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Entrepreneurs – Take The Ice Out Of Cold Calling

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Article Overview: What is the best way to make a cold sales call to a business? Do you normally call up and ask to speak with the business development manager then go right into your sales pitch? Is there a more effective process you can use? Is there a way of becoming more effective?

Entrepreneurs – Take The Ice Out Of Cold Calling

What is the best way to make a cold sales call to a business? Do you normally call up and ask to speak with the business development manager then go right into your sales pitch? Is there a more effective process you can use? Is there a way of becoming more effective?

Put yourself in the business owner’s position – why would they want to do business with a company that contacts them without finding out a bit about them – such as who they wish to talk to? As a business owner, I can spot a sales pitch from the first breath. I am usually polite, but often annoyed at this person who has broken into my thoughts and work unannounced and launches straight into a sales pitch. I usually ask them what they are selling – just to cut the pitch short. I am sure I am not the only one who does this either.

How about this?
1) Use a contacts list that gives you names as well as telephone numbers. If you can’t get these then look them up on the company web site or yellow pages – whichever is more appropriate.
2) Make up your contact list with a few details of the company, what it sells, where it is based etc. Look at the press releases if it has them on the web site as well. In this way you have something to talk about when you call. A good contact management system will hold all this information for you.
3) When you call the company, ask for the person by name if at all possible. If not mention a name you found on the web site and say, you know that is not the right person, but could you direct me to the right person.
4) When you are contacted, mention your company name and tailor your introduction to the company you are calling. Say something like “My name is Richard, from ABC company; I understand that your company makes widgets. We have a great tool that can help you become more efficient. I understand that you are probably busy at the moment but I would like the opportunity of discussing this with you. When would be a good time to discuss this more fully?” In this way you have :
a. Interested them
b. Indicated that you understand their business
c. Have shown that your company can assist them
d. Been polite and mindful of their time.
This would gain my interest and show that you were a thoughtful seller as opposed to one that just worked the numbers.

Most of us who run small businesses can quote most of the sales pitches off by heart! “My sales people are in your area next week”, “You have won a competition”, “This offer is only available for another day” etc. etc.

Try it and see how your hit rate goes up – and don’t forget to call at the new time. Good luck – because cold calling is one of my hates!

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Article Tags: abc company, business development manager, business owner, company web site, contact list, contact management system, first breath, good time, person by name, sales pitch, telephone numbers, widgets, yellow pages



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
CEOs and Email - Slaves? - I wonder if the emails they are responding to are filtered thru their assistants first 'cos they seem to spend a lot of their off hours responding to them. True they are successful but I'm not sure I'd be willing to pay that price. I'd be interested to know what's the in the typical day planner of Entrepreneurs on the Forum. Entrepreneurs are a different breed than Paid Employees- so it would be interesting to view the contrast.
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


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