Your Best Cold Call, Ever.
I’ve been talking to a lot of people lately about cold calling and the lost art of differentiating yourself when walking through someone’s front door. 99% of the stories people tell about their cold calling career go like this:
I bought a list, started calling the contact for XYZ Company and eventually got past the gatekeeper then started leaving voicemails for the decision maker. After about 300 calls I finally talked to John Smith and he told me “You’re never going to stop calling are you?” To which I responded, “No sir, not until you agree to meet with me!” Then I went in and gave him a proposal and it went great!
I want to point out that the outcome goes a couple different directions here…
#1. The customer meets with you then takes your proposal to his existing vendor and has him match it, all the while telling you how much he appreciates your time, you did an excellent job, stay in touch.
#2. The customer likes your lowball pricing solution and in a state of weakness and anger toward his existing vendor he makes the switch for no other reason than your pants dropping price.
Moral of the story above? Your cold calls are boring and inefficient. Where is the storytelling? What adventure is in this method? How are you having any fun at your job? I know you’ve heard the tale of the sales person who got burnt out working the daily grind, it’s no myth.
HERE IS ONE OF MANY COLD CALLS I HAVE ACTUALLY DONE:
The call itself is on a billion dollar corporation which at the time was actually peaking about 800 million in revenue per year (this is important to note and not forget.) I had made a few stops at this account over a couple months to do a little digging with the front desk and after some hardcore LinkedIn research I found the 2 people I knew that I wanted to meet. First thing I did was plan my attack and a calculated one at that. I grabber my brother, who was working with me at the time, instructed him on attire and told him to meet me at the office at 4:30 p.m. to roll out. We showed up at the office we were cold calling at 5:00 p.m. on the dot and walked in wearing jeans, untucked button downs and sneakers, holding a 6 pack of Corona Light I asked for the CEO of the firm and told the front desk lady I was hoping to crack a beer, enjoy the view of the beach and hangout with him over a few cold ones before we both head home for the day. She asked for my card which just happens to be a picture of me pulling a sword from a golden copier in the middle of the woods in my work attire. The CEO was on a conference call with one of his customers closing a huge sale but loved my cold call so much he paused his phone call in order to introduce me to the IT Director and also fill me in on the type of rum he liked to drink (my thank you card after he bought from me included his favorite rum, of course) and the answer is yes, we drank the beers. This sales cycle took about 2 weeks for me to close and his leases weren’t even up for 3 more years which in the copier world is pretty unheard of when it comes down to converting the customer, did I mention my monthly cost was more than what he was currently paying also?
Here is the recap… have fun, create value, build relationships, be different, and you will reap the rewards.
