Dear Dan: Cold calling has been a valuable part of the sales mix for our young company, but lately we’ve had less success. Can you help with some tips? – Still Calling
Dear Still Calling: Phoning potential customers uninvited – or cold-calling – gets mixed reviews in the sales and marketing world. Some experts say it doesn’t work well enough to bother. Others swear by it.
Smaller businesses that use it successfully know that much of the “common knowledge” about cold-calling is wrong. For one thing, it’s not about banks of sales people dialing numbers hoping to deliver a pressurized sales pitch.
Cold-calling is really just business development. And what business doesn’t do that? If you’ve made one unsolicited call to a potential client – even if it was just to gain information – you’ve employed cold-calling. Cold-calling can work for many types of businesses, including business-to-consumer and business-to-business selling either products or services.
Here are six do’s and six don’ts:
1. Do recognize that even when you hear “no” you still gain valuable insight. Listen to what people say and put that to work.
2. Do be brief. It’s hard enough to get someone to take your call and listen beyond a few seconds. The last thing you want to do is launch into a lengthy message. Get to the point.
3. Do be positive and prepared. Know who you’re calling and what you’ll say.
4. Do be “real” – be yourself. Nobody likes a canned, robotic message.
5. Do carefully craft your message. Being “authentic” doesn’t mean shooting from the hip. You still want to prepare a message that sounds interesting, natural and avoids industry buzzwords, jargon and clich?s.
6. Do leave a brief but detailed message if you get voicemail.
And six don’ts:
1. Don’t be rigid. Each person is different, and conversations may take turns.
2. Don’t forget that it’s all about what’s right for the customer, and not just about making the sale. Tailor your approach and let them know you are okay with it if they decline.
3. Don’t focus on the “close.” Sure you want to get a meeting or make a sale, but what you’re really after is the truth of where the prospect stands, so make it easy for them to tell you.
4. Don’t try to counter all objections. Dig a little deeper to find out what’s behind the objection.
5. Don’t hang up without suggesting some type of follow-up.
6. Don’t take it personally. Prospects who say no – and there will be lots – aren’t rejecting you personally. They are just saying the product or service is not a good fit for them right now. Move on. Somewhere out there are customers who will say yes. •
Daniel Kehrer can be reached at
editor@business.com.
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