If you wanna be part of the BIG FAT INDIAN WEDDING market, speak to me…I have a proposal you dont wanna miss!!

Beyond Work

I have been doing some research on indian marriages and its economics.
I found the following information from www.businesseconomics.in

    an upper middle class family normally spends 30 lakh on a wedding
    an average of 10 million (or 1 crore) marriages take place in India every year.
    conservative average of wedding expenditure to be `3 lakh i.e 3 trillion for weddings every year

In India, marriages are a big event for the family, relatives and kids. People come together during marriages, spending happens a lot from both bride and groom sides. Lets look into the place where spending and incoming happens and the enormous opportunities in those areas.

1. Brides and Grooms Dresses
2. Marriage Halls
3. Food
4. Flower Arrangements
5. Receptions (before or after marriage… usually happens during the evening)
6. Music bands or DJ

Getting a marriage hall within the city limits is the biggest issue. the…

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How To Make a Flawless Cold Call- PART 2

Hi winners!

This is part 2 of my blog titled- How To Make a Flawless Cold Call

This part will cover points 4 through 6 and complete the series for you.

I hope that the points that I have raised have helped you make some quick notes and create a personal playbook that you can refer to, wherever you may be, which part of the world you may be working today and in the future!!

These points sure helped me succeed in India and Africa…so the logic is, if they worked in these 2 very tough markets, it should be a cinch in the mature markets of the US and Europe ….right??!!

So here goes….


You’ll never get the cold calling done unless you schedule a regular time each week to make the calls.  The trick here is scheduling your cold calling at the times when prospects are most likely to agree to a future meeting and thus become a potential customer.

The “right time” varies according to whether you’re working from a static list (like one built from the search of a database) or working on leads being fed to you from a web site where potential prospects are constantly coming and going.

If you’re working from a list, the best day to call is Thursday while the worst day to call is Friday.  In addition, the best times to call are 8am to 9am and 4pm to 5pm, while the worst time to call is 1pm to 2pm.

If you’re working from a website feed, the best time to call is within 5 minutes from the time that the potential prospect was viewing your website.  Turns out you are 4 times more likely to successfully qualify a lead if you call within 5 minutes than if you call between 5 and 10 minutes. And you are 21 times more likely to qualify a lead if you call within 5 minutes than if you wait for 30 minutes.


Most of your success in cold calling will depend not upon your product or the quality of your leads, but on your attitude as you approach the cold-calling process. Here are five tips to help you achieve the best attitude for this part of your job:

Use a headset, not a handset. You want both hands free so that you can talk as if you’re talking in person.

Sit up straight and smile. If you’re slumped and frowning, the prospect will “sense” it, even from a distance.

Visualize success. Think of a time when you won a big sale. Put your mind and memory and emotions in that place.

Practice your script. Practice what to say if you reach a gatekeeper and what to say if you reach a decision-maker.

Lay aside your sales goals. These get in the way if you focus too much on them. It’s about the customer, not about you.


You are now ready to make your cold calls.  Remember, cold calling is a process of disqualifying leads, not finding prospects for your pipeline

This is a VERY important point. As my boss often pointed out to me, “cold calling” is a “discarding” or “disqualifying” process, like panning for gold or digging for diamonds. You have to turn over a lot of dirt before you find the gems.

If you fail to get this, you’re destined to get frustrated. So, rather than trying to get as many leads as possible into the pipeline, use the cold calling process to avoid wasting time and effort on people who will never buy.

Because of this, you must make a point to make every cold call into a “win.”  It’s a BIG WIN every time you can scratch a “lead” off your list, because that means you’re not going to be chasing wild geese around mulberry bushes.


Hope you liked my posts….keep writing and keep connected!

How To Make a Flawless Cold Call- PART 1

Hi confident cold callers!!

I bet I got your confidence up by many a notch after the last 2 blogs on the subject of cold calling jitters and how to win!

So I thought that it is now the right time to discuss some key steps that will help you make flawless cold calls and deliver results!!

I have a total of 6 points to discuss with you and I shall do that in 2 parts- THIS IS PART 1, which will cover the first 3 points..



If you’re going to cold call, you need to target people who are likely to buy.

There are many ways to get lists of leads, but typically you’ll either get them from your marketing group or you’ll have access to an online service that allows you to pull potential prospects off the web.

The challenge is winnowing down that list to the prospects who are most likely to buy.  There are three general criteria that are always important:

  • Target Industries. Based upon your experience (and that of your colleagues), figure out which industries have both the greatest need for your offering as well as the money to purchase your offering. You should limit your target to one or two industries at most.
  • Target Job Titles. Within each industry there are “natural” buyers who either purchase offerings similar to yours or greatly influence such purchases. Based on your experience (and that of your colleagues) figure out the two or three specific titles that this natural buyer usually has within your target industry.
  • Trigger Events. For most products (especially B2B) there are key events that signal a likelihood to buy.  For example, if you sell services to help companies integrate normally-incompatible computer systems, a corporate merger or acquisition will usually open up a sales opportunity. Other trigger events are job changes, reorganizations, big sales wins in the prospect’s firm, etc


An effective cold calling script has the following characteristics:

  • It is about 30-45 seconds long.
  • It includes absolutely no small talk.
  • It delivers a specific, compelling reason for the prospect to want to continue the conversation.
  • It uncovers a problem in their business that you can help them fix.

If the prospect (not you) identifies something that is having negative ramifications on their business (a problem) AND they are serious about getting rid of that problem, then you “may” have a possible reason to continue.  If so, you can set an appointment to explore the possibilities of helping that prospect in some way get rid of that problem.

An effective cold calling script has the following structure:

  • Tell them your name and company
  • Ask permission for 45 seconds and tell them they can end the conversation after that if they want to.
  • Get right to the point
  • Help then identify their business problems by offering a short “menu”


Many sales reps “sound like” sales reps — and that can be a big impediment to making the sale.  If you’re selling to decision-makers, you need to sound like a decision-maker, not a sales rep.  Every time you sound “like a salesman,” you’re communicating that you’re only there to sell and your credibility flies out the window.

So how did you find these points?? Write back to me , comment on this blog and wait for PART 2!!

Getting excited about Cold Calls!

Hi “cold feet Claude”

Is cold calling getting the better of you lately?








I reckon the answer lies in our measurements of success.




Imagine instead, you had approached the exercise with this goal:





