Most people think cold calling is old fashion and does not work anymore these days. But those people are so wrong.
A salesperson these days spends time talking to a prospect or lead on social media, email, text, etc. but it’s really easy for a prospect or a lead to not pay attention and just reply with answer you like to hear. But if you pick up the phone and start calling these prospect or leads, it’s very hard to them to lead you into the wrong direction.
But I get this a lot, “cold calling is so hard” or “I am too scared to cold call.”
It’s only hard and scary cause you have not done it yet. But after reading this list of 10 cold calling tips and tricks, you will be able to pick up the phone and turn a lead or prospect into a customer.
How To Do Cold Calling?
Before we began, remember that you can only get better at cold calling by practicing (and of course by following this list too). Best way to practice is to start picking up the phone and calling your cold leads.
#1 – Be Confident
If you an active reader of this website then you have heard me say this before.
If you do not have confidence in sales, you will not do well.
When cold calling your lead, if you sound nervous or you make any mistakes reading your script, the lead will hangup or just say no.
Of course, you are going to make mistakes in the beginning. You might get nervous and say the wrong thing.
These things happen and it’s ok. If you keep making calls everyday and keep adding more calls to your list each day, the confidence will come and you will master making cold calls.
#2 – Have A Script
This does not mean to Google “good sales script” and copy that.
A sale script should tailor to who you are selling to and what you are selling them on.
If you are selling pens to business owners vs selling security systems to home owners, your sales script has to be different for both.
Of course, you can take sales scripts you find online and make it your own.
This most important part is that you have a sale script and you have it printed out and in front of you every time you make a cold call.
#3 – Don’t Sell
When you cold call someone, you are typically calling them for the first time.
You never what to sell on your first call.
Use the first call to book a sales meeting at another time or just to introduce yourself to the prospect.
If you try to sell on the first call, you will fail and lose the lead.
#4 – Ask Question
When people do cold calls, they just start pitching their product or service and then ask “are you interested?”
But if you do this, you will run into sales objections one after another.
You want to use this cold call to ask questions to see if they are a right fit for you.
This will also make them feel like you care about their problems and you are actually trying to help solve them instead of selling something to them.
#5 – Find The Right Time
Most people are scared to do cold calling because they are scared to hear the person say “NO.”
One of the ways to avoid that is to learn how to handle sales objections. But another way you can avoid them saying “NO” is to eliminate some obstacles.
One of the biggest obstacles that will cause someone to say “NO” is if you call them at the wrong time.
Now, there is no way to predict that someone is busy or not but you can take a pretty good guess.
For example, when I was selling to doctors, I would only make cold calls around 11 am to 1 pm. Doctors jobs are seeing patients so they spend most of the time doing that. But most of them take lunch break around that time, so I know they are free.
It’s super easy for a lead to say “sorry I am busy right now, please call me back later.”
But if you can guess a time that majority of the people in that industry are free around, you will avoid the biggest obstacles of them saying “NO” to you.
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