7 Tips for Cold-Calling Success
The concept of cold calling shivers every nerve of your sales person; hence the question arises, why sales people are afraid of making cold calls? The reason is simple: You are stormed with the thoughts of being rejected. It is odd, but you get “NO” enough times, and sometimes rudely. Even the seasoned sales people shudders at that thought. Evidently, it takes lots of courage to pick up the phone and make that next call. Plus, with many marketers reluctant to take risks these days, the challenges of cold calling are even greater, especially for start-up entrepreneurs.
The real problem with fear and cold calling is the lack of sales process indulged in this process. If you use a system for cold calls, your cold call effectiveness will increase, because fear is minimized and success is maximized. It is also important to understand the process itself, instead of thinking it as a sales activity; you need to take cold calling as means to introduce your products and services to the prospects, where all you are doing is introducing yourself and your business to the prospect. You need to have a realistic approach for this type of business development activity. It generally takes longer to pay off. It’s more like exploring a new area of business which always takes good amount of time to generate results. Here, Patience is a great virtue, got to wait for the results. As with any other marketing tactics, always plan before you execute.
1. Target specific prospects while making your call
Just targeting the right companies and business isn’t enough, target the specific decision makers. Perform a thorough research considering company size, annual revenue and profit attainment, products carried, and whether or not your products/services can help the prospect you are targeting. Make a list along with the short notes that will help you remember why you chose to call them. Organize you’re your list of prospects on the basis on industry, location, service offerings, etc. Be consistent with prospecting targeted clients and keep building the list for future.
2. Identify the best time to call your prospects
While calling to any prospect acting as a Top Management or an Entrepreneur, it would be good to be aware when they are more interested in spending and investing on services or products. For them budgets are all planned out, and so should you target this prospects and motivate them to consider and plan for budgeting fund for your service and products.
It’s all about timing, you can bag a deal just by communicating with your prospect regularly, and before you know you will be closing a good deal, but knowing when to call in say hello is what you need to analyze.
3. Get your mind focused, don’t panic
Your mind-set needs to be clear and straight forward so should your script be. Because the minute you go stray and move off the track, it will alarm the prospect, and even an interested party won’t entertain you. You need to work and train yourself to have a flawless conversation in any situation.
4. Get you Sales Script ready
Plan your introductory speech well before you call the prospect, understand what you need to say and be prepared for all sort of questions from the other end. Note down the key points that you find the prospect might be interested in talking about. Focus on those points because the closer you are to their pain points the more chances of your success.
5. Put yourself in THEIR shoe
Imagine yourself as one of your prospect, put yourself in his position and note down what you should look in for a particular product or service. What would be your questions, and note down what solutions you would expect. This will help you understand the consumer mindset. It is a good practice because it will have you prepared for the call itself and also boost your confidence as you already expect most of the questions and would be ready to answer them confidently, Sure there would be exceptions, but something is always better than nothing.
6. Get. Set. GO!
Once you are all planned and prepared to call up that list of prospects, don’t wait a moment. Pick up that phone and start calling right away. You are on a mission to get you first sales lead. Three minutes Is all you need for a call. With an extensive use of voice mail box today, it would be easy for you to hit the numbers. Don’t let yourself or your prospect stray while conversation; focus on the things you have already prepared. Remember you’re on a mission with set sales targets. Get to the point; work your magic and move on to the next prospect.
7. Loosen up yourself and get motivated
You can’t go on and on continuously making calls one after the other. Take a break, loosen up a bit take a break. Get a cup of coffee, read motivational quotes, or whatever gets you in a positive, enthusiastic mood. If you like, play some music that inspires you or simply step out of the office for a fresh air. Pat back for what you have done and get ready for another session and keep going unless you hit your targets.
So what are you waiting for? Pick up your phone, get set and Call!
