There continues to be controversy as to whether or not cold calling works and whether or not you should do it. First, yes, it does still work. Second, yes, you should still do it. Here’s why and here’s how.
Why You Should Cold Call
Cold calling is the most difficult sales task and that’s exactly why you should never stop doing it. It’s simple, if you can effectively contact people cold and get results, you’ve conquered the most difficult sales task and you can learn and do any other part of the sales process.
The reason why the vast majority of salespeople fail is because they do not have enough qualified prospects. They don’t have enough qualified prospects because they don’t do enough prospecting. They don’t do enough prospecting because they are scared and uncomfortable doing the hard work of prospecting. This is also the reason why many people say cold calling doesn’t work. They are simply afraid of the hard work of cold calling and they use the “doesn’t-work” excuse to avoid facing their fear. If you can ring tons of phones and knock on tons of doors cold, you’ve conquered the biggest fear in selling.
Staying sharp and staying on top of your game is another reason you should never stop cold calling. Cold calling is simply the best way to stay on your toes and stay sharp. Cold calling is when you will face the most resistance and the most challenges and it’s when you have to be at your best.
In addition to the above, we all know that changes happen in every business and every industry. Markets change, economies shift, competition changes, and when any of those happen, you’d better be ready to change, adapt, and most important, work. If you’re riding the wave of a favorable business environment, resting on your laurels and taking it easy, you won’t be ready to get back to work when the wave crashes. You won’t go from resting to working at the level you need to quickly, and if you’ve been resting too long, you may never get the energy, drive, and work ethic back that’s necessary for success. That would be similar to expecting a marathon runner who stops running cold-turkey for three years, to go out and run a marathon at a moment’s notice. It’s not going to happen. If you’re prepared and sharp, you can go out, create business, and build almost immediately. The most effective way to be prepared to get back to work and get results quickly is to be great at cold-call prospecting.
Another reason to cold call is that unless you have all the prospects you need via referrals and other preferred methods, and very few salespeople do, you need to cold call to fill the gap.
All of the above said, is cold calling the best, most effective way to get prospects? No. Is it the preferred method? No. Yet, even when you are at the top of your game, have tons of business and prospects and perhaps even when close to retirement, you should still do some cold calling from time to time, even if it’s only two or three a week. Cold calling will keep you alive, engaged, and in the game. The primary point behind the exercise of pure cold calling, even with no warming effect as we’ll discuss below, is not to actually get appointments, even though you’ll still get a few. The primary point is to stay sharp and to continue to conquer fear, which is what stops most salespeople. Everyone should get good at stepping out of their comfort zone and facing fears. Pure, unvarnished cold calling will achieve that end faster than any other activity you can partake in.
How to Cold Call
Step 1) Prepare
Who are you calling on and what is important to them? Why should the prospect be interested in listening to what you have to say and why should they be interested in eventually meeting with you? You have to know what the most important benefits are to your audience and design your cold call around those benefits.
Step 2) Get scripted
Once you know what’s important to them and what you want to say, you need to get it down word for word. In addition to a scripted cold call, you also want to have scripted answers to questions, concerns, and anything that might come up during your call. You then need to practice these until the point where someone could wake you up at 3 a.m. and these answers would roll off your tongue verbatim.
Step 3) Make the call, get their attention, and ask for the appointment.
Make a big claim centered around the top benefit that will mean most to the prospect and ask for a meeting. Your call might sound like this, “Hi Joe, John Chapin. We’ve been saving companies like yours 56% on auto parts. All I need is 20 minutes to see if we can do the same for you. Will tomorrow morning or afternoon work better?”
Step 4) Warm up the call in any way you can.
Unless you are doing unvarnished cold calling for the point of staying sharp and overcoming fear, you should warm up your cold calls. You can do this by name dropping, mentioning a benefit related to something you got off their website, or by using some other information that lets the prospect know the call has been customized to them while also addressing what they are most interested in.
Step 5) Test the reflex response at least two times.
Most people have a natural “not-interested” response to a cold call. When this happens, test the response to see if it is a true response or pure reflex. For example, after they say they are all set or not interested, you might ask a question centered around the three most important aspects of anything that people buy which are: product, service, and price. For example, “Joe, if I could offer you a better product and better service at a price equal to or better than your getting right now, would that be worth investing 20 minutes of your time to investigate?”
Step 6) Be persistent
If you are cold calling for prospects, be prepared to make lots of calls. You’re in a contact sport and never is that more true than with cold calling. Persistence also comes into play if you are targeting a particular account, one or two calls usually won’t do it. You’re going to have to reach out to them 9 to 13 times. Do this with a combination of phone calls, mailings, e-mails, and in-person visits.
John Chapin is a sales and motivational speaker and trainer. For his free newsletter, or if you would like him to speak at your next event, go to: www.completeselling.com John has over 28 years of sales experience as a number one sales rep and is the author of the 2010 sales book of the year: Sales Encyclopedia. For permission to reprint, e-mail: johnchapin@completeselling.com.
