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How to Take the Brrr out of Cold Calling

Written by: Leanne Hoagland-Smith

Article Overview: Is cold calling giving you the shivers? Maybe sharing of this experience may help you better understand how to take the Brr out of cold calling as you continue with your business building activities to increase sales.

How to Take the Brrr out of Cold Calling

At least once a week, if not more often, I receive a phone call or listen to a voice mail that goes something like this:

"Hi, this is (insert name) with (insert company) and I received your name that you would be the person who is most likely to purchase (insert product or service). When would be a good time to speak with you?"



Have you ever received a message similar to this one? What were your thoughts? Let me share mine with you.

First thought is another sales call about something I do not need. The first few words turned me off, left me cold and sounded like everyone else. My emotions are stone cold frozen and quickly spreading through out my entire office. Brrrrrrr!!!!! Sales Coaching Tip: This is why cold calling is named cold calling because it creates ice.

Next thought is who gave you my name? Since you didn’t share that with me, you are probably a tele-marketer using some ineffective script that you paid big bucks for. Now I am laughing at you, but you do not know it.

Third thought who cares about your products or services. I already have the product or service so why would I use yours? Again, boy are you dumb because you are wasting both of our times.

Fourth and final thought, never is a good time to speak with me because you will be infecting me with the 3Ps virus of price, product or proposal.

Why sales professionals continue to engage in this type of marketing communication is truly beyond my old Swedish gray matter. Crafting a results focused, value driven message is not really that hard. Of course, these folks are still engaged in sales based marketing and have yet to discover education based marketing (EBM). Now, what would have happened if this sales professionals left a voice mail message like this:

"Hello. Did you know that printing your invoices in full color will get them paid faster according to a study released by IBM? This is (insert name of caller) and (insert name of referral) said that you might find this of interest. Please call me at (insert number) and we can schedule a time to discuss the savings to your bottom line. Again, (insert name) at (insert phone number) and thank you for your time." NOTE: The initial question should be directly tied to some known need and supported with a measurable fact or statistic.

Would you be more likely to call back? If you print invoices, believe in the cited fact and know the name of the referral, I believe your answer would be yes.

TAKE ACTION SALES COACHING TIP: If you have not heard of education based marketing, you may wish to Google the phrase and start learning about this dynamic approach that helps to increase sales, shorten the sales cycle time, reduce client acquisition costs and improve profitability.

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Article Tags: br, cold calling, education, emotions, few words, final thought, first thought, good time, gray matter, insert company, invoices, marketer, marketing communication, nbsp, proposal, sales professionals, tele, virus, voice mail message



Related Forum Posts
Re: How to develop sales contacts? - Everyone has the right idea here. Depending on your business, there are different techniques that you could use. For consultants and sales heavy businesses, there are three tactics that I have found especially useful in my business: 1. Attend Networking Events 2. Cold Calling 3. Referral Program 4. Affiliate Program (most successful) The affiliate program was successful for me, as I hooked up with a franchise consultant, and he gave multiple unit businesses that needed my credit card processing services. I highly suggest you hook up with a sales partner, and give him a cut of the monthly revenue.
Re: Direct Mail Postcards - Post cards would be really expensive to send from Japan...but one way to advertise that is not expensive from overseas is by Cold Calling using cheap VoIP equipment. I know Japan has a really good internet connection, so as long as you are willing to stay up late, it might be an option. I cold call from Thailand far, far away from any city using a CDMA wireless internet connection and have had pretty good results. I find tho, that cold calling works best for business 2 business (b2b), rather than b2c products. --matt
Re: Cold Calling - As long as people are out of jobs, you'll probably have a lot of people who say they want to work for straight commission, but if they don't get paid fairly quickly, they usually move on. We've run into that and went through about 500 people (whose resumes looked really good) until we found about 3 good resellers. People just don't want to work for anything. Or they do a good job getting the business but don't do the follow up necessary to make the sale......so they move on thinking they need money NOW. Our business requires all cold calling as well. It's really tough for people to perfect that but there are a lot of good books out there. On is Cold Calling Techniques, by Stephan Schiffman
Re: Cold Calling - Cold calling is an extremely difficult job to do and unless one learns that being told no by people is not a direct refusal aimed at the cold caller but at whatever is being sold, it can be very soul destroying work to do. One needs to have absolute confidence in themselves and a pretty thick skin. MichelleJ
Cold Calling - Cold calling is tough, but it is possible. Its a shame that your employer doesn't seem to be giving you any help. I would suggest that you learn everything about the products you're trying to sell to the retailers. It wouldn't hurt to have them close at hand while you're on the phone with a potential buyer. Learn what is great about the items. What do they offer the consumer? Why should the retailer carry them? Who would be most likely to buy the items? Once you know these answers, learn about the companies you are calling. Its hard to tell a retailer that your product is something they need - if you don't know anything about their business and/or the customers. If they have a website that would be a great place to research. Shri


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