Page 51 - GS131102

Education

1Slick67 wrote, "We use many ways to board accounts
like everyone else – appointment setters, auto dialers,
direct mail and ads – but to say cold calling is dead is
just wrong. One of the easiest ways for a new agent or
[experienced] agent for that matter is to canvas an area
and get to know the owners.

"There are many ways to cold call; the 80 percent you
are talking about may be phone sales, but you walk into
a location, and very few will turn you away unless you
are a total a$$. The ones preaching about cold calling
being dead are usually just trying to sell the 'new way'
of doing business. We use a mix, but cold calling is not
dead or a [waste] of time."

Texascommerce encouraged us not to over-think
selling and lead sourcing. A qualified prospect, in his
view, is one that is "identified by the fact they are open
for business and/or are an existing, operating, store
front, retailer or restaurant/bar."

He summarized his system as 20 - 5 - 3 - 3 - 1:

20 = Number of merchant doors you open in a day,
within a 5- to 10-mile radius (hopefully around
where you reside)
5 = Number of business owners you will find
within the above opened 20 doors
3 = Number of quality, real prospects/merchants,
you should be able to set an appointment with
to present your product (cannot be payment
processing upfront)
3 = Number of presentations you should be doing
daily from the above effort
1 = Number of sales you should be writing per day,
from the above 3 presentations you have made

Texascommerce added that if you want to really hit it
hard, "have a telemarketer call each and every business
card you picked up, from the above mentioned 20
doors you walked in and set you one to three quality
appointments per day, to add to the ones you set for
yourself, and now you are presenting to your prospects
all day, every day."

He closed by saying that the street will always push you
up, and that if you try to hide from it or take yourself
out of the game, you may find yourself posing academic
questions about cold calling in The Green Sheet.

Dale S. Laszig is a writer and payments industry executive
specializing in business development and sales perfor-
mance improvement. She manages channel sales at Castles
Technology and sales effectiveness programs through IMPAX
Corp. and C3ET Credit Card Consortia for Education &
Training Inc. She can be reached at 973-930-0331 or dale_
laszig@castechusa.com.

51