Cold Calling is not usually high on many sales pros’ To Do lists. There are so many reasons I hear for doing almost anything else before picking up the phone to call people you don’t know about your product or service.
In a workshop on The Golden Keys to the Gatekeeper, Top Sales Dog Leslie Buterin, shared some powerful ideas on getting appointments with high level decision makers and executives:
1. Have the mindset that it is your obligation to reach out to start a relationship so that this person/company can benefit from the wonderful solutions you offer. You are not interrupting them to kill time, you are contacting them to help them.
2. Prepare to get to the point.
3. Make sure you speak their language. Executives have three main concerns:
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- Increase profits
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- Decrease costs
- Mitigate risks
4. Be able to succinctly state what you can do for THIS person or company. Giving them a 3 minute, or longer, blah blah blah does NOT excite them to want to meet you. Instead, state a specific result that you could achieve for them.
“We can increase your profitability by ___%. I’d like to meet with you to discuss.”
“We can reduce the liability inherent in your hiring processes…”
“I’m calling to see if we can decrease the costs of recruitment process by 50%.”
5. There is some debate on this next one…skip the niceties when they pick up the phone! You should only be on the phone 90 seconds – they don’t want to waste more time being asked about their day, the weather, do you have time (how do they know they have time if they don’t know who you are or why you are calling?) Respect their time.
In reading this list I noticed an overlying concept – that even when cold calling, the subject and focus should be on What’s in it for THEM!
As you contact your prospects, what are some things you have discovered?
In a future blog I will lay out more on the emotional aspects of Cold Calling.
