Am I Normal For Enjoying Being Cold Called So often ? - Part 1
Am I Normal For Enjoying Being Cold Called So often ? - Part 1
I received rather a few bemused look when I announced “I can see your point, but I love being cold called. When it's done properly!"
The wine was beginning to kick in and a few people were looking to start off the first lively debates of the evening and I had just given them their ammunition. A few jumped in by asking what good the telesales industry had ever done.
The easiest way to respond was to tell them about my most recent cold call which had happened that evening.
I was rushing around as I was running late for the dinner. I was just about to put one foot in the shower when the phone started ringing. “Oh damn!” or words to that effect.
What to do?
Ignore it and carry on into the shower or run across the flat with little more than my towel wrapped around me to make a dash for the phone.
The split second decision was made and I made my dash across the house. I reached the phone at the same time that I realised that I was beginning to shiver a little. That lovely warm water seemed an extremely welcoming alternative to picking up the phone. Reluctantly I picked up the phone to be greeted with:
“Good Evening. This is British Telecom calling”
At this point one of my friends jumped in with – “Yeh, well I hope you told her where to go. I would have been furious”. I wasn’t furious. In fact I was quite pleased because the next line out of the mouth of my telesales cold caller was:
“We have been looking at your broad band bill and we think we can save you around £15 per month”
I was interested!!
She continued to tell me that I was using far more data than my broadband package allowed and that I was paying a heavy price for any data over my allowance. By switching to a better package I would be able to easily make the savings that she claimed.
I listened to her for as long as I could before the shivering started to get too uncomfortable.
She had got my attention with her cold calling technique but the time was not quite right. I explained that I had to go as I was rushing out for dinner. My BT telesales lady initially sounded despondent until I shocked her by asking her to call me the next evening.
My friends were not yet convinced about my story so I explained that the BT cold caller had in-fact done many things correctly. In fact many of the things we teach in our telesales courses:
1. Used a strong opening ‘Hook’ to get my attention. She spoke straight to me about how she could save me money. I was curious enough to want to know more.
2. She had called at a time when the problem of my broadband was an issue to me. I had received my bill a few days earlier and had noticed the high additional charges. It was at the forefront of my mind and therefore was relevant. I don’t know if BT timed this or if they were merely lucky but it worked.
This opened up a great debate on cold calling which led to a great story from my friend John about his bad experience at the receiving end of a cold call the same day. I will relive John’s story and the lessons we can learn from it in the second part of this article
Am I Normal For Enjoying Being Cold Called So often Part 1 - To learn more about this author, visit Peter O'Donoghue's Website.
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Picture this. We were sat around the table having dinner when the topic somehow got on to cold calling. As you might suspect most of my friends voiced their opinion as to how bad it is and how the people who cold call should be ‘hung drawn and quartered’. For those of you who don’t know this is a particularly horrific form of punishment handed out to the worst criminals and political enemies of the British Empire prior to the 19th Century. Not something really justified to wish on telesales workers.
I received rather a few bemused look when I announced “I can see your point, but I love being cold called. When it's done properly!"
The wine was beginning to kick in and a few people were looking to start off the first lively debates of the evening and I had just given them their ammunition. A few jumped in by asking what good the telesales industry had ever done.
The easiest way to respond was to tell them about my most recent cold call which had happened that evening.
I was rushing around as I was running late for the dinner. I was just about to put one foot in the shower when the phone started ringing. “Oh damn!” or words to that effect.
What to do?
Ignore it and carry on into the shower or run across the flat with little more than my towel wrapped around me to make a dash for the phone.
The split second decision was made and I made my dash across the house. I reached the phone at the same time that I realised that I was beginning to shiver a little. That lovely warm water seemed an extremely welcoming alternative to picking up the phone. Reluctantly I picked up the phone to be greeted with:
“Good Evening. This is British Telecom calling”
At this point one of my friends jumped in with – “Yeh, well I hope you told her where to go. I would have been furious”. I wasn’t furious. In fact I was quite pleased because the next line out of the mouth of my telesales cold caller was:
“We have been looking at your broad band bill and we think we can save you around £15 per month”
I was interested!!
She continued to tell me that I was using far more data than my broadband package allowed and that I was paying a heavy price for any data over my allowance. By switching to a better package I would be able to easily make the savings that she claimed.
I listened to her for as long as I could before the shivering started to get too uncomfortable.
She had got my attention with her cold calling technique but the time was not quite right. I explained that I had to go as I was rushing out for dinner. My BT telesales lady initially sounded despondent until I shocked her by asking her to call me the next evening.
My friends were not yet convinced about my story so I explained that the BT cold caller had in-fact done many things correctly. In fact many of the things we teach in our telesales courses:
1. Used a strong opening ‘Hook’ to get my attention. She spoke straight to me about how she could save me money. I was curious enough to want to know more.
2. She had called at a time when the problem of my broadband was an issue to me. I had received my bill a few days earlier and had noticed the high additional charges. It was at the forefront of my mind and therefore was relevant. I don’t know if BT timed this or if they were merely lucky but it worked.
This opened up a great debate on cold calling which led to a great story from my friend John about his bad experience at the receiving end of a cold call the same day. I will relive John’s story and the lessons we can learn from it in the second part of this article
Am I Normal For Enjoying Being Cold Called So often Part 1 - To learn more about this author, visit Peter O'Donoghue's Website.
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John BrennanJohn Brennan Ed.D. Dr. Brennan is President of Interpersonal Development, LLC, a training and development firm. Interpersonal Development has provided sales training and coaching to more than 3,000 sales reps from over 100 companies. A native of Australia, Dr. Brennan received his doctorate from the University of Rochester. His dissertation researched the effectiveness of Behavioral Modeling Technology in training people in interpersonal skills. While he has spent most of his career designing or delivering training, he was also a Vice-President of Sales of a training and development franchise with operations in 25 markets. Dr. Brennan has designed and delivered sales training in North America, Asia, Europe, Australia and the Middle East. He has been a guest speaker at numerous national and regional professional conferences. When Microsoft wanted Best Practices articles on sales for their web site, they called Dr. Brennan. The results are at http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/FX011387391033.aspx His firm’s clients have included Volvo, The Prudential, Merrill Lynch, Eastman Kodak, Gannett, Equifax Europe, the Economist Group and countless small businesses. - Visit John Brennan's Website |
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