Cold Calling Is Dead. Long Live Cold Calling.
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There are two types of “cold calling is dead” posts online these days.
- Cold calling doesn’t work, buy our marketing product/service.
- Cold calling doesn’t work. Oh sorry, that was misleading I meant to say you have to do a ton of work prior to each call in order for cold calling to work. Warm calling works, not cold calling. Buy our marketing product/service.
You guys. It’s crap.
Cold calling still works. It’s inexpensive, it’s effective and you don’t need to buy anything new to do it. If you can network you can cold call.
What did you do to get ready to go to your last networking or social event? You put on something nice and combed your hair. You grabbed a handful of business cards, practiced your elevator pitch a couple of times and put on a smile. You walked up to someone you didn’t know, to find out what they do. Then you told them what you do. You tried to meet as many people as you could. Then you went home, made some notes, and scheduled a follow up activity for everyone based on what they do, and how interested they seemed in what you did.
Let’s break it down.
Put On Something Nice
You may work from home, you may work in the office, but if you’re sitting there in a schlubby t-shirt and shorts you’re not going to present your best self. Put on something that you would wear to a client meeting. Get those shoulders back. Chin up. You’re awesome. Your company is amazing. Ready? Let’s get on the phone.
Practice Your Elevator Pitch
First, write one. This is super easy. Your elevator pitch is this:
Hi there, it’s (YOUR NAME) calling from (YOUR COMPANY). I’m calling to speak to someone about our (WHAT YOU SELL). Who should I speak to?
Then you’ll have to work on your objection handling, but that’s easy, too. It’s another post though, because I only have 600-800 words before you lose interest in reading this post (according to industry experts) and I’m at 841 already.
Now, practice a few times. Practice what you’ll say if you don’t get the response you’re hoping for. Allow space for being human. You can laugh, you can start over, you can make terrible calls to your friends, family and peer network while you’re learning.
Find Out What They Do
This is about them. Know how you become the best networker in the room? Let everyone you meet talk about themselves while you nod and look interested. Then ask them more questions about themselves and repeat over and over and over again.
In cold calling, this requires you to ask open-ended questions that encourage your prospects to share their challenges. When they answer them, acknowledge the challenge and ask some more questions. Repeat until you have determined a )whether or not you can help them and, b) if they are a good fit for your services.
Tell Them What You Do
Now you’ll share with them what you do. Here’s the not-so-sneaky secret to success. You provide a solution to a specific challenge they’ve identified. Share what that solution is and focus only on that. Maybe you do 17 other things, too – that’s fine. You can talk about that another day. Today you sell one thing and it’s the thing they need to solve the exact problem they’ve shared with you.
Meet As Many People As You Can
Your odds aren’t great. They never have been. Statistically one in about three hundred leads will turn into a sale. So, don’t pat yourself at the back and go home early after one successful conversation. Get right back at it. Great conversations can be deceiving. You’re not anywhere near the win, there’s lots of work left to do.
“But nobody hangs up on you at a networking event!”
I’d much rather have a prospect hang up on me instead of wasting my time out of obligation or courtesy. Your time is limited and valuable. Ever spend 20 minutes chatting with someone who was constantly looking around the room? That, my friends, is a 20-minute hang-up. I’ll take the 10 second brush off , please and move on to the next one.
Write it Down, Follow Up
Here’s the magic sauce. You document it all. You sort it all by levels of interest and timelines. You connect with your prospects in other ways as it makes sense to do so. For networking events, I always send a note to the people I’ve met telling them how much I enjoyed meeting them. Phone calls are no different, connect with the people that express interest, make it easy for them to recall who you are.
Meeting someone once at a party doesn’t win you business, and one phone call doesn’t either. Develop a follow up process that you can follow, and make sure you’re following it! You don’t ever want to lose an opportunity because you blew off a follow up call and your competitor got to them first. Assign your leads a ranking out of ten – how interested are they? How good of a client would they be for you? Then follow up accordingly. Start with your tens – they get the most attention, and so an down the line.
That’s How You Cold Call
“Carrie, it can’t be that easy!”
Yes, it can be. And yes, it is.