Cold Calling Success Made Easy - Part 2

by Elliott Smith, co-author of Highway to Success

FIRST THINGS FIRST

This is it. It’s now time for your cold call. When you make that first call with your contact, remember that they are extremely busy people and that they are not expecting your call.

The first thing you should do is briefly identify yourself (just a name) and ask them if they have a moment to speak. Be considerate of their time. Do not assume that they are available to discuss matters with you at this point. You will get one of three responses:

1. They don’t have time to speak. If this is the case, ask them when is a good time to call back. Schedule a call, at their convenience, where you may discuss matters further.
2. They do have time. This is great. Proceed with your call immediately.
3. They want to know what this is about first. Often, people don’t know if they have time for a call simply because they don’t know what the call is about. If you get this response, briefly explain who you are and what you do. Do not go into great details. You are not trying to close a sale here. The goal is simply to let your contact know what you want to discuss with them. They will then let you know whether they have time to discuss things at that point. Proceed accordingly.

Every now and then, you may get someone who turns you down the moment you explain who you are, without giving you a chance to discuss matters further. If this occurs to you, remain courteous and ask if there would be a better time to discuss this, or if you could send them some documentation on the subject. The objective here is to diplomatically maintain a line of communication. If they still refuse, thank them politely and terminate the call. Odds are that this is either an educated decision which will not change, or the contact simply has no interest. Either way, it is safe to assume that this lead is closed. Remember to use tact and discretion in these situations.

INFORMING YOUR CLIENT

You’re now in the situation where your contact is ready to hear what you have to say. So what do you say? Your script has three goals:

1. You want to identify what their needs were in the past and what their needs are currently. This will help you determine how your product or service can not only match what was used before, but can also exceed their present needs, it will be used only in a subsequent meeting when making your sales pitch).
2. You want to give your contact as much information about you as possible, either over the phone, by mail, by fax, or e-mail.
3. You want to set up a meeting or a follow-up call with the client. This allows your client to process your marketing materials prior to you doing your sales pitch.

DON'T TRY TO SELL ANYTHING

At this point, you do not want to do a sales pitch. Your cold call is designed to open the lines of communication between you and your contact. Any attempt at closing the sale now (unless the contact wishes to) will alienate your contact as they are not in a position to make an informed decision on hiring you yet. Your contact needs to study your materials and find out about yourself before they can make a decision. The truth of the matter is that you cannot really sell a product over the phone when people don’t know what the product is and don’t want to be solicited.

Emphasize that you are not selling anything, but that you simply wish to open a line of communication. This is very important. You want to create an atmosphere where there is no pressure to make a sale. This is good as your contact won’t feel that they must make a decision or commitment at this point. People generally don’t like to make hurried decisions, especially when they are unexpectedly solicited.

When I say to create an atmosphere where there is no pressure, avoid actually saying to the contact “No pressure.” This phrase is actually loaded with pressure as it gives the impression of a hidden agenda behind a hard sales pitch.

GET AS MUCH INFORMATION AS YOU CAN

At the same time, you want to take this first contact opportunity to obtain more information from your contact. As stated earlier, one of your goals is to find out what they’ve done in the past and where they’re going with their plans. This information will be useful to you upon a face to face meeting or subsequent phone call.

You can use the information you gather from your contact to further educate them on the variety of products and services you offer. Once you’ve learned about their needs you can gently inform them on what you have to offer will benefit them, or how other businesses who use your products or services have benefited.

LISTEN TO YOUR CLIENT

Whenever you are communicating with a client, you must always listen to what they have to tell you. Most people believe they have good listening skills when in fact they only hear what they want to. By not listening to your clients effectively, you run a great chance of alienating them or not providing them with what they need.

You have to listen to what your client is telling you they need. It’s good to make the client aware of your services and how they can be beneficial, but it’s even better to find out what your client needs first and then adapt your services to those needs. Give them the information they need first. Afterwards, you can expand on additional features you may wish to point out.

Bottom line, whenever you make a cold call, don’t get so caught up in your pitch that you lose track of the client’s unique wants and needs.

IN SUMMARY

The purpose of the cold call is to open a line of communication with a prospective client. For individuals, only make a cold call based on a referral. For companies, use the scouting technique to discover who your contact should be. During your cold call, you have three objectives: (1) Identify the contact’s past and present entertainment needs; (2) Provide the contact with information on yourself and your services; (3) Try and set up a meeting or follow-up call.

Do not make your sales pitch during your cold call unless the contact invites it. Otherwise, save your sales for the scheduled meeting or subsequent call. This way the contact can make an informed decision about you. Cold calling is a proactive way of building your business. Rather than sitting and waiting for the phone to ring, you make it ring.

Many successful businesses claim they can draw clients without the use of cold calls. To an extent, this is true. All of the other techniques combined can definitely yield a large client base, but no matter what, you do have to talk to them eventually. You can either wait for them to call you, or you can use proper cold call techniques to accelerate the process. It’s a question of whether you wish to take a direct approach to your marketing, or take a more passive approach and let the business slowly come to you. Generally speaking, the more passive you are, the costlier it is to draw attention to your business. The choice is up to you. If you wish to learn more about cold calls, there are many great books devoted to that single subject.

Elliott Smith is a professional magician, entrepreneur, corporate speaker and acclaimed co-author of Highway to Success

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