Cold Calling

CREATIVE COLD CALLING

James A. DeSena, CSP

"I'm not at my desk right now. Please leave a message." Getting through to prospective customers is harder than ever. With the advent of voice mail, we often don't get to speak to a real person, not even the person who might have screened our calls before. For people who are swamped with work, voice mail systems and other technologies have become a way of life. It's not going to go back to the old way, so we need to find ways to effectively leverage these technologies. If you're going to do "cold calls," here are 7 ways to make them more effective.

1) In any cold calling situation, one thing has not changed: the desire for the prospective customer to have a reason to be interested in speaking with us. Whether I leave a message or speak with the person, I only have a few seconds to get her or his attention. If I don't have a compelling reason for her or him to listen to me, they won't. As in every selling situation, the compelling reason needs to be something of interest to the customer, the results or benefits you provide. My company name, how long I've been in business and the product I'm selling won't do it; how I can help them quickly, easily or inexpensively solve their "headaches", will. Avoid trite phrases. "How are you?" wastes time, distracts the other person and you may not want to know anyway.

2) Specialize so that you get to know the industry, the people and their problems. Become active in professional associations that your prospective customers are active in.

3) Selling is sorting. Your job is not to find customers. It is to find the best customers, people who are already sold on your product or service, people who are or can be frequent users.

4) Warm up the call. Send an article or something of information to the prospect with a short note. After hearing from you a couple of times, your name will at least be familiar and if the information was in any way helpful, the person will be more receptive to speaking with you.

5) Be clear about what your call objectives are. Building enough trust with the prospect comes first, then gathering information. Closing a sale on the first visit may not be realistic.

6) Ask permission to ask several questions to see if there is a reason for doing business together. Have your questions prepared beforehand.

7) Practice on a tape recorder to hear how you sound. When I first started calling people, I taped my side of the call. When I listened to it, I thought, "I wouldn't buy from that person!" My voice didn't have a ring of confidence or enthusiasm. Electronic mediums, whether audio or video, tends to come across a lot lower key than in person. So we need to compensate.

Whether we are cold calling in person, on the phone or in writing, the same principles apply.

1) Give the person a compelling reason to speak with you. 2) Work the numbers. How many people will you reach out of 100 calls? How many will become customers? 3) Be creative but not crass. Deception was never welcomed. It still isn't.

Looking for an engaging and energetic speaker for a meeting or event you have scheduled? For free information or to find out how Jim can customize a program for your meeting as he's done with over 100 other clients, call us at 800-4321-WIN.

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