Almost everyone who has ever worked in the business world has had the experience of making a cold call. Even the executives you turn to when you perform this dreaded task have probably had to do it at some point in their careers. So why is it so difficult and why do they call it cold calling? It seems that categorizing them with that stigma gives them a bad reputation early on, which makes the job of cold callers that much more difficult. I’ve been in the cold calling seat for almost 4 years within the information technology (IT) industry and while it can be like climbing a steep, jagged mountain covered in evil Furby dolls when you first start out, I’ve 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 speaking to a prospect for the first time, unless you are 100% sure of their job title, be sure to always give them the benefit of the doubt and assume their title is wrong. For example, lead information sites (jigsaw/data.com/discover.org, etc.) may list a contact as an IT Manager or IT Admin, and after you talk to the contact or search for them on LinkedIn or on the company’s website, find out they are actually the IT Director 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 his “I’m the CIO” reply and an almost guaranteed hangup afterwards.
You may have the soft skills to turn this call around, but when these contacts are cold calling double or triple digits every day, the last thing you want to do is undermine their hard work with a headline 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 make the Sesame Street writers gasp. It is vital that when you encounter one of these giants A.) Make a note of the pronunciation of the name on the prospect’s voice mail B.) Ask the secretary or operator for the correct pronunciation before calling them C.) When you contact them With the potential client 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’ve found that this can be very useful 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 that all cold callers need to consider and it is something that took me to the next level. Everyone takes 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 call have their own calendar and may not have “cold calling” blocked in their calendar when they answer the phone. You will ask “then 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 you ask them if they have time, they’ll usually say “yes”, in which case they’ll respect you for asking, or “no”, in which case they’ll 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’ll find that your numbers will improve by doing this instead of just giving your presentation without asking first.
4.) LinkedIn – DON’T 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 stick to IT as that’s where my expertise lies), you’ll always want to make sure you’re targeting the right person and not wasting time. As an example, let’s say you are given the contact, Will Smith (no relation) as IT Director of 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 expertise is strictly hardware related and nothing he does has anything to do with software. It may sound stupid, but I’d say more than half the time you’re calling the wrong person. By verifying that your contact actually works within the area you’re selling, you’ll be 90% more likely to get a meeting, sale, or interest from the prospect.
I’ll provide some expert tips on LinkedIn 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 really isn’t that hard. Again, go back to your friend, LinkedIn, and check the spelling. If that doesn’t work, talk to the secretary and check the spelling so you don’t look like a retard and/or a foreign spammer.
Attention to detail is also vital when talking to a potential client who provides you with information to follow up on. If you say you’re not looking for a solution now, but think you will in 3 months, you need to take notes and mark a follow-up on your calendar. Again, you may follow up and find that the initiative may have died or been rejected, but you still have better odds than no follow up at all.
6.) Short and to the point release – This is where the chill can get chillier. Everyone has their own crazy method of pitching. You have 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 handle 50 cold calls a day, where the cold caller takes 7 minutes to convey what what your company does.
You want to tailor your specific message 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 lists of skills (at the bottom of their profile) that were endorsed by co-workers, friends, and former 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 give an elevator pitch in no more than 30 seconds. Most 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 practice and continually change your pitch 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, gatekeepers, 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, company name, and/or business phone number into Google and see what happens. appear. 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’re cold calling and you need every advantage you can get. Keep in mind that if you don’t sell to them, someone else will.
Navigating voicemail can be tricky, 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 as pressing **6 when transferred to a prospect’s voicemail. It all depends on the type of phone/voicemail system you 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 prospect’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.”
