The New Rules of Cold Calling

No one likes making cold calls. No one likes receiving cold calls. The Internet and e-mail have replaced the telephone. Cold calling is old-fashioned. It’s not cool. It doesn’t work. Or does it?

In terms of direct marketing, cold calling is actually one of the most targeted, efficient, and effective ways to reach potential customers. Nothing beats having a real conversation with a prospect. In “6 Lead Generation Insights for 2007,” a research report by RainToday.com and the Wellesley Hills Group, cold calling was found to be second only to referrals as the number one lead-generation tactic. Cold calling does work, but many sales people have misconceptions about cold calling that inhibit success.

Popular misconceptions include:

• Cold calling is a numbers game: make 100 dials per day and someone will
• eventually agree.
• Go through the no’s and hang ups until you finally get a yes.
• Practice rebuttals to ensure that you can corner the prospect.
• Manipulate the prospect into agreeing.

Cold calling today is direct, targeted, and above all, it’s a communication skill. Those who disparage cold calling are totally missing the point. No matter where you find a lead whether from networking, a referral or even if someone calls you, at some point you will need to speak with that prospect on the telephone, and if you are not able to communicate the value of the product or service that you represent, you won’t get the customer. In today’s business environment, it is imperative to understand the rules, what has changed, what works today, and what will simply waste your time. Here are five new rules for cold calling.

Have a targeted list

Before starting a cold-calling campaign, create a profile of the ideal prospects you are trying to reach. Determine who might buy what you sell, and more importantly, who is most likely to buy a lot of what you sell and then keep returning to buy more. Describe this ideal customer in detail. Does a prospect in this market have challenges or issues that your product or service can solve? If you are calling in the consumer market, what are the demographics of your ideal prospects? Where do they live, work, or go to school? These are your qualifying parameters. Then, only call the leads that fit your ideal customer profile. If a prospect does not meet your parameters, you will end up wasting your time trying to reach them and they will not buy, or not buy very much.

Answer your prospect’s question

In addition to having a targeted list, your approach must be targeted to the market and the individual you are calling. It must be relevant and specific. There is no one generic approach that will work. Preparation counts—big time.

Ask yourself these questions:

• What are your prospects’ challenges?
• What is their history?
• What’s happening now?
• What problems do you currently solve for your customers?
• What problems can you potentially solve for your prospects?

You may not specifically know what’s going on with a prospect’s business but you can research what’s going on in the industry and the economy, historically and culturally.

Research the companies and read articles that have been written about them. You can set Google alerts about the prospect companies so that you know every time one of the companies is mentioned in the media or online.

Understand your goal

Many people confuse the idea of cold calling with the idea of closing a sale. Every sale goes through a cycle, from the introduction to information gathering to offering a solution to closing. Cold calling is not closing a sale. Closing comes later. Most sales professionals or business owners are making calls to set face-to-face meetings or have some type of introductory conversation. The cold call is not the sale—it is the introduction. This concept frames your entire approach. On most cold calls, you are

not asking the prospect to buy from you over the telephone or agree to let you replace their current vendor. You are only asking to have a productive conversation. This approach has two advantages: your prospect feels far less pressure (you never want a prospect to feel pressure because they will hang up), and you also feel less

pressure because you don’t have to close on the phone.

Craft your approach

While many, many people resist the idea of creating a script, this is simply following