Tips to cold calling
Before writing this article, I searched the term: tips to cold calling on Google, and I was surprised. There was a lot of nonsense about it online! Obviously, some people are outsourcing the articles just to get some SEO juice for their websites. And in doing so, they waste the time of people that try to find valuable information online for the benefit of their profession and business.
My name is Alex Valassidis; I am an expert sales consultant and managing director of Vparagon, an uncompromised sales outsourcing company.
All my life, I’ve only had one profession, yes, only , and that is sales.
So, here are my B2B tips to cold calling, And they are simple and go straight to the point.
Cold calling tip No.1:
Before you start cold calling, know yourself and why are you cold calling. The purpose of your calls and your position should be crystal clear to you. And your position should be that of a businessman or a company executive that calls someone on an equal basis.. People respect people on the same (or higher) level as them. If you feel you are doing something wrong, or disturbing someone or that you should not call people out of the blue, stop. Rethink your position, and start cold calling only when you are sure of yourself.
Cold calling tip No. 2:
BE CONFIDENT AS HELL. Confidence is the number one reason why someone is going to hear you out. Your voice will let on how confident you are, and the person on the other side of the phone will be able to hear it If you are not confident, your call is going to fail, period. This is the most important tip to cold calling.
Cold calling tip No. 3:
BE PRECISE about what you say. Being precise and sure is going to increase your confidence and prepare you for possible objections.
Cold calling tip No. 4:
Prepare a sales script, but DON’T read it during the call. Instead, have it as a reference. If you read your script, you are going to sound like a robot and your pitch will fail.
Cold calling tip No. 5:
RESPECT the secretary (the Gatekeeper);they are doing an honourable job. LIKEWISE, EXPECT THEM TO RESPECT YOU AS MUCH AS YOU RESPECT THEM. In other words, do not accept their opinion of their company’s interest in your product or service. They are the secretary, not the decision maker. Do not accept to send an email to a generic email address such as info@xyz.com. You are calling as a person with a First and Last name and expect to be treated with respect. A generic email (besides the fact that is going to end on the garbage bin),is disrespectful. . If she doesn’t give you the email address of the person you want to speak with, ask for her personal email address.
Cold calling tip No. 6:
BREAK THE PATTERN of a conversation that does not swing in your favour.
Let’s use an Example: Peter: cold caller, Susan: Gatekeeper, John: Decision Maker
S: Good morning this is Susan from XYZ technologies. How may I help you, please?
P: Good morning Susan, may I speak with John, please?
S: May I ask who is calling, please
P: My name is Peter Willing; I am calling from the company, SPL operational systems.
S: Regarding what, please?
P: Expected answer: “It’s abouts our new technology on automating operational systems within your organization.” BREAKING THE PATTERN: John knows what it regards to. Or… I would like to speak with John about this.
S: John is at a meeting right now. Can you send us an email at info@xyz.com?
P: Expected answer: Yes, of course, I am going to send you an email at info@xyz.com BREAKING THE PATTERN: Susan, I am the sales manager of SPL operational systems. I am not going to send an email to an info email address. What time can I call John back?
S: Let me check his calendar. Mmmmm, you can call back at 2pm today.
P: DON’T BREAK THE PATTERN HERE SINCE IT SERVES OUR PURPOSE. Ok ,Susan, thank you very much. I will call back at 2pm exactly. Thank you.
S: Thank you, please have a nice day
Cold calling tip No. 7:
BE PROFESSIONAL AND CONSISTENT, NOT POLITE Politeness is not going to make a difference because it means that you will do anything to please your prospect. . And pleasing prospects is not what you do in sales; you get results.(That does not mean you should be rude, but keep in mind, you call to sell, and not to make friends.)
Cold calling tip No. 8:
CALL EXACTLY ON TIME. When a gatekeeper asks you to call at a specific time, do so, SHARPLY. Why is that so important? ? Because when you call exactly at that time, even if they don’t want to speak with you, they will be forced to because they proposed the time to you.BE SUPER SHARP.
Cold calling tip No . 9:
Use the A.P.E.Q.O. sales pitch technique.
Does cold calling work? The answer depends on a lot of factors
- It depends on the product or service that you are selling and the ROI. You have to look at the following: The cost of generating hot and warm leads because of online marketing.
- SEO
- Social media campaigns and their R.O.I.
The cost of cold calling and its R.O.I.
Ideally, a combination of both is going to give ideal results. Cold calling is not dead, and it does bring results. There is no replacement for a human being calling someone to introduce a product or service. Nothing can compare. However, sometimes, other, more passive approaches can bring relatively better results.
This article refers to cold calling on a B2B level, where legitimate interest is offered from one company to another.
However, the legitimacy of cold calling on a B2C level in today’s GDPR dominated world is questionable; the results are also questionable. And this is why sales outsourcing companies do not handle end consumers; that is the work of call centers.
P.S. Final tip: Buy a standing table. Placing your cold calls standing is going to improve your psychology and your sales pitch drastically.
