C.C. P3: Advanced Cold Calling Techniques
This is the final post of three on Cold Calling strategies and techniques although I’m sure it’s a subject I will no doubt revisit in the future. The other two posts are “Is Cold Calling still Relevant” and “Cold Call Strategy Planning and Objective”
Design a Targeted Campaign
The better you are able to define your target market and more knowledge you have about the prospect’s business, the greater your chance of success when cold calling. Identify a niche group of prospects and research, design and implement a targeted cold calling campaign. Try to be aware of the type of professional language that your target prospect group uses and incorporate this language into your initial attention graping statement. This approach has two major advantages over traditional cold calling models in that:
Time spent researching and actual research goes much further because you are talking about many prospects not just one.
Because you now know more about the prospects business, you are better able to position your value proposition, prepare and deal with likely objections on the phone and ultimately secure sales meetings.
Use Your Existing Customers when Cold Calling
It amazes me how many salespeople don’t consider their existing customers when cold calling. Name-dropping is one basic technique that can be used but for maximum effect use case histories of customers from the prospect’s own industry stating specific benefits. Incorporate examples of these into your pitch offering recommendations and contacts if required.
Use NLP Techniques.
I’ve covered this topic before in “ Create Business Rapport in an Instant” but here’s the shortened version:
NLP an advanced form of rapport building that works at a subconscious level. It based on the concept that we tend to identify and communicate better with other people who share our beliefs, have the same outlooks, share common experiences and goals, In short, we like people who are like ourselves. People who have rapport tend to act like each other in a number of ways so rapport therefore involves matching.
When a salesperson makes a call to a prospect, he or she cannot see the other person so matching the posture and movements is impossible. It is still possible to use matching however as another important part of any communication involves the pitch and tone of your voice. According to some research, this may even have more impact than the actual words been used
Things to look out for include:
Volume: Do they speak quietly or loudly?
Tempo: How fast or slowly do they speak?
Pitch: Is it high or low?
Tone: What emotions do they convey?
Language: Listen to the types of words been used, do they have characteristic sayings?
Cold Calling Scripts
When I talk about using cold calling scripts, I don’t mean sticking word for word to something but rather having a communication plan listing the important points in order so that you don’t leave anything out in the heat of the moment. Your script in this instance should be a template for how you would ideally like the conversation to develop while also being a guide in how to deal with likely objections.
Posted by Niall
Tags: Appointment Setting, Cold Call, Cold Calling, Cold Calling Sales, Cold Calling Scripts, Cold Calls, sales training