Hey, why didn’t I think of that?

Okay, the truth is that if you eliminate calling people who have little or no interest in buying your product/service then your percentage of sales to phone calls will increase. Why waste time with people who don’t see the benefit of your product/service when you could be cultivating a relationship with those who are more likely to buy your products and services. The cold calling tactic isn’t worth the effort it takes salespeople to try to convince the customer to change his mind.

Salespeople should never be dishonest even when trying to close a sale with an unwilling sales prospect. High probability selling strategies focus on being honest with your sales prospects.

Always start your phone call with the reason for your call. Don’t try using gimmicks or flattery on your sales prospect. Simply explain the reason for your call. If your sales prospect says they aren’t interested, thank them and hang up.

Convincing and persuading are not as effective as establishing rapport and building trust.

How do you earn trust? Unlike cold calling, put the high probability prospect into a rotation file. You will call him again in 30 days to see if his interest in the product has changed. If he still isn’t ready to buy, thank him and try again in another 30 days.

You might even want to send your sales prospect a personal handwritten note. Each time you contact the prospect, you should offer him a slightly different package.

Use a spreadsheet to keep track of what you offer your prospects on each phone call. You’ll want to note which offers get the best responses.

By the third call, it's no longer considered cold calling. With the third phone contact you are approaching the warm calling phase. The high probability sales prospect is now familiar with you and you're beginning to establish trust. Sales prospects are more willing to purchase goods and services from someone they trust.

Go through you calling lists and based on the products/services you sell, determine who your target market is. Who is the most likely decision-maker to buy what you are selling? What do these decision-makers have in common?

Are the businesses approximately the same size or are they in the same geographic location? Do the companies have similar customers? What are the common threads? You get the picture!

What you're trying to do is to define the characteristics of your target high probability sales prospects. Those with the same characteristics are the ones you need to direct your sales effort at.

The more calls you make, the more rapport and trust will be established.

Your success rates will increase as time goes on. It's essential to come up with a 35-45 second elevator speech. No more and no less. This way you are not wasting the sales prospect’s time and you can quickly move on to the next call if he's not interested.

High probability selling is easier when you're working with the more qualified sales prospects - and that's the bottom line.