Can Cold Calling Work? Transforming the Way You Relate to Prospects

You’re at your desk, your list is in front of you, it’s time to take a deep breath and pick up the phone – the moment you’ve been dreading. No-one seems to be around, or you get a run of objections along the lines of “I have another provider”, “I’m not looking at present” or “I’m in a meeting”. Sound familiar?

Many people consider cold calling a waste of time – no matter which end of the phone they are. It can be, if the right approach isn’t used. So how can you make sure that cold calling is successful?

Getting into the right state of mind is critical with cold calling. All too often in sales there is a focus on activity – how much you do, with targets measuring number of calls, number of times to get to a customer, conversion rates and so on. The pressure of meeting these targets can get in the way of how salespeople talk to their customers.

Many prospect hunters work on getting into the right mindset to pick up the phone and yet miss the fundamental point. Talking to a prospect requires the building of a relationship, no matter how brief that might be. Getting into a mindset is not just about you feeling upbeat, friendly and focused, it’s about being sensitive to your prospects’ situation and reactions, it’s about being curious about them as individuals.

Tips to create the right mindset

• Focus on what problems or issues the person might have that your product or service can resolve
• Remind yourself of what the real value is of what you have to offer
• Consider how you would like to feel as you make these calls. Think about a time when you felt this way. As you reflect on this conjure a three-dimensional image of what happened. Make it more vivid and as you do this become aware of any sounds associated with that image, and the feelings inside you generated by that image. Notice how your physiology changes as you feel all the positive associations with that memory. You can then pick up the phone. If you want to recreate those feelings again, just press your thumb and forefinger together at the peak of those feelings and then release them. You’ll find that later when you want to access the feelings again, you can do this by putting your thumb and forefinger together again
• Ask colleagues how they get into the right mood to be really successful in this context. You can always learn from others. Question them in detail about their strategies, as it’s often a small but vital step that can make the difference to being fired up or not
• Establish whether time and day change the result and plan your day to maximise on this if they do have an impact

So how do you build a relationship over the phone?

• Warm up your calls first by sending prospects a small promotional product or a relevant article that might be of interest. It can get you remembered
• Develop a survey to find out what your prospects want and need or to conduct some research where they get to read the results. A survey can help break the ice
• Be wary about sending out brochures in advance. Why would they want to meet you if they have the information they think they want? You can bring what’s in the brochure to life and these days people are buying relationships more than product or service. It’s the relationship that differentiates
• Specify the time you’ll take and stick to it. “All I’m asking for is 10 minutes of your time, believe me, I would not be wasting your time or mine if I didn’t know for a fact that I could help you”. People will respect you if keep to the 10 minutes. You can always agree to talk again
• An approach that works for some is to use humour. “Hello, I’m X and this is a cold call. I bet you get millions of these. Fasten your seat belt – here’s another one”. You need to choose the words that work for you and that you can be light-hearted about

Shamus Brown sums up the key points with his Cold Calling Formula:

• Introduce yourself, your company and your results. You will get people’s attention if they are interested in your type of results – this is where they may start to take notice
• Get permission to ask questions – people feel valued if you’ve checked this out first and they’ll answer your questions
• Ask questions to uncover and amplify problems and opportunities
• Agree the next steps and deliver on your promises

Pitfalls to Avoid

Assuming sales is a numbers game. Yes, you can call people over and over again, chasing them to listen to your spiel. You may talk without pause to prevent your prospect from getting a word in edgeways to reject your offer.

What to do: Befriend your potential client or customer. Don’t immediately sell your product or service. Your call is about making contact not getting a credit card number. This way your prospect is more inclined to listen to what you have to say

Using a sales script – people can tell when you are reading from a script by the words, the pacing, the pauses you use, no matter how good you are. No-one likes to be ‘talked at’ and this is one of the fastest ways to get out of rapport.

What to do: You need to prepare your introduction and your key message as you have very little time to engage your prospect. However you will need to tailor this depending on what you have found out about prospect first. This does not mean writing a script - what is critical is that you get your message across through a conversation. You need to be sensitive to your listener’s reactions and steer away from areas where you sense the pressure is rising. Above all, behave with prospects in the same or similar ways that you relate to people you know well.

Leaving a voicemail with no enticement. If you don’t give people a reason to call you why should they bother?

What to do: Avoid leaving the same message each time. It’s better to leave no message at all. You need to give them a reason to call you back, such as you’re doing some research or you would like to know more about what they do. People usually like to talk about their company and speak more freely if you demonstrate real curiosity and don’t talk about what you do. Focus your primary goal on establishing rapport. The result will be that they’ll take your next call, maybe give you a referral if it seems right to ask for one or, interest in your offerings if they ask you about them.

Closing the sale – by going in for the kill or pushing for a commitment early on, you can kill the deal. You may feel the pressure, but don’t pass this on to your client or prospect. Otherwise you become the pressure.

What to do: Focus on building the relationship and moving towards becoming a trusted advisor. Chris Barnard from P-Tek Development Solutions says “approaching people from a human and humble perspective with no hidden agendas and simply talking to people and opening up a conversation about their issues, not my solutions, really does work”.

The more you focus on building rapport and showing interest in the person rather than the sale, the more enjoyable you will find the process. Ultimately you will achieve your numbers with fewer calls and more meaningful conversations.