Cold Calling Campaign… Does This Look Like Your Office?
The cold calling campaign at Sales Inc. was not going to well! I’ve seen plenty of sales offices that look like this as I am sure you have too. Perhaps you’re looking at one now and pulling your hair out! It’s amazing the excuses that salespeople can come up with when trying to avoid contacting new and (even) existing customers.
If you don’t want your sales office to look like this then why not speak to me about organizing an inspirational and motivational sales talk for your next sales conference, AGM or away day.
What Are The First 15 Words To Say To A Prospect To Get Them Hooked Into A Conversation?
Here’s a question that one of my contacts asked recently that I thought I would share with you, “So I have got past the gatekeeper – after the introduction, what are the first 15 words (or so) I say to a prospect that’s going to get them hooked into a conversation?”
And here’s my answer…
One of the questions I always ask delegates in sales training seminars is, “How long do you have to make a first impression?” The answer they give me varies but is always no more than a handful of seconds. In today’s world, people make decisions very quickly and, upon receiving a cold call, even quicker still!
From a receiver’s perspective, they want to decide as fast as possible whether this call is a legitimate, business interruption or a nuisance, spam call. There are three things you need to consider to maximize your chances of achieving the former and minimize your chances of suffering the latter…
- Plan and prepare effectively. Understand why you are calling that individual, why now and how you can make a difference for them. Also, get yourself into the right mindset. Mindset is critical for cold calling (and indeed for selling) and I will be posting some sales training videos on this soon…
- Know how you answer their key question, “What’s in this for me?” If you can’t and don’t answer that, and quickly, you’re toast!
- Avoid coming across as a salesperson and using “crash and burn” sales phrases. I teach people how not to use these on my programmes but the easiest way of thinking about them for yourself is to think about the cold calls you get and think about what really puts your back up at the start of the call… and don’t do it!
For more on cold calling, have a look at this short video I did on 10 tips for cold calling.
“How Do I Avoid My Cold Call Being Viewed As An Interruption By My Prospect?”
I’ve recently been collating common sales questions for a forthcoming book answering all of the main sales queries and questions that sales and business people have. I thought I’d share the answer to this one with you…
“How do I avoid my cold call being viewed as an interruption by my prospect?”
Simple answer: You can never stop your cold call being viewed as an “interruption”. Prospects are not wandering around with their phones under their arms hoping that you give them a call and brighten their days up! And, in a way, this is good news, because it should serve to remind you that you owe it to yourself and the person you are “interrupting” to make it a good call.
There are two types of cold call…
- Nuisance spam calls &
- Legitimate new business calls.
You need to make sure that yours is a legitimate new business call. If you don’t you are never going to get the results that you want from cold calling and that means not enough opportunities and not enough clients.
We’ve all experienced one of those awful calls at home where you’re cooking the dinner and your phone rings and, full of hope that it is one of your friends or family, you answer the phone. But it is a cold caller. You listen agitated as they launch into their pre-prepared, pre-packaged, pre-canned script and eventually you slam the phone down annoyed.
You can never guarantee that your prospects will buy from you. You can never guarantee that your prospects will connect with you. And you can never guarantee that they will even speak with you. That’s just the way that it is…
But you can guarantee that you make cold calls that give you the best chance of being viewed as a legitimate new business call and you can guarantee that you can make your calls relevant to your prospects and not just yourself.
Here are my top tips for differentiating your call from nuisance spam cold calls…
Plan and prepare.
Planning and preparation warms your call up. It tailors your calls for the individual prospect that you are calling. It demonstrates that you have thought about them, their issues and their business and it separates you from junk cold callers.
“Play from a 10”.
When you cold call you need to be in the right state of mind. I call this “playing from a 10” (where 10 is the best state of mind that you can possibly be in). A large part of cold calling success is down to your attitude or your state of mind at the time that you make the call. Being on top of your game helps you to make your call sound like the kind of call that your prospect would want to take and helps you to connect more effectively with your prospect than your also-ran competitors.
Add value.
Think about how you add value for your prospect. Based on your research, what problems and challenges do you think that they might be facing? How can you add value for them? What experience do you have working in this area and how can this help them and their business? Now use this in your opening statement and in your questions so that your prospect can see that you are different, that you have done your research and that you are thinking about them not yourself!
Ask, “How convenient is it to speak?”
Most salespeople don’t ask if it’s a good time for their prospect to take the call. When I tell them to, they say things to me like, “Well, do you expect me to let them get away?!” Look! This call is supposed to be about your client not you. Just because it is convenient for you does not mean it is convenient for them. Don’t be so arrogant! That’s one of the things prospects don’t like about salespeople anyway.
(Footnote, as I am writing this sitting looking at the hills (in Spain), my phone just rang. Expecting it to be a client who was due to call I answered the phone, It was a cold caller from the UK who asked me, “How are you?”£ (Uggh!) then launched into a pitch. At 50ppm I canned the call. Did him not asking help him in anyway? Nope, got him canned faster.)
Ask, “How convenient is it to speak?” immediately after you say hello. This way you have been polite and asked but you have also maximized your chances of them continuing with the call. If they are truly busy then you are better off taking this call another time anyway.
If you have a sales questions that you would like answered then please forward it to me via this Contact Gavin form here or via my Facebook or LinkedIn groups. The better the questions, the better the answers and the better the book will be. And, in any case, where else can you get free advice?!
How To Mess Up A Cold Call
A cold caller has been trying to get hold of me for a few days with the message, “I would like to invite you to an event?” We finally spoke today and he launched into a series of questions (which weren’t all bad) and then a reasonably well crafted and well presented pitch. This guy should be making a lot of sales but, whether he does or not, I bet that he does a lot of head banging on a daily basis and he could do a lot better…
Why?
Lack of research, planning and preparation. You might ask how I know he wasn’t prepared properly? Well, these two little gems to start with…
- His opening gambit, “I don’t know much about your company”. For that, read, he knows nothing.
- Having the nerve to ask me, “What are the main products and services you sell?”
Seriously, can you believe that? And to a sales motivational speaker too. He needs to attend one of my sales seminars!
Intrigued, I asked him how he got my details. The answer was not clear but it was something like, “Well, I have a list that came from research and my manager recommended you and I had a look and…” Oh, come on. No, you didn’t and no he didn’t and we both know that someone bought a list of numbers from somewhere and you rang it without a second thought. You’ve done nothing.
A lot of people think that cold calling doesn’t work anymore. A lot of people think that cold calling never worked. A lot of people think that cold calling doesn’t and won’t work for them. A lot of speakers are making a lot of money perpetuating this myth (watch out for my forthcoming video series where I set the stall straight on that one!).
The truth is that cold calling does not work for many salespeople. And it doesn’t work for several reasons…
- They’re not in the right state of mind.
- They don’t make enough calls.
- They don’t know enough about their prospects.
- They don’t personalize their calls for every individual.
- They don’t ask enough questions.
- They don’t know how they are most likely to be able to help that prospect.
- They don’t listen.
- They don’t tailor their solutions.
- They don’t offer up enough (any) value.
- They give up too easily.
Cold calling can and does work. I am not going to bore you talking about the clients that I have helped to explode their sales results, nor am I going to drone on about how I have helped individuals to create and sustain the lives they desire by being able to attend more proactive sales meetings and sell more when they get there. Instead, I am going to share with you the success a friend of mine, Clifton, who led a professional services sales team by running powerful sales meetings stemming from professional cold calling techniques…
They grew a division taking 700 meetings a year and turning £7m pa to a team running 1000 meetings a year and turning £25m pa within 2 years. On one specific project they had 250 meetings (gained through cold calling) and won £22m worth of revenues.
Cold calling doesn’t work when coupled with powerful sales strategies? As Bart would say, “Eat my shorts!”
But cold calling has to be coupled with powerful, proven sales strategies and it also has to be professional, purposeful and legitimate and this requires effective planning and preparation to even get off the starting line. If you review my list of the 10 reasons cold calling doesn’t work you will see that at least 8 of them (if not arguably all of them) could be addressed or massively improved by doing the right preparation in the first place.
I hope my cold caller reads this article. It might help him. It probably won’t as I don’t think he will think to check my blog, certainly not now… I’m just the guy who spoiled his morning and said that I wasn’t interested.
Join Me At The First Recruitment Juice Live Event
I am pleased to be speaking at the first Recruitment Juice live event. If you’re in recruitment and you want to be more successful then grab this rare opportunity to see Roy Ripper and myself in January 2010 in London. Here’s the Press Release…
ISSUED 12 NOVEMBER 2009
RECRUITMENT JUICE LTD PROUD TO ANNOUNCE THE FIRST EVER ‘JUICE LIVE’ EVENT “BOOST YOUR NEW BUINESS DRIVE” SEMINAR.
Recruitment Juice Ltd, leading supplier of innovative DVD training programs to the recruitment industry, is building on their success with the addition to their product portfolio of their first live seminar event.
The event, which will take place on Tuesday 12th January 2010 in central London, will be presented by Roy Ripper, host of their DVD programs and will focus purely on transforming the way recruiters approach new clients and generate more business – a topic close to many recruiters’ hearts working in today’s market.
“We hope the event will offer a great opportunity for recruiters to network, learn new strategies and techniques and get a massive motivational boost for their new business drive in the New Year. The seminar will be really high-impact and full of energy as we want the delegates rushing back to their desks desperate to use their newly learned skills and get started on new business!” said Roy.
Presenting alongside Roy, will be author and sales motivational speaker Gavin Ingham, who has been well known for over ten years for his inspirational and compelling approach to sales training.
Matt Trott, Director of Recruitment Juice commented, “We are extremely excited to have secured Gavin’s involvement in this event as we know he will bring something truly unique to the program. We are also very proud to have Dan McGuire, Managing Director of Broadbean Technology, hosting the welcome address and delivering some of his entrepreneurial flair to the delegates as he did when he appeared as an ‘expert’ in our second DVD series.”
For full agenda details and further information on the event visit Recruitment Juice Live or call 08700 677 567. The event is proudly sponsored by JobShop HQ, Broadbean Technology and media partner, UK Recruiter.
Sales Training Tips For Handling Cold Calling Objections, Part III
Here is part III of my short sales training article on handling cold calling objections…
“I’ve had a bad experience with your company in the past!”
As objections go this one is slightly different as it may not be an objection at all, it could potentially be a complaint. For this reason it needs to be dealt with as a complaint to avoid stirring it up into something more.
Most salespeople are confrontational when put into this kind of scenario. That’s a shame as it really is the complete opposite of how you need to behave to deal successfully with this kind of situation.
Here’s a simple 6 step process for dealing with complaints…
- Apologize e.g. “I’m sorry that you’ve had a bad experience with our company in the past.”
- Make a powerful lead statement e.g. “We pride ourselves on ensuring that all of our customers are nothing less than delighted with our services.”
- Ask a question e.g. “Tell me Mr. Client, what happened?”
- Listen, listen and listen some more. Do not interrupt. Do not argue points. Do not put up a defence. The only two things you do are listen and empathize verbally. You do nothing else until the client has no more to say.
- Apologize and make another powerful statement e.g. “I’m sorry that you had that experience Mr Client. As I said, we pride ourselves on our happy customers.”
- Move to the next stage. This could be done in several ways, the most common of which would be to ask them what they want to happen next or to organize a face to face meeting with them.
Simple though this process is, many salespeople struggle with it as they take the client’s comments personally and do not listen and empathize with them effectively. This will derail the whole process and can destroy rapport.
“I don’t like you!”
This purely emotional complaint is designed to make you feel bad. What’s more, for many salespeople, it usually works!
Most salespeople like people. Most salespeople are people oriented. Most salespeople work hard to get their clients and prospects to like them. Being liked is important to them. It’s not surprising then that this little line hits them where it hurts.
Objections are not personal! Selling is not personal. Business is not personal. Selling and business are professional activities so don’t take them personally.
Try, “Then it’s a good job I don’t take myself too seriously, tell me John…” and move to a question. Taking this route shows the client that you cannot be rattled that easily.
“I’m not interested!”
In the highly competitive and sophisticated markets of today, salespeople face a lot of objections and rejection. Salespeople know that a lot of their prospects will not have any interest, need or desire for their products, services or solutions.
For this reason, the “I’m not interested” objection is quite effective from the client’s point of view because many salespeople expect this response even before they pick up the phone and believe it totally when they hear it.
Firstly, it is highly likely that this objection is quite simply untrue. Most clients have found that this objection works so they use it even when they don’t mean it and even when it is not true.
Secondly, even if they do mean it, it doesn’t mean that you can’t build rapport, find out more about them and their business and uncover some areas of mutual interest.
Try, “I wouldn’t expect you to have any at this stage. The reason for my call is to…”.
So there we are, over the last 3 blog posts we have looked at 10 sales superstar strategies for dealing with 10 very common objections. Invest some time now in writing down some of the most common objections that you get. Think about what effect they have on you, decide how you want to feel and behave in the future instead and then plan some responses that you can use to get more productive results and make more sales.
If you want to catapult yourself towards sales superstar status and become a master of objection handling strategies and techniques then make sure that you get hold of a copy of my sales training book Objections! Objections! Objections!. Many of my clients find it useful to have it on their desks when they are selling on the phone. Maybe you will too…
Sales Training Tip For Handling Cold Calling Objections, Part II
Here is part II of my short article on sales training tips for handling cold calling objections…
“I use someone else!”
This is a very common objection and one which salespeople and business owners can get very upset about. What they often hear in their heads is, “So I have no need for you!”
Try replacing that self-talk with, “Yes, and?” Obviously, you’re not going to say that out loud but that’s what you need to think to yourself!
Clients change suppliers all of the time. Clients moan about their suppliers all of the time. Clients have problems and challenges with their suppliers all of the time. Most clients are not totally happy with their existing suppliers. So this “objection” is actually an invite…
Try, “That’s great John and I am not asking you to change now, merely have a look at what we do. Problem is, I’m really busy at the moment and I won’t be able to come and see you for at least…”
“I’m happy with my existing supplier!”
Yeah, righto! That old chestnut. They might be happy, but they more than likely aren’t. Either way, it makes no odds to a sales superstar. You do not want to displace the existing supplier anyway. Not yet and not at this stage.
You haven’t even decided if you want to work with this client yet so how can they make an informed decision about you and your services?
All good companies stay abreast of what’s going on in the marketplace. Just because they are in an existing supplier relationship does not mean that they don’t keep their eyes open for alternatives and back-ups. Doing otherwise would be foolish.
Try,
“Many of my clients were happy with their existing suppliers when I first spoke to them and they found it really useful to assess our approach, using it as a benchmark to ensure that they were getting the best possible solutions from their existing suppliers.”
“I’ve got no budget!”
This is probably a lie. How can a client know if they have a budget before they speak to you? In any case, budget for what? You haven’t even had a conversation yet.
Try,
“At this point most of my competitors would ask you when you will have a budget and arrange to call you back then, however, I believe that business is built on relationships and I’d still like to come and see you now. How’s your diary looking…?”
“Is this a sales call?”
This objection is just an attempt to make you feel bad. For many salespeople this is tantamount to the client asking, “Are you the shit on my shoe?”
Don’t fan small flames. Take a moment and calm yourself. Dealing with this is so simple, “No, the reason for my call is to introduce myself…”
Watch out for the final part of this article on handling objections next soon…
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