Cold calling is a Sales technique that has been around for years. While it may seem outdated by the emergence of other lead generation methods, it remains an effective channel for finding New Customers.
The concept of Cold Calling involves contacting by phone people who do not know you and who have not shown an interest in your products or services. Although the technique may seem intuitive, it relies on specific mechanics:
In order for a Cold Call to be successful, there are 5 main elements that are required.
In this article, we are going to share these 5 main elements with you.
Table of Contents
Get your Prospect’s Attention
First things first, it is important to acknowledge that the prospect isn’t expecting your call and there’s a good chance you’ll interrupt their day.
The first step in a Cold Call is therefore to immediately capture the person’s attention and make them want to give you a few minutes of their time.
You are looking to engage in a short dialogue with someone who does not know you. As such, you don’t have to say anything unique or go looking for the Whoa factor. Simply start the call by saying your prospect’s name.
People respond in Kind: if you ask a reasonable question to make a reasonable point, you will get a reasonable answer.
Identify Yourself and Your company
A conversation is a form of dance between two individuals. In your opening, you mentioned the name of your contact who at the moment has no idea who you are. Identify yourself and briefly introduce your company.
“Hello Mr. Smith, this is Dave Evans from ABC Computer Services in London, we are an IT support company”
Give a Reason for your Call
The third step is to give your prospect a reason for the call. As mentioned before, people respond in Kind, so it is necessary that your goal is clearly identified, usually to move from an interruption to a scheduled meeting:
“I’m calling to set up an appointment …”
Needs analysis or direct selling usually doesn’t have a place in a cold call because the prospect won’t be ready to give you their full attention and your analysis won’t be accurate.
Ask a qualifying Question
You must then ask a question so that you can quickly qualify your prospect. Your question should be simple enough that your prospect doesn’t need to think about it too much, but specific enough that it doesn’t sound like ‘Spam’.
Lot of people would say “no” to “do you want to increase your sales…”
A better approach would be to give a relevant story justifying the reason for your call.
“We recently engaged with XYZ Company to enable them to solve problem X and I am sure you could benefit from using XXX ..”
Set the appointment
If you’ve done your research correctly and optimised your script over time, this step will become natural.
Suggest a date. Be direct and to the point “How about Tuesday 9 at 11:00? “
Again, people respond in Kind, if your suggestion is Wishy Washy, your prospect might take the opportunity to ask you for literature before confirming the date.
Note: We strongly recommend that you create and use a Script for your cold calls. It will become natural over time.
