Preventing hang-ups when cold-calling - Tip # 5

Last post on the topic of preventing hang-ups (at least for the time being):

Apologize

When you have disturbed someone catching them off-guard - it is likely going to make them a bit irritable.  I've found the best way to diffuse this is by apologizing (and sometimes profusely!).  It bring you down to a natural human nature - in essence telling them that you are down to earth.  It's all about tonality (and I should put an audio file of myself saying it - but not too sophisticated yet!), the way I say it is "Oh, I'm sorry" and this goes a long way of keeping them from hanging up.

Then I say one of the following after apologizing:

• I didn't realize this is your area of expertise

• I must have not had my records up to date

• I probably mixed you up with someone else, etc.

The only thing, I don't apologize about is taking up their time, I never say "sorry to take your time/disturb your day, etc.".  Why - there is no point, you are in the sales profession and you are going to take up their time.  It's almost as if you are apologizing for choosing your profession  - don't - be proud of it!

This ends the series on my tips on preventing hang-ups while cold-calling, I hope it's been valuable.  I have appreciated the feedback I have gotten so far and look forward to more.

Have a great weekend folks!

Preventing hang-ups when cold-calling - Tip # 4

The next tip I will be sharing is an extremely controversial one and something that I have been told can backfire.  Nevertheless - I still use it!  Why, after the warning above?  Well because, it hasn't backfired and I'll explain why.  Let's reveal tip #4...


Mention someone else's name as a reference

What does this mean - well for starters it means that you can build your credibility by mentioning to the recipient that you are calling as 'so and so' asked you call them up.  Why this is controversial is that maybe you never spoke to a 'so and so' and randomly picked their name up!  How do you get this name?  I typically select someone that has left the organization, you can find them from the following sources:

• Linkedin - go to the company tab and on the right there is a place where you can see "Check out insightful statistics...", once you go there you can view the departures from the company
• Jigsaw (now owned by salesforce.com) - if you are familiar with it, you can get names from the graveyard, which is free to retrieve
• If neither of the above work, then I select a name of a person in the company that works in another department because you can say they thought you might be the right person

This is controversial no doubt, but I view this is a way to get you foot in the door!  Comments (am sure - there are going to be a few!).

Preventing hang-ups when cold-calling - Tip # 3

Hump day! Hope your week is going well - this one is short, so here is tip #3:


Ask a thought provoking Question: 


The third part of preventing a hung-up on a cold-call is to come up with a question, this is harder as it must fall into the following logical parameters:

• Must be broad enough for them to know the answer, but yet narrow enough that it relates to your product/service. 
• Has to be an open-ended question, but again not too open ended that other person would have to spend more than a minute answering you
• Something that they would feel compelled to answer.

Now the above is more subjective than objective, but try to internalize the points above to see what I mean by them.  Once you've done that, you will start to realize this is more scientific as you are going to develop a hypothesis and then test it out till you get the right questions.  It doesn't have to be a long complicated statement, perhaps between 1-3 words can get the right question.  Good luck!

Preventing hang-ups when cold-calling - Tip # 2

Let's continue with more helpful tips on preventing hang-ups, so here is tip #2:


MAKE A MISTAKE!


I have found this to be extremely helpful.  Why?  Because inherently people like to correct others - so if you are in a call - make sure you purposely make a mistake as the other caller instead of hanging up will try to correct you.  By doing this, your goal is to do the following:

• increase phone time and have them become warmer to you
• get them to speak more
• gives them the upper hand of feeling special by making them feel they know more

When all of the above happen, then they might drop their guard and let you have a better chance of letting you ptich to them.


How do you make the mistake, here are some suggestions:

• So it needs to be carefully planned, one of the easiest ways I have done it is by calling someone else other than my target person within the same department and make a mistake that assumed they would be handling the responsibility.
• If you know of a fact about the company, make a mistake by stating the opposite of the fact, for example, you can say that they had looked into a similar product or service but make a mistake on the reason why they didn't go for it.

Anybody have some more ideas?  Any agreement/disagreements?

Preventing hang-ups when cold-calling - Tip # 1

This week I wanted to do something different - as part of my strategy on helping people improve their sales by increasing their pipeline, I am going to pick one topic and discuss it for the week in bite size chunks.  Hopefully this should make the reading a lot more easier to digest!


Starting off this week, I would like to share tips on how to prevent hang-ups with cold-calling.  Sounds far-fetched?  Of course!  But over the years, I have noticed that I no longer get hang-ups that frequently and while self-reflecting, I wanted to share a tip each day of this week on how I've been able to overcome this.  Comments of course welcome (you are welcome to agree or disagree) and am sure most people know these methods, but let's summarize some.


ASSUME ALWAYS - DON'T ASK FOR PERMISSION!


In many cold-calling trainings I have taken, trainers have insisted that this is the way you start a conversion:


"Good morning/afternoon________, my name is _______ from __[XYZ]___ Company, do you have a few minutes to speak?"


Errrrr, I get so frustrated when that is asked to initiate a sales call.  Why do we ask for permission to speak - yes I realize people are busy, but you are immediately giving away power to the other person, a chance of denying you the opportunity to pitch.  After trying this tactic out and experiencing failure upon failure, I decided to change MY mindset to the call and assumed they wanted to speak with me.  


But before I share this with you, it's important to note, don't approach the call from an angle of mentioning your product name or service or telling them the value of it.  Instead, start with a pitch like this:


"Good morning/afternoon ______, my name is_______ from ____[XYZ]___ Company, calling in regards to discussing ____[what the product/service actual does do, don't go into a detailed conversation on the savings, efficiencies, or what you call your product]____.  Are you or have you looked into implementing that in your organization?"


I feel this is a much better starting point of a conversation.  Comments/opinions?