We can all learn from sales experiences – even bad ones.
“Heyyy, Troy? This is Chadwick. Does that name ring a bell?” I drew a blank. “Nope,” I said. “Uh….wow…that’s kind of a problem, man. Ummmm….well, this is Troy Harrison, right?” “Yes,” I said, “Can I help you?” He replied, “Well, uhhhh…if I can, I’d just like to take 30 seconds to tell you why I’m calling. Is that OK?” Now I know it’s a salesman – and not a good one. “You’ve got ten,” I told him. After all, he’d already taken 30 seconds without saying anything. “Well, uh, wow, 10 seconds. Uh, what we do is we help people who are frustrated with their E-commerce platforms.” “I’m not frustrated with anything,” I told him. “Thanks for calling.” End of one really bad cold call.
I’d bet that guy sits there and thinks, “Darn…cold calls don’t work at all!” And I bet they don’t….for him. Chadwick was a virtual how-not-to-do-it of cold calling. It’s probably not his fault; he didn’t seem like a bad guy. But neither did he seem like a good use of my time in conversation, and that’s really what we’re seeking in a cold call environment – to convince someone that time spent with us is time worth spending. Chadwick failed. Step by step, let’s discuss why, and within this, you’ll discover ways that your cold calls can be more effective.
Improper introduction. “Heyyy, Troy, this is Chadwick.” If you want to call someone that you know and just say, “This is me,” go ahead and do it. But implied familiarity in situations where no familiarity is really established is bad, and it puts people on the defense from the start. I think Chadwick (and yes, that’s the real name he gave me) is trying to fool people into thinking that he’s an acquaintance of some sort. That ruins his credibility out of the gate, plus it forces me into the “what the heck is this guy trying to sell me” guessing game. A proper introduction for a cold call is your name (I prefer first and last), and your company name.
Asking me for validation. “Does that name ring a bell?” This is one of the most common ways that salespeople screw up a cold call – begging the prospect for some validation. “Did you get my brochure?” is another way; so is, “Is this a good time to talk?” The all-time worst is, “How are you today?” When you ask the prospect for validation at the start of the call – before the prospect has any reason to validate you – you’re simply injecting your own fear into the process and letting your prospect know that not only are you a salesperson, you’re not a good one or a confident one.
Stammering and waddling around. “Uhhhh….wow….” Once it’s established that I have no idea who he is or why he’s calling, it threw Chadwick off his game, whatever that game might have been. It took him quite a while to figure out what to do – and while he was figuring that out, I was trying to figure out how to get him off the phone so I could get back to my day. When you call, you need to know what you’re going to say and how to handle the conversation. “Be prepared” isn’t just the Boy Scout motto.
Hinging on “pain.” Yes, yes, I know; “Find the pain” is a mantra for some salespeople. The trouble was that Chadwick limited his conversation. If I’m not ‘frustrated’ with my website – and I’m decidedly not – he’s dead in the water. Instead of ‘pain,’ focus on needs and advantages. If you take the approach that, “Whatever I do can help you do what you’re doing better, regardless of whether you’re doing it badly or not,” you’ve got a shot even if your buyer isn’t frustrated and upset.
In this call, Chadwick proved that he was a little sneaky and greasy, that he wasn’t going to be efficient with our time together, and that he really didn’t have anything to offer me. Hence, no appointment and no sale.
If your cold calls don’t communicate an advantage and a positive effect quickly, then the problem isn’t that “cold calling doesn’t work.” It’s your calls.
