Perils of Cold Calling-please share your tips and tricks

[EdwardSavage]

Hey, everybody!

I have been cold calling a few prospects a day for the past week, but to my dismay, I have not closed a single deal! Every time the recipient of the call picks up, a form of awkwardness kicks in and makes the prospect uncomfortable.

What can I do to instill confidence in the prospect?



Members of TheFastlaneForum:
I call upon you to share your insight on how to overcome common cold calling problems.

 

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[jon.a]

Someone call in the pin ball wizard.
I forget his screen name.

Edit: found him @jpanarra

 

[IceCreamKid]

2 Questions:

Are you pre-qualifying these individuals before calling them?

Don’t try to sell your stuff to everyone in society. The easiest guy to sell a Rolex to is the one who already has a collection of Rolexes. Some will never buy a Role regardless of how good you are at sales.

The goal is to put you and your business in front of your target client who is already interested in your services and is at the stage of wanting to buy your service. They’ve shown “buying intent”. These are people who are already interested in your service and are ready to move forward.

How are you finding these businesses/individuals? If you’re b2b it’s time to realize it’s 2017 and platforms like LinkedIn make it 1000x easier to reach people who actually want to talk to you. Upgrade to their Sales Navigator subscription so you can hyper target based on niche, company size, job title, and location. I think I pay something like 80 bucks a month for it.

Metrics…

For every 100 people that you reach out to on there, expect to get 2-5 willing to jump on a phone call.

Stay away from saturated niches. You want random boring niches that no one goes after. Boring is often the most lucrative.

Try to outsource as much of the labor as you can so that you can focus on the one thing that matters: sales…a predictable pipeline of leads for yourself so you can buy ice cream.

Good luck.

 

[JAJT]

What can I do to instill confidence in the prospect?

Call more. That's really all there is to it.

Cold calling has a learning curve and it's awkward (for you AND them) until you have ingrained your messaging to a conversational, casual level.

It takes dozens, even hundreds of calls to hit a stride where you can pick up a phone, talk to anyone, and basically nail your part of the conversation without stumbling over your words, forgetting your lines, etc...

And then, once you HAVE lost the awkwardness, you start working on conversion rate. You change a word here, try a new pitch there, say "hey there" instead of "hello", try "have you considered" instead of "look at it this way". Etc...

It can be a long road.

 

[sparechange]

Get a telemarketing job and learn from the best. I worked a sales marketing job and the most important thing is to quickly build rapport and get them to agree with you on things. Example don't know what your selling lets just say underwear. You start off with hello <person that's gonna buy> how's it going? Or how are you. If they respond with who is this you can automatically assume they are some annoyed or miserable person, next, if they say great good or whatever ask a leading question. So bob you like clean underwear right? Hell yes I do love clean underwear. Well bob I've got this clean underwear that's been produced in the fields by clean underwear street. If you'd like maybe I could send you a free sample! From here whether your product is something you can sample you can continue and make up your own script...leading questions is super important, you are mentally conditioning they're mind to agree and say yes to you ( random stranger) bonus points if you make a prospect laugh. Get them engaged and interested. Jordan belfort sales tactics are something you could learn from also, good luck! You'll experience lots of rejection but at a small % that say yes it's worth it. I'd make hundreds if calls a day and make less than 10 sales a day usually

 

[EdwardSavage]

Don’t try to sell your stuff to everyone in society. The easiest guy to sell a Rolex to is the one who already has a collection of Rolexes. Some will never buy a Role regardless of how good you are at sales.

Yes, I have been targeting people/businesses in dire need of a brand-new website.

Call more. That's really all there is to it.

Cold calling has a learning curve and it's awkward (for you AND them) until you have ingrained your messaging to a conversational, casual level.

As to this, I will definitely keep on calling. Practice makes perfect amirite?

Get a telemarketing job and learn from the best.

I'll try, but I'm unsure someone will hire a hs student as a telemarketer

 

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[BrooklynHustle]

Hey, everybody!

I have been cold calling a few prospects a day for the past week, but to my dismay, I have not closed a single deal! Every time the recipient of the call picks up, a form of awkwardness kicks in and makes the prospect uncomfortable.

What can I do to instill confidence in the prospect?



Members of TheFastlaneForum:
I call upon you to share your insight on how to overcome common cold calling problems.

Mark Cuban recommends this as one of his top 6 books for Entrepreneurs. Check it out:

Amazon.com - Cold Calling Techniques That Really Work by Stephen Schiffman

 

[sam9530130]

Yes, I have been targeting people/businesses in dire need of a brand-new website.

It's not because their website is shit that they automatically want or (know that) need a new one. Especially if you call them out of the blue and try to shove your services down their throat.

Maybe that's not what you're doing but check out Fox's thread and facebook group for great advice regarding that exact subject.

 

[Colin B]

Hey, everybody!

I have been cold calling a few prospects a day for the past week, but to my dismay, I have not closed a single deal! Every time the recipient of the call picks up, a form of awkwardness kicks in and makes the prospect uncomfortable.

What can I do to instill confidence in the prospect?



Members of TheFastlaneForum:
I call upon you to share your insight on how to overcome common cold calling problems.

What's your attitude when you dial? I have to do a call and they're going to say no? Or I've got some value to share - I can really help him or her solve a problem that's bugging them - and if they don't need me, they might put me onto someone who does.

Go hard or go home!!

 

[EdwardSavage]

Mark Cuban recommends this as one of his top 6 books for Entrepreneurs. Check it out:

i have added it to my Kindle, thanks.

 

[EdwardSavage]

What's your attitude when you dial? I have to do a call and they're going to say no? Or I've got some value to share - I can really help him or her solve a problem that's bugging them - and if they don't need me, they might put me onto someone who does.

Go hard or go home!!

Yeah, it's a mindset thing.That really puts it into perspective.

 

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[Colin B]

What's your attitude when you dial? I have to do a call and they're going to say no? Or I've got some value to share - I can really help him or her solve a problem that's bugging them - and if they don't need me, they might put me onto someone who does.

Go hard or go home!!

Just remembered a classic book - The Sales Bible. Has fantastic content on sales process, especially cold calling. Easy read and will definitely give you momentum and confidence.cant recommend it enough.

 

[Colin B]

Just remembered a classic book - The Sales Bible. Has fantastic content on sales process, especially cold calling. Easy read and will definitely give you momentum and confidence.cant recommend it enough.

It's as good as MJs books

 

[wade1mil]

Off the top of my head...
Call the right people.
Genuinely offer to help them.
Offer them something of real value.
Don't get attached to the outcome.
Always maintain control of the conversation.

When someone says no, move onto another offer without making a big deal out of it (as if you expected them to say no, but expect them to say yes to the second offer).

You: Want X?
Them: No.
You: No problem, (benefit of Y) is probably a better fit for you anyways. Let's do this...
(Pitch for Y)

 

[broswoodwork]

Progress Thread - Getting Rid of Cold Calling Anxiety Using Brute Force

This dude had an awesome progress thread. He even ended up with some legitimate sales by just following through with his practice exercise.

It may help. In my past experience, as a recruiter, nothing trains you on the phone like being on the phone. Eventually, it just becomes second nature.

 

[broswoodwork]

Also, this may sound stupid, but always smile (and feel like you're having fun) while making sales calls. The smile somehow projects right through the phone.

 

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[sparechange]

Telemarketers will hire anyone, I got hired to work something I had barely any knowledge of.. You get **paid training** get handed a script and go make calls, if you suck you just get fired, but who cares, the suggestions in this thread are useless, go get a job and learn from professionals not people on a forum. Cheers

 

[Christopher777]

Break the ice then gradually offer your stuff on a high note. I sold lots of phone cards that way haha. I used to work in BPOs, inbound and outbound. It's always the same. Upsells, cold-calls,
Make your voice pleasant to hear, be confident as well as light hearted. As if you're talking to a friend. Don't be pushy, get to know them for real--simply by being friendly. Sometimes, a call from anyone is just exactly what they needed that day. Provide value by making them happy you called.

If they like you, they buy.

Also, from Darren Hardy: get through the "no's" as fast as you can. Set a 100 No's as a goal and from there you'll neutralize the jitters. Something will click, something will swing to your favor and you learn lots as you go.

 

[mws87]

Don't get attached to the outcome.

@wade1mil Your entire post was solid and I feel like this ^ point is hugely overlooked.

@EdwardSavage don't get too anxious worrying about getting a yes/no. I used to have that stuck in the back of my mind like rice stuck in the bottom of a pot. You know--that really hard-to-scrape-out shit.

Remember, you're calling someone to offer something of value to them. You're selling a product/service on the surface, but what are you really giving them? a solution? an increase in revenue? an easier experience for their clients?

Know what you're really offering but don't overthink it.

Every time the recipient of the call picks up, a form of awkwardness kicks in and makes the prospect uncomfortable.

Awkwardness for who? You? or them? Can you elaborate on this more?

If the prospect is uncomfortable, guess what? Answering the phone and being caught off guard can be just as terrifying as cold calling (opinion).
"What do I say? What do they want? They've got me cornered!".
You should enjoy catching people off-guard. I love it. It's the perfect opportunity for you to keep your cool and show them they have nothing to worry about. Kinda like when your friends would pull some awful prank on you, only to tell you they were kidding. Your anxiety spikes through the roof, only to be washed away by the soft waves of sweet relief once you learned there was nothing to fear. Maybe I just had horrible friends growing up?

Like everyone else said in here: just hammer it out. Keep it up. If there are snags, you'll start to recognize patterns and will (hopefully) be aware enough to make adjustments accordingly.

Don't mentally put them high up on a pedestal just because they're business owners. They are people. Just like you. Hell, even they went through the "awkward"/clumsy stages and I'm sure they're doing just fine.

I hope at least some of this makes sense. It's a bit beyond my bedtime so I'm sure my weariness is seeping from my brain and bleeding out through my fingertips in this post.

 

[EdwardSavage]

Awkwardness for who? You? or them? Can you elaborate on this more?

For both of us. I guess I am not articulate enough.