17.1 The Rules and Regulations of Cold Calling

As we said at the outset, there are various rules and regulations associated with cold calling you should pay attention to if this is something you wish to actually do in order to generate potential leads.

Things certainly did change in the UK after 1999 when new regulations were brought into play regarding cold calling. It was made illegal for you to send unsolicited telephone calls, faxes, or mails, although it has to be stressed that it is the way in which it is done that is illegal.

For example, with cold calling it is illegal for companies to use automated diallers as this piece of equipment will dial a range of numbers at one time and then connect the caller to the first person that answers. This is illegal because it could potentially call 20 numbers, with each telephone ringing and yet 19 of them will only get silence at the other end after rushing to pick up the phone. 

In addition, it is also illegal for the caller to not provide their name, which tends to refer to the name of the company, when they call as there has to be clear identification at all times. Anything else is seen as being unscrupulous and it does not provide the individual with the option of refusing to answer or to deal with you.

There is no doubt that cold calling can be beneficial to a number of salespeople and it is good to look at the clear advantages associated with this type of marketing.

1. It allows you to identify and expand into new areas.

2. It allows you to jump ahead of the competition.

3. It can provide you with the opportunity to supersede other suppliers

4. It can allow you to effectively build a strong relationship from the outset.

The one thing you must never do with cold calling is to view it as if you are doing some kind of numbers game whereby the more people you call then the higher the chances of picking up a new client or customer. This is going to end up working against you because each cold call has to be done on a personal level and treated as such, rather than just deciding that you will call as many people as possible with the same lines and sales pitch. It becomes robotic and boring and those potential clients are going to pick up on it immediately.

The fact this is a difficult type of marketing is not something which should concern you because it does also mean that those who are good at it can take advantage of the poor approach of the vast majority of salespeople who decide to try it.

17.2 How to be Effective with Cold Calling

So, now we have looked at what you can and cannot do regarding cold calling, we have to examine how you can be as effective as possible at this method of generating both leads as well as sales.

Now, we are aware that it may not be the easiest method for a number of people to employ, simply because they are overcome with nerves or are unaware of how to handle certain situations, but there are methods and techniques that can be employed which will certainly make life a whole lot easier.

Experts within this field will argue that the effectiveness of it comes down to your own personal abilities as well as your attitude to cold calling. It is important to stress that there is not some magical script which is going to make everything great and turn you into an amazing success story with cold calling. There is no argument against the fact that this can be an extremely powerful and potent type of marketing when done correctly, but that in itself is the difficult part.

However, in order to be effective you need to consider the following points.

1. Plan ahead

You should never just go ahead and start contacting people without putting a lot of thought into it and planning your strategy.

When are you going to call people?

Who are you going to call?

You should also make sure that you only ever do cold calling at certain times of the day as part of your routine, although never allow it to completely dominate your day as this will be a negative way to spend the day.

2. Do homework about the company or person before calling

Even though you may have created a list of who you will call, there is still a need for you to do some research before you go ahead and start talking to them by whichever means you have chosen.

What is their name?

Can you find any information about them online that allows you to make some kind of a connection with them?

Just doing things blindly is going to result in you getting off on the wrong foot since you are likely to upset the potential client from the get-go.

3. Obtain information before you try to sell

If you do not want to upset people, then the major thing you should not do is to just hit the client with a sales pitch straight away. If you call, expect the phone to be put down on you immediately if you adopt this approach. Instead, you need to spend the beginning asking questions and obtaining as much information as possible about the client and their potential needs or wants and then place your sales pitch around those answers.

This is not you doing anything special other than being an effective salesperson.

4. Keep records

You must keep records of who you called as well as the outcome, but we recommend making notes of the reasons as to why calls did not result in either getting an appointment or a sale. This is going to allow you to learn from your mistakes as long as you are willing to study these records before you embark on your next bout of cold calling. The idea here is that you will get to grips with where you went wrong and you can alter your approach accordingly.

5. Try to get referrals or a social connection

It could be argued in the modern world that it is now easier with cold calling if you are able to have some kind of referral ahead of you contacting them. In addition, you may wish to use social media to make contact with them prior to following up via the more traditional forms of cold calling.

6. Never just be robotic

The one thing you need to avoid at all costs is just sounding as if you are a robot and be lacking in emotion with the initial contact with the potential client.If you come across as being rather flat in your voice, then that is hardly going to encourage them to pay attention to what you are saying or trying to tell them. Instead, it has been shown that being animated in what you say will make a huge difference, although this is something you will need to perfect yourself.

7. Never push too hard

Even though it may be almost in your nature to push hard in order to get anywhere with a potential client, you must remember that you were the person who made the initial approach and not the client. This does mean that, in order to be effective in cold calling, you do need to tone down your approach just slightly due to the very real possibility that you have already irritated them by calling them or contacting them in an unsolicited manner. The last thing you want to do is to make things worse by pushing them because the wall will just go up and, at the same time, being pushy as a cold caller is not the kind of reputation you want to have.

8. Avoid becoming disheartened

The final thing we must mention is to develop the mental strength associated with handling rejections and complaints thanks to cold calling. It is just being honest that you will get more negative comments from this method than anything else, but how you handle it will have a direct impact on the success you have in the future. Those salespeople who become disheartened by rejection will not only start to feel down, but those negative feelings will come across loud and clear for the next client.

Avoid becoming disheartened and see each contact as being a new game that you can win if you bring your best game.Now, we have not gone through a step by step on how to cold call because that is something you will be taught by your respective company as they will have their own ideas as to what is to be said and the way in which information is put across. However, the key is to keep the points listed above in mind and apply them to each situation, no matter what it is you are selling or to whom.

FACT

The best time to cold call is between 4:00 and 5:00 PM.

Source: newvoicemedia.com

17.3 How to Handle Objections

Next, we need to look at how you handle objections regarding cold calling because there is no doubt that you are going to come across them on a number of occasions.

The first thing you need to think about is that just because somebody has informed you that they are not best pleased about the cold call, it does not have to mean they are not interested in what you have to offer on every single occasion. Indeed, if that was the case then nobody would be employing this approach and that alone should tell you there is a success rate associated with it.

However, it is how you handle those objections that is key and indeed the way you handle it begins with how you even just open up the discussion with the individual or company at that first point of contact.Now, the exact scenario will make a difference with how you handle the objection, but there are a number of common problems you will tend to encounter at different points and it is those moments that we will now look at.

1. They use somebody else.

This is one objection you are going to hear time and time again as the individual or company will be quite happy to inform you that they use somebody else. However, that does not have to mean the door has been slammed in your face. Instead, you can overcome it by using it as a form of leverage because there is always a good chance that there will be something about their supplier or service provider they are not best pleased with. Perhaps they charge too much? Perhaps they are slow in delivering things? It is your job to find out the areas where you are clearly better and focus on those in order to deal with the objection.

2. They say they cannot afford it.

With a cold call, you will often find they state they cannot afford whatever it is you are selling and that is often without them even being aware of how much it costs. This, on the surface at least, does appear to be a difficult thing to overcome, but it is easier than you think. The key here is to still try to build some kind of relationship between yourself and the person you have contacted and make them aware of this fact. Indeed, it is often in your best interest to avoid mentioning price at any point in the cold call if at all possible since that is going to be more likely to lead to them building those protective walls which will make your life so much harder.

3. Is this one of those sales calls?

If there is one objection that is almost guaranteed to get the back up of both sides, then this is it. Any potential client who asks this kind of question is almost intentionally trying to make you feel bad in a passive aggressive way. They are hoping this is going to put you on the back foot and they can then assume control of the conversation and this is what tends to happen with the inexperienced individual.

You can easily handle this objection by turning it around to an introductory call to introduce yourself to them in order to diffuse the situation somewhat and buy yourself time to bring in your sales pitch. What we are trying to show with these examples of objections is that you just have to be careful in how you react with any objection in any walk of life and not just with sales. You have to really listen to what they are saying and then make moves to diffuse the situation as quickly as possible to get on their good side once more.

17.4 How to Move it from a Cold Call to a Sale

Finally, we need to look at how you are able to move something from being a cold call to an actual sale because clearly this is something you wish to achieve rather than just wasting your time contacting people and getting nowhere.

Now, the conversion rate you can achieve is going to vary on your own individual approach throughout the entire process, but we can still look at methods that have been shown to be extremely effective for other people to help you to determine if this is something you can personally do as well.

In order to push things along and to hopefully produce a sale from the cold call, it is perhaps best to consider adopting the following strategy.

1. Listen rather than talk constantly

The key to getting things moved from being a cold call to a sale is to listen to what the potential client is saying and to act accordingly. If you just blaze your way through your sales pitch with total disregard for the person you are talking to, then that is hardly going to inspire them to spend money with you or to take things further.

2. Match up their needs or wants with your products or services

Thanks to you listening to what they are saying and seeking to understand it, you will find that it becomes easier for you to match up what they see as being their needs or wants with whatever it is you have to offer. This is entirely possible via a cold call, but only if you pay attention as those subtle hints and signs can easily be missed if you are too focused elsewhere.

3. Take the initiative without adding too much pressure

You have already taken the initiative by cold calling in the first place, but that is not the end of it. Instead, you must also be prepared to just push that little bit harder in order to even secure an appointment to discuss things further and to move this from a cold call to a potential lead. However, this is certainly something that does require some experience on your part in order to be able to determine what could be seen as pushing too hard, as you run the very real risk of upsetting the potential client.

4. Use yourself as the main tool

Finally, you should always seek to use your own personality as the best tool for turning a cold call into a potential lead. If you have the correct personality and approach to your industry, then this can undoubtedly make a major difference. Be approachable, warm, intelligent, and come across as being an individual who the client can form a relationship with and that alone can really break down any barriers which may have been constructed.

There is no actual magic formula when it comes to trying to turn a cold call into a sales lead and there is a real sense of having to learn on the job and to avoid repeating those same old mistakes from before. Just accept that it is impossible for you to turn every call into a lead and in all honesty, the actual percentage is small. However, do not allow that to put you off.