Create a Cold Call Box

Cold calling is the most effective tool for reaching a prospect, it’s making a significant comeback because most sales people are resistant, or scared to do it. In most cases, two channels (email + phone) is over twice as effective for getting to a prospect than using a single channel. And if you add a three-punch combo (email + phone + social) it’s even more effective.

Why is cold calling unsuccessful for some sales teams? I believe it’s because the calls are too cold and we call people we shouldn’t be calling the first place. The average success rate for a cold call is 1.48%. If you aren’t spending time warming up the prospect and choosing who to engage with, you’re going to be part of that statistic.

How Cold Calling Works

Cold calling is a technique where a salesperson contacts an individual who has not previously expressed interest in the offered products or services. Cold calling typically refers to solicitation by phone, also called telemarketing, but can also involve in-person visits, such as door-to-door salespeople.

Successful cold-call salespeople should be persistent and willing to endure repeated rejection. To be successful, they should adequately prepare by researching the demographics of their prospects and the market.

When making cold calls, it’s vital to think about the 3-5 ways you can help a prospect, BEFORE you make the call or send an email.

Once you have the 3-5 relevant examples you can provide to the prospect, connect with them on social media and message them reviewing potential challenge they’re likely experiencing. You can make this specific by doing a little research into their business to find out what challenges they have.

For example, non-profits that reach out to companies for partnerships. Here’s what that might sound like:

Personalization: “The reason for my call is that I was taking a look through your 2019 impact report and noticed that corporate partners are about a third of your fundraising mix.”

Empathy: “And one of the big challenges I hear from development teams is that their existing partners take up a lot of their time, and they aren’t able to spend as much time prospecting for new partnerships as they’d like. Am I off here, or is this something you run into from time to time?”

Results: “Great, well one of the ways we might be able to help is showing you how you can spend 2-3x more time pitching corporate partners instead of prospecting to them. Do you have your calendar handy?”

Use words and phrases that will empower your script upon the prospect with trust and confidence:

Power words to express courtesy like “Please”, “Thank you”, “That’s good to know”
Terms from which industry your service/product belongs. If you are calling on behalf of a financial institution, choose words that are familiar to the prospect like loans, security & interest rate, annual turnover, etc.
Assuring words or phrases like “sure”, “no worries”, “you are right”, can boost the prospect’s morale and would feel that his opinions and ideas are accepted.

Know your job

When your usual calling tactics may not seem effective anymore, round up a few new styles that will help you get back on good performance track again. A daily, 3-5-minute call calibration or coaching session for a week or two, with your Quality Assurance specialist or Supervisor will help you improve call quality and efficiency. Practice with friends and family.

Take one step at a time

Coping with the quota towards the weekend could hold you off to say, “Thank God it’s Friday!”, as you’ll be running around with the burden of undone tasks till Saturday.

Take advanced actions

Set your appointments from Mondays thru Wednesdays, then Thursdays and Fridays would spare you time for other tasks, along with the chance of still getting appointments as you make more calls.

Let your work stay in its rightful place- in the office.

I keep my Fridays for catching up work, I review the week’s e mails, go over notes and proposals, send reminder e mails and do anything I missed that week. Then I write my list of what needs to be done on Monday morning and leave early for a restful weekend. I get my weekly work done between Monday and Wednesday, Thursday is hunting new business research day and Friday is catching up. I do the same thing with the month, I work extra hard the 1-15 so that the following two weeks are on closing up deals, organizing, chasing project managers and planning my next month’s quota.

“All of us have do not have equal talent. Yet, all of us have an equal opportunity to develop our talents”
– Ratan Tata

Have that “Can-do” attitude

If your prospect was not available when you called today, send them an email or connect with them on social media. “I can do it” would be a good daily mantra to achieve your goals.

Be Proactive

Voluntarily offer a hand to a teammate who is challenged with a campaign, or assist your coach on other tasks when he’s tied up with another. Participate in team activities, contribute ideas, and share some knowledge and skills.

Research, Research, Research

By tracking down key information about the prospect you can deliver calls with value and keep their attention; without research, you appear self-interested. Prove you have invested in the person on the other end of the phone, your prospects will appreciate the extra effort made and will open up to better conversation.

Write an Outline of What You Want to Say

Write up a quick (30 seconds or less) cold call script that you can reference on the phone. The idea isn’t to read from this verbatim but to use it as a guide to help you communicate your message clearly and confidently.

Organize your script:

Introduction (your name and company)
Reason for calling
Qualifying
Ask

Prepare a Strong Opening Sentence

You have less than ten seconds to prove that you’re worth talking to, differentiate yourself from other callers. After introducing yourself, turn the focus to your prospect by weaving in your research and personalizing the call.

For example, you could open with a compliment on a recent professional accomplishment you came across through research.

Here are some strong opening sentences about your prospect, not you.

“I saw your post about _____”
“I noticed you manage _____”
“Congratulations on _____”
“Great insights on _____”
“I’m inspired by the work you’ve done on _____”

Let Rejection Motivate You

Rejection brings emotional pain, we can relive and experience social pain more vividly than physical pain; it’s easy to get discouraged by a bad call.

The best sales reps keep a positive attitude, pick up the phone and continue learning from their mistakes. I have experienced that every time I have a horrible mean prospect who rejects me the next call is fantastic. Remember that it’s not you, it’s them, keep your focus and keep going.

Practice Makes Perfect

Never go into a cold call completely, simply cold; rehearsing what you’re going to say builds confidence which leads to better performance. The more confident you become, the easier cold calling will be.

Know the Best Times to Make Cold Calls

Weekday afternoons are the best time to make cold calls. The majority of calls lasting over five minutes occur between 3:00-5:00 pm on Tuesdays or Thursdays. Find the time that works best for your prospects and make a good first impression.

When you cold call a prospect, the first thing you want to know is that they are in fact the person you’re trying to reach. The method you use to verify their identity is this person’s first impression of you- it’s critical to get this right and have fun.

Take notes, remember names and what you discussed on the last call. Keep a folder for each prospect and add notes and research to it. I’ve learned that every time I’ve focused a lot of research on a valuable prospect, I’ve been able to close them, sometimes it takes a year, but I eventually always close them.