Cold Calling Tips

Cold calling is for many people is a stressful process and yet if undertaken correctly can still generate leads appointments and ultimately business.

The first thing one must undertake prior to cold calling is preparation,begin by compiling a list of prospects that you are going to call always ensure that you have identified the MAN, which stands for money, authority and need, it is essential that we identify who this individual is within the organisation so making aresearch call will often bear fruit, as there is little or no point in pitching somebody that does not fulfil these criteria.

The next stage is to decide what is the purpose of the call, is it to sell the product or service over the phone or is it simply to get an appointment for which you can make your presentation.

Very often people get confused for example they ring a prospect in order to secure an appointment in which they hope to give a face to face presentation, the prospect responds positively and starts to ask questions before we now it we’ve moved into full blown sales pitch on the phone when our original objective was simply to get an appointment and then typically the prospect says something along the lines of we don’t have arequirement just now or we’re satisfied with our existing supplier!

It is therfore essential that not only do we have aclear outcome or objective for the call but also that we maintain discipline and focus, when the client expresses interest we should explain that we should discuss that at our meeting.

the next thing to consider is what are we going to say typically we would recommend creating a short script that when practised actually sounds like a natural conversation writing the script gives you a structure and a discipline that should still give you room tomanoeuvre.

On the call first impressions count greatly and we often don’t get a chance to make a second therefore consider how you sound, speaking too quickly for example will make you sound like a typical sales person and the prospect will immediately have his or her guard up, broadly speaking the more slowly we speak the more credible we sound so before getting on the phone for the first time practice, practice, practice!

Your script should seek to engage and inspire or excite the prospect within the first thirty seconds of the call.

Most cold calls take the following format, “Hi my name is XXX I’m from company YYY and I wanted to talk to you about our widgets”.

Try and think of a more compelling opening for example, “Hi Prospect, my name is Kevin from ABC.Corp and I wanted to discuss improving your profitability/performance/productivity is itconvenient to have a brief word”

As a final tip we would recommend blocking out an hour of time for cold call activity, with no distractions or other tasks, in addition you should always stand and smile when making the call. At AIM-Knowledge.com we recommend this to our clients and they are often amazed by the improvements in their results, by the simple action of standing up and smiling whilst on the call.