What should I say on a cold call to corporate controllers?

[Jon L]

I run a small custom software business (me + an assistant and a couple contract developers on occasion). I write software that makes businesses run more efficiently. Here are a few examples of past projects:

1) Automation of payroll calculation, saving payroll clerk 15 hours of work every two weeks
2) Automation of a monthly report that takes 20-40 man hours to run every month. Report now runs in just a few minutes
3) Rental tracking system that keeps track of rental orders - none of the products on the market met the customer's needs within a reasonable price
4) Project management system that reduces the time spent reporting on projects by 3/4. Also allows customer to produce reports on activity and resource allocation that were previously impossible to produce.

Hopefully that gives you a good idea of what I do. Now, the problem:

For small sales ($5000-$20,000), if a customer already knows that they need to hire a programmer, I'm quite successful with closing them ... 80%+. For larger sales, I have some technique to master, but that's not the topic of this question.

I just finished the book, "Spin Selling" that talks a lot about the sales process once you have an interested prospect, but they only spent a few paragraphs on what to say during the opening pitch.

I've read a few other sales books that talk about how to sell, but all of them leave me feeling a bit slimy. Perhaps I need to reread them with a different mindset?

Getting a new prospect to say, 'I'm not sure I have a problem, but tell me more' is where the difficulty lies. (If they ask me that question, I can start the conversation by asking them questions about their business,but getting them to that point is scary). I'm not sure what to say. I've tried a few things, but they all leave me feeling exhausted after just a few phone calls.

What should be my opening lines when cold calling these prospects?

 

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[wade1mil]

I don't have any recommendation on what to say, and you know your product and prospects better than I do, so this will require some thinking on your part. What sort of value can you provide them up front? One example, which might not pertain to you, is giving them a specific piece of advice that will improve their website.

Hi John, I noticed your website does this. I use to do this also, and I've had tremendous success lately doing this instead.
*Thanks*
I also noticed X, and I've got Product X that solves it.

Super general advice, but you may get something from it…

 

[Jon L]

I don't have any recommendation on what to say, and you know your product and prospects better than I do, so this will require some thinking on your part. What sort of value can you provide them up front? One example, which might not pertain to you, is giving them a specific piece of advice that will improve their website.

Hi John, I noticed your website does this. I use to do this also, and I've had tremendous success lately doing this instead.
*Thanks*
I also noticed X, and I've got Product X that solves it.

Super general advice, but you may get something from it…

The thing I've always struggled with in marketing my business is that I produce software that can literally be anything. Do you need a quote tool that speeds up the sales process? Yup, I can do that. Do you need to monitor the activity of your employees more closely? Yup, I can do that. Do you need to calculate your gross margin across all your accounts every day? Yup, I can do that.

I called this one particular business owner a bit ago and said, 'I noticed that you spend a lot of time producing reports for the USDA. I can speed that up for you.' 'Sorry, not interested.' And this was a guy that I knew personally, too, and I knew that he had an employee that spent a good portion of his day producing this report.

But that same guy might have some other need that I don't know about, and so I can't ask about. Lets say that his system to keep track of employee hours takes a lot of manual work, and it frustrates him to no end. I can probably automate that. But, if he doesn't even know that's possible, he's not going to make the leap from 'this guy does custom software' to 'this guy could speed up my employee timekeeping process, and that would save me a lot of money, I should ask him about it.'

I'm really more of a business efficiency consultant than "just" a programmer. Honestly, I'm not that great a programmer, but I'm really pretty good at speeding up processes with programming.

 

[wade1mil]

Two things for the purpose of brainstorming:

'I noticed that you spend a lot of time producing reports for the USDA. I can speed that up for you.' 'Sorry, not interested.'

I'm not sure if this was exactly how the conversation went, but this is more selling the feature than the benefit. Instead, you could say something like:
I noticed that you spend a lot of time producing reports for the USDA.
How much [money/time] would you save if it only took you [1 hour a day]?
(That way they think of the benefit rather than what you're trying to sell them?)

Also, in terms of you doing anything…you could lead with something like:
Hi John, I noticed your website does this. I use to do this also, and I've had tremendous success lately doing this instead.
*Thanks*
[Business name] and I [did this] and [got this result]. I think we could do the same. What is your biggest PITA here?

Just brainstorming…

 

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[Jon L]

Two things for the purpose of brainstorming:

I'm not sure if this was exactly how the conversation went, but this is more selling the feature than the benefit. Instead, you could say something like:
I noticed that you spend a lot of time producing reports for the USDA.
How much [money/time] would you save if it only took you [1 hour a day]?
(That way they think of the benefit rather than what you're trying to sell them?)

Also, in terms of you doing anything…you could lead with something like:
Hi John, I noticed your website does this. I use to do this also, and I've had tremendous success lately doing this instead.
*Thanks*
[Business name] and I [did this] and [got this result]. I think we could do the same. What is your biggest PITA here?

Just brainstorming…

ok that makes a lot of sense. My business coach at the time said that I was trying to sell him on the spot, but didn't say what I could have done differently. What you said makes sense...getting him to sell himself.

I will think about the rest of what you said and come up with some more ideas. thanks!

 

[Tyler Ellison]

I recommend the book Pitch Anything by Oren Klaff as the next step for you. He has a blog here: http://pitchanything.com/

That book focuses on selling investment opportunities to venture capitalists, but the principles are great and applicable to what you're doing.

 

[Jon L]

I recommend the book Pitch Anything by Oren Klaff as the next step for you. He has a blog here: http://pitchanything.com/

That book focuses on selling investment opportunities to venture capitalists, but the principles are great and applicable to what you're doing.

I'm pretty sure it was you that recommended Spin Selling, (which was excellent, and practical...even for someone like me). I'll go read Pitch Anything.

The main thing is that I need to get my head wrapped around this process, and its not there yet. I feel like I would approach most prospects with, "Hi, I'm Jon. Wanna buy my stuff?" Which doesn't work very well.

 

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[JustKris]

Lead with a strong, tangible benefit. The decisionmakers you're targeting---ones with 5k-20k to spend---are busy and you need to break through the noise.

"Hey, _______. I'm Jon with _____. We work with a lot of _____ companies. How'd you like to cut your payroll costs by 30%?"

Or something like that. You need to get their attention with the opening pitch. Test out different pitches out.

Nobody cares about vague, boring features. Sell the sizzle, not the steak.

You need to get into the head of your customer. For example, I sell a lot of software to sales organizations---I know what their pain points are. So I have a bunch of questions I can ask in my needs analysis.

At your price point, you'd probably do well with a nice email blast and an informational landing page/video. If you have a solution that people are searching for, it is shooting fish in a barrel.

 

[Bouncing Soul]

I used to nicely let down cold callers, now I just instantly hang-up to save us both the time.

Every business is different, so I might be missing the mark. If you don't have tons of prospects, you shouldn't be cold calling. You should be doing everything you can to make it a warm call before you dial them.

 

[tigerscent]

I recently attended a great sales training course with Soho Sales. Try their tips for cold calling. They give you a simple framework for a call script and tips for getting past gatekeepers. (By getting introductions or referrals you are no longer an ice cold caller). Not sure if we are allowed to post links but you can google soho sales cold calling tips. Hope it helps.

 

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[LibertyForMe]

I would check out Jordan Belfort's Straight Line Sales. You can find some videos on Youtube about it. The biggest things that I learned from him is that your script is only part of the issue, the other issue is how you SAY the script. The tonality is what separates the real salesmen.

Starting at about 8:30-9:00

 

[brickco]

"What to say on a cold call" is probably the wrong question. If you're in the business of payroll, you need to ingrain yourself in the local world of payroll so that you already know the players at your target companies. A cold call is a long, steep, uphill battle to build trust and trust is absolutely critical in B2B. Consumers are much more likely to try new products and services than businesses. Businesses are much more risk-averse and rely a lot on relationships. If you combine cold-calling with not much of a business history (not sure how long your business has been around), then you have a hard task no matter the lines that you use.

If you are at the same conferences, retreats, seminars, etc. (which are always looking for sponsors) as the payroll players, you'll build some trust and things will be 100% easier. Also, if you incentivise your current clients to refer you, that adds trust as well.

Cold calling is great if you are paving driveways. For B2B, I'm not so sure it's the best way.

 

[LTL]

1) Automation of payroll calculation, saving payroll clerk 15 hours of work every two weeks
2) Automation of a monthly report that takes 20-40 man hours to run every month. Report now runs in just a few minutes
3) Rental tracking system that keeps track of rental orders - none of the products on the market met the customer's needs within a reasonable price
4) Project management system that reduces the time spent reporting on projects by 3/4. Also allows customer to produce reports on activity and resource allocation that were previously impossible to produce.

Your selling points are right right there.....

Coldcalling for paving driveways will get you on the DNC list or fined heavily

Coldcalling B2B is where it's at..... There's nothing like it

Hint: It's always easier to sell an appointment/orientation/briefing than your product/service

Never stop coldcalling by the way......

 

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