If you generate sales leads for your business the chances are you are going to have to do some cold calling at some point. This is where you contact a person or a business without an invitation to do so. The potential customer has not contacted you for the product or service you wish to sell but wont have opted out of receiving unsolicited sales calls.
If you are cold calling in the EU or UK you need to make sure your call list is GDPR compliant. Take a look at Getting leads, routes to market and the role of marketing for more information.
Cold calling a business
Start by introducing yourself. Usually if you call a business, unless you know the direct telephone number of the decision maker you will speak to the receptionist, administrator, secretary or whoever answers the calls for the company. This person is referred to as the ‘gate keeper’.
Many cold callers start by asking for the decision maker and then stumble when asked what the call is in connection with, as if they forgot to think about what they should say next. The gate keeper does this because the decision maker doesn’t want to be bombarded with phone calls about a product or service the business doesn’t want or need.
Research the company
Find out where or how your product or service might be needed and then when asked this question present your response in such a way as to sound relevant. So if you are selling printers and you know the company does in house design work you might say the call is about a new model of A1 printer you believe the company might be interested in given the kind of work they do. You could add that you’re new to this having just set up your business so any help would be very much appreciated. If you’re local you could mention this too. You’ll be surprised how many people would warm to someone who sounds human.
Spam emailing
Typically cold callers may send a spam email and then when asked what the call is in connection with just say they are following up an email. Or if they don’t get through they get the name of the gatekeeper instead. This is so that they can use it next time they call the company or mention that person when finally getting to speak to the gatekeeper. These ideas may work occasionally but you should know that businesses will receive lots of cold calls, many of which will use these tactics. This means that when you mention the email or ask for the gatekeepers name or use their name regarding an unsolicited call they will recognise this for what it is, a cold call.
The dos and don’ts
It may be an idea to talk to the gate keeper about your product or service rather than just ask for the decision maker. For instance if you are selling office furniture, stationery or book keeping software the gatekeeper could be key in influencing the buying decision of the decision maker. If you ask for the gatekeepers help you are more likely to get it.
Prepare by researching the business. Know what you want to say and what you need to achieve from the call before you make it.
Some sales people work from a script but I’m not so keen on this idea. You can become robotic if you make too many calls reading from a script and you tend to listen less because you’re so focused on getting through the script. Instead try writing down some key prompts so you remember all the points you want to get across during the call.
Be comfortable, practice if necessary or take some training. The more natural you come across and receptive to the person you are speaking to the more likely you are to be successful.
Don’t shout at the gatekeeper or demand they put you through and don’t hang up. Above all, don’t take a persons abrupt or rude manner personally. If you are affected by another person’s rudeness on the other end of the phone, take a break and don’t move on to your next call until you feel better.
Cold calling a member of the public
If you need to cold call the general public don’t treat them like a business. Try introducing yourself and acknowledge, even apologise for the cold call. Explain you are a new business and try to be as natural and polite as you can. Mostly you need to listen and gauge the persons interest in speaking to you. Its like any other kind of sales work you need to build the relationship so gaining the persons trust is important.
Know what you want to get out of the call before you make it and if you happen to find someone who mentions something unrelated such as the baby’s crying, empathise. “Oh no, you’ve got your hands full. Can I call back later?” for instance would humanise you. If the person you are calling is abrupt don’t take it personally. They may have had more than enough unfriendly cold callers to deal with or they may be in the middle of something and your call has come at the worst possible time or they may just have had a bad day. Whatever it is don’t take it personally and move on.