Don't ask me how I am!
In the last 6 months our office has been plagued by cold callers whose first question is ‘How are you?' My usual reaction is to ask who is speaking, which is met by feigned surprise that I have never heard of their organisation and an immediate launch into a sales-spiel. I switch off. So, if you want my attention
Don't ask me how I am!
Instead, say why you want to talk to me in one sentence, and ask for permission to discuss it further.
Making cold calls is a tough job. I know, I've done it myself and its how I started this business. I take a lot of cold calls simply to hear what people are being taught, and how well they are applying basic sales techniques.
If your organisation does cold calling make sure, right now, that ‘How are you?' is NOT in any script or call structure used by your team. If you are using trainers who advocate the use of such a question, change trainers now.
Enough negativity; here are some positive ideas:
Value Proposition
Be able to give a good, credible headline value proposition early on. For example
- We help reduce costs of in-house printing by 25%
- Our tools typically offer increased productivity in call centres of 12%
Work on this – value propositions are not easy to create. Simply saying you cut costs or improve productivity doesn't cut it!
Useful questions
Last year we ran a telephone survey. We cold called a number of L&D professionals and asked if they would take part in a survey that had only one question. Most found it hard to refuse. We asked how they measured the ROI on their training.
The reaction was ‘what a good question' and we had some valuable discussions.
What is the really useful question in your sector?
A simple request
Make a simple request that your potential client will find it easy to agree to. I regularly receive calls from an e-learning company encouraging me to review a programme. The caller is excellent, making the call simple, clear and easy for me to progress.
How you can make it really easy for your potential client to respond to you?
Be Polite
Failing any other tactic, politeness works wonders. I received a call today from a print company that wanted the opportunity to quote for our business. He was polite, clear and he didn't ask ‘how are you'! In one sense it was nothing special, in another, it was such a welcome relief from the usual rude familiarity. I can't use his services, but I will certainly recommend his company.
You can learn more about cold-calling and telephone sales on our sales training programmes.
