While the ultimate goal is to have customers calling you, sometimes the only way for new business owners to get the ball rolling is to pick up the phone and start cold calling potential customers yourself. As Donald Trump says in The Apprentice, “You can have the best idea in the world but unless you can sell it to someone else, it’s worthless.”
This is especially true for those who don’t have the luxury of employing a sales person or for those in professions where the business model generally doesn’t include sales people.
While finding new customers is generally the main objective for cold calling, it’s also an essential skill for other areas of business development. Whether you’re conducting market research by surveying potential customers, or looking to initiate partnerships with key players in your industry, it’s important that you make each call as effective as possible.
Making it happen Not surprisingly the hardest part about cold calling is just working up the courage to do it. In a recent study by sales training firm AchieveGlobal, most respondents said that the most difficult part of making the cold call itself, was “Psyching myself up to do it” (22%). This was followed by “Sparking the prospect’s interest” (18%), and then “Getting through to the person /Getting around a gatekeeper” (16%).
And when asked what the biggest challenge faced with the prospecting process was, 36% said that “Finding the time to do it” was the biggest challenge. Proof of what frustrated sales managers have known all along… When it comes to cold calling - we freeze!
But regardless of the excuse you like to use for avoiding cold calls, the following guidelines will ensure that when you do make them, you maximise your chances of getting what you want!
Tip #1 – Plan it It’s a cliché but by far the number one reason people avoid cold calling is because they don’t have a plan for it. So it’s essential you plan both when to do it, and how to do it.
The first thing to do is estimate how many people you’ll need to call to achieve your business goals. For instance, if you aim to set meetings with 5 new prospects this week, you might need to call 50 companies. You may not know if this ratio is correct until you get started, but psychologically it’s important that you have a clearly defined goal with an “end” in sight.
It also pays to compile your list of the leads you’re going to call at this early stage, because if you leave it until you’re actually ready to start calling you’ll use it as an excuse to put off making the calls till later!
Tip #2 – Schedule it into your week Finding new customers has to be about the most important activity in business, so if you’re really serious about it you need to block out time in your diary to do it. If you think you’ll just make some calls in your “spare time,” it ain’t going to happen!
In our experience most people work best when you break a task into smaller pieces. If your goal is to call 50 potential prospects you might prefer to spread the task over five days and allocate an hour each day to making 10 calls.
Tip #3 – Prepare a call guide But don’t confuse a call guide with a script! A script is something you read word for word while a call guide simply ensures you have an effective structure for your conversation.
A good call guide also helps with confidence because it means you don’t need to worry about being stuck for words. It’ll also help stop you saying things you wish you hadn’t!
Here are a few pointers to help when developing your own guide.
• Remember that the person you’re calling probably receives several calls from sales people every day. If you try and blurt out your whole sales presentation in one go, chances are they’ll stop listening or cut you off straight away. Instead, break the conversation into stages and just aim to keep your prospects interest long enough to take them from one stage to the next.
• After you’ve introduced yourself, always ask for your prospects permission to keep talking eg “Do you have a moment?” or “Have you got a second?” It’s amazing how many people pick up the phone when they’re too busy to talk! If they’re not ready to listen, you don’t want to be talking.
• After getting permission to talk, you need to spark their interest in your service or product immediately. This is best done by asking them a question that highlight’s a key benefit they would get from using whatever it is you’re offering. Eg “I was wondering if you would be interested in a new widget that would reduce your marketing cost’s by up to 20%?” If they say, “Yes,” that’s great… they qualify to the next stage! And if they say, “No,” that’s great too because you find out early in the piece! Asking a good question is the best way to get someone’s attention because they’re forced to actually think about what it is you’re offering before they answer.
• Once the person has said they are interested you can then either request a meeting to tell them more about it or ask them some open ended questions to get them talking about their specific requirements. If you try and do this before sparking their interest you’ll be far less successful.
Tip #4 – Learn to welcome the “No’s”!
Lastly remember that only a certain percentage of all the people you call will actually need what you provide and be ready to do something about it right now. Whether it’s 1 in 5, 1 in 10 or 1 in 50, remember that cold calling is a numbers game and your job is to sort the “No’s” from the “Yes’s” as quickly as possible!
Don’t freeze when it comes to cold calling - To learn more about this author, visit Richard Liew's Website.
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Richard Liew
(Visit Richard's Website)
Richard Liew is a founder and Director of
Rev Limited, New Zealand's leading Sales
Recruitment and Consulting firm and career
development network for Sales
Professionals. Starting out his
professional career as an accountant,
Richard's mission was to prove that anyone
can learn to sell! In just four years
Richard rose from sales newbie through a
huge range of sales jobs including
commission only sales, telesales,
territory management, key account
management, business development, and
product and channel management,
predominantly in the software, IT and
telco sectors. He also provides consulting
services helping young business owners
sell more and grow their businesses.
Richard is also one of the key instigators
of New Zealand's flourishing
parkour/freerunning scene.
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