Cold calling is one of the most intimidating activities in sales.
Truth be told, it’s not that bad. The fear of the cold call is based more on a personal dread of rejection than anything else. Cold call rejections are definitive, and that isn’t easy for many people to handle. But there are ways to approach cold calls that can help you maximize their use and counter balance that awful rejection with the glory of sales.
There are 3 guidelines for overcoming the fear of cold calling:
Methodology
You should never get on any call with out a plan, and cold calls are no different.
Cold calls have the benefit of a clear and repeatable structure, that breaks down as follows:
1. Introduction – establish who you are and what you want.
2. Discovery – fact finding and qualification.
3. Close – reaching for your goal.
I’ll cover these in more depth in a separate post, but suffice to say that a well structured call is a well planned call, with a much higher chance of success.
Profiled Leads
If you’re calling names out of a phone book, then you are making calls that are cold as ice. But if you are making a b2b sale, then the people you are calling should be targeted and at least marginally relevant to your inquiry.
If you’ve prepared and are calling people that should have a general interest in what your offering, then you aren’t making truly cold calls. In this case, don’t be so afraid, just be good–have a clear goal, be persuasive and know your business.
Use Email
Combining calls with email is very effective. If you have the ability to email someone at around the same time or day of calling them then you are much more likely to be given the time of day.
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There you have it. Cold calls are about your frame of mind. If you have a method, call relevant people and use email to augment your calling efforts then success will come rapidly.
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