My tips on how to make the dreaded cold call

Like many areas of business, to be successful a great deal is to do with planning. Have you done your homework? Do you know the prospects’ name, job title, role within the organisation, areas of responsibility, business sector, email address and correct phone number – direct line is a bonus? In that case, you are pretty much ready to pick up the phone and dial…


This is not the best way to prepare!

However, before doing so, there are some very beneficial little habits I have included in my routine that I feel give me a better chance of getting that all important meeting. These are confident building steps and little personal elements that I am going to share with you. I know cold calling is a nasty initiative, but I never see cold calling as a numbers game. The people I contact are relevant and I truly believe I can add value to their business. This makes me feel positive before I start! I appreciate that cold calling makes people nervous and rejection rates are high so don’t laugh at the next paragraph!

1) I always make my calls in an empty office or room. This may sound obvious, but you never want to be overheard or have the possibility of being interrupted. If you work from home and have a family, wait for them to go out!
2) I always stand up. This actually makes me more alert and able to move about. Sitting down might seem relaxing, but it is far easier to be aggressive or defensive if you are in one place.
3) Smile. This is pretty much industry standard, but a smile projects the correct mood in your voice and, believe it or not, a good, positive smile can be heard down a telephone!

4) I have been known to play a song from i tunes in the background and sing to it as I dial. This actually makes me happy and feel like the call is going to be a positive one.

My next post will be about the call itself such as, DON’T start with “how are you?” Always say who you are and your role clearly. So many cold calls that I receive just go straight into the sales pitch following a “how are you” opener. The person on the other end of the phone will most likely receive loads of these calls so concentrate on what you can do for them and why.

I hope this little snippet from Bath Marketing Consultancy helps.


Advertisement

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. Log Out /  Change )

Connecting to %s

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.