When you think about cold calling, what is the universal purpose of interrupting a stranger and delivering the right few words?

It's to open up a dialog, right?

Well your cold calling skills need to be good to great in order to make an elevator pitch that has any chance of succeeding. When you are crafting your pitch, whether on the phone or in person, its always important to avoid anything that sounds like a sales pitch. But what's even more important... the person you are talking to.

You know by now that the key to good communication is to listen 2x more than you talk. Meaning, you should be focused on what the other person is saying by listening, then summarizing and asking questions relating to their story.

If you did nothing else but followed that simple technique, you would be in top 10% of sales professionals.

But here's how to take basic communications and make it an effective sales tool.

There are two general approaches when making an elevator pitch or even a cold call. Direct and indirect.

An indirect approach is when you are having a casual conversation. Here's how to turn that into a possible sale. If you are at a trade show where your potential prospects are gathering, you have a great opportunity to make some new contacts. You start by making a normal greeting and introduction. And here's how you incorporate your pitch. You make a statement like...

"You know how some people have a problem with [problem]...? Well, I offer a way to solve that with [solution leading to your product/service]

This method allows the conversation to stay casual, but at the same time plants a seed of curiosity into your potential prospect's thoughts. If they are interested, most of the time they will usually jump right out and say "Hey! I have that problem, can you help me fix it?" or sometimes you'll hear "You know, my colleagues in accounting have had that problem, do you think you can help them?"

Using this approach, you completely 'tamed' the sales talk and left it open ended. If they bite, you can talk about your products, if not, nothing lost and the conversation can remain casual.

A direct approach is when you are having a conversation that either you initiated or the other party did. When you get to the "So, what do you do?" part, you respond with:

"I help [type of prospect] who have a [problem you fix] achieve [desire result] without [common pain or inconvenience]. Do you know anyone who [summarize]?"

This is more of a direct pitch, but by stating it in the third person, you stay away from the obvious sales talk and tricks. If they are interested, they will tell you immediately. If not, you can resume to the conversation and move on to the next prospect.

Developing a good elevator pitch is great tool to have that will carry over to your cold calls and help you move away from sounding "salesy" and instead you'll sound like a professional problem solver.

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Learning how to sell, as you know, offers the biggest financial reward in any industry. Top salesmen will always write their own terms, and make what they're worth. The problem that seems to plague the sales ranks has nothing to do with the rewards of selling, but the process. The 'how" becomes elusive to the majority, and fearful to the rest. Most sales training conveniently forgets that professional level selling requires a great deal of persuasion and negotiation, gently masked with finesse. Here are five ways you can immediately make your sales situations more persuasive (and more profitable):

1. Talk less
Have you ever encountered the slick, sleazy salesman that won't stop talking while giving you the fake smile? More than likely you have. When salespeople get nervous... they tend to talk and talk without ever giving the prospect a chance to respond. Some sales training out there actually suggests to talk more! The training stated "telling is selling." Nothing can be further from reality. It was explained to me years ago that our creator gave us two ears and one mouth... meaning the prospect should be doing the talking 2/3 of the time.

2. Stop trying to close...ABC is Wrong
Some of the old school sales trainers used to emphasize closing as selling gospel. The term "Always Be Closing" was coined and a whole generation of closers were born. What someone forget to tell this breed of salesman was the internet kinda changed the game. And by "kinda" I mean completely. Look, with a simple Google search, your prospect can find out everything about your product, your competitor, your cost, etc. There is no point using outdated closing gimmicks and assuming the close, and other sales techniques from the 70's... the game is changing. Either adapt or find a new profession.

3. Use questions like a strategic missile
What happens when a salesman or advertisement jumps out at you claiming to be number 1? If you're anything like your prospect... your reaction is "Ya, right" or "Who cares?" Bragging and hyping up your product will not sell it. The only reason anyone buys anything depends on their belief of the product having more value than the money in their pocket. Period. Find the real pain by asking subtle questions and price will never be an objection.

4. Deep benefits sell subconsciously
Most people involved in sales and marketing know that you sell the benefits not the features. But what separates the salespeople who are just getting by from the sales sharks that are million dollar producers... can be summed up as 'Deep Benefits.' While the shallow benefit of a exotic German car might be "the soft, hand stitched leather seats provide full back support, that make your commute as comfortable as possible." The deep benefit will always trump the shallow one because deep benefits almost always "stroke the ego." And you know all too well that desires of the ego have 100x the power of all other emotional desires (Well, almost all other desires...). The sales professional knows this and will use it to make the register ring. Our German car example becomes emotionally charged with the deep benefit of "imagine offering that new temp that has been on your mind a ride, and the look on her face when she opens the door and notices the luxurious fine leather seats..." Logic is no longer an obstacle.

5. Know thy prospect
To really improve your closing rate, there is no better way then learning about who exactly you are selling to. This often forgotten foundation of sales and marketing produces a crystal ball into the world of your prospect. Put together a complete picture of your typical customer. Find out her fears, his desires, her goals, his frustrations, etc. Everything that makes this person tick. Once you know them... and really know them, selling to the subconscious will be subtle, persuasive, and deadly effective. No more fake bonding or fake rapport building. Master this step and you have a secret door into their psyche.

Use these steps in your next sales encounter and pay attention to the changes they have with your prospect. All these methods use subtle sales negotiation to find the subconscious desires and then sell to those desires. Remember the phrase "Sell the sizzle, not that steak?" We took it a step further with "Sell a full stomach, not the sizzle." Learn how to sell and everything in the world becomes attainable.

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