I don’t want to assume every reader understands what cold calling entails so I will just take out few minutes to explain the concept of cold calling. Cold calling is the initial contact a marketer has with a prospective customer. People often mistake cold calling to mean placing phone calls to clients but it is not. Cold calling could mean placing phone calls, it could also mean making face to face contact, sending e-mails or any method used to contact a prospective customer.
Most marketers purchase leads (now, that’s another thing I need to explain). Marketing leads are lists of people who have recently expressed interest in purchasing products or services similar to the ones you offer. So, marketers purchase these leads from lead generation companies and then try to make contact with those people-the prospects.
Cold calling is your opportunity to make a positive impression on the prospective client and encourage them to buy your product. Cold calling is a very effective marketing strategy but for it to have any effect, it has to be done the right way.
Cold calling is similar to gambling, it can turn out positively or negatively, the way it is played can however make a significant difference. Before you start cold calling prospective customers, you need to carefully analyze and decide on what you want to achieve. Here are a few things that you should attempt to achieve with your cold calling strategy-:
3 Goals You Should Aim for When Cold Calling
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You want to displace existing suppliers
In case the prospective customer already has someone he already patronizes, you would want to convince him of why he should patronize your own superior services/products instead.
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You want to get to the prospect before your competitors
Your prospect is searching and you are not the only one aware of this, because you are not the one who buys leads, there are several marketers targeting this prospect so you have to be fast and smart about it.
- Establish a relationship with the prospects and build a good reputation for yourself and your business.
So, for your cold calling to be effective, here are 10 tips to help you make high-converting cold calls-:
10 Killer Sales Tips and Tricks for Cold Calling Effectively
1. Analyze your goals
You need to get a grip on what exactly you want to achieve. Cold calling shouldn’t only be about making sales; it’s about getting a chance to make an impression and getting your customer to know you and your products.
2. Get to know the prospect
Also, it is important to learn as much as you can about a prospect before cold calling. When you know some details about a person, you would be able to direct and focus your conversation on the things you would talk about that would catch the interest of the prospect. Social media has made it easy to learn some things people without much sweat; so take some time to visit their social media page and learn some things about their personality before you go further.
3. Plan your opening statement
Your opening statement is very important. It would make the difference between the prospect terminating the conversation after the first statement or go ahead with the conversation. Choose an opening statement that would spark the prospect’s interest and urge on a conversation. This doesn’t mean that you should draft out a script which you would read from, that in itself is a very wrong step to take.
Visualize your prospect as a very intelligent and smart person and come up with a brilliant conversation plan that you would work with. Your opening statement should also be unique. Why? Because there are thousands of other marketers doing this cold calling thing and your prospect would really hate to hear the same words over and over again. So, come up with something unique and different.
4. Prepare your mind for rejection
Look, it’s not a do or die thing and it’s not personal. Some prospects would say no and some would give you a positive response. That’s just how it works. In fact, the truth is that, you would receive more negative responses than positive ones but you have to learn how to use rejection to your advantage.
Try to learn the reason why the prospect is saying no and see if you can convince him to change his mind. But if he won’t, that shouldn’t be the end. Maintain regular contact with him, maybe via e-mail, courtesy calls or regular phone calls. Stay close to prospects and you just might get or referrals another opportunity to do business together some other time.
5. Pave the way with promotional items
Sending a promotional item to a prospect before initiating contact would spark the interest of the prospect and give you something to talk about when you eventually make contact.
6. Seduce the gatekeepers
No, not literally gatekeepers are the greatest headaches or marketers. They are the receptionists, personal and administrative assistants who restrict your access to prospects. However, gatekeepers also respond to the same psychological tactics as everyone else. You need to figure out to handle gatekeepers and get what you want out of them.
7. Be armed with details of your products
Before cold calling a customer, ensure that you have sufficient details about the product and that you can handle any questions that you may be asked. You must be confident and show your customers that you know enough about the product to be able to convince them.
8. Entice your prospects with special offers
Sometimes, prospects like to sit on the fence. It is very common to meet prospects who would neither give a yes or no. You can urge these kinds of people to make faster decisions by giving them some special offer or discounts. But, you have to make them realize that it is a limited period offer which wouldn’t be there forever; this could help them make faster buying decisions.
9. Never give up
You need all the patience and persistence you can muster to get any positive results out of cold calling. If you are new into cold calling, there are chances that you wouldn’t be so good at it initially but with practice and consistence, you would definitely get better.
10. Record your results
Keeping a track of your results would help you figure out methods that work and the ones that do not and would help you recognize the aspects that need improvement.