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Cold Calling: 5 Things You Need to Know
In the digital age, an old-fashioned phone call can sometimes help you reach the unreachable. How to cold call your way to success.
Posted 11/ 4 10 at 6:00 PM | 5 Things You Need to Know, Advertising & Marketing, Sales, Management
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E-mails, texts, faxes, tweets, Facebook and LinkedIn messages and even a handwritten letter sent via snail mail -- there may be a million ways to contact a potential customer, client, investor or vendor these days, but sometimes you just have to pick up the phone and make a call. Sometimes it's the most direct route to getting the response that you want and need. Plus, as Wendy Weiss, author of Cold Calling for Women: Opening Doors & Closing Sales, says, "The truth is that it's the perfect tool for today's economy. It's direct, proactive and inexpensive. And it works."Ready to make that first cold call? Here are five things you need to know.
1
Get to the point.
Yes, there's something to be said for being friendly and offering some small talk first, but if the people you're calling are swamped, that may be the last thing they want. They may have picked up the phone out of obligation or habit or because they didn't want the call to go to voicemail and have a bunch of digital messages stacking up. Whatever their reasoning, chances are good that the person you're calling didn't pick up the phone thinking, "I hope I can engage in some small talk with a complete stranger." Michael Zugsmith, chairman of Nai Capital, a commercial real estate brokerage, says the subject of cold calling comes up a lot in his company's offices. "We often discuss a '30-second elevator pitch,'" he says. "What would you say if you were in an elevator with a potential client and you only had 30 seconds in which to market your services? On the telephone, there might be an even shorter period of time."
2
Respect the clock.
If you think about it, when you make a phone call, you're in control in a way that the other person is not. You've finished other parts of your work. You've had lunch. You've checked your e-mail. Whatever you've been up to, you're calling at a point when it's convenient for you to have a discussion on the phone. But the person on the other end might be in the middle of a million things -- talking to colleagues, answering an important e-mail, poring over papers. Granted, it may lead to a good way to a "not interested, goodbye," but you'll likely earn the respect and appreciation of the other person if you initially ask, "Did I call at a good time? I can call back if you'd like."
3
Be a problem solver.
Because time flies -- it's a short distance between the greeting and the decision that this call is a waste of time -- Zugsmith recommends getting your "differentiator" out there right away. "For example," Zugsmith says, "a question such as, 'Are you aware that if you sell your building this year, you will avoid higher capital gains taxes?' would be an excellent beginning to a potentially productive telephone conversation." Whether your business sells medical supplies or pizza ovens, come up with your own differentiator. If you can get across what makes you different from the other people calling and convince the recipient that talking to you will solve a problem -- well, then you're in.
4
Listen.
It may sound obvious, but you can spend so much time preparing for a cold call that you forget you're trying to engage in a conversation, not simply blast them with information. Wendy Hooper, who owns her own real estate firm in Orange, County, Calif., correctly observes that if you don't listen and are so focused on saying what you intended on saying from the onset, your prospect "will never want to work with you. You're the idiot who didn't listen."
5
Just make the damn call.
Some people start experiencing flop sweat when preparing to call a prospective client or business contact. After all, who wants to be rejected or undeservedly treated like some dimwitted telemarketer? But in the end, you're either going to make things happen by picking up the phone or you're going to choose to do nothing by not making the call. Sometimes you just have to bite the bullet, face your (probably) unfounded fears, pick up the phone and say hello.
Geoff Williams is a frequent contributor to AOL Small Business. He is also the co-author of the book Living Well with Bad Credit.
Geoff Williams is a frequent contributor to AOL Small Business. He is also the co-author of the book Living Well with Bad Credit.
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Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Oh yeah,,, like selling people things they don't really need is both a respectable career and a moral task. Sales peaople are the scum of the earth and because of them people who work hard for their dollars are bilked of of those hard earnt dollars. No, this occupation is both corupt and imoral ! ! !
Jerry Wimberly, It's always a case of "a few bad apples spoiling the bunch". If it weren't for sales people (not the kind you narrowly think of) the world would come to a stop. I feel so badly (errr... not really) that you have had such painful experiences that your entire frame of thought has been skewed. I'd sugest therapy, but I won't try to sell you on the idea!
Mike Griffith
Thank you! This is just the coaching tip I needed. I am a great storyteller with a great product for schools. I email and snail mail, with some sucess, but have never used cold calling, Now I’m going to start follow up phone calls next week about (www.MichelleWashingtonWilson.com) I am the next big thing in Storytelling and If It Is To Be It’s Up To Me.! Michelle Washington Wilson
Thank you for the wonderful advice! I am a close-up magician working at going professional. There has been a lot of focus on social media networking as of late. It is nice to find the brass tacks of marketing person to person!
Thanks for the timely advice. I agree, it is salespeople who keep the economy going. One further tip which my telemarketer daughter told me --keep it brief and don't try to spend time with people who aren't interested in what you're selling. When they say they're not interested, move on to the next cold call. The more you dial, the quicker you'll find the person who is interested in what you're selling.
I can't stand picking up the phone and some yahoo says " Mr. So and So? I say, Yes, then he says "how are you?". I reply, "did you call me while I am eating dinner just to find out how I am?" I don't think that I can be rude enough for these people, I am busy and do not appreciate being bothered and certainly will not buy anything from them.
These telemarketers have some idea that you must answer their questions, YOU DO NOT! When you say that you are not interested they say "may I ask why?" The answer is "NO! I do not have to answer your questions" then hang up or they will read from a flip chart their follow up replies and keep wasting your time. Just hang up, you are not under any obligation to talk to someone who has disturbed you when you are busy, or any other time for that matter.
You forgot one major problem THE DO NOT CALL LIST.
Your attitude reminds me of the old cartoon where the Gatlin Gun salesman is trying to get the attention of the cavarly officer fighting with a sword. Closed minds means no progress can be made. I have fired Plant Engineers who refused to see Sales Engineers introducing new products and ideas that would be useful in the line of business we are in. It NEVER pays to get on the s*** list of sales people in your line of business, and with your attitude you are probably NOT employing the most modern ideas in the fast paced world we live in.
I absolutely resent telemarketers first of all. When I am busy they have absolutely no right to invade my space by interrupting me when I am giving my full attention to what I am doing. As soon as I hear "Hello, Mr. so and so, I say "hello", then the interruptor says "how are you today?" I reply "did you interrupt me when I am concentrating on an important thing just to find out how I am doing?" Of course the interruptor is speechless and I say "do you have my number on some list?, He or She says "yes" and I say "take it off" whatever you are selling I wouldn't buy it from you, If I need it I will find it on my own, I have a computer and don't need someone that is rude enough to bother me, then I hang up.
WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN? THE "DO NOT CALL LAW" MAKES COLD CALLING ALMOST OBSOLETE!
Claude DeMoss
San Jose, CA
Real Estate & Financing
I have a phone but don't you DARE call it! lol Jeez! Some of you people are border line nuts lol Sure, we've all had bad calls when people can't take no for an answer but good Lord, just hang up, it wont ruin your day! People make it sound as if when these people have the NERVE to call MY PHONE, they had better NOT try to sell me a THING!!! lol Grow up, they are just doing their best to make a living people. If you don't liek them just hang up, no big deal. It's ONLY a big deal if YOU make it one.
The DO NOT CALL LIST is not totally effective, the calls come in "unknown" somehow they found a way to get around the rules and if you get an "unknown" call sometimes you take a chance, maybe it is a friend or relative or even a legitimate business with whom you have done business, so I give it a try and have to humiliate somebody, like Steve Martin says "WELL, EXCUUUSSSEEE MMMEEE!"
I remember sitting in my office and a salesman turned to me and asked me how long did it take to get to Bellevue from Seattle. I told him it would take me 15 minutes, but it would take him an hour before making up his mind to drive there. -Where have all the salesmen gone; long time passing....