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Cold calling has to be one
of the most feared aspects of every sales person’s and business
owner’s day. With
some important key tips, you can make cold calling painless and
enjoyable and as easy as calling a friend.
Here are 7 key ways to jump start your cold calls:
1. Research Your Market
Before you start your cold
calls it’s important that you be prepared so your prospect feels
you really do understand their situation. Research the company you
are calling, identify what issues they are having based on your
other clients in their same industry and ask others in your
company the main reasons why people buy your product or service.
The better prepared you
are about discussing you prospect’s issues, the easier it will
be to allow the conversation to flourish.
2.
Change Your Mental Expectations
Traditional selling has
always taught us that our main goal of the cold call should be an
appointment or a sale. With that mental focus, what happens is our
mind is focused on the end goal before we even have a conversation
with the person we are calling.
This creates a major
conflict because you will be trying very hard not to use words
that make you sound like all you care about is the sale. And even
more importantly, if your prospect senses you are focusing on the
appointment or sale, they will immediately be defensive.
So what to do? Change your mental expectations to focus on
building a conversation first and then once you have generated a
good dialogue, you can then determine if you are a fit or not with
your prospect.
Be careful not to mentally
“jump the gun”.
3.
Understand Your Prospect
Take a few minutes to
think about your focus of your call. Think about how you are going
to approach the conversation.
Put yourself in the mind of your prospect.
How would you want to be
approached? Certainly the last thing you want to hear is a sales
pitch from someone you don’t know.
Instead, begin the conversation diffusing any mystery as to who
you are with “Hi, my name is Jim and you and I haven’t met
yet”. This removes the mystery of who you are and allows you to
begin talking about how you can help them solve a problem, rather
than you having to default to a sales pitch.
Think before you speak.
4.
Build Trust Through Conversation
Learning to build
conversation is the key to cold calling success.
Engaging in a conversation should be as natural as calling
a friend. Your objective is to build trust on your call so that
your prospect feels comfortable conversing with you rather than
trying to focus on getting you off the phone.
How do you build trust?
You build trust by removing any elements in your approach that
connect you to the negative “salesperson” stereotype.
5.
Ask A Question
Begin your cold call with
“Hi my name is John, maybe you can help me out for a moment?”
Yes, that’s really all
you have to begin with because in the next few seconds you will
hear “How can I help you”. That is how you can build a two-way
dialogue rather than having a one-way talk.
The truth is you are
asking for help because you don’t know if you can help them yet,
right? Until you have the information you need about their
situation, you can’t determine if you are a fit or not.
6. Eliminate Pressure
Pressure is the main
reason most cold calls turn into a negative rejection-filled
experience. It doesn’t have to be that way.
If you can become aware of things you are doing that is triggering
pressure on your prospects, you can turn cold calling into a very
productive and enjoyable experience.
The key is to never force
your sales pitch, engage only in a natural conversation, and most
importantly let your prospect talk.
By doing all three you will eliminate pressure from the
call and your prospect will be more open to the idea of what you
have to offer.
7.
Learn To Determine A Fit
So how do you know if your
prospect is a fit with what you have to offer?
You need to ask them this question towards the end of your
problem solving discussion “Is solving your problem a top
priority or something that is on the back burner for now?”
By determining the answer to this question, you can see if you can
decide if your prospect is worth pursuing or not.
You will also be able to determine their time frame which
helps you better adjust your expectations.
Make no mistake about it,
if you really want to be successful cold calling you’ll need to
let go of traditional sales thinking. Try these 7 strategies and
watch how cold calling can be fun and productive. |
