Effective cold calling
Tim Connor, CSP
In
many ways cold calling as a practice in selling today is an ancient method when it comes to effective
prospecting and yet many manufactured organizations rely heavily on
this approach. It can be an effective
way to identify new prospects but it can also be a stressful, time wasting and
discouraging process as many salespeople over the years have learned.
Learning
to make cold calls on new prospects is an important skill regardless of a
salesperson’s experience, ability or how long they have been selling. This is just as true when selling
manufactured homes as in any other industry.
Add to this mix the complexity and diversity of how the internet is
impacting the sales process and it’s no wonder salespeople making cold calls
begin this process with fear and uncertainty.
For
starters, today’s housing consumers are far better educated on an organization’s
history, products, services, reputation and overall customer satisfaction
before a salesperson dials the phone to make an unsolicited calls on these
prospects. Add to this, the simple and
ability of consumers to compare the products, services and pricing of all
housing manufacturers and this only adds to the challenges that all salespeople
face.
To
have an effective cold calling approach requires ten steps.
1
L Learn to control your attitudes and your response to rejection.
The major cause of failure in sales is the fear of rejection. Cold calling creates numerous opportunities
for this outcome when there is little planning, a professional approach but
more than anything else, the ability to control your attitudes regardless of
the reactions of others due to your attempting to sell them with the
establishment of a prior relationship.
Controlling your attitudes only requires that you are realistic in
managing your expectations. When your
expectations are too high you are bound sooner or later to experience
disappointment. If you exceed your
ability to handle these rejections or perceived failures, sooner or later your
inner voice will begin to sabotage your effectiveness, confidence and
success.
)
Be professional and respectful.
The major approach of most people cold calling is to see it as a
numbers game. It’s NOT a numbers game
but a “quality” numbers game or a game of numbers. The other major flaw of cold calling
salespeople whether these calls are via the telephone or personal visits is to
work from a script or per-determined process.
This approach tends to assume that everyone you contact is in the same
situation, with the same needs and have the same buying habits. WRONG.
A professional approach is to get information before launching into a
diatribe of selling stuff that generally only turns most people off.
3
Have a specific set of routines and follow them.
Plan to make a certain number of calls every day. Set aside a certain time every day for these
calls. Don’t multi-task while making the
calls. Be prepared with enough information about each potential call. Have adequate prospect to call for each time
period. Don’t stop calling until you
have completed these calls. After the
calls are complete, take the time to enter appropriate information into a
follow-up log or report of some kind.
Develop an action log of things to do as a result of your calls. This list is endless. The more you plan and stick to your plan the
better your results will be.
4
Pick up the phone
Break the day up into small blocks of action. Too many people let little distractions keep
them from achieving their objectives.
Just sit down, pick up the phone and dial. Or, get out of your car and knock on the next
door. Don’t wait. Don’t procrastinate and don’t justify waiting
due to other things that you feel need to get done.
5
Cold calling is not about talking but conversation.
The way to start all cold calls is asking for permission to ask
questions. The next step if given
permission, guess what? You got it ask
questions prior to launching into your message.
If you are not given permission ask why not. Is this a bad time? Would you like me to follow-up with you? Are you interested in_______. Can you spare
just a few minutes if I could__________?
Got it, ask before you sell.
6
Use humor
Most people today are really stressed.
Too much work and too little time. And now you show up. Well guess what, whether they will benefit
from your product or service is not the issue.
The concern is that you will keep them from getting their work done or
off to their tennis lesson. Be respectful
and don’t assume that just because you happened to contact them at this particular
time that they were just sitting waiting for your call. One of the best ways to disarm people and
lower their stress is the professional and careful use of humor. Not talking about jokes here but being
sensitive to their circumstances. I
always use humor on every contact no matter what the call or who the recipient
is. Yes sometimes it doesn’t fly, but
most times it does.
7
It’s all about selling and not logging calls
Cold calling isn’t just about closing sales but prospecting as
well. So, what’s the difference? Cold calling to sell is when you contact
someone, give them your “pitch” (please eliminate this word from your
vocabulary) and ask for the business.
Cold calling from a prospecting perspective is when your purpose is to
gather information to see if this prospect is worthy of future time, energy or
resources.
8
Leave the call with some kind of action.
Whatever the outcome never leave a loose end. If you make the sale, confirm your mutual
actions prior to ending the call. If you
don’t make the sale, ask if the prospect would like you to follow-up at some
future time. If they don’t want to talk
to you now, ask them when would be a better time?
9
Have a follow-up plan
If you are making over 15 cold calls a day whether in person or on the
phone, there will be follow-up actions for every interaction. Keep several logs like; Things I can improve
from what I learned. Mistakes I
made. How to avoid them in the future.
Things I did right. Future follow-up
actions.
Things I need to change. Etc.
1 Keep good records
The above logs can help you with this step. It’s hard to get better at anything if you
don’t know where you need to get better.
Keep thorough records and comparisons for example; number of calls per
day. Successful calls per day. Number of rejections per day. Average time for each call. Common responses to my calls. Average sales
volume per call. Conversion percentage. Again this list could go on and on.
If your primary
approach to selling and or prospecting is cold calling, if you will follow the
above ten steps you will tend to have a greater degree of success than if you
just start calling. The key here however
is to be gradually developing other prospecting and selling techniques that
over time will require less time, create less rejection and give you consistent
increased sales results. Things like;
strategic alliances, referrals, centers of influences, the use of advocates or
champions.
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