Photo by Vitaly Gariev
Cold calling can be very productive compared to emails or social media. Your prospects can easily ignore you by deleting or blocking your emails and overlooking your social media posts.
A great phone presence will enhance your chances for immediate responses, opportunities to overcome objections and important information. Solid research and planning are best practices to pique your prospects’ interests.
Here’s an eight-step cold-calling process:
1. Do your research
Prepare to explain how your products or services are advantageous. Determine which industry and type of company you want to target.
Develop a lengthy list of prospects by Googling the company names:
- Check websites (including leading employees)
- Blogs
- Social media (starting with LinkedIn).
- News accounts.
Try a myriad of artificial intelligence tools (AI).
2. Create a script to get results
After finishing your research, write a script. Consider using insightful generative AI to give you help in writing your script.
3. Planning your approach
Remember most business people like to talk.
So don’t ask close-ended questions that will only net you a yes or no answer. Get your prospect to communicate with you. Include open-ended questions that will net you valuable information to eventually present a solution to your prospect.
To pique the person’s interest, be concise:
1. Briefly introduce you and your company.
2. The name of a referral or something you share in common.
3. Explain what you will do for the prospect.
Listening Skills to Improve Your Relationships and Business Performance
Keep in mind three goals:
1. Learn when the person will need a solution.
2. Their budget.
3. Address the prospect’s metrics and what a solution would look like.
Anticipate commonly asked questions, positive and negative. Plan how to answer. Practice your sales pitch either in front of a mirror, colleague or mentor. Relax by taking several deep breaths.
4. Calling the prospect
Keep in mind your prospect’s industry and what the prospect’s days are like. Prepare mentally. Smile as you dial and speak slowly to come across as likeable, warm and positive.
Call at opportune times; now when dealing with issues in the morning. Late morning they’re planning for noontime meetings or having lunch. Usually, the best times to call: 9 to 11 a.m. and 1:30 to 4 p.m.
If you don’t reach the prospect, decide what’s best for you. For some sales people, leaving a message and sending an email with benefit statements is good. For others, it isn’t.
Perfect the art of piquing the interest of prospects. Start with a question or statistic.
It normally takes five attempts to reach the prospect. Some prospects stay unavailable because they want to learn how committed and tenacious you are. Sadly, many salespeople give up after a couple of attempts.
5. Be a good listener, ask good questions and be ready with value propositions.
Plan to start a relationship, not close a sale. Remember the adage: “People don’t care what y9u have to say until they have their say.”
“People don’t care what you have to say until they have their say.”
Often, chief decision-makers don’t have trustworthy confidants. Your goal is to earn their trust.
Listen — the best sales people only speak 10 percent in conversations. Listen between the lines. Sometimes what a person doesn’t say is more important than what they do say.
Understand their hot buttons and decisionmaking:
- When they might need a solution
- Their budget
- Their desired outcome
Show empathy for their problem. Explain a lot people also have the same dilemma.
Listening Skills to Improve Your Relationships and Business Performance
6. Lay groundwork to meet
After you get insight about the prospect, summarize the person’s pain points. Connect the concerns to solutions you will tailor to help the person.
Don’t try to sell on your cold call. Suggest another meeting.
7. Discuss the next step
Ask astute questions and plan your strategy to deal with four possible outcomes. If your prospect narrows down to one problem, offer to supply case studies with solutions.
Summarize your points and the next step for a meeting. Send a calendar invitation for an appointment.
8. Review your performance
After a series of calls to prospects, analyze the trends and how you can improve.
Ask yourself:
- How successful was my introduction?
- Was I relevant to the needs of my prospect?
- Was I astute in my listening?
- How were my questions received?
- How well did I connect the prospect’s pain point to my solutions?
- How well did I motivate the prospect to agree to a presentation?
Work on your weaknesses. Rehearse your revisions. Good luck!
From the Coach’s Corner, here are additional strategies:
To Boost Sales, Do You Need to Refresh Your Brand? — A rebrand is more complex and entails an overhaul of your identity – ranging from renaming your company and logo to altering your business values customer targets. A brand refresh simply involves a more contemporary approach to invigorate sales.
Business Tips for Profits to Get the Best Competitive Edge — If you’re apprehensive that other companies are making profits, you can, too. These tips will help fuel your business comeback.
Eye-Opening Options to Generate Soaring Profits — A small-business owner asks for relief from her financial roller coaster – here are four often-overlooked ways to boost profits.
How You Can Best Profit from Word-of-Mouth Advertising, Customer Service — To increase your sales revenue with word-of-mouth advertising, here are 10 tips.
10 Scholarly Solutions for Selling More Products — Part one of a three-part series: How to grow your small business. Small business owners face more predators than ever, which makes decision-making about growth seem very challenging.
“Great salespeople are relationship builders who provide value and help their customers win.”
-Jeffrey Gitomer
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