I was recently asked by a reader of my newsletter about what they should consider when Cold Calling on businesses. I thought I would share my answer here.
The one thing that I would like you to consider, is that when you Cold Call – whilst your goal is to create life-long customers, the purpose of a Cold Call is to take Suspects to Qualified Prospects. What I mean, is that when you Cold Call on someone, you SUSPECT they could use what you’re selling, but you’re not certain. After you’ve called on them and discussed what your product can do, you will know if the Suspect is really a fit for your product or not. Once you have a qualified prospect, you then focus on converting them to a customer, and then to a life long customer.
How do you qualify a Suspect to a Prospect? You need to know who your target customer is – I discuss this in Finding Your Niche Part 1: Listen To Your Potential Clients – only when you know the clients who will best suit your business.
When I Cold Call, I have several objectives:
1. Find out the Owners name, if it’s a small business; or the Branch Managers / Local Area managers name, if it’s a large company. Of course, I want to get their contact details
2. Find out who the decision maker is – it’s not necessarily the owner as they may have someone they trust who has more experience than them. In this case, it’s really important to try to get a ‘picture’ of the decision making process. In the case of a large company, it could also be that decisions for purchasing are not made at the local level – which will change your sales strategy.
3. Understand how the Owners / Local Area Manager’s assistant works. Are they really a Gatekeeper? If so, you will need to ensure that you have the assistant onboard as well.
4. Find out when the Manager is in the store / office – this helps in planning when you will drop in to see them / call them. If you are going to try and phone them, I strongly suggest that you also find out when their busy times are, so you don’t call them then – you really won’t get the focus you are looking for.
One thing I found with cold calling, is that the receptionists et al are very protective of their bosses – they don’t like giving out too much information because they know that it will invite a number of unsolicited sales call.
I have often found it beneficial to use wording like “I have something that may be of benefit to your organization. I would like to organize 15 minutes with your boss to see if it’s a fit or not.” Or something similar. This immediately shows that you are respectful of their time, by asking for a shorter, qualifying meeting time and that you aren’t the “foot in the door – you just have to buy this product” sales person.
Remember, the idea of Cold Calling is to qualify Suspects to Prospects – I don’t necessarily go to a Cold Call meeting with the intent that I will sell something straight from that meeting. Just something to bear in mind!
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