I got a job in sales 2 years ago, and have made approximately 150 cold calls per day since then.
I'm by no means a master, and there's always room for improvement, but I'm pretty well versed in the art and I feel confident in my abilities (for context, I finished top of my team for new business revenue last year). It's absolutely a skill I would recommend anyone learn, if not directly for your business then for your own personal development. My word is not gospel but if this can help one person on their cold calling then my goal is achieved.
I don't want to regurgitate vague information so I will try to be as straight to the point with a couple bits of actionable info. I will add more to this thread in due course, but let's start with 2 fundamentals - be honest & straight to the point, AND lead with the pain.
Be Honest and Straight to the Point
The prospects you are calling are probably very busy people - every second counts and the more time you waste of theirs the more agitated they will become. Also, sales folk have a pretty bad rep for being a touch untruthful. We want to distance ourselves from this preconception pretty swiftly. State your intentions as quickly as possible and move on. Examples:
BAD:
"Hi Mark, it's Cornishpasty calling from Cornish Pasty Ltd, how are you today?"
GOOD:
"Hi Mark, it's Cornishpasty. This is a sales call, would you like to hang up or give me a couple of minutes?" - Sidenote: offering someone the option of hanging up might seem counterintuitive, but you'll be surprised by the amount of people who respect how up front you are and give you a chance as a result.
Lead with the Pain
Too many people approach cold calls as if it is their own Ted Talk. They ring up prospect after prospect screaming features down the phone and hope something sticks. On the odd occasion it does work, show up rates to second meetings are usually fairly low. Through trial and error, I've found that incorporating the pain into my opening pitch alongside some psychological negative questioning is far more effective than feature selling.
Remember, if you can't identify any pain, why are they going to buy from you? People buy emotionally and justify it logically. If you can get someone emotional about something that is actually hurting them, and they genuinely believe you can help, things become A LOT easier. Identify the genuine problems that your product / service solves and lead with that.
To contextualise, lets say you run a Facebook ad agency as an example:
BAD:
"At Cornish Pasty Ltd, we help companies get 15 new clients a month with a money back guarantee if we can't do it for you, sound good?"
GOOD:
"I speak and work with a lot of companies in XXXX industry, and they are frustrated because week in, week out their appointment book never seems to fill up consistently. This unpredictability can make forecasting difficult and at times can lead to serious margin pressures, ultimately stunting growth and hurting their bottom line. But you're probably going to tell me that this problem doesn't resonate..."
I'm by no means a master, and there's always room for improvement, but I'm pretty well versed in the art and I feel confident in my abilities (for context, I finished top of my team for new business revenue last year). It's absolutely a skill I would recommend anyone learn, if not directly for your business then for your own personal development. My word is not gospel but if this can help one person on their cold calling then my goal is achieved.
I don't want to regurgitate vague information so I will try to be as straight to the point with a couple bits of actionable info. I will add more to this thread in due course, but let's start with 2 fundamentals - be honest & straight to the point, AND lead with the pain.
Be Honest and Straight to the Point
The prospects you are calling are probably very busy people - every second counts and the more time you waste of theirs the more agitated they will become. Also, sales folk have a pretty bad rep for being a touch untruthful. We want to distance ourselves from this preconception pretty swiftly. State your intentions as quickly as possible and move on. Examples:
BAD:
"Hi Mark, it's Cornishpasty calling from Cornish Pasty Ltd, how are you today?"
GOOD:
"Hi Mark, it's Cornishpasty. This is a sales call, would you like to hang up or give me a couple of minutes?" - Sidenote: offering someone the option of hanging up might seem counterintuitive, but you'll be surprised by the amount of people who respect how up front you are and give you a chance as a result.
Lead with the Pain
Too many people approach cold calls as if it is their own Ted Talk. They ring up prospect after prospect screaming features down the phone and hope something sticks. On the odd occasion it does work, show up rates to second meetings are usually fairly low. Through trial and error, I've found that incorporating the pain into my opening pitch alongside some psychological negative questioning is far more effective than feature selling.
Remember, if you can't identify any pain, why are they going to buy from you? People buy emotionally and justify it logically. If you can get someone emotional about something that is actually hurting them, and they genuinely believe you can help, things become A LOT easier. Identify the genuine problems that your product / service solves and lead with that.
To contextualise, lets say you run a Facebook ad agency as an example:
BAD:
"At Cornish Pasty Ltd, we help companies get 15 new clients a month with a money back guarantee if we can't do it for you, sound good?"
GOOD:
"I speak and work with a lot of companies in XXXX industry, and they are frustrated because week in, week out their appointment book never seems to fill up consistently. This unpredictability can make forecasting difficult and at times can lead to serious margin pressures, ultimately stunting growth and hurting their bottom line. But you're probably going to tell me that this problem doesn't resonate..."
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