5 Cold Calling Tips
Here are few tips to make your cold calling easier:
1. Attitude is everything.
Most salespeople never receive a cold call at work so the only time anyone ever calls them to sell them anything is in the evening when they are relaxing at home. These residential calls are annoying and intrusive and they can make some salespeople feel like their own cold calls at work are just as irritating too.
There is, however, one critical difference between receiving a cold call at home and getting one at work: at work people are paid to listen to any good ideas that could help the firm. When you call a prospect about an idea that could cut a firm's costs or increase its revenue, the shareholders of that company want them to take your call. Your prospects have an obligation to their employer to talk with you about ways to improve their business.
Would their CEO be happy if you told her that you had been trying for weeks to help her make more money but no one at her firm could be bothered to take ten minutes to talk with you? You should never feel as though you are pestering people with your business cold calling. Their CEO wants you to call them.
2. Leave Different Messages for Men and Women.
Men are driven by the hormone testosterone which means that they prefer to hear short, easily quantified 'What's in it for me (WIIFM)?' messages. Woman are motivated by oxytocin, a hormone which makes them very interested in things that provide logical, social and emotional benefits to many people, not just the buyer alone.
A woman will generally be more receptive to longer 'What's in it for us (WIIFU)?' messages that mention the obvious logical benefits to her and also point out ways that something might improve her relationship with others (e.g. it will mean less stress for her employees or it will make her customers happier).
3. Shoot for the Top - And Try to Miss!
Call the company and ask to speak with the CEO's Personal Assistant rather than the CEO. Ask the PA who is the best person in the company to speak with about your offering and then call that person and leave a message saying that "the CEO's office suggested that we talk". This approach may seem slightly misleading to some prospects but it can be worth a shot if all of your other efforts are failing.
4. Leave an Extremely Well-Rehearsed Voice Mail Message.
Leaving a rushed, poorly planned voice mail message can be worse than leaving no message at all. A good voice mail can be extremely effective in generating callbacks, but it is unlikely that you will be able to create a compelling message on the spot. Your voice mails should be well scripted in advance and you should listen to several practice messages before leaving any.
Short voice mails that just throw a bunch of numbers at a prospect ("We can save you 50%!") generally do not make much of an impression. A powerful buyer gets a lot of messages from salespeople and you need to make yours stand out in some way. Try telling a great 30 second short story or doing something to inject a bit of fun or your personality into your messages. Offer to send them a free report if they contact you with their email address. Spell your email address slowly and leave your phone number clearly twice and do not make them have to rewind so they can write down your contact information.
It can make a particularly good impression on a businesswoman if you make a promise to call her again at a specific time and then keep your promise. Even if she is not around to take your call, oxytocin cares a lot about good vendor relationships and she will notice that you have proven that you pay close attention to details and that you keep your commitments.
5. Set the Callback Expectations Correctly
Managers are long-range planners and they cannot change their plans every time another salesperson calls them up with a good idea. Show them that you understand their planning cycle by saying that you want to talk conceptually about their future plans. Do not make it sound like you expect them to buy something soon. Try using low pressure phrases like: "Kevin, many of my customers now are making their plans for next year and I wondered if you might find it helpful for us to talk for few minutes to discuss some of your long-term options."
Sean has been helping account managers to win deals for over 20 years.
He started out cold calling in the telecommunications hardware industry before moving on to sales and management positions with Ernst & Young, a very successful high-tech start-up and multinational firms.
He has worked as a B2B account manager, a sales engineer, a consultant, a department manager and as a trainer. He is a dynamic, likable instructor who has taught everything from courses on negotiation to how to hack computer systems and, of course, how to sell B2B.
In addition to providing general sales analysis and sales skills training, Sean is an expert in gender intelligent selling tactics. His GIS training combines recent neurological research about the differences between male and female brains with many real-world tips for selling successfully to testosterone and oxytocin.
Sean is based in Vancouver BC and he is available for keynotes and training.
