Cold calling. Just the name can send chills up your spine. There are effective ways for sales professionals to warm up to cold calling, though, says Barry Nitzberg, director of Enrollment and CRM for New York City's Baruch College's Continuing
and Professional Studies Division (CAPS). He shares 10 tips guaranteed to take the chill off of cold calling.
1. Define the stages of selling, your selling cycle and the basics of prospecting. Understand your selling cycle and the foundations of selling. Know that 90% of your cold call must be spent interviewing your prospect.
2. Use ratios versus numbers. Instead of adding more calls to your day, work on improving the ratio of people that you reach. Call executives in the mornings, during lunch or in the evenings. Work on what you say to your prospects to increase the ratio. "Stand up when you’re talking," suggests Nitzberg. "Smile when you speak."
3. Generate leads and turn them into prospects. "If someone won't speak with you, they are not a prospect," says Nitzberg. "A lead becomes a prospect once they agree to speak with you."
4. Prepare for effective cold calling. Have your information organized and your product well defined before you make the initial calls.
5. Get past the buffers and protectors. If you call before hours or on Saturdays you are more likely to get past the gatekeepers and directly to the prospect's voice mail.
6. Use a great opening script. First, greet your prospect by name. Second, identify yourself. Third, make a credibility statement regarding your company, products or services. Fourth, use a reference or allude to a reference. For example, you might say: We work with companies such as Verizon and Sprint. Fifth, state the reason for your call. Here's an example: I’m calling today to make an introductory appointment with you. I’d like to see what your company is doing now and if using some of our services would make sense for you.
7. Create the necessary level of comfort. Provide your prospect with the logic and foundation for a conversation. Using a reference helps create comfort.
8. Make the arrangements. Ask for the appointment.
9. Understand and overcome objections and adverse responses. Be prepared for the usual objections or responses by coming up with responses of your own. Answer an objection with a question. For example, if they say: We aren't interested at this time. You can respond by asking: Well, what are you doing for _____ right now?
10. Follow through. Schedule your appointment, stick to your schedule and execute.
60 Seconds: To get through to an executive or find the name of a decision maker, call the company's human resources or sales department and ask for their help.