Improve Your Cold Calling Skills Making cold calls is one of the most difficult things to do in sales—even for the pros. It takes courage to get on the phone and call up someone you've never met: Will they be interested? Will they yell at me? Will they hang up on me? As intimidating as cold calling can be, it still remains one of the most efficient and effective ways to contact a large number of prospects. If you're just starting out, or if you haven't become comfortable with cold calling yet, here are five tips to improve your cold calling skills. 1.) Practice. The best way to get better on the phone is to make more calls. Practice will make you more comfortable on the phone, improve your sales pitch, and it will also help you learn to handle rejection better. There is no substitute for experience. 2.) Use a script. You've only got a couple of minutes (at best) to tell the prospect who you are and how you're going to help their business; using a script is a great way to make sure that you cover all the important things you want to say. DO NOT read the script (you'll sound like a telemarketer), and don't worry about memorizing every single word (it will throw you off if the prospect asks you a question you didn't plan for). Familiarize yourself with the script, and customize the content to make it your own (you'll sound more natural...and convincing). Also, don't forget to include objections and rebuttals in your script. Almost every call that you make will involve handling objections, so make sure that you are ready with your rebuttals. 3.) Take time to prepare. If you can learn a bit about the prospect and their business before you call, it will be much easier to connect the benefits of a Web site to the needs of their business. Tell them exactly how a Web site is going to increase their sales, reduce their costs, energize their advertising, and improve their customer service. If you can make it personal and specific to their business, the prospect will be interested in hearing what you have to say. 4.) Be confident. Your attitude and tone on the phone communicate just as much as the words you use. If you are worried that the prospect won't be interested, or if you feel like you're wasting their time, you are communicating this to the prospect. If you're confident that your call may be the most important call that business is going to receive this year, you will communicate that to your prospect. 5.) Consider a pre-approach. If you're still not comfortable cold calling prospects, there are a few different ways that you can turn a cold call into a friendly follow up. Send out a flier to selected businesses, and after a couple of days, call them up and say, "Hi, I was just calling to follow up on the information that I sent you the other day!" Even better, stop in the business before hand, and casually make conversation with the owner. You don't have to get into your sales pitch at all; just build a bit of rapport so that he or she will remember you when you call back. "Hi, it's Mike from the other day! How are you doing? Y'know, after I left your store the other day, I started thinking about a couple of different ways a Web site would improve your business…" Selling doesn't come naturally to everyone, but there are ways that you can improve your confidence and abilities. Stop procrastinating, and stop being intimidated. If you use some of the tips we've presented, and set a goal to make at least ten cold calls each day, you'll be setting more appointments, closing more deals, and making more money than ever!   Did you know that Tuesday is the best day of the week to send out sales or marketing e-mail? (For some reason, people are more receptive to e-mail on Tuesdays...) SOURCE: CLIKZ.COM NOTE: Make sure that you are only sending e-mail to customers and prospects that have expressed an interest in receiving e-mail from you. Do you have a good sales or marketing tip? A story we can use to teach other WebCenter Licensees? Any questions or problems you'd like to see covered in upcoming newsletters? We value your input, so please take the time to e-mail us at newsletter@mawebcenters.com, and please let us know how we can better meet your needs.

"Where can I find prospects?" In Sales Support, this is one question that we are asked often—by both new and experienced WebCenter Licensees. It's difficult to provide a short answer because there are so many different ways that you can find new leads: existing personal and business contacts, yellow page ads, your local Chamber of Commerce, and business card drawings, just to name a few. If you're having trouble choosing a way to start prospecting, we have found that a great place to find a list of businesses that need (and probably do not already have) a Web site is at the Business License Department. Every day there are new businesses filing for county, city, or state business licenses, and all of the information that these new businesses provide is made available to the public. Most Business License Departments will charge you a nominal fee for printed copies of new or recent business license applications, though some will provide you with this information for free. If you are working with a county, city, or state government that has moved their services online, you can probably access their database of businesses through their Web site at no charge. Usually, the Business License Department database will let you sort the results by industry, and by the date the business filed for their license. For more information on obtaining lists of new businesses in your county, city, or state, please contact the appropriate governmental office or bureau.     Adding Flash Components in 3.0 The new 3.0 version of our Web site building software is packed with powerful tools and features! Hopefully, you've had a chance to build (and sell) a few Web sites to get familiar with how the new software works. One of the most exciting new features in Version 3.0 is the ability to use Flash as a component. In the past, you could only use the custom-designed Flash elements as Intro pages. Now, you can place Flash components anywhere you want, on any page of your site! To add a Flash component on a Web site, begin by opening up the Web page in Edit mode. Next, open up the Table Menu by clicking on the area you want to place the component, and open up the drop down menu under Add Component - Other, and select the Flash option. You will have two options for inserting a new Flash component: create a new one, or use an existing Flash component. Unless you have already inserted a Flash component, the only existing Flash on your site will be your Flash Intro page. To use that as a Flash component, click on Copy or View. To create a new Flash component, start by assigning a name to the component, and then click on the Create New Flash button. The next screen will let you choose from the same list of Flash templates that can be used as Intro pages on your site. Once you have selected a Flash template, you will be able to adjust the size of the component as it will be used on your site. (Experiment with different dimensions in the width and height fields until the component is an appropriate size.) Clicking on the Change Template button will take you into a detailed screen that allows you to edit the text, images, and sound on the Flash component. If you need to make adjustments to the Flash template, use the Change Template tool; otherwise, click on the Update Flash button, and your new Flash component will be complete. NOTE: If your Web site is still in Simple Mode, you will only be able to edit text and images. To make full use of the Web site administrative tools (like adding Flash as a component), switch your 3.0 site to Advanced Mode. If you have any questions, please feel free to call Customer Care Monday through Friday from 7am to 7pm PST at (866) 932-4357.