Help With Cold Calling!
Image by Sailing "Footprints: Real to Reel" (Ronn ashore) via Flickr
Today I read this request, from a small business person, on cold calling. And I thought that you may be able to help.
I was wondering if some of you could help me out. When you have to go out cold calling what do you say to get the best results? I guess what are some of your lines? I have trouble sometimes not getting to make contact with a decision maker and only hand off information to a receptionist behind the desk. I am not sure if the focus should be on going in to get an appt with a specific decision maker on advertising or if you just go in and try to start selling them on coffee news. Just need some help with boosting sales.
I had a look at the request and though I may be able to help with the last part of the request, therefore I did not address the issue of getting past the gatekeeper.
Here’s my proposal on how to handle the cold call when you got trough to the main Mac:
Cold calling is like asking for the kiss on the first date.
There’s nothing wrong with asking for a kiss on your first date as long as you can handle the smacks you’ll get.
Mostly these smacks are 90 people saying no and 10 saying yes.
It become pretty painful at the end of the day as you feel personally injured because of all the nos.
But you know that.
My point is that when we expect the sale or appointment (the kiss) when we cold call (ask for the kiss) we miss the point.
By the way: Most Coffee News ads also expect the kiss on the first date and we will have to change our approach to ensure more success for our advertisers. But that’s another related story.
Getting back to your question:
What should you say when you cold call?
Here’s what I do:
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Say you call and the potential advertisers answers you then start
"Hi Jane here I am from Coffee News.
I am sorry…. did I interrupt you?…………….(give it some time)
I am calling because I want to share a FREE small business marketing book with you called "Learn Why Jean Daum’s 17 Marketing Secrets Rocked The Small Business World"
Would that interest you?
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This approach means that you are not selling anything
You are pre-selling…..
You are giving and the floor is open for easy discussion
You can now ask for the contact details to send the free ebook
(You can have an ebook or a hard copy)
Then you should try and get an appointment
If you don’t get the appointment you have the email address and hope the free ebook will do the selling for you.
If you have an appointment see that as the bonus.
This is what I do:
1) Set up a blog with free tips
2) Make my cold call and offer the free book
3) Get the email address, name and phone number
4) See if I can get an appointment
5) Add the email address to the blog/newsletter
6) As soon as the email is added to the blog newsletter an autoresponder dispatch ebook
7) Once a week I publish more tips on my blog that gets emailed to all my subscribers
8) Now I can cultivate them and after some time of cultivating they will give me the kiss because they now no and trust me.
You’ll notice that the process is not focused on selling but on designing a system to create trusting relationships.
I have written many articles on the subject but this one may be the most relevant as it covers cold calling.
I am at this moment creating such an ebook for the South African small business people like the Coffee News Marketing agencies. If you want a copy subscribe to our free tips newsletter (see top right for the subscription box).
Regards
Johan Horak
Andre are discussing. 
Andre 2:34 am on August 19, 2009 Permalink
Cold calling should be banned as it is a irritation to the general public and a invasion of Privacy!
johan horak 3:39 am on August 19, 2009 Permalink
Yes. I agree.
Andre 7:34 am on August 19, 2009 Permalink
Cold calling should be banned as it is a irritation to the general public and a invasion of Privacy!
johan horak 8:39 am on August 19, 2009 Permalink
Yes. I agree.