Would you like to improve your cold calling results? As anyone who has ever shot an arrow will tell you, one of the KEYS to hitting the bullseye is knowing WHERE the target is located. Otherwise, it is like shooting while wearing a blindfold! Salespeople who are calling without being totally clear on THEIR targets, are frequently DIALING BLINDLY.
The ‘target’ in this context, is NOT the salesperson’s ‘target audience’. You can be dialing blindly even if you know your ideal prospects’ name, age and serial number. The targets that I am talking about here are the salespersons’ productivity targets. Without a clear understanding of YOUR productivity targets, also known as KPI’s (Key Performance Indicators) you may as well be dialing in the dark!
Here are some tips to improve your Cold Calling results:
How many tries does it take?
Do you know how many calls you need to make before you set a qualified appointment? This is NOT a trick question! This is a number YOU need to know and keep track of, based on YOUR lists, YOUR calls and YOUR experience. I cannot supply this answer, but I can assure you that if you identify and keep track of this number, you WILL be able to improve upon and reduce it!
Peter Drucker, the man who is often credited with having ‘invented’ the management practices of the corporate business world, famously said, “If you can’t measure it, you can’t improve it”. I agree!
Knowing the number of dials it takes to get to the point where you engage in a conversation with a decision maker is the first step to getting a handle on your target. The next step is knowing how many conversations, with decision makers, need to take place to set qualified appointments. You also need to know how may qualified appointments you need to set before you close a sale. Again, there is no one correct answer – this is a compilation of data based on YOUR experience.
Gather and use this information to set YOUR productivity targets
Identifying these stats will help you monitor your cold calling progress, keep you on track and close more sales. Once you have these numbers, you can challenge yourself to hit or beat them. You will be able to measure AND to improve them!
The first step to hitting ANY target is to be very clear on what it is. What are YOUR current stats and what will YOUR target be? Improve YOUR Cold Calling Results – don’t dial blindly!
If your sales team is dialing blindly and/or not hitting YOUR sales targets, give us a call at 908.879.2911 – our Call Center In A Box service includes the training, management and monitoring YOUR team needs to SUCCEED!
Cold calling success is largely based on the ability to differentiate yourself from others doing the same exact thing that you are doing. It makes sense that successful cold callers catch a prospect’s attention and build a relationship by being different in their cold calling approach. It starts with the first phone call and the cold calling script. Here are nine ways to differentiate yourself when cold calling:
Craft a script that sounds genuine, and unique. Messaging must catch the attention of your audience. Interject something unexpected. Incorporate content to make your script your own.
Catch the prospect’s attention. Successful cold callers make the first 30 seconds memorable by tailoring the message based on the prospect’s communication style.
Be likeable. Incorporate a genial approach that builds trustworthiness. Trustworthiness leads to being influential.
Inject humor. Connect with people over shared human experiences and tell stories that leave a positive effect.
Be sincere. Differentiate yourself by being genuinely interested in the prospect and the prospect’s needs and wants. Generate trust by truly caring about your prospect.
Ask the right questions. Incorporate high-value, thought-provoking questions. Pose enough deep, probing questions to really learn what the prospect needs are. Keep questions short following a response that the customer just shared to encourage them to talk more.
Embrace active listening. Pay close attention to the prospect’s words, their tone of voice and their body language. Remember, it’s all about them. Distinguish yourself by being able to truly understand and respond to your prospect and their particular situation.
Be prepared. Since prospects are inundated with sales calls, voicemails and emails, it is crucial to differentiate from all that noise. Come to the conversation with a knowledge of the prospect’s business and the kinds of challenges they face. Be ready with relevant open-ended questions. Sales is all about language that is pertinent to the prospect.
Add value at every opportunity. Offer blogs, videos, white papers, etc., to be a thought-leader, not just a “seller”. When buyers see you as an expert, they will welcome your call.
Implementing these suggestions will help you cut through the noise and really stand-out when making your cold calls – and that is the first step to setting up qualified appointments and closing sales!
Need help crafting an effective script? Or does your team need coaching and management to be more productive? Click Here to learn more about our Call Center in a Box program where we train, manage and monitor YOUR inside sales team to improve YOUR bottom line. No inside sales team? With One of a Kind Search we find well trained sales people to work for you or call us at 908.879.2911 – we LOVE to Cold Call for you!
People think of cold calling as picking up the phone and continually dialing prospects until you have success. But cold calling is not a random process and you will have much greater success if you set up your process and prepare the right documents before you get started. Successful sales professionals don’t wing it. Cold calling is all about planning and execution. Here’s what you need to do before you start Cold Calling:
Research – Compile a list of decision makers and whenever possible obtain their phone numbers and emails. Collect information about the prospect that allows you to engage them in a meaningful conversation.
CRM – Leverage the power of a CRM to set benchmarks, quantify KPI’s, and track your results. This is the best way to collect information about the prospect, to monitor who you have called, where you are in the process and quantify the outcome.
Telephone Scripts – To ensure that you sound professional and your calls are productive, prepare scripts for your initial call, and follow-up calls as well.
Voice Message Scripts – Often you won’t be able to reach your prospects directly by phone. So it will be necessary to leave a brief but meaningful voice mail messages. Have them prepared before you start dialing.
FAQ’s – You want to be prepared when the prospect asks questions. Anticipate and prepare responses to potential objections. Spend some time to document what questions they might ask and what your responses should be.
Training – It’s important that each salesperson is well versed in all the steps and potential outcomes of the process. Role playing is a good way to accomplish this.
Practice – Practice is the only way for you to know your pitch cold and to sound natural on your calls. Your goal is to have a conversation with the prospect, not sell them.
Think of your process as your secret weapon, helping you manage your efforts and more easily achieve your objectives. Need help establishing an effective process for yourself and your sales team? Give us a call at 908.879.2911 or email Leads@OneofaKindSales.com, we can help!
Most of us as can recall times we have been “sold.” Salespeople pushing product, being aggressive, or being unaware of, or insensitive to our needs, leading to an unpleasant sales experience. Perhaps we walk away feeling that we didn’t get what we were looking for, or walk away without buying anything. We would have been more satisfied with the outcome if a consultative sales approach was undertaken.
Consultative sales is a benefit for any sales process. It entails selling by building relationships rather than pushing product. It involves uncovering the needs of potential customers through a series of questions, getting them to speak about what is important to them and what their needs are, and most importantly building a rapport with them. Once that relationship is established and the customer’s needs known, the salesperson can more easily suggest products or services that would help solve the customer’s problem. Instead of being pushy, a salesperson can be seen as a resource, someone with expert knowledge of what customers need, and how to get them to the right solution.
The consultative sales approach can be applied to every step of the sales process. At the earliest stage, it involves doing research before approaching a prospect, to find out such important information as company size, types of products or services they offer and who their target market is. Armed with that research, salespeople can ask the right questions of prospects, and find out what they really need.
Consultative selling is used throughout the pre-sales process, a very important and highly successful way to gain qualifying leads. According to The Harvard Business Review, a properly executed pre-sales process can increase new business 13%.
Pre-sales involves learning about leads, weeding out ones that aren’t a good fit and cultivating a relationship with prospective customers by engaging in conversation with them and asking questions, and probing for more information.
Another aspect of pre-sales that uses consultative sales to generate leads is cold calling, a process that even many of the most seasoned salespeople dislike. The defining image of cold calling is a prospect hanging up on a salesperson trying to sell a product or service over the phone. However, the use of consultative sales within the cold calling process can actually result in more pre-qualified leads. Using consultative sales in cold calls, engaging in conversation with a prospect on the phone, and learning about a prospect’s needs, goes a long way toward generating leads.
Honing skills in consultative sales and lead qualification can pave the way to better prospects, more productive sales calls, and a noticeable increase in the bottom line.
In my last article, I talked about different aspects of cold calling that can be used to set yourself apart. In this issue, we are zeroing in on messaging. The key to success in appointment setting is saying the right things in the right order so that the prospect will stay on the phone and engage in a conversation with you.
Grabber. The beginning of the call is all about creating rapport so that the prospect is willing to continue. You have 20 seconds to keep them on the phone. Don’t start with who you are because your prospect doesn’t know you. If they hear that, they will know it’s a sales call and may hang up. DONT give your company name. Start with something like, “Hello Paul, this is Nancy Calabrese…we don’t know each other.”
Ask permission to stay on the phone. Following your very brief introduction, the next step is to get the prospect to agree to give you a moment to speak. “I know you are busy. If you give me a brief moment, I’ll tell you why I’m calling.” Confirm with the prospect that it is OK to continue.
Introduction to what you do. Follow this with a simple statement the name of your company and what you do, specifically the problems you solve and why your customers buy from you. Find out if they are experiencing any of the same problems.
Turn the conversation around. Ask strategic questions about the issues the prospect is experiencing. Apply open-ended, thought provoking questions that will encourage the prospect to share important details about their business and issues. The more they talk, the more emotional they get. Customers buy from emotion. Our job is to uncover it.
Ask for a meeting. Suggest a meeting to determine if a there is fit for one another. If their issues are deep enough, they will be willing to make an appointment. If they are not, OR your message is not compelling, you may not get an appointment or they may blow you off entirely.
Make the appointment. Agree to the day and time and length of the meeting.
Summarize. Touch on the agenda of the meeting. Agree to be honest and let you know if they feel your services are not a fit, and in kind, you will do the same.
Capture email and direct phone number. This will enable you to send support materials, such as collateral or a questionnaire, in preparation for the meeting.
These steps will help increase your success rate, but be sure it doesn’t sound rehearsed. Take an honest interest in your prospect and the call will sound natural and you’ll have even better chance of success.
We all like to think that our company is unique. In reality, there are hundreds of companies just like your own vying for the same business. Perhaps your product or service offering is different in some way. But ultimately what sets each of us apart is our sales approach. Cold calling, like outside sales, requires an approach that will make you stand out from your competition, get you appointments, and lead to closed sales. Here’s how to use cold calling to differentiate yourself.
System. A systematic approach to cold calling will help drive the success of your team. More importantly, a well thought out and executed sales process will make the salesperson and your organization come across as more professional to the prospect.
Attitude. Don’t think of it as cold calling, think of it as discovery. You are on a fact-finding mission to find out what problems the prospect is having that you may be able to solve. Make the call about your prospect, not about you. Project enthusiasm and energy through your tone and actions.
Messaging. Cold calling is all about messaging. If you don’t sound different from all the other calls the prospect gets, you won’t be successful and the call will end in a hang-up. When you stand out, the prospect will listen. Once they are listening, the conversation turns to uncovering their pain.
Relationship Building. Engaging in conversation with a prospect on the phone, and learning about the prospect’s needs, goes a long way toward generating leads and closing the sale. Being a good listener and building a relationship is key in setting yourself apart from competitors.
Perseverance. You may not get through to the prospect the 1st time, or the 5th time, or many more times thereafter. Even when you get through, they may not need your product or service at that moment. What will impress your prospect is being there when they do need what you have to offer.
Time. Cold calling is not a one-and-done undertaking. Some industries require more nurturing than others. For example, in insurance there are thousands of brokers competing for the same business so it will be necessary to invest more time to be successful. Regardless of the industry, lead generation takes time to nurture, build a relationship, and understand the prospects issues and needs. Your prospect will appreciate the time and effort you have devoted to talking with them.
Without investing in these aspects of lead generation, you will seem like any other company out there, and your cold calling effort will fail.
Most of us as can recall times we have been “sold.” Salespeople pushing product, being aggressive, or being unaware of, or insensitive to our needs, leading to an unpleasant sales experience. Perhaps we walk away feeling that we didn’t get what we were looking for, or walk away without buying anything. We would have been more satisfied with the outcome if a consultative sales approach was undertaken.
In my last article, I talked about different aspects of cold calling that can be used to set yourself apart. In this issue, we are zeroing in on messaging. The key to success in appointment setting is saying the right things in the right order so that the prospect will stay on the phone and engage in a conversation with you.
We all like to think that our company is unique. In reality, there are hundreds of companies just like your own vying for the same business. Perhaps your product or service offering is different in some way. But ultimately what sets each of us apart is our sales approach. Cold calling, like outside sales, requires an approach that will make you stand out from your competition, get you appointments, and lead to closed sales. Here’s how to use cold calling to differentiate yourself.
