For many people who join your team, contacting is one of the scariest, yet important aspects of the business. Because you don’t have a store front for people to come to, the only way for people to become aware of you, your company, and your products is through personal contact. When you are contacting people the main thing to keep in mind is that you are looking for people who are dissatisfied with something. For example, some people don’t have enough time or money to do the things they want in life. Others however, might have too many bills, or too many jobs. No matter what their pain, you have the solution.
The purpose of contacting is two fold. 1) to find out why they are dissatisfied, and 2) to set an appointment. That’s it, that’s all. Don’t make contacting into something its not. It’s not a presentation or a selling event.
Typically there are 3 kinds of people you already know who you can contact: hot, warm, and chicken.
- Hot contacts are those who you could walk into their house without knocking. These are typically your family and closest friends.
- Warm contacts are those who know you by your first name. That is to say you could call them and say, Hi Bob, this is Clay, and they wouldn’t wonder who Clay is. Usually these are people you work with, neighbors, or people you go to church or attend other organizational meetings with.
- Chicken contacts are those people who you are apprehensive about sharing your business or products or services with. They might be an influential community leader, or affluent business person or a political leader, or maybe you just think they are one or more of these things. The truth is that most of the people we hold in high regard view themselves as regular and common. So don’t be afraid of them, they are most likely going to be your best customers and fastest growing associates if you will just give them a chance.
Then there is the notorious Cold contact. These are people you do not know yet. You must initiate a conversation with this group of people. You can ask them a question to get the conversation or you can wear a button, lapel pin or your attitude by itself can be conversation starters.
No matter who you are contacting, remember that your single goal in contact is to set an appointment to discuss the details of your solution to their pain.
