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Is Cold Calling the Key to Sales Success?
6 Strategies to Make Cold Calling an Effective Part of Sales
By Sam Palazzolo, MBA, CPLP
Another day, another dollar! If you’re like most sales professionals today, you’ve hit the wall regarding locating, identifying, prospecting, selling and delivering to new prospective customers. So what can you do? All of the “Sales Gurus” would tell you that cold calling is a total waste of your time! Why one even goes so far as to say that there is nothing that adds less value to a sales professional’s day than attempting to perform cold calls. I disagree! If your current customers are not referring you to new business (Problem in and of itself addressed in a later article) and you need new sales, you’d better be cold calling and reaching out to new prospective customers!
In this document I will share with you six tips, techniques, and tricks that you can implement into your sales process when you have run out of prospective candidates and need to cold call. After all, we only know so many people and so many people know us, right? We need to break outside of that “circle of friends” or contacts to increase our sales volumes… Here then are six tips to cold calling:
TIP #1 : Proper ID
Properly identifying your target industry and prospective candidates within the organization structure for customer-hood is crucial to your success. If you are targeting potential customers that cannot or won’t write a check for your product or service, then I would have to agree with the so-called Sales Gurus and say that you are wasting your time! Here is an example… I got an e-mail from Joe who is a Sales Pro in Cleveland, Ohio. Joe writes that his customer base has dried up and that he is cold calling prospective candidates within the same industry with little to no success. I picked up the phone and I called Joe. The first question out of my mouth was “Joe, before you even tell me what your cold calling script is, would you mind sharing with me the industry you are targeting, and tell me a little bit about the prospective customers there in?” Joe replied that he was targeting the manufacturing industry and furthermore that they were in a certain dollar annual sales revenue/number of employees range. Sounds like a solid plan, from Joe’s perspective. Unfortunately from my perspective, no one in this industry segment was purchasing now or were they purchasing within the previous 12 months! This revelation to Joe allowed him to see that he was fishing in the wrong pond. There simply were no fish present in the lake that he was fishing in!
Make certain you properly identify your prospects and whether or not they can buy.
Tip #2: Proper Script Please
In order for cold calling to be effective you need to develop the most high impact cold calling script that you can. “What does it look like?” you might ask. The high impact cold calling scripts that we utilize here at Pathos Leadership Group in our Business Development Operation for clients across the country consists of the following eight key characteristics:
- Introductory Statement
- Nice Tone
- Who Are You
- Why Are You Calling
- Get To The Point
- What Are The Benefits?
- “Who Have You Helped” Testimonials
- What Do You Want?
This simple formula for creating a cold calling script has left many a person on the other end doing exactly what we hoped to achieve, set an appointment! Unfortunately, most cold callers are hoping for dramatically different results than what can realistically be expected (i.e., Sell a product/service). So let’s get real before we even pick up the phone!
Make certain you’ve got the proper script which drives towards realistic results please.
Tip #3: Working with The Gatekeeper
There are several techniques that one can use to successfully work with the dreaded Gatekeeper. There job is to keep you out, and remember that your job is to get in! You have four choices, you can either navigate around the side (Left or right) or go up and over or below them (Joe would argue there are actually five, that they could stop you! Poor Joe…) However, nothing, let me repeat that, nothing is as important as forming an ally relationship with the Gatekeeper! One of the key characteristics identified in step number two (Proper Script Please) was that of being a nice.
Being nice? It is a given that we will be nice to the person whom we are attempting to reach (in the event that we ultimately do reach them!) However, I am always amazed when I listen in to recorded cold calling attempts when I hear that the cold caller is “not so nice” to the Gatekeeper! This leaves little doubt in my mind regarding why it is that so many cold callers are unsuccessful in their efforts and attempts today! If you are going to be nice to the prospective customer, then you had best be nice to the Gatekeeper of that prospective customer. It just makes sense!
In order to work effectively with the Gatekeeper, play nice!
Tip #4: Voice Mail Strategies
There is a school of thought out there by the Sales Gurus that says not to leave voicemails when cold calling. I’m going to let you in on a little secret. Guess what the Sales Gurus staff does when they reach out to prospective customers that they want to do business with? Lean in, here is the secret… They leave voicemails when cold calling! Now you may be thinking, “Well Sam, if I was a Sales Guru I would leave voicemails too because I would expect people to return my phone calls.” I’ll give you that! Being a Sales Guru has many advantages and this just may be one of them from many people’s perspective. However, from my perspective cold calling is a “level playing field” for all to operate on. While those Sales Gurus may have the name recognition that you desire, there is nothing that says that a prospective client will return their phone call any quicker over yours! What they may have that you don’t is a compelling reason in to return your phone call.
Give your prospective customers a reason to return your cold calls.
Tip #5: Consistency
The difference between below, or average sales and exceptional, or outstanding sales levels is caused primarily by your performance in the “consistency” arena. Most sales professionals attempt to perform one process or one procedure on day one. Those same sales professionals attempt to perform a different sales process, or procedure on day two and a third on day three. In other words they have no consistency when it comes to their “game plan.” They rely instead on their sales managers “Program of the Month” or “Good to Great Idea of the Day” to move them towards greater sales success. Don’t fall victim to the temptation of straying from the path in front of you. You must remain consistent and you must see the process through. What may turn out to be a decrease in productivity and profitability may in the end results in your success!
Be consistent for exceptional sales results.
Tip #6: Seek Help
I run into sales professionals all the time who ask me how it is that I know what it is that I know. I tell them it’s because I have failed far more often than they have. I always make a point of saying “Ask me how I know an idea won’t work or perhaps needs to be fine tuned, it’s because I’ve attempted it!” I say this not to brag, but instead to show that I am humble and that sometimes our best learning opportunities come from failure. Salespeople, always the skeptical bunch, often follow that up with a secondary question something like “Well if you fail so much, how come you are so successful?” The answer is simple, I was fortunate to have a great coach that took interest in my development and my income in that order. I learned the value of successful sales coaching and training early on and I would not be where I am today had I not had someone mentor me. If you think that I am above reproach when it comes to coaching and training, I continue to believe that I will never know it all and as I write this article today I have just completed an e-learning session with SalesForce.com on “Successful Sales Productivity, Efficiency, and Cooperation.”
Contact a Sales Coach to move your game to the next level!
Summary
I am convinced that there is no way that you will succeed in sales unless cold calling is a part of your process. While I do agree with the Sales Gurus when they say that referrals are a “better” way to get customers, what if you don’t have any? You’ve got to start somewhere! The six tips, techniques, and tricks identified above are the key to successful sales cold calling.
Copyright © 2009 Pathos Leadership Group. All Rights Reserved
Got Influence? You’re either an “InfluencerR” or you’re being “InfluenceD”! Take the “Influential Leader Inventory” at www.GotInfluence.com and see where you rank against other leaders who have the “Influential Edge!” Sam Palazzolo, MBA, CPLP is the author of “The Influential Leader: 10 Critical Skills You MUST Possess For Success” as well as “Influential Sales: How to Achieve Selling Supremacy in the New Economy!” As President and Chief Influence Officer at Pathos Leadership Group, Sam conducts Influential Keynotes, Workshops, Webinars and one-on-one Coaching. Discover more at www.PathosLeadershipGroup.com, e-mail sp@pathosleadershipgroup.com or call 817-605-1942.
