Techniques for Effective Cold Calling

Pre-Approach
The pre-approach gives you the knowledge and power to have informed discussions with prospects. Analyzing prospect data will help you tailor your approach. But don’t let the pre-approach slow you down and become a barrier to making the sale. Sometimes picking up the phone or dropping in on prospect is the best course of action.

Six "must knows" before picking up the phone
1. Key information about the industry, company, and people
2. Specific key issues and needs they are facing
3. Evidence of your past results with similar customers
4. Common ground or contacts
5. Specific call objectives
6. An appropriate call opening

Whether you’re making an appearance or using the telephone, the sales process doesn’t change. But using the phone presents a different set of challenges that you need to be aware of and prepare for. Some of these challenges are:

• It’s easy for customers to avoid you.
• Many people see incoming phone calls as an interruption.
• Attention spans on the phone are dramatically shorter than in face-to-face meetings.
• You can’t see customer reactions.
• Body language, a major communication tool in face-to-face meetings, is eliminated.
• It’s easy for a customer to do something else while talking to you.
• Technology can make getting to the right person challenging.
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Who's agenda are you really on?

Ever found yourself in the midst of yet another fruitless cold call from a sales person who professes to be the answer to all of your business problems?

Have you found yourself during the call, internally questioning "just how do you propose to help my business when you haven't asked a single question about us so far, you've simply blurted everything about what your company does and what you want!"?

With some cold callers the more you pull away the more they feel they should push until one of you is cornered or conflict is arrived at. What is it they don't understand about
"I'm not interested"?

In each case I am confident to speculate that only one or two key elements are being missed however the impact is multiplied each time they fail to be applied within the conversation.

In truth who amongst us has the time or indeed the inclination to stop what we are doing on a busy day and listen to somebody who displays little to no genuine interest in what is important to us?

Consider how much more useful it would be if the person calling questioned effectively enough to uncover what makes your business tick, to allow you to share what has made your business successful over the course of its existence? The very fact that you are in business must mean there are any number of things really working well surely?

The true value of a cold call lies in the sales person genuinely seeking to understand the opportunities and challenges your business is facing now and is likely to face in the foreseeable future. They should strive to draw out the ambitions that lie at the core of your strategy for moving forward. Only here both of you really begin to recognise if what they offer will in fact help propel you forward and accelerate the achievement of key objectives.

When a potential supplier applies this approach they begin by demonstrating how they aim to partner you in the accomplishment of your ambitions. They don't waste your time selling you something you don't need to buy.

Angelina Foden