Warming up to cold calls
If you're like most people, the thought of calling someone with whom you've
never spoken and pitching them on why your products or services are the latest,
greatest, fastest, cheapest or best is downright petrifying. Almost as soon as
the thought of having to pick up that phone enters our mind, a host of fears
begin to haunt us: “What am I going to say?”, “What if they ask me a question I
can't answer?”, “What if they hang up on me?!”
It's true - calling cold is not easy. But no one ever really said that your
calls have to be cold, did they? The trick is to learn to make warm calls
instead.
So what exactly is a warm call? A warm call is simply a call on which you
have some common ground that can serve as a basis for discussion so that you
aren't faced with trying to open a conversation about a product or service they
have never spent five minutes thinking about. You need that common ground and
frame of reference. Once you can get to that point, natural conversation can
flow much more easily.
Here are some tips for adding a little heat to your calls.
Do your homework
If you know something about the prospect before you pick up the phone, you
are much more likely to quickly get to that part of the conversation which is
comfortable and familiar.
Write to them first
If calling someone who doesn't know you is hard for you, help them get to
know you before you call. Send them a letter, e-mail or package to introduce
yourself and explains the reason you will be calling. An excellent book on this
topic is “Selling to VITO,” by Anthony Parinello.
Sharpen your pitch
Especially when selling over the telephone, you've got to learn to get to the
point quickly and precisely. Why, exactly should they give you 15 seconds to
hear you out? (15 seconds, by the way, is just how much time you have to get
your point across, before a disinterested prospect starts to think about how to
end the call.)
Put yourself in their shoes
If you stop to think about how your prospect feels and what they must be
thinking when you call, then you can begin to understand the potential
objections they might raise, and plan to overcome them. If your offer has merit,
and you can overcome the first few objections on a warm call, then you can earn
the right to learn more about this particular prospect and uncover their unique
needs.
Set yourself a limit
Don't try to make 100, 50 or even 25 cold calls in a single sitting. Limit
yourself to 5 or 10. In some industries, that may be all you ever need to make
at one time. Making 100 ineffective calls is just as futile as making five
ineffective ones. The key is to improve the quality of your calls; not make more
poor ones. Keep track of every result from every call, and systematically
determine how to improve your hit rate.
Back to free resources list » |
