Five Tips For Successful Cold Calling | BTalk

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Art Sobczak

(Episode 430; 19 minutes 40) Actually there're six tips for successful cold calling in today's BTalk. The first one is not to call it cold calling. Art Sobczak, President of Business by Phone Inc, says smart calling is the way to go. It implies that you've thought about each conversation rather than blindly working your way through the phone book.

Art's new book, Smart Calling: Eliminate the Fear, Failure and Rejection From Cold Calling, will be released at the end of March. He gives us a taste of the advice from the book with five tips that will lead to more successful business prospecting over the phone.

In the podcast Art also gives an example of a bad sales pitch and how, by following the five tips, your approach to a prospective customer can provide a more beneficial outcome.

• Transcript

Phil Dobbie: Hello, I'm Phil Dobbie, this is BTalk. And today, five ways to get better at cold calling a business prospect.
Well, cold calling, you just have to do it sometimes don't you, if you want to get new business for your company? Unless of course you're deluded into thinking the business will always come your way, as if by magic. But for most people, the idea of a cold call is a pretty scary one. We all hate that fear of rejection, don't we? Or perhaps it's the tedium of spending all that time making call after call without getting a good result or sale from every call we make. So what are the secrets to successful cold calling? Art Sobczak has five tips for successful business-to-business cold calling. Art is the president of Business By Phone, based in Omaha in the United States. He's been publishing his newsletter, which is called the Telephone Prospecting and Selling Report, for 25 years. And he's written several books on the subject as well with a new one, Smart Calling, out soon. So we'll talk about the new book in a second, Art, but let's go through these five tips first of all. Number one, it's that old chestnut, isn't it? It's seeing things from the customer's side.
Art Sobczak: Absolutely. First of all, Phil, thank you for inviting me. And we're going to quit using the term "cold calling" if you don't mind because of the very reasons you mentioned. People hate doing it simply because the term cold calling implies something negative. And so it should. Cold calling is really calling somebody you don't know, that doesn't know you and you're trying to sell them something. So therefore I've used the name Smart Calling, the title of the new book, which we'll get to here in a second. But I'm going to give you some of the principles that are going to make something a smart call. If I could, before I even go into these tips, could I give you an example of a dumb cold call?

Dobbie: Yes.
Sobczak: Opening statement? Ok, here we go. So let's say I called you up and said "Hi Phil, I'm Dale Doofus with Insurance Partners and we provide employee benefits including health insurance. And I'd like to take 10 minutes of your time and tell you what we do. And show you how we could save you some time and money. I'll be in your area next week and can we meet either Tuesday or Wednesday morning?" Now, that was a dumb cold call and there were no fewer than seven mistakes made right there in that opening statement. Although some people might listen to that and say well you know, that didn't sound too bad.

Dobbie: But it's the way you do it, it doesn't sound too bad, but 10 minutes scared me off, that was the one I picked up, the idea I haven't got 10 minutes thank you. I'm a busy man.
Sobczak: Yes, that is certainly and I wanted to take something from you. I wanted to take 10 minutes of your time.

Dobbie: Yes.
Sobczak: So I will actually be answering some of those mistakes and I'm going to give you a good example at the end of my five tips here. So let me answer your first question --- I believe you asked me something about it needs to be all about them, correct?

Dobbie: Yes, it does. I mean very often we say don't we, you've got to see things from the customer's side and but then we often do the opposite. And we just think about us.
Sobczak: Exactly. I refer to it as the group photo mentality. Who's the first person anybody looks at in a group photo? Themselves. So, we need to take off our own group photo mentality mindset or hat and put theirs on. And in that example I gave you, that caller said I want to tell you want we do. Ok? So he really wasn't all about the customer. So what I would suggest that prospectors, smart callers do is first of all you have to sit down and do a little analysis and put yourself in the mind of the person that you're calling. I want to think based on what I'm selling here, what it is that I might help them potentially gain, what might I help them avoid? How might I help them personally? And how have I helped others in similar situations? So what we're doing here, Phil, is we're coming up with what we call a possible value proposition. Some people call it an elevator pitch or some people just call it a value proposition. I call it a possible value proposition because we certainly don't know yet if it's going to be a value for them. Because we'll need to find that out in the call itself. So you really need to sit down, take some time, analyse it from their perspective and what might I have for them? So for example, if you're calling dentists, you might say we've helped other pediatric dentists cut their costs of new patient acquisition by an average of 50 percent while increasing your number of new patients by 25 percent within 6 months. So that is something that's very tangible, it's something we've done and it's something that they likely would want. But you got to have that before you ever pick up the phone.

Dobbie: Right. And before you pick up the phone and I can see how this might help. Your second one is actually learn a little bit about the company that you're talking to in advance.
Sobczak: This is what really makes the difference between the smart call and the dumb cold call. As an interviewer, Phil, if you somehow scored an interview with Oprah Winfrey, and you started out your interview with well, today I have Miss Winfrey on the phone and let's start with this. Miss Winfrey, could you please tell me what you do? That would be absurd, right?

Dobbie: Well, she's nowhere near as popular in Australia as she is in the United States first of all ...
Sobczak: Well, that's true --- maybe that wasn't a good example.

Dobbie: Oh no, she's pretty big over here as well, but I know what you're saying. You've really got to know who you're talking to and otherwise they'll be insulted, won't they really.
Sobczak: Absolutely. Now, if I can call you up and if I can know something about you and appeal to something that's going on in your world, and somehow create a value statement that's tied into that, now all of the sudden you're not going to perceive me as a cold caller or as a sales person, but as somebody that might have something of value. Fore example, if I called you up and said: Phil, I understand that you're in the process of writing your first novel. We've been working with other people in a similar situation, we've been providing some ideas that have helped them get published and get on the best-seller list.

Dobbie: Right. You've done number two, haven't you? You've been to my website, you've researched me before we did this interview.
Sobczak: I practice what I preach, Phil.

[Laughter]

Dobbie: So the third one is how you treat the gatekeeper. Now, when you're cold calling, of course we're not using that term now, but even with smart calling, you've got to get past the receptionist. You've got to get through to the decision maker. How do you do that?
Sobczak: Well here's something else that is commonly looked at as a negative in sales. In addition to the term cold calling, calling these people "screeners" and "gatekeepers". That's normally how they're referred to and as a result the actions follow. So many folks out there are taught that you need to go above, around, through, over or under gatekeepers. The fact is that these people are the most important people in your life at that very moment. And a big mistake that a lot of salespeople make is they think they're smarter than the gatekeeper.

Dobbie: Yes.
Sobczak: The gatekeeper's job (and I call them the assistant or the helper), their job is not to get rid of all salespeople. It's to decide who is important enough to speak with their boss. Now, what I like to do is approach it with a mindset of, I need to treat this person like a decision maker because in some cases, they may be an influencer and they certainly are a decision maker as to whether or not I'm going to be put through. So I'm going to do two things. Number one, I'm going to treat them with total respect. Also if they want information from you, if they ask what the call is about, I'm going to give a version of my opening statement. So I'm going to tell them (and of course I'm going to get their name) and I'll say, yes, Penny, actually the reason I'm calling is that depending on what he or she is doing now in the area of, we might have a couple options here that potentially could help them. So I'm going to give a version of the value statement. I'm not going to talk about product, but they need to know that "Oh, this is somebody that has something important". Then the other thing I'm going to do is that I'm going to engage them in a conversation. I'm going to use them also to do what I mentioned in my previous point and that is get some information. In the book, I mention a term called social engineering which normally has been associated with people who use it for deceptive methodologies, which is to go inside a company and poke around and try to get information for reasons that are not completely ethical. We're going to use social engineering to get information that's going to help us provide value to the decision maker. So I'll say to the assistant, as a matter of fact, there's probably some information you could help me with so I'm better prepared when I speak with him or her. For example, can you give me some idea now of where he's at regarding the selection process regarding your health insurance? So I'm going to engage that person in a conversation. So now what I'm doing is two things, several things actually. I'm letting them know I'm not a typical sales person. I'm engaging them in a process, helping them feel important. And letting them know that I'm truly concerned about not wasting the boss's time but making sure that what I have is going to truly be relevant to something they're working on right now.

Dobbie: Yes. And I guess the other thing as well, I mean you may not get the opportunity to talk to the boss that time. The boss might be out of the office for example or just too busy to talk. But at least you've planted the seed, haven't you, with somebody in the company. And who knows what goes on in there. I mean the person you're talking to might be the biggest influencer of the boss's decision at the end of the day, might be a person they trust implicitly.
Sobczak: I read some real garbage in a sales book not too long ago. It said don't give any information to the assistant because she can't buy from you. Well, that's wrong on two levels. Number one, even if they can't buy from you, they can make sure no one buys from you, which they often do. And the other one is that that is wrong in many cases because they could be an influencer and they could, and I've had situations where I've had them actually set up the appointment for me to speak with the decision maker and in some cases recommend to the decision maker that we're who they go with for their training because I spend time with them. And actually sold them as to why we should be recommended.

Dobbie: Yes. Ok, the fourth one --- it seems a little bit obvious, but it's crucial isn't it? It's all to do with what you have to say. You have to make sure it's interesting.
Sobczak: It's having an interest-creating value statement. You have roughly five to ten seconds to pique their curiosity. You either create interest or your create resistance in the first 5 to 10 seconds. Most calls, based on my experience over the past 28 years, create resistance in the first 5 or 10 seconds. And I have a list of about 20 things I suggest you avoid that we have in the book, things such as starting out with talking about product, asking for --- well that's actually going to be my next point. You ask them for a decision in the opening statement, asking for an appointment in the opening. You definitely don't want to do that. If you just simply say, hey, we sell widgets, I'd like to talk to you about what you're using. There's no reason for them to answer that question. We want to go back to that possible value point and tell them what we may be able to do for them. And then as quickly as possible move them to the questioning phase of the call. Let me give you an example of this, when you're all done.

Dobbie: How did you do that though in a way that doesn't sound too sales-pushy? So, for example, if someone was to say to me, hey you know, how would you like to save 20 percent on your bottom line by spending very little money? I'd just go well you know that sounds preposterous, get out of the way.
Sobczak: Yes, that does, because that is actually what I'm going to say. You're sounding salesy, you're sounding cheesy and let's face it, an old tired line is, Phil we could probably help you save time and money. Yes, of course, but I want to get a little bit more specific and tell you how. So for example, Phil we work with many other independent business people, freelancers, people who do nationwide podcasts and what we've been able to do is help them get their message out there and get syndicated. In many cases, to X number of stations while helping them do it at a lesser cost than many of the other PR companies out there that are charging them a flat rate.

Dobbie: Now this is sounding interesting. We'll talk about this after my interview.
[Laughter]
But I understand what you're trying to say there. Let's get to the final one which you've sort of already alluded to, which is trying to get them to make a decision too quickly, basically. I mean, in other words going for the kill when that person is not ready. And I guess thing here is it's easy at that point for somebody to say no. And that's the worst thing, isn't it? Because once they've said no, there's no going back from that.
Sobczak: Well, not necessarily. I can touch on that here in a second. But the first part of that is a big problem. So what is commonly been taught for years and years in prospecting or cold calling is the phone is only meant to set an appointment. Get the appointment as quickly as possible, go for the appointment in the opening, which is absurd. If you call somebody up that doesn't know you and you ask for a decision in the first 10 seconds, of course the answer is going to be no. I jokingly compare this to somebody going up to somebody else in a bar that they don't know and simply starting out with, hey you want to get into a relationship?

Dobbie: And that doesn't work.
Sobczak: It's a little early for that question. You know that might be the end result, but we have to go through a process. So what we want to do is we want to pique their curiosity. I tell people that really you only have really two purposes for your opening. Number one, let's put in a positive receptive state of mind, a curious state of mind so they want to participate and then get them talking as quickly as possible. Now once I have them talking, I can ask questions, questions designed to get them talking about their possible needs or pains or problems or desires. The more they talk about that, the further I'm moving them down into a position where I can make a recommendation that's going to be more on target, whether it be the recommendation for an appointment or to engage them into a sales conversation.

Dobbie: Right. And that would work if you were trying to pick up at a bar as well.
Sobczak: You know what's interesting about being in sales is that this is one field where everything that we use in sales is used in all areas of your life. You know, you've got people in accounting where you know, God love you, do a great job, but you know you can't use it all the time. Sales is pretty powerful stuff.

Dobbie: So with those five points, I mean if we go back to your original sales pitch, can you do that again? I want to see how many of these we've resolved I guess.
Sobczak: Yes. Well let me give you a bad one and then I'll point out some of the mistakes and I'll give you a good one.

Dobbie: Yes.
Sobczak: So I think I started out with "Hi, Phil, I'm Dale Doofus with Insurance Partners. We provide employee benefits including health insurance. I'd like to take 10 minutes of your time and tell you what we do and show you how we could save you time and money. I'll be in your area next week, can we meet either Tuesday or Wednesday morning?

Dobbie: Yes.
Sobczak: So what I did there was I simply talked about product, people can resist product. That's a mistake. I want to take 10 minutes of your time, that's a mistake. Because you say you wanted to do something before you gave them any potential value. You say you're going to tell them what we do, show them something. People don't want to be pitched. That's a mistake. I said we could save you time and money but I really haven't substantiated how I could do that or how I've done it for other people. I'm going to be in your area next week, can we meet Tuesday or Wednesday? I'm asking for an appointment before I've given you any reason to even stay on the phone, let alone meet with me.

Dobbie: So Dale Doofus didn't do well there. So give me a good one.
Sobczak: So let's say, and I use another example here, this one actually pulled out of the book. And I started out with "Hi, Michael, in that first example he used the term "Hi, Mike". Now, the point I wanted to make with that is that we want to find out how somebody prefers to be referred to on a call. And I would do that by talking to an assistant. I would say well I see Mr Smith's name is Michael, does he prefer Michael or does he like to be called Mike? I want to find that out in advance. The first guy made the mistake of not asking that, so he called the person Mike. So I'd start out with "Hi, Michael, I'm Pat Stevens with Insurance Partners. I hope you enjoyed your golf vacation. Now you see I found that out by doing some social engineering prior to the call, so I knew he was gone for a while. Alright? So now, in speaking with your assistant Susanne, I understand that you're in the process of evaluating your competitive edge in the employment market and what you can do to attract and keep the top talent in your various locations. Well, what we've been able to do is to help other companies in that same situation lower their recruiting and hiring expenses while at the same time increasing their retention of their managerial staff. And I'd simply like to ask you a few questions to see if I could provide you with some information.

Dobbie: Right, sounds good. You've opened the conversation up.
Sobczak: Yes. And what I've done there is that I've indicated that I know something about you. So I know what's going on in your world, so I know this is an issue. I tell you where I've gotten that information because I was talking to Susanne. And then I give you some of what's called social proof. We've done it for other companies. So I'm not saying I can do that for you, that's another mistake. If I simply said we can do the same thing for you, because if I said that you could legitimately say well you don't know anything about me. How could you do that? But yet that's a mistake the sales people make all the time as well. So I say we've done it for other people and I'd like to ask you a few questions. So notice here I'm just getting you to the questioning phase of the call.

Dobbie: Yes, now it sounds like a lot of sense. So cold calling is not the term. It's smart calling that we want to engage in and that's means a little bit more preparation and following those five tips. So there's a whole book just about to come out on this. Now this is you've written a few books in your time. Is this number five?
Sobczak: This is number five as far as real books. We've created about 200 different products over the years: audios, videos, eBooks, all kinds of things. But yes, this is actually the first book with a major publisher. We've self published in the past. People can see those at our website which is businessbyphone.com. But this book is again Smart Calling and the subtitle is "Eliminate the Fear of Failure and Rejection From Cold Calling". We could probably talk about that in another interview. But yes, you don't need to experience rejection ever again.

Dobbie: Right.
Sobczak: And that will be out March 31, it is available for presale on Amazon.com right now and it's Smart Calling.

Dobbie: That's great, ok. Well thank you very much for your time. I've enjoyed it. And let's make sure we do talk again at some point in the future. Art Sobczak, for now thank you for your time.
Sobczak: Thank you, any time, Phil.

Dobbie: Some good stuff isn't it?