Turn Up the Heat on Cold Calling!

Posted by On Q Media in Lead Generation on April 30, 2013 with No Comments

Cold Calling Tips and Tricks

Just because we’re an online marketing company, doesn’t mean we only market online. Pigeonholing your approach to just one method of marketing has bad idea written all over it. We understand SEO and inbound marketing are the hottest things right now, and our core services are developed around that idea. But even after saying all of that I want to shift gears for a minute on this blog and turn attention toward one of the more forgotten methods of traditional marketing.

I’ve been doing extensive research and field testing with respect to cold calling. I’ve spent hundreds of hours researching, writing and making actual cold calls to put ideas and theories to work. As the CEO of a service company that specializes in business to business relationships cold calling to me was an important skill to have. I also theorized that aspects of cold calling would directly transfer to outreach in social media. That’s actually the topic of my next post, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves.

I started the way many people would with Google (online marketing 101, be found on Google) I found a number of resources including: scripts, books and videos. I copied a couple of scripts into Open Office (Microsoft Word for all the conformists out there) made a few tweaks and picked up the phone. Let me tell you I was excited, after all I offer an incredibly valuable service to businesses, they should be jumping at the chance to work with me. I looked up a few business phone numbers and dialed.

It went terribly, I never felt more defeated. I was completely dismissed in every attempt and at the end of a brutal day of rejections I had no more clients than when I started. What was I doing wrong? The short answer… Everything!

I figured if I was going to complete my crash course in cold calling, I needed the expert advice of a cold calling guru. During my research I discovered a video of cold call done by, a Keller Williams Real Estate agent in Easton Massachusetts, Deric Lipski. Deric, was doing something online with cold calling that nobody else was. He wasn’t talking about making cold calls, he was actually making them. Immediately after the 1st video ended, I watched the rest of his library. I had found my guru. Before I knew it I was dialing to “cold call” Deric himself and ask him for an interview, Deric Accepted.

The Purpose Of The Call

When I first started this seemed obvious to me, I thought the purpose of my call is to make a sale. After all that’s why I was doing it, I wanted more clients. I was completely wrong. The purpose of my cold calling now is never to make a sale, rather the purpose of my call is always to set an appointment. I want to get my prospect to agree to an appointment with me so that I can arrange time to spend with them to make my sales pitch. Collecting money over the phone from someone you’ve spoken to for only a few minutes is extremely difficult, if not impossible. I know however that if I can arrange a meeting with my prospect that I can much more effectively demonstrate the value of my service, build trust and close a sale.

Your Prospects

First thing you need to do is decide who your audience is. Then you need to find them. There are so many tools online to help you find businesses and people in your niche that would benefit from your service. I’m not going to go into too much detail in this article about where to find your prospects, this is something you will have to do on your own. I will however recommend using Google to create a giant spreadsheet of targets and to keep track of their information. You can download our pre-made spreadsheet for keeping track of this info here. When building your list, business’ names and phone numbers simply isn’t enough. You’ll need to research your targets and find out who the contacts are. Using tools like LinkedIn, Facebook and even Twitter can help you track down the names of the specific people within a company you need to target to be successful. If you are unable to find the right information about contact names I strongly recommend doing exploratory calling prior to making your sales call. Using multiple phone numbers is helpful for this task, you can actually use multiple phones or software options, like Google Voice, Skype, Twilio or Mojo (I’ll discuss Mojo in more detail later in this article and Deric discusses it a bit in the above interview). In an exploratory call, you can ask point blank questions to fill in your spreadsheet of data. You will not be pitching anything on this call just trying to gather information. Ask for the names of contacts, ask for email addresses, ask for the receptionists name and email as well, (receptionists are the gatekeepers, make them your friends) record all this information into your spreadsheet for later use. Make up any excuses you need to, to get that information and don’t hold back. What usually works for me is saying either your trying to gather information about the company to make a purchase, or even more effectively that you’re doing a write up for an article on “insert internet publication here.” I actually run a few business news type sites so I keep that in my corner if I ever have to back anything up. If you don’t get it on your first approach, wait a couple days and try again from a different number with a new approach. The bottom line is when you finally are ready to make your sales call, you wont be doing it cold, despite the name. You’ll be armed to the teeth with information.

Warming Up

Getting into the proper mindset for cold calling is important. When dealing with constant rejection (even if you’re the best) it can be depressing.

“I used to be a salesmen it’s a tough racket.” -Alec Baldwin, Glengarry GlenRoss

What most people recommend is finding some music you can use to get amped up to make calls before you start. Don’t be afraid to get fired up. Others suggest calling people in your network that you already do business with and already like you. This can be a sufficient boost to confidence starting out. Others suggest watching motivational videos, like TED Talks and Tony Robbins. I personally like to watch this classic motivating scene from the “Glengarry Glen Ross” movie, starring Alec Baldwin.

The Gatekeeper

Often times when making a cold call, the person who answers the phone is not the person whom you need to speak with. Generally, you’re trying to reach key decision makers not receptionists. If you were able to track down information about the specific contacts you need to reach through online research or exploratory calling you can generally bypass the gatekeeper with a high success rate just by asking for the person whom you wish to speak with by name. Other effective techniques include telling little white lies. You can simply say “I’m trying to reach John Doe, he’s expecting my call” or “I’m returning a call from John Doe.” This is a good one for stubborn secretaries that reject you in previous attempts. If at all possible try to make the Gatekeeper your best friend, they wield the power to decide what calls and messages will get passed on.

*Pro Tip using a nickname rather than a formal name is often helpful, this give the impression to the secretary that you and the target are already quite familiar. Example: “Hey, is Eddie in?” Rather than “Hi I’m calling for Edward Roberts.”

The Introduction.

Most scripts I’ve read include some variation of this formal introduction. “Hi, My name is INSERT YOUR NAME HERE, I’m Calling from INSERT COMPANY NAME HERE.” I figured these scripts all have this in common, I should add this to my approach right? Wrong! What I’ve found is that people are too frequently unreceptive to cold calls, starting with a statement like this, even in the friendliest voice possible, immediately raises the defense of your target. Instead of being interested in listening to you, they are now more interested in how to stop listening to you.

During a call I want to disarm the targets as much as I can. If it’s at all possible I don’t even want them realize I’m making a sales call. One of the most effective ways I found to start the conversation is with the simplest approach. You may not believe this but an overwhelmingly positive and confident greeting of just “Hi!”, “Hello!”, or “Greetings!” followed by a pause to let them speak and answer back is the easiest way to begin your call. It accomplishes all of your goals for an opener, 1.)You come across as friendly first 2.)You need something to say 3.) You don’t want to alert them that you’re making a sales call right off the bat.

I usually like to follow their response up with something along the lines of “I’ve been doing some research into your company, I was hoping maybe you wouldn’t mind answering some questions I have.” This statement is one of my favorites. It completely disarms them, at this point they’re going to agree to try and answer some of your questions. Why? Because they think you are about to ask them about their services. What you’re really about to do is ask them qualifying questions to determine how to introduce your product/service. The way you approach the next step and questions will be variant upon what your industry is. Mine is marketing, so I’ll share a little bit about my approach.

My next question is usually something like, “Can you tell me are you guys really busy this time of year?” The target still thinks I’m looking for information about there product, which leads them to two typical responses. They’ll either be candid and casual and tell me no, because they want to make sure to appear to have enough time to handle my “potential need.” The second option is they’ll say yes, because the want to appear important enough to be deserving of my “potential need.” The answer they give is irrelevant because they’re both met with the same question. “Do you think you could reasonably handle more business at this time?” Any smart business person is going to say yes here to your question. They have just qualified themselves to me as having a need for my marketing services. Here’s where I switch gears a bit, now that they’ve qualified themselves to me, I’ll ask them a question like “let me ask you this, if you could learn about something your competitors are doing to get more business would you want to know about it?” About this time my more astute targets will generally start to realize this might be a sales call, and more than likely you’ll probably meet your first objection.

Disarming Objections

What do you say when your sales prospect says, “I’m not interested?” Do you just move on to the next prospect? Or, do you attempt to ask a few more qualifying questions to get to the heart of why they said no? Below are examples of common objectives in cold calling.

I Do Not Have Time.

This is probably the most common objection I hear thrown around. “I don’t have time for this call” It really means I don’t want to be bothered by someone I don’t know and I’m trying to be polite to get you off the phone. If you ask the right questions though they will stay on the phone longer, respond with something like:

Prospect: “I’m sorry I don’t really have time for this call I’m right in the middle of something”
Me: I clearly hear you saying that, and don’t want to take up much of your time but let me quickly ask you something, do you think if there was a way to get 20-30% more leads for your business every month that you would want to know about that?

We’ve all scene this above scenario, “I don’t have time”, “I’m right in the middle of something” or “I’m in a meeting”, etc.. I hear people say they feel bad disarming these objections. They don’t want to appear rude or disruptive. Let’s be honest if any of these were true they wouldn’t have answered their phone in the first place. Don’t ever feel bad disarming these objections. You’re not actually interrupting the person. They’re just trying to ditch your call. Take it personally, don’t be ditched. You’re objective is to keep them on the line. Even if they were in the middle of something and you are interrupting them, so what? You’ve got to make your appointments and sales so you can feed your family right? Besides hopefully the service you’re offering them has actual benefit to them, in this case you’re helping them do the same, don’t ever feel bad about that.

I Don’t Have Money. / I Can’t Afford This.

I don’t have money or I can’t afford this now. This is a tough one for a lot of people, in this case you really need to drive home a direct benefit to them. Many prospects use this excuse to get off a call, its not often the case that they genuinely can’t afford it. They are trying to get rid of you again. My favorite way of disarming this objection goes something like this.

Prospect: “I really cant even afford to use any new services now”
Me: “I can clearly hear you saying that and I want you to know I’m not asking you for any money, I just want to give you some free information about what I do. Let me ask you this, If I could show you something that your competitors are doing to make more money. Could you see that as being worth a few moments of your time?”

I also keep a free trial in my back pocket as well. I’m pretty confident in our services to get results that once in a while to close a deal I don’t mind doing a free trial. I generally like to keep this reserved for closing a sales pitch at a meeting in a worst case scenario.

I Am Not Interested.

It depends on how far into the call you get this one. Early on it’s usually just a dismissal to get you off the phone. I like to use something along these lines when it happens immediately on a call.

Prospect: I’m sorry I’m not interested.
Me: What happened? Did I bore you already? I thought we we’re getting along well. (candidly) Look, let me ask you something..[insert next qualifying question]

I’ve added a bit of levity to it and tried to immediately move past it to my next question. This only works for those immediate “not interested” replies.

In the case of a late call objection where the prospect says “I’m not interested” You can kind of flip the tables on them a bit and ask “if you we’re interested would you see a value in doing this” They can say yes and then you can continue to fire away with qualifiers and close attempts or they could say no..

If they indicate no they do not see a value they’re likely just being stubborn, here’s what I do.

Me: “if you were interested would you see value in doing that”
Prospect: “no”
Me: “I guess I failed then to show you the value, and that’s on me. But Let me simplify it and ask you this; if there was a way that your competition was getting more customers and making more money, wouldn’t you at least want to know about that so you could make a decision for yourself if it was right for your business?”

I Am Already Using Something Similar.

This one is easy, if I ever get the objection that they’re already using another service similar to mine I can take it in a couple different directions. This one is particularly easy for my business, because I can vet the company and determine if what they’re doing with regards to SEO is working by simply “Google-ing” their keywords. If they’re not on the first page, I know right off the bat that what they’re doing isn’t working. I can use a few different rebuttals in this scenario including:

Prospect: “I’m actually already using another company for this right now”
Me: “Can I ask how long you’ve been with them?”
Prospect: “We’ve been using them for x amount of time”
Me: “The reason I ask, is because you’re not showing on the first page of Google for your keywords, after x amount of time I would expect to see some results, if I could show you something different that your other SEO company isn’t doing that will actually bring results, don’t you think you deserve to know about that?”

I am Not In The Market For That Right Now.

This objection is strikingly similar in context to the “I’m not interested” objection. I would handle this the same way as I would an “I’m not interested” objection. Which you should know how to do by now if you’ve been reading this article thoroughly.

Just Send Me Information.

Some people like to take this as a measure of success they capture an email address and send over documentation that was asked for. Don’t waste your time, it wont ever be read. I suppose it doesn’t hurt to have a standard email form letter that you could fire over as a last resort if necessary, and its always beneficial to add another email address to your contact list. The bottom line here is this is used as a dismissal tactic to politely end a call. Prospects will ask you to send information so it sounds as though they are interested when in fact they are not. If you don’t believe me, try attaching a spypig to any emails you send out following cold calls and monitor how many of them are opened. You’re best bet in this scenario is to re-enforce your service in this way.

Prospect: “Ok send me some information and I’ll take a look at it”
Me: “Okay sure, I can certainly do that. What would you like me to send you?”
Prospect: “I don’t know, what do you send?”
Me: “To be honest, I don’t know either, I’m in the business of [insert service here] that’s what I know about. Let me ask you this… [continue qualifying questions]“

Humor Is Your Best Friend

I can’t stress this point enough, if you can make your target laugh they’re going to be much more receptive to hearing what you have to say. This is true in all aspects of life, people like to laugh. I like funny people, I suspect you like funny people. You’re target will undoubtedly enjoy humor. Exercise caution though, you never want to come off as snarky, or offensive. This approach is best used in reply to strange objections. I can’t teach you humor, or give you any witty lines because this is hard to plan and is most often dependent upon circumstance. You can find a great TED Talks video here about what is funny? (For more information on how you could apply this idea their is an interview with Deric Lipski about cold calling, featured at the beginning of this article which includes some anecdotes about how humor was used in practical scenarios)

It’s Not A Numbers Game

So many times, when doing my research I read over and over that cold calling, “is a numbers game.” The more people you call the more leads you’ll get. Yeah and even a blind squirrel finds a nut once in a while. I am here to tell you simply, IT IS NOT A NUMBERS GAME! The quality of the call is what generates leads, NOT the quantity of calls you make. If you do the same damn boring thing on every call and its not working you have to try improving the quality of your calls. I suppose that’s why you’re here reading this article in the first place. Defeating objections is where most people need the most help. Plan for all the possible objections and practice, practice, practice. It can be incredibly helpful to simulate cold call scenarios with your co-workers or friends.

Technology Helps

Just Because Cold Calling is Old School, doesn’t mean you need to approach it that way. There are a myriad of technologies available to you to increase your cold calling effectiveness. The one in particular I want to mention here is Mojo. Mojo is a the hands-down best pro application when it comes to cold calling. They have so many features in this system it would be impossible to list and describe them all here. Just go check out there website at http://www.mojosells.com/

Have No Fear

“The longer you stare at the phone the heavier it becomes” -Deric Lipski

When you’re going to make cold calls, just pickup the phone and do it. Don’t psyche yourself out and over think it. You’re in control, don’t have any fear of rejection. Learn to accept that you’re going to be rejected from time to time.

Deric’s Cold Calling Videos