Cold calling refers to the process of reaching out to potential customers or clients who haven’t shown any interest at all in any of the products or services that your company offers. It can be likened to the process of courting would-be or potential clients, through the telephone or in person, to try and convince them to take your products and services. Yes, cold calling is quite a difficult technique.
To make things easier for you, here are some cold calling tips that you can learn from:
1. Remember the purpose of cold calling
One of the reasons why deals are rejected even upon the first call is that salespeople think that cold calling is solely for selling. No, this is false. The primary purpose of cold calling is for you to grab the attention of these potential clients, so that by the very next time you call them back, they already trust you enough for them to give you more time to pitch about your products and services.
When you are making the first call, therefore, take it easy and remember this purpose. Do refrain from jumping right into the sales talk, as chances are, the person on the other line will drop the call. Take it one day at a time, and give the listener time to warm up to you as well.
2. Do not run away from rejection
Yes, in cold calling, you will get rejected hundreds of times. Sometimes, you may not even make it beyond the first call. When this happens, embrace this rejection as a stepping-stone to work even harder in the hundreds of other calls you still have to make. If you run away from rejection, it will work just like a domino effect, wherein all the other future cold calls that you will be making will all end up as a negative drab.
3. Be brief and very concise with your sales script
Once you have gained the attention and won the heart of the listener on the other line, then you have ten seconds to introduce a brief but concise sales spiel. How are you going to go about this? It depends on the product or service that you are offering. Regardless of the way you wish to introduce your goods and services, do not make it too long. No person ever likes to waste their time listening to someone who spends five minutes about a product that they don’t even know anything about.
4. Use technology to your advantage
The process of cold calling doesn’t actually begin during the call itself. Before you make any calls, be sure that you have already done your research beforehand. Use technology to your advantage by determining the following:
- Spending capacity and lifestyle of the potential client on the list
- Decision-making capacity of the potential client
For example, you are calling to promote luxurious real estate at a newly built high-rise apartment building. However, the certain “Tanya” that’s next on your list has only just finished her medical degree. From this, you can conclude that there is no way that she can afford to purchase that million-dollar penthouse. Use this knowledge to your advantage and skip her name instead to call another prospect who has better spending capacity.
5. Schedule your calls appropriately
With the abovementioned point, another way that you could use technology to your advantage is for you to get to know more about the lifestyle of these potential clients. Say, for example, a certain “Katrina” is a single mother who works three jobs during the day as a house cleaner, a school janitress, and a part-time salesperson at the mall. There is no way she is going to pick up your call, even if you are there to potentially offer her with a product or service for her children that she can afford.
Do schedule your calls appropriately, as timing is always important. If a prospect picks up your call and tells you it’s the wrong time, don’t hesitate to ask when is the next good time to call rather than calling them the next day still at the same time.
6. Practice, practice, practice
Practice makes perfect, and indeed, it does. After you are handed your cold calling script, jump right into it immediately by practicing before you make any calls. No one wants to listen to someone sounding robotic from reading a script. Despite being scripted, you will want the conversation to flow as effortlessly as possible, as if you are talking to a good old friend of yours.
When you get home, take time to practice your script as well. When you do so, you will find what works best for you. Remember that these scripts are not given for you to follow in verbatim, but only to serve as an outline of what it is you have to say. Hence, you have enough room to make some changes that best suits your vocabulary and your comfort zone of speaking.
7. Create a rapport with your prospects
Before you make the call, if you can send them an email, then it is best for you to do so. When you send an email first, there is a high chance that the potential client will see and open this email. Even if they do not read the same thoroughly and immediately dump it into their Trash folder, then at least at a minimum, your name and the product or service that you are offering will already ring a bell to them by the time that you call them as well.
In cold calling, it is essential for you to build a rapport with your prospects. These potential clients will only want to listen to people whom they feel they know and can trust. No person will ever want to waste their time and money on individuals and corporations that they have zero knowledge about.
8. Ask for advice from salespeople who have more experience
Experience is the best teacher, and you can learn a lot from the other sales representatives in the team who have worked longer than you have. Do not be afraid or ashamed to ask these people for tips, advice, and help on matters relating to cold calling that you may be concerned about. If you do not have access to this one-on-one help, run to the Internet and read on cold calling tips and advice like this to help you become a better cold caller the next time that you are asked to do the same.
Watch this video to learn more about cold calling, from a man who tries to teach even a young boy how to make cold calls:
Conclusion
Although challenging, cold calling is still one of the most effective ways of winning the hearts of would-be clients. This process has stood the test of time and is still practiced by numerous businesses all over the world. Hence it is to your advantage for you to learn the tips and tricks of cold calling as well. With this list, you can practice better to help lighten up the next cold calling activities that you will have to undertake.
