Breaking the Sales Code
Cold Call 101
Companies of all forms and sizes depend on new sales to sustain operations and grow their business. New sales is the ultimate score card in business. Without new sales a company cannot accomplish its mission, pay employees, earn a profit, or pay shareholders. Cold calling is a reliable time tested method to increase sales.
Cold calling has a tendency to paralyze intelligent well educated people into a state of inaction. If you suffer from this paralytic condition rest assured you are not alone. Sales can intimidate. I’ve seen companies falter, and the most self assured individuals fail, because they never learned to master the art of making a cold call.
The quickest way to new sales is direct contact with customers.
There are numerous reasons why sales can be challenging for companies and individuals. These reasons can range from a salesperson being uncomfortable asking strangers to do or buy something, an aversion to rejection, or an unfocused company sales process. The root of failure in direct sales is commonly the result of poor cold call execution.
Breaking the sales cold call code is achieved when a company’s sales process aligns with a salespersons knowledge and planning of sales execution.
To the third party observer sales may look like a simple task, a matter of picking up the phone and dialing a phone number. Though this view is common amongst executives and managers it remains antithetical to the reality of sales.
Cold calling is a difficult business skill and even more difficult to master, but having a firm understanding of cold calling basics can lead a company or individual salesperson to new sales success.
As an executive, small business owner, or key employee you may encounter situations where a new sale is dependent on your individual contribution to the sales process. Take the new founder who has spent months building a product that is now ready to sell. Without the resources to build a sales team this founder will need to sell to allow her company to survive and then grow. It behooves you to understand how a sales cold call is structured and executed.
The Purpose of the Cold Call
The cold call should begin with the knowledge of why a sales call is being made to a cohort of customers. Initially this statement may seem confusing, but it’s the purpose of the call that will guide how the dialogue used in the call is organized and formalized. The purpose of an outbound sales call is almost always to sell products or services. However, there are circumstances when this is not the case which will require the call structure to be adjusted accordingly. Let me explain.
The purpose of the sales call will often be determined by the sales process. The sales process will evolve from the product or service being sold and may indeed call for an immediate sale. In this circumstance the salesperson would ask the prospect for the sale during the call. But what if the product or service has a long sales tail and requires multiple touches with the customer? In this circumstance the sales process will preempt the ultimate purpose of the call, and the benefit sought from the call would only be to move the prospect one step further in the sales process.
Once the purpose is determined there are five basic cold calling steps that can be followed to structure a cold call. The cold call structure should have these five basic elements to insure the sales proposition is presented to the prospect.
- Introduction
- Permission
- Body of Message
- Summary
- Call to Action
Cold Call Introduction
The introduction should be short and straight to the point. Here’s an example of a cold call we’ve recently used.
“Hi Bob, ________from XYZ Company. The reason for the call is to talk to you today about solutions to find new customers”
You can see from the example there is no delay in getting to the point. The prospect isn’t presented with pleasantries or platitudes nor was s/he asked how their day was going. This simple single sentence communicated our purpose for making the call. People are busy and will appreciate your professionalism and respect for their time, so just get to the point. You’ll have time to dialogue with the prospect later in the conversation. The introduction should be designed to elicit interest. Anything else is just a waste of the prospects time, and yours.
Sales Call Permission
You should always ask for permission to carry on a conversation with a prospect before jumping into the body of the message. Why? Because when permission is granted prospects subconsciously give themselves permission to hear the message. The permission is not asked in a direct “May I speak with you about” manner, but rather it is a suggestive permission to discuss the purpose of the call. This is how we would work the permission into the example above.
“I’d like to get to know how you currently approach finding new customers?”
The permission is phrased as a question and should immediately follow the introduction. Notice the permission request is an open ended question. The open ended question doesn’t allow a yes or no answer, but requires the prospect to respond. Their response will either be negative, not interested, allowing you to move on to the next prospect or they will grant you permission by answering the question and creating dialogue which will often result in meaningful conversation.
Sales Cold Call Body
The body of your sales cold call message should lead with your selling proposition.
“We offer small business a full service X platform at affordable rates”
This could also include a promotional statement your company might offer. Any of the additional features and benefits you might wish to discuss should follow your selling proposition. Getting to your selling proposition early in the conversation will increase your chance of peaking the prospect’s interest before you lose them by talking about less relevant information.
Sales Call Summary
After the delivery of the sales body message, its time to listen. What has the prospect discussed with you thus far? You’re now in a position to summarize how your product or service will benefit the prospect.
There are additional sales technique on how to deal with the summary, but since this article is about cold calling 101 we’ll make just one additional point. You should take notes on what the prospect has discussed concerning their needs and then in the summary reinforce how your company’s product or service can meet those needs, assuming it does.
Continuing with our example:
“the X platform will help you grow your Y base by ________”
You might also discuss other core features and benefits following this sentence. The summary should be short and to the point and consist of just a couple of sentences.
Sales Call to Action
Here’s where the bread gets buttered. The sales call to action is where you ask for the sale, ask for a follow up call/meeting, or invite them to an online webinar or company event. Whatever your call to action is it should be very specific and direct.
“Bob, I’d like to get you online for a meeting to show you how the platform works. Would Tuesday at 10:00 AM work for you next week”
Note: the cold call example we use consists of 6–10 sentences. Since we’re dealing with humans we can expect the two way conversation to naturally extend beyond this, but the core structure of the call remains compact.
In sales less is more. The less you speak and the more you listen the higher the odds are that you’ll find success. There is much more to success in sales than just the cold call. But knowing the purpose of the call, and knowing how to structure and articulate a cold call message using these five basic steps can help you increase your customer base and close more new sales.
