Almost everyone who has ever worked in the business world has had the experience of making a cold call. Even the executives you talk to when doing this dreaded task probably had to do it at some point in their careers. So why is it so hard and why are they called cold calling? It seems that categorizing them with that stigma gives them a bad reputation from the start, making the job of cold callers that much more difficult. I have been in the cold calling seat for almost 4 years within the Information Technology (IT) industry and while it may be like climbing a steep and uneven mountain covered in evil Furby dolls when you first start out, I have compiled a list of tips that can give any cold caller an edge over the competition. These tips apply to any industry and are not limited to IT.
1.) Job Titles – When you first talk to a prospect, unless you are 100% sure of their job title, be sure to always give them the benefit of the doubt and assume your title is incorrect. For example, lead information sites (jigsaw/data.com/discover.org, etc.) may list a contact as an IT Manager or IT Administrator and, after speaking to the contact or searching for them on LinkedIn or on the company’s website, find out they are actually the Director of IT or CIO. We’ve all done this before on our calls. “Hi Jim, did I have you as an IT manager at ABC Corp?” To your “I’m the CIO” response and an almost guaranteed hangup afterwards.
You may have the soft skills to turn this call around, but when these contacts are receiving two or three digit cold calls every day, the last thing you want to do is undermine their hard work with a title that insults their intelligence.
2.) Name Pronunciation – If you ever have to cold call in the IT world, you’ll quickly realize that not everyone you call has an easy-to-pronounce American name like Sally, Bob, Fred, or Kim . On your first day, you’ll come across names with enough syllables to wow the writers on Sesame Street. It is vital that when you encounter one of these giants A.) Take note of the pronunciation of the name on the prospect’s voicemail B.) Ask the secretary or operator for the correct pronunciation before calling them C.) When you communicate With the prospect on the phone, clarify the correct pronunciation of their name and/or ask what name they usually go by if their given name is long. In my experience I have found this can be very helpful and help you stand out from the average cold caller who would pronounce “Jaise” like Jay-zie when Jace is pronounced with 1 syllable (actual real life example).
3.) Be Respectful – This is an important factor for all cold callers to consider and it’s something that took me to the next level. Everyone has a different approach when introducing themselves and their company in an opening greeting, but after doing it in no more than 10 seconds, you should always ask if the prospect has time to talk or if it’s a bad time for them. You have to accept the fact that the people you are calling have their own phonebook and may not have “cold calling” blocked in their phonebook when they answer the phone. You will ask “so why did they pick it up?” They may have thought you were an internal employee, family member, or friend calling from a similar number. When asked if they have time, they will usually say “yes” in which case they will respect you for asking or “no” in which case they will give you a better time to call them back or they may try to turn you down. completely. However, even if they give a negative answer, you will find that your numbers will improve by doing this rather than just presenting without asking first.
4.) LinkedIn – DO NOT UNDERESTIMATE the power of this tool. Even if you receive contact or account information from a site or service that claims to know everything, you should always verify your information before calling a potential customer. Depending on the service or product you’re selling (I’ll stay in the IT realm as that’s where my expertise lies), you always want to make sure you’re going to the right person and not wasting time. As an example, let’s say you are given the contact, Will Smith (no relation) as an IT Director for Prince of Bel-Air Corporation (also no relation). You’re selling pre-packaged software, but before you call, you look up Will on LinkedIn and see that his experience is strictly hardware related and nothing he does has anything to do with software. It may sound stupid, but I would say that more than half the time you are calling the wrong person. By verifying that your contact actually works within the area you’re selling to, you’ll be 90% more likely to get a meeting, sale, or interest from the prospect.
I’ll provide some expert LinkedIn tips and ways to find more prospects in a future article.
5.) Attention to detail – This is vital if you are sending emails, meeting requests, or any form of communication. You are the luckiest person in the world if you have never received an email with your name misspelled at the top. My name is Jeff, but I’ve seen Jef, Jeef, Geoff, Jefff, Jefforey, Jeffy, you get the point. It’s really not that difficult. Again, go back to your friend, LinkedIn, and check the spelling. If that doesn’t work, talk to the secretary and confirm the spelling so you don’t sound like a retard and/or foreign spammer.
Attention to detail is also vital when talking to a potential customer who gives you information to follow up. If you say you’re not looking for a solution now, but you think you will in 3 months, you should take notes and mark a follow-up on your calendar. Again, you may follow up and find that the lead may have died or been rejected, but it still has a better chance than no follow up at all.
6.) Short, Pithy Pitch – This is where the cold can get colder. Everyone has their own crazy method of setting their pitch. You need to keep in mind again that most of the time (especially in IT) prospects are busy with their own responsibilities and don’t have time to attend 50 cold calls per day, where the cold caller takes 7 minutes to get the message across. that your company does.
You want to tailor your message specifically to the prospect you’re calling (you don’t want to sell software solutions to a prospect who only deals with hardware and vice versa). Again, LinkedIn can be your best friend, as the prospect will usually have a summary of their experience on their profile and/or skill lists (at the bottom of their profile) that were endorsed by coworkers, friends, and previous and current people. do or did business with.
My recommendation is to have a solid idea of what your company does and be able to deliver an elevator pitch in no more than 30 seconds. Most of the decision makers you target will probably lose interest in about 15 seconds, if you don’t mention a keyword that matches their current initiatives. Don’t be afraid to continually practice and change your shade until you find one that matches your style and get consistent results.
7.) It’s Complicated – I’ll leave you with 2 additional tips I learned along the way. Google and voicemail navigation. Google is an immensely powerful tool that many people don’t take advantage of. You’ll run into secretaries, guards, and people whose only job is to keep you from talking to the target prospect. When this happens and you have no other way to get the lead’s direct phone number or email address, try typing their name, business name, and/or business phone number into Google and see what appears. For example, try “Will Smith Prince of Bel-Air Corporation 610-484-” and see what results come up. Also try the company’s website URL, such as Will Smith Prince of Bel-Air Corporation @bel-aircorp.com. Again, don’t stop with these two examples. From time to time, you may find valuable spreadsheets with additional information you can use or another site where your information is listed. Remember, you are cold calling and you need every advantage you can get. Keep in the mindset that if you don’t sell to them, someone else will.
Navigating voicemail can be complicated, but it can be very profitable. It can be as simple as using the dial-by-name feature when you first call a business, or more complex like pressing **6 when transferred to a potential customer’s voicemail. It all depends on the type of phone/voicemail system they have set up. Sometimes it will facilitate its extension and other times it may not. I’ll focus more on this in a later article, but it’s worth trying to dial * or # when you get to a potential customer’s voicemail to see if they have a searchable directory. This is ideal for when you need to ask a secretary to transfer a potential client and there is no initial dial-by-name option. It won’t work every time, but as Paul Rudd said in anchor man; “Sixty percent of the time, it works every time.”