The Conversation

So, after floating three Prospect Fear and Hope Statements in front of them,
you want to test their reaction. You want to gather some information about
their personal fears that you can latch on to in order to keep the
conversation going.

You might try saying something like:

“I don’t suppose you are facing any of these challenges then, are you?”

By asking this question, you are hoping that they start telling you about
their problems so that you can use this information about them to guide the
rest of the conversation.

But, if they don’t key off of one of the Prospect Fear and Hope Statements
that you mentioned, you want to try to get them to talk about their
particular personal fears so that you can keep the conversation going about
something that is near and dear to them right now – one of their current
fears.

One of our clients likes using the line:

“What’s keeping you up at night?”

Or you might say: “Maybe you can give me some advice, do you see any
problems coming down the road for you or others like you in the
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56
industry?”
Again, at this point, they might blow you off, in which case, you should ask
them for referrals. Remember, always ask for referrals.

Ask: “Is there anyone else in your organization who might be having these
concerns?”

5) Using Your Machine-Gun Client

List to Build Trust
We have found that at some points in a typical call, prospects take a step
back from engaging in a conversation with you. They may start questioning
your credentials. Remember, they don’t know who you are. After all, this is
a cold call. So this is where your Machine-Gun Client List comes in.

You want to be ready to fire off the names of current or former clients to
allay the prospect’s fears by ensuring them that you are experienced in your
field. You want to get comfortable rattling off the names of current clients
in rapid succession, like machine-gun fire. By doing so, you will project an
image of confident competence in your field. Again, people are typically
like sheep. If they hear that you’ve worked with other well-known
companies in their industry, they are more likely to hear you out.

Also, be sure to have a mini-case-study about each of the clients in your

Machine-Gun List. You want to be prepared to share at least the general
problems and results that you achieved for these clients. We’ll talk more
about how to craft credible client stories in the next section of the FEAR
Selling System, the Empathy Step.

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 6) Ask For The Meeting
Once you find a prospect who has a need – a fear – that you can latch on
to, you want to try to get a face-to-face meeting with them. You want a
face-to-face meeting because it will be easier to build rapport with the
person that way, and it will be easier to explore their needs if you have
them as a captive audience right in front of you.

In our experience, too many salespeople try to sell over the phone. Instead,
most of you should be using the phone to prospect and set up face-to-face
meetings. Now, you might be selling a small-ticket item, which doesn’t
warrant a face-to-face meeting, but if you are selling a more complex,
bigger-ticket item, chances are that your prospect will want to meet you
before buying anyway.

So how do you ask for the meeting?

Well, again, you may want to paint a picture of yourself as an authority in

their field who is willing to share information with them. Say something
like:

“We’re constantly doing surveys and research on solutions to problems like

the ones we’ve been discussing. Would it make sense for you to invite me
in, so I can share some solutions with you and then maybe we can see if
there is a way we can work together?”

You can phrase this any way you feel comfortable. The one strict
suggestion that we have is that you ask to be invited in. By being invited in,
you will be setting up the dynamic of that first meeting such that your
prospect is the host and you are the guest at the meeting. This is a subtle
yet powerful way of building rapport with your prospect since, if you are
their guest, they will feel some obligation to treat you more courteously
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58
than they would a typical salesperson who might have forced his way into
getting a meeting with them.
Remember, this formula for your 30-Second Commercial is only a model
for you. You do not have to follow it exactly. Use it as a guide, but realize
that our clients across industries have used this formula to achieve
significant success.

Indeed, in our workshops, we help our students customize these 30-Second

Commercials further depending upon what they are comfortable with
saying. But if you follow this format, we promise, you’ll be 90% of the way
to writing an effective 30-Second Commercial that will get you to your first
objective – the face-to-face meeting.

More Tactics to Help You Get In The

Door
Here are some other tactics that we have heard top salespeople use
successfully in order to entice prospects to invite you in:

a) Try saying: “I probably don’t have all the right answers, but I’m pretty
sure I have most of the questions.”

This is a credibility-building statement. You’re not flexing your muscles

like other salespeople do by saying that they are sure that they definitely
have the answer to their prospects’ problems. Rather, you’re saying, let me
get to know your problem. You are being humble, but you are also getting
them curious by saying that you know the right questions to ask.

By the way, that’s what a good consultant knows how to do – ask the right
questions. And in the Ask Step of the FEAR Selling System, we’ll provide
you with the right questions to ask in order to understand your prospects’
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59
 problems and then get them to pay you for the solution.

b) You might try this statement: “We might not have the solution for you,
but I can share with you non-confidential information that we’ve found in
our industry research.”

c) Or: “If you invite me in, I can offer you some of my time as a free
consultation.”

In both of these cases, you are trying to get them curious enough to invite
you in. You want to imply that you know something that might help them.
And, by offering it free, you are lowering their defenses. We have found
that salespeople who have taken the time to conduct market research to
find out their prospects’ fears will often be invited in to share their
knowledge.

Later, we’ll show you how to run that first face-to-face meeting to qualify
and maybe sell your prospect.

Other Ways To Share Your Prospect

Fear and Hope List To Open The
Door And Get The Conversation
Going
In addition to using your Personal Fear and Hope List in your 30-Second
Commercial, you also can use it as a powerful handout.

Sometimes, your prospects will not want to meet with you, but will ask you
to send them information. Instead of just sending your product brochure,
consider sending them a list of the types of problems that you are
experienced in solving. In other words, send your Prospect Fear and Hope
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List.

Remember, you want to focus on your prospect, not your product. You
have a greater chance of keeping the conversation going with a prospect
who believes that you understand their pains, fears and hopes.

Here’s how to present your Prospect Fear and Hope List to a prospect in
written form.

Again, you want to position yourself as an industry expert – or at least

knowledgeable about what’s going on in the industry.

Type out a list of 10 to 15 Prospect Fear and Hope Statements on a sheet of

paper, and send it to your prospects along with a request for a meeting.
Then, when you call to follow up with prospects to whom you’ve sent your
Prospect Fear and Hope List, you’ll have something to refer to that is
focused on them and their problems. Remember, the objective of discussing
this list with your prospects is to get them talking about themselves and
their problems.

We have found that such a prospect-focused handout is a much better

starting point for a conversation than your typical product-focused
brochure. In fact, our studies on this technique have shown that sending
and following up on a Prospect Fear and Hope List is about 65% more
effective in getting a face-to-face meeting than simply sending a product
brochure.

Position your Prospect Fear and Hope List as “survey results”, which, of
course they are. You should be constantly surveying your prospects and
customers, either with written surveys that they can respond to or by
gathering Prospect Fear and Hope Statements in your face-to-face meetings
with them.

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 You may title your handout like this:

COMMON CHALLENGES FACED BY (insert your typical target

prospect’s title/position here) IN TODAY’S (insert target industry/
organization)

Here are some examples:

For our above example of corporate marketing executives, for example, at

banking institutions, who might be hiring graphic designers, you might title
the handout;

COMMON CHALLENGES FACED BY SENIOR MARKETING

EXECUTIVES IN TODAY’S FINANCIAL SERVICES FIRMS

Or another example, with a little bit of a different format:

COMMON CHALLENGES FACED BY PARENTS WHO ARE

LOOKING FOR THE RIGHT PERSONAL TUTORS FOR THEIR
CHILDREN
Or another:

COMMON CHALLENGES FACED BY SMALL BUSINESS OWNERS

WHO ARE LOOKING FOR ADDITIONAL FINANCING

You then can list the Prospect Fear and Hope Statements. You may want to
make your “survey results” more interactive to get your prospect more
involved. We suggest putting a check box in front of each statement, and
then asking prospects to check off those problems that are relevant.

This is a great way of zeroing in on your prospect’s fears.

You may also want to leave some blank spaces under your list, and then
ask your prospect to fill in the blanks with their own problems and
frustrations.
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Here is what your “survey results” sheet might look like:

COMMON CHALLENGES FACED BY SENIOR MARKETING

EXECUTIVES IN TODAY’S FINANCIAL SERVICES FIRMS

The following list has been compiled from ongoing interviews with senior marketing executives in a
wide array of financial services firms, including banks, insurance companies and mutual fund companies.
These executives report that they are:

• Frustrated with graphic design vendors who give them inconsistent quality and service. They
always have to be looking for new vendors to replace the ones that aren’t giving them the
attention they need. They would like to find one good, reliable firm to work with.

• Concerned about competing with organizations that have bigger budgets than they do. It makes
them look bad in front of their bosses when they compare their brochures to those of their
competitors. They’re looking for graphic design firms that can give them bigger bang for their
buck.

• Annoyed with graphic designers who don’t turn around projects quickly enough. They often
have to stay late at work or work on weekends to meet deadlines because of mistakes that
their designers make.

• Insert a fourth Prospect Fear and Hope Statement

• Insert a fifth Prospect Fear and Hope Statement

• Etc.

Please help us with our ongoing survey by sharing with us the top three challenges that you and your
company are facing:

1) ____________________________________________________________________________
2) ____________________________________________________________________________
3) ____________________________________________________________________________
Thank You
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 Using Your 30-Second Commercial in
Networking Situations
As we noted earlier, once you put together your 30-Second Commercial,
you can use it for a variety of different prospecting tactics, including: cold
calls, voicemails, letters, faxes, emails and networking. Just like TV
advertisements, you want to get your Commercial heard by as many people
as possible.

Actually, research shows that face-to-face networking, though perhaps

more time-consuming, is much more effective in generating leads than cold
calling.

When using your 30-Second Commercial in networking situations, you can

make it even more effective by modifying your presentation strategy. One of
the basic rules in negotiation is to let the other person go first. Information
is power. If you know what the person sitting across the negotiation table is
thinking – what their fears and hopes are, you have leverage over him or
her.

It’s the same in networking. By letting the other guy go first, you can find
out key information about what they do, and therefore you’ll be able to
refine your 30-Second Commercial to make it more relevant to their
situation.

Now that you know what to say when talking to a prospect, let’s talk about
how to target prospects.

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Targeting Prospects: Finding The
Right People To Pitch Your 30-Second
Commercial To
As we mentioned earlier, your prospecting strategy is about two main
issues:

1) Targeting – figuring out who to talk to

2) Positioning – figuring out what to say

Crafting your 30-Second Commercial is all about positioning.

If you’ve followed our guidance, you already have a pretty good sense of
what to say to a prospect. We started with and spent much more time on
positioning because that is where most salespeople have problems.

The truth of the matter though is that targeting is more important than
positioning. Years of research in direct mail have shown that nearly 70% of
the effectiveness of any mail campaign is determined by targeting the right
prospects, while only 30% depends on the positioning, or what you say in
your mail piece.

Basically, you can have the best 30-Second Commercial in the world, but if
you don’t deliver it to the right people then you will not succeed in
prospecting.

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65
 Many of the top salespeople that we have interviewed regarding sales
prospecting divide the targeting aspect of prospecting into three distinct
tasks:

1) Developing your prospecting list

2) Researching your prospects

3) Contacting your prospects

1) Developing Your Prospecting List

The first step in targeting is developing a prospect list. Of course, you will
be constantly adding names to this list, but at the very beginning, you
should try to pull together a list of initial prospects.

We have found that many new salespeople are much too anxious to get out
and make their pitch to anyone who will listen. This strategy might be okay
if you just want to practice your pitch, but don’t fool yourself. Think of
who your target audience is. Visualize the type of person who has the fears
and hopes that your product/service can address and focus your limited
time on them.

Are your most likely prospects married women who are 25 to 35 years old
with children?

Are you targeting young men who are in college?

Or perhaps you are looking for retired men who like to golf?

Of course, you might be targeting various groups of people. Just keep in

mind that you have to focus your efforts through targeting.
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How Do You Start Your Prospecting
List
Friends and Family

Start with your inner circle of friends and family members. They might not
be prospects themselves but could refer you to others who might be
prospects.

Even though we suggest that you carefully target your prospects in order to
save time and energy, we still suggest that you tell everyone you know
about what you are selling. You never know who knows whom. Your
friends and family more than anyone else should be open to hearing your
sales pitch and helping you to get started.

Business Associates

Secondly, try those with whom you’ve done business before. Talk to your
doctor, dentist, barber, your kids’ teachers. In effect, you are giving them
business – putting money in their pockets – so ask them to help you as
well.

Next, you should contact members of trade or professional associations

that you belong to. Definitely make it a point to join some associations, not
only for networking but to keep up with the trends in your industry.

Current Customers

Check out your company’s current customer list. Many times, salespeople
leave money on the table by not tapping their current clients for referrals
into other divisions of their companies. Or maybe you have a new or

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67
 updated version of your product that you can upsell your current customers
on.

The Internet

The Internet is one of the most incredible prospecting tools ever created. It
is amazing how many potential new prospects you can find by using the
Internet wisely as a sales prospecting tool. (For more on how to use the
Internet to find customers, check out the book, FEAR Marketing Online.)

Also, once you have your list of prospects, you can use the Internet to do
more in-depth research on the company to find out about decision-makers,
current strategies and thus the potential needs of these prospective
customers.

We also suggest that you always try to call as high up in an organizational

structure that you can. You want to target decision-makers, which usually
means that you must call on high-level executives and business owners.
They may pass you down the hierarchical ladder in their organizations, but
isn’t it better to be referred by a more powerful person down the ladder
than by a less powerful person up the ladder? Which referral do you think
is more effective? Of course, you’d rather have decision-makers telling
subordinates to take your call rather than having subordinates try to
convince bosses to take your call.

2) Researching Your Prospects

Before you get on the phone and call your prospects, conduct at least some
research on them and their companies. Remember, you are trying to portray
yourself as an expert. The most successful salespeople do a lot of research
on a company before they try to pitch anyone in the company. Read
companies’ annual reports, visit their Web sites, follow how their stock is
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68
doing lately if they are a public company, and search on the Internet for
individuals’ backgrounds and news stories about your target companies.

Your goal is to find out as much as possible about the company before you
call into it so that you can focus your questions appropriately. You might
only get a certain amount of time on the phone to ask qualifying questions,
so make sure you know all the basics first so that you don’t waste precious
time asking your prospect about things you could have researched on your
own.

3) Contacting Your Prospects

Now that you have a better sense of what to say to a prospect and how to
target prospects, let’s talk about the different methods you can use to
approach your prospects.

Phone Versus Face-To-Face

Of course when it comes to sales prospecting techniques, if you can get a

face-to-face meeting with a prospect, take it, but don’t underestimate the
power of the telephone to qualify prospects.

Just as your prospects’ time is limited, so is yours. You must use the
telephone to qualify – or rather disqualify – prospects. How your prospect
reacts to your 30-Second Commercial will help you determine if they are a
qualified prospect or not. The biggest waste of your time is taking a trip on
a plane or a long drive to have a face-to-face meeting with a person who is
not really ready or able to buy from you.

So use the telephone to make the initial contact when appropriate. This
way you can ask key questions that will help you to decide whether it is

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69
 worth it or not to visit the person – or spend your time finding more
qualified prospects.

For time management reasons, many of our successful students rely on the
telephone for prospecting because it is time- and cost-effective. The
downside of using the phone, however is that you have little control over
the situation. The prospect can cut you off abruptly or even refuse to take
your call. All too often, you’ll get caught in Voicemail Limbo – always
getting the prospect’s voicemail and never getting a return call.

If you’ve tried repeatedly and can’t get through to a prospect, leave your
30-Second Commercial on their voicemail and move on. Don’t get fixated
on any one prospect. Keep hunting for new ones all the time.

Remember, the main objective of your 30-Second Commercial is to find

individuals who seem at least somewhat willing and able to buy from you,
and then get a face-to-face meeting with them. Having such a meeting is
your best bet to closing a sale because you’ll be able to control your
presentation and build rapport better when dealing with a prospect in
person.

Mail, Faxes and Email

Similarly, you may send out a sales letter via mail, email or fax, which
covers the points in your 30-Second Commercial - and even your Prospect
Fear and Hope List - as background to a prospect before you follow up
with them on the phone or in person.

Direct mail and email are very cost-effective, but because it is so cheap and
easy to send a letter or an email – your competitors are flooding your
prospects’ inboxes just as you are.

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70
Because of the prevalence of mail and email, many sales pros that we have
interviewed send faxes to break through to decision-makers. You might
want to try faxes as well.

Whatever you do, test all of these methods and keep track of what works
best. If after a while, you find that you are getting better responses through
certain methods and not from others, shift the time you spend to the better-
response methods.

All too often, when it comes to sales prospecting, salespeople only rely on
one method. They get comfortable just making calls or knocking on doors
or sending out fliers. It is important to find out what has worked for others
in the past – and keep testing to see what keeps working and what doesn’t.

The More, The Merrier

We at the Sales Career Training Institute suggest using multiple contact
methods to reach your prospects. By using multiple communication
vehicles, you are more likely to break through the clutter and get a
prospect’s attention.

For example, some of the more successful salespeople we studied think of

prospecting as an integrated marketing campaign with a series of distinct
steps. They’ll send a letter and follow up with a call. If they don’t get
through they may next send a fax or an email. Then, they may leave a
voicemail followed up by another email. Test what works for you, but
remember, studies have shown that it takes at least five to seven attempts
before you can get through to a prospect and engage them in a dialogue.

Unfortunately, we have found that recently with all of the communication

options available and with the speed of business increasing due to all of

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 these new technologies, it is taking even longer to engage a prospect. So be
patient, but persistent.

Some salespeople we have studied insist on sending some kind of

document first. As we discussed above, you may want to send your
Prospect Fear and Hope List. Then, once you do get through on the phone,
you have something to refer to and discuss. Also, by sending something
first, you have an excuse to follow up in order to confirm the receipt of the
letter or fax and use that as an icebreaker to start the conversation with the
prospect.

Networking: One of the Most

Effective Lead-Generation Tactics
Networking should be one of the daily sales prospecting techniques used
by all salespeople.

This is not something that needs to be planned but rather something that
is present throughout the day. Networking should be a reflex – a mindset
that you are in all the time. Remember, everyone is a potential prospect
or perhaps one step away from a potential prospect.

Every opportunity is a good one to approach someone who can turn into
a prospect or someone who can give you a lead or a referral.

Be proactive, ask questions and then listen. Give your 30-Second

Commercial informally and then listen to your prospect’s feedback.

Whenever you are in a conversation, never try to dominate. Everyone

wants to be the center of attention. In prospecting, your potential client
is the star. Let them shine.

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Regardless of the situation, networking should be cordial and a little
informal. Do not try too hard to make a sales pitch. Networking is all
about learning about a person and discovering ways in which they can
become prospects.

Follow basic guidelines that are easy to remember. Greet when

approached and engage in casual conversation that includes questions.
Try to avoid controversial subjects.

Take some time to determine if the person in front of you could be a

prospect or not - and if you determine that they aren’t a good prospect,
see if they can refer you to someone who is a more qualified prospect or
simply move on graciously.

You should be trying to network with everyone you meet. And, while
quality matters more than quantity, a salesperson will probably have to
meet several dozen people before finding a quality prospect.

Exchange basic contact information. If the potential prospect does not

ask for your business card, ask for theirs. Once you’ve got their business
card, write yourself a note on the back of the card about this person,
their needs and interests.

Follow up with a thank you call or email within 48 hours of the

meeting. Keep the note short but include a reference to the place and
situation where you met and anything important that you found out
about the person or their contacts. Finally, ask for any questions and
mention that you will follow up with a note or call in a week’s time.

Always be networking. From the moment you get up and go to work to

the moment you get home.

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 Taking Advantage of Referrals
No matter what anyone says, sales is a numbers game. You’ll have to
talk to a lot of people just to find the few who are potential prospects.
This is why we suggest that you always ask for referrals in order to
increase the number of potential prospects you can get in front of. When
it comes to sales prospecting techniques, no technique is more powerful
than asking for referrals.

The very first – and sometimes, most difficult – thing to do is to ask for
those referrals. Salespeople often forget or have a hard time asking a
prospect or client for a referral.

Never assume that asking for a referral is inappropriate. Of course, you

should try to build some level of trust with a person before hitting them
up for a referral. Most clients do not mind giving referrals but won’t just
offer them either. So always ask. It’s one of the most underused of all of
the effective sales prospecting techniques. Ask everyone for referrals,
because referrals are people who are more likely to be interested in
hearing what you have to say than just any old cold-calling prospect.

Your clients are the most obvious people to give you referrals. If they are
already benefiting from your product/service, then they most likely
know people in other businesses with the same needs.

Other people who can provide referrals are family members and friends.
Ask them if they know anyone who will benefit from your product or
service. Chances are someone knows one or two people who meet your
criteria.

You can’t be shy. You must be networking in every possible social

situation - while going to your kids’ baseball or soccer games, at a civic
group meeting or even at church.

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Ask your old prospects for referrals as well. If you pitch a product to
someone but didn’t make a sale, contact this former prospect.
Congratulate him for finally making a decision (despite the fact that they
didn’t choose you). Ask for feedback and also ask for contact
information of potential prospects. If this is not possible, offer to give
them extra business cards so that they can pass it along to referrals.

Once someone is willing to give you contact names make sure that you
follow some basic rules like:

1) Give them pointers as to the types of prospects you are targeting.

Most people know hundreds of other people. Don’t expect them to do
the work of thinking through who would be your ideal prospects.
Instead, give them some direction; ask them if they know anyone who
would meet one or two requirements.

2) Make sure you write the referral name and contact information
immediately in order to avoid spelling and other errors. Get as much
contact information as possible (address, phone numbers, fax, emails,
etc.)

3) Write a note to yourself that will explain who your referral is, who
referred them to you and how can you help them.

4) Ask permission to use your client’s name when contacting the

referrals. Try not to use someone’s name without permission.

If you are obviously getting a “no” from someone you cold call, always
ask for referrals.

To do this, first you need what we call a Quick Label. Many salespeople
use what we would call a Quick Label to always explain what they or
their company does.

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 They might say something like: “I am a graphic designer”, or “I sell
mutual funds for a bank.”

As we have discussed, you typically want to avoid boxing yourself in by

giving yourself a Quick Label. You typically want to talk about what you
do in terms of solving people’s problems or helping them avoid their
fears or achieve their hopes.

But it’s different with referrals. You probably don’t have time to play
out your typical 30-Second Commercial or you already have and the
person is not interested or not a good prospect for you for other reasons.
That’s when you quickly want to get them thinking about others who
might need your product or service.

Start by saying: “I couldn’t help you but maybe you can help me.”

Then say: “Who do you know who might be looking for a (insert your
Quick Label here)?”

For example:

“Who do you know who might be looking for a graphic designer?”

Don’t ask: “Do you know anyone who…?”

That makes it too easy for someone to dismiss you with a quick “no”.
You want them to quickly go through their mental Rolodex for you. By
phrasing your question, “Who do you know who…?” you will lead
them to do this for you.

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Getting Past The Gatekeepers To
The Decision-Makers
When prospecting, you’ll often run into what are known as
gatekeepers: secretaries, assistants or subordinates who work for the
person you are trying to get to.

One of the most common questions we get from our students is: how do
I get past the gatekeeper to the decision-maker?

Gatekeepers are a necessary evil that all salespeople have to deal with.
Many of your prospects don’t have time to take calls throughout their
day and so they screen their calls through individuals like assistants and
receptionists. You may have to deal with such gatekeepers a few times
before you are finally granted access to your prospect.

The key is to get the gatekeeper comfortable with you. You must build
rapport with them quickly. You can use many of the rapport-building
techniques that we present in the next step, the Empathy Step, to gain
the trust of gatekeepers.

If you are doing cold calling, contact the receptionist and ask her for the
name of the person in charge of making decisions for your product/
service. Typically, receptionists will help if approached cordially and
professionally.

Make sure you are as cordial with gatekeepers as you are with your
prospects. Since these employees often decide who sees their boss and
who doesn’t, they will be instrumental in getting you in touch with your
prospects faster, easier and smoother.

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 Whenever possible call early, at the very beginning of the day. Assistants
and receptionists are often at work before their bosses and even before
anybody else. Unlike in the middle of their day when they have lots of
interruptions, at these “off-hours” they might be able to give you a little
bit more of their time and even answer questions that could expedite
matters with your prospect.

The same technique works at the end of the working day. Many of these
employees are done or almost done with the bulk of their work close to
the end of the day, but they may still be in the office finalizing
paperwork. This is your time to tackle them and use their available time
to your advantage.

Don’t forget assistants and receptionists when preparing thank-you

notes. They may be as helpful or perhaps more helpful than your
prospect and deserve to be acknowledged. Your sales prospecting
techniques must include sending a quick note, via email or mail and, if
this isn’t possible, call and let them know that you appreciate their help.

Always remember that you are building a long-term relationship with

these individuals. Your actions today can give you more leads, prospects
and clients down the road.

How To Follow Up Relentlessly Yet

Courteously
One of the most important acronyms we can teach you is: RFU.

What does RFU stand for?

Relentless Follow Up

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As we’ve said, competition is getting fiercer, and busy prospects have
less and less time to meet with salespeople. That means that it’s getting
harder and harder to get through to your prospects, let alone sell them
something. And that means that it will take you several attempts to get
through.

Keep track of your attempts to reach prospects. Use a database program

like Microsoft Outlook or ACT to keep notes on letters you’ve sent,
voicemails you’ve left, and gatekeepers you’ve spoken with. If you are
doing your job, you will be calling many prospects on any given day. It
is difficult to remember what you’ve said or sent to your different
prospects, so keeping records is essential.

By keeping track of this information, you’ll be able to better position

yourself each time you try to get back in touch with a prospect. You’ll
know what you’ve said and what they’ve said to you, and so you won’t
have to start from scratch each time, but will rather try to gather more
information about them or move them further along in the sales process.

It is important to follow up with every prospect, but some may be more

important than others. Make sure you prioritize your list of follow-up
calls to better manage your time spent prospecting.

Be relentless when it comes to those hard-to-reach contacts. Anyone

whom you haven’t had a chance to speak to deserves another call. These
may not be priority calls but should be done nonetheless. You never
know who could suddenly decide that they need your product and sign
that big deal.

There are plenty of excuses you can use to follow up – it’s just a matter
of finding the right one for each contact. You can call or email a contact
many times for different reasons or simply just to check in and see how
they are doing.

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 Final Thoughts on Prospecting
The first step in the FEAR Selling System is to Find and Focus On Your
Prospects’ Fears and Hopes.

As we have discussed, you should be focusing more on your prospects’

needs rather on your product’s benefits. By exploring your typical
prospects’ fears through the marketing research process we discussed,
you will be in a better position to capture their attention when you start
prospecting.

We explained in detail how to position yourself and craft your 30-

Second Commercial, and then how to target prospects with whom you
will share your Commercial.

Remember, the first step is to qualify your prospects by finding people

who have the fears and hopes that your product/service can address.
Your main objective is to get a face-to-face meeting with your prospect
so that you can explore their personal needs and begin to build rapport
with them.

In the next step of the FEAR Selling System, which we call the
Empathy Step (covered in the Special Report, FEARLESS Relationship
Building), we will show you how to build rapport with your prospect
and thereby set the groundwork for the presentation of your product/
solution.

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 About The Author
Paul Borgese is an author, speaker, consultant and the creator of two series
of business books, The Business of FEAR and The 7 Deadly Sins of
Business. In his marketing and sales books, Paul shows how proven
systems coupled with customer-centric emotional triggers lead to significant
growth in sales.
Paul has more than 16 years of experience as a business advisor on a wide
array of strategy, finance, business development, sales and marketing
challenges for emerging-growth companies, financial institutions, not-for-
profit organizations and global corporations.
He helps executives and small business owners:
• confront the challenges of the increasingly cluttered marketplace and the
demands of the new age of marketing accountability;

• develop customized sales and marketing systems that ensure significant

ROI on every tactical investment in their overall marketing budgets; and

• execute integrated marketing plans that leverage new online and offline
techniques, including pay-per-click advertising, affiliate programs, and viral
marketing.

He has marketing and sales experience in a number of industries, including:

financial services, advertising/marketing services, Internet, information
technology, not-for-profit, corporate training, publishing and education.
Paul has led consulting engagements for senior executives at: J.P. Morgan
Chase, Merrill Lynch, Microsoft, IBM/Searchspace, Pfizer, Deutsche Bank
(London), PNC Bank, KPMG, Kanoodle.com, and The Wharton School at
the University of Pennsylvania.
In addition to his consulting experience, he has served as a marketing
director for two of the world’s largest financial professional services
organizations, Financial Executives International and the Association for

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 Financial Professionals. He also worked as a bank examiner for the
Federal Reserve.
Paul has lectured and written books, articles and white papers on a wide
range of business topics, including: corporate strategy, sales
management, marketing, entrepreneurship, information technology, risk
management, business communications, banking relationships and
corporate finance. He has served as a Teaching Fellow at New York
University’s Stern School of Business and is the author of the best-
selling book, M&A From Planning to Integration: Executing
Acquisitions and Increasing Shareholder Value, which was published
by McGraw-Hill. This book was recently featured on CNBC’s
PowerLunch with Bill Griffeth and CNNfn’s The Money Gang.
As an author, he is most famous for his series of books, which include
FEAR Selling: How You Can Sell More and Sell Faster By Tapping
Into Your Prospects’ Deep-Seated Emotional Needs; The 7 Deadly
Sins of Marketing; and The 7 Deadly Sins of Marketing Online. For
more information, please visit www.FEARMarketing.com.
Paul was educated in the United States and Europe. He holds five
degrees, including: an MBA in finance and marketing from New York
University; a Master of Governmental Administration from the Fels
Institute of Government at the University of Pennsylvania, where he was
named a Samuel S. Fels Scholar; a Master of Arts in English from
Trinity College Cambridge University in England after being awarded
the prestigious British Marshall Scholarship; a Bachelor of Arts in
English from the University of Pennsylvania; and a Bachelor of Science
in economics from The Wharton School at the University of
Pennsylvania. Paul is proficient in Spanish and was awarded a
Certificate in Spanish from the University of Salamanca in Spain where
he was a Cambridge Scholar.
You may contact Paul at 201.533.9282 or via email at
paul@FEARMarketing.com.

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 BOOKS THAT MEAN BUSINESS
BY THE FEAR MARKETING GROUP
In addition to our consulting work, the FEAR Marketing Group also conducts a
significant amount of research on sales and marketing effectiveness.

All books are available through www.FEARMarketing.com or by calling

201.533.9282.

FEAR Selling: How You Can Sell More And Sell Faster
By Tapping Into Your Prospects’ Deep-Seated
Emotional Needs

Typically, before we worked with them, our clients were selling and marketing
based on traditional features and benefits. If you’re still using these outdated
tactics, you are in trouble.

Recent studies by the Sales Career Training Institute and the Performance
Marketing Institute have broken new ground when it comes to sales and
marketing effectiveness strategies. Studies conducted by these not-for-profit
Institutes have led to the development of the FEAR Selling System. One of
the key findings of both of these Institutes is that today’s marketers are using
hopelessly outdated selling strategies. Benefit selling (or what we call
HOPE Selling) is only one half of the powerful Persuasion Equation.

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 To get people out of their Comfort Zones and take action by buying your
product/service, you must focus not only on the positive consequences of
buying but also on the negative consequences of not buying your product/
service.

Many of our clients sell complex products/services which require long sales
cycles and therefore demand superior relationship-building sales skills. FEAR
Selling shows how to overcome these challenges by finding and focusing on
your prospects’ personal pains and fears as well as their hopes and
dreams. By using both carrot AND stick persuasion techniques, you will
easily multiply your persuasion effectiveness exponentially.

So we have organized these persuasion techniques into an easy-to-use, step-

by-step system that we share with our clients during our training seminars.
Now, due to high demand, we have condensed the content of our 5-day FEAR
Selling Boot Camp into the FEAR Selling System, which is available in book
form.

It covers everything you need to know to sell more and sell faster. Find out how
to: cold call with confidence, position yourself effectively through your 30-
Second Commercial, get your prospects curious enough to invite you in to sell
them more, bond quickly through proven trust-building techniques, ask the
right questions at the right times to the right people, and present through
powerful strategies that get your prospects to buy now.

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 FEAR Selling For Financial Advisors

Top financial advisors earn big bucks and so have the luxury of hiring staff and
investing in sales and marketing systems that keep them winning clients with
little effort. But you know if you are starting up as a financial advisor that the
going can be rough at first. Recent turnover statistics show that up to 68% of
new financial advisors fail within their first year. Why do they fail?

Well, whether you are working for a large financial institution or if you are an
independent advisor, you basically are running your own small business. You
have to brand yourself, market yourself, and sell yourself. Unfortunately, many
financial advisors whom we train don’t understand that they are in business for
themselves. They have little formal sales training and limited marketing
knowledge. They don’t know how to set up their own sales and marketing
systems – but that’s exactly what they have to do if they want to survive in
today’s cut-throat financial services arena.

This version of FEAR Selling includes all the information from the original 5-
Day Boot Camp plus newly developed strategies, tactics and techniques
specially designed for Financial Advisors.

FEAR Selling For Financial Advisors covers everything you need to know to
be a top producer. Keep a steady stream of prospects calling you. Find out how
to: target wealthy investor segments, set up a highly leveragable referral
system, cold call with confidence, position yourself effectively through your 30-
Second Commercial, get your prospects curious enough to invite you in to sell
them more, bond quickly through proven trust-building techniques, ask the
right questions at the right times to the right people, and tailor your offerings
to your prospects so that they buy now.

All books are available through www.FEARMarketing.com or by calling

201.533.9282.
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 FEAR Marketing: Proven Systems and Emotional
Triggers Guaranteed To Help You
Sell More and Sell Faster

We live in a new age of marketing accountability. There is no longer any

excuse for marketers and small business owners to throw money away on
marketing tactics without knowing their true return on investment (ROI). In
fact, it’s stupid to do so. Indeed, if today’s marketers do not adopt the new
marketing technologies, they will quickly find themselves squeezed out of the
game - either out of a job or out of business altogether.
FEAR Marketing was designed to help marketing executives and small
business owners:

• cut through the clutter of today’s increasingly crowded marketplace;

• develop customized marketing systems that ensure significant long-term

ROI on every tactical investment in your overall marketing budget; and

• combine the emotional selling strategies first introduced in FEAR Selling

with the marketing systems-thinking necessary to guarantee high returns on
your marketing investments.

Note: This second edition of FEAR Marketing does address the new online
marketing technologies that many corporations and small businesses are now
using to capture new clients at the lowest cost possible, but for a more
comprehensive coverage of interactive, performance-based strategies, check
out FEAR Marketing Online.

All books are available through www.FEARMarketing.com or by calling

201.533.9282.
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 FEAR Marketing Online: How To Leverage The New
Performance-Marketing Technologies Proven To Help
You Sell More and Sell Faster

The first edition of FEAR Marketing introduced us to the power of combining

emotional selling with proven marketing systems. But nowadays, positioning
your products/services more effectively and applying offline systems-thinking
to your marketing is not enough. You also must tap into the powerful new
online communication technologies that are available to target and generate
qualified leads at the lowest possible cost.

By complementing effective high-tech prospecting tactics with high-touch

face-to-face sales strategies, FEAR Marketing Online shows you how to
generate qualified, low-cost leads, create prospect interest, build trust,
and close deals in order to succeed in today’s hyper-competitive marketplace.

With the recent success of companies such as Google, Yahoo and E-Bay,
marketers are waking up to the fact that the Internet is here to stay. But
recent research by the Performance Marketing Institute shows that too
many marketers and business owners do not realize that these hyper-growth
Internet companies are basically marketing services companies that can help
you catapult your own business to success. The Internet is not a business
model in and of itself like the 1999 bubble-investors hoped it was. Rather it is a
highly leveragable marketing tool that you must incorporate into your
integrated marketing strategies if you want to survive today.

With the rise of new marketing technologies such as pay-per-click

advertising, affiliate programs and viral marketing, even small businesses
can compete with their multinational corporate rivals if they know the new
strategies and tactics which are necessary if you want to fight and win on
today’s ruthless ROI-driven marketing battlefield.
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 FEAR Leadership: How To Lead By Tapping Into
Powerful Emotions To Motivate Your Organization
From Fear to Hope

In FEAR Leadership, the creators of FEAR Selling and FEAR Marketing

show you how to use powerful persuasion techniques to motivate people to get
things done.

The leadership master, Nicollo Machiavelli, wrote in his world-famous leadership

manual, The Prince: “Since it is difficult to join them together, it is safer to be
feared than to be loved.” Machiavelli was right – it is difficult to be feared and
loved at the same time by your followers, yet unfortunately, to lead today, you
must sometimes tempt with the carrot as well as threaten with the stick.
As many of today’s corporate leaders admit, you must create enemies in the
minds of your employees so as to motivate them to compete and win. You must
focus on consequences and award performance accordingly.

In addition to showing you how to lead, this book also will show you how not to
lead. This version of FEAR Leadership also includes excerpts from the
previously published book, The 7 Deadly Sins of Leadership.

All books are available through www.FEARMarketing.com or by calling

201.533.9282.

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 The Financial Services Marketing Handbook: Tactics
and Techniques That Produce Results
By Evelyn Ehrlich, Ph.D. and Duke Fanelli

Everyone in the financial industry can benefit from The Financial Services
Marketing Handbook (Bloomberg Press, 2004), from senior corporate
management to independent financial advisors. Case studies illuminate both
the innovations practiced by industry leaders—companies like Merrill Lynch,
American Express, and Citibank—and perhaps more tellingly, marketing
initiatives that failed.

These up-to-the-minute case studies are integrated into a review of the

keystones of marketing strategy: segmentation, positioning, situational
analysis, and tactical planning. There are chapters on each of the specific tools
of the marketer—from personal selling and sponsorships to the Internet and
CRM.

The 21st Century has already seen a major stock market collapse, unrolling
scandals involving commercial banks, investment banks, hedge funds and
mutual funds, and industry-shaking changes in the regulatory environment.
The Financial Services Marketing Handbook gives financial marketers and sales
professionals the tools they need to survive—and thrive.
All books are available through www.FEARMarketing.com or by calling
201.533.9282.

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 M&A From Planning To Integration

Mergers and acquisitions are designed to build market leadership and create
long-term value - in theory, anyway. M&A from Planning to Integration
provides complete guidelines for ensuring these optimistic theories become
reality, and outlines a systematic plan for developing, implementing, and
monitoring a successful M&A deal.

Examples from companies including Cisco Systems, GE, Microsoft, and others
reveal M&A strategies that have worked in the real world, illustrate the book’s
concepts in action, and help you apply those concepts and strategies to your
own company.
All books are available through www.FEARMarketing.com or by calling
201.533.9282.

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