Round Peg Learning and Development

Cold calling for business sounds scary doesn’t it? Well it’s no wonder really the words cold and calling don’t exactly fill one with confidence and enthusiasm do they?

What the ‘cold’ connotation conjures up is a cold-hearted, grumpy person on the other end of the phone, someone who is not going to listen to you and someone who is definitely going to say NO.

Put all of those myths out of your head now and go into every call believing you will get the business and you will stand a much better chance of engaging with potential customers and building relationships with them.

I can hear people reading this blog shouting at their screens – ‘That’s all very well but how?’ well here are ten reasons how:

1. Prepare – If you have set yourself a target to call 20 people a day, as you dial the number, look at their website, get a feel for their business, look particularly at the latest news and about sections. This will give you are snapshot into the company and give you something to base your qualifying questions on.

2. Make sure the target is right – Why are you calling these people? is there a direct correlation between your two organisations? how will your product or service benefit the person your calling?

3. Plan your questions, make them relevant to each individual you speak to, just because you are not speaking to them face to face it does not mean that you should not regard each call as a meeting. Use different styles of questions in order to create a conversation so:

• Open ended questions – to gain important information
• Closed questions - to gain a direct response or to guide the conversation
• Leading questions – to gain agreement on certain points.

4. Sound confident, upbeat and passionate about your product. If you sound engaging and you have an interesting tone to your voice you are 80% of the way there – yes 80%.

info at your finger tips

5. Make sure you know your market place and not just your product. Lots of people get bogged down with all the benefits of their own products that they forget the whole picture. It is important to sound authoritative and knowledgeable.

6. Listen – Listen  what your potential client is saying, write points you feel are relevant down for when you are discussing the benefits of your product.

7. Close – Yes..ask for the business, sound confident when you do. Just before you close, state two of points that the customer has agreed with during the call, use different closes, find the one you are comfortable with. Sometimes ‘So do you want to buy it’ (direct close) is a little to scary for people out of their comfort zone… More on closing soon.

8. Don’t be worried by objections, it would be a boring world if everyone said yes all the time, well..actually it wouldn’t, but back in the real world it isn’t realistic. Avoid the temptation to give up and end the call if you hear the words no. Would you say yes to something from someone you had ever spoken to once? no of course not. Objections should be welcomed because they show interest, the potential client needs more convincing.

9. If you have to negotiate then make sure you do not give anything away without getting anything in return. Always add value rather than reducing price. Know what your bottom line is and resist the temptation to sell at any cost just to make you feel good – you won’t when you see the impact on your bottom line !

Hoooorah !

10. Congratulate yourself on success and learn from your challenges. Each call is going to be very different because everybody is different and that is what makes selling so much fun – Vive la difference!

What ever you do, think about what you are doing.. everyone says selling is an art, and yes that is true, but it is also a science so it just goes to show.. if you focus on the necessities in the life the rest will come to you !!!