How To Make a Flawless Cold Call

Few sales activities are harder than cold calling. But not to worry. This post contains just about everything you need to know to make flawless cold calls. If you follow this simple seven-step process, I guarantee that you'll be able to load up your pipeline with qualified leads.

So, are you ready to get some business? If so, read on...

CLICK for Step #1 »
Illustrations by: Dirk Püschel
READERS: An easy-to-follow system for selling B2B -- including an improved version of this post -- is provided in my new book How to Say It: Business to Business Selling available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or Indiebound.
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STEP #1: TARGET REAL OPPORTUNITIES If you're going to cold call, you need to target people who are likely to buy.

There are many ways to get lists of leads, but typically you'll either get them from your marketing group or you'll have access to an online service that allows you to pull potential prospects off the web.

The challenge is winnowing down that list to the prospects who are most likely to buy. There are three general criteria that are always important:

• Target Industries. Based upon your experience (and that of your colleagues), figure out which industries have both the greatest need for your offering as well as the money to purchase your offering. You should limit your target to one or two industries at most.
• Target Job Titles. Within each industry there are "natural" buyers who either purchase offerings similar to yours or greatly influence such purchases. Based on your experience (and that of your colleagues) figure out the two or three specific titles that this natural buyer usually has within your target industry.
• Trigger Events. For most products (especially B2B) there are key events that signal a likelihood to buy. For example, if you sell services to help companies integrate normally-incompatible computer systems, a corporate merger or acquisition will usually open up a sales opportunity. Other trigger events are job changes, reorganizations, big sales wins in the prospect's firm, etc.

If you don't have the money to spend on a service like this, you can do your own research on the web. It takes a bit longer, but it's almost as effective in the long run.

Need some help with targeting? See: Research a Prospect in 10 Minutes,
CLICK for Step #2 » STEP #2: CREATE A WINNING SCRIPT
An effective cold calling script has the following characteristics:

• It is about 30-45 seconds long.
• It includes absolutely no small talk.
• It delivers a specific, compelling reason for the prospect to want to continue the conversation.
• It uncovers a problem in their business that you can help them fix.

An effective cold calling script has the following structure:

• Tell them your name and company
• Ask permission for 45 seconds and tell them they can end the conversation after that if they want to.
• Get right to the point
• Help then identify their business problems by offering a short "menu"

Rick, this is Josh Snider from Ace Delivery. May I take 45 seconds to tell you why I am calling and then you can tell me if we should continue speaking? I work with owners of small manufacturing companies that from time to time are frustrated because their customers do not get their shipments on time as promised, even though you completed the job on time. They are concerned about retaining their customers in the face of more competition and they are looking for ways to increase the reliability and consistency of product delivery. Rick, are any of the things I mentioned issues for you or is everything running 100% smoothly?"

Note: The above is based upon the post "Cold Calling = Dialing for Dollars" contributed by sales trainer Ron Silver.

Need some help with your script? Try: Is Your Cold Calling Script Effective?
CLICK for Step #3 » STEP #3: PRACTICE YOUR TECHNIQUE
Many sales reps "sound like" sales reps -- and that can be a big impediment to making the sale. If you're selling to decision-makers, you need to sound like a decision-maker, not a sales rep. Every time you sound "like a salesman," you're communicating that you're only there to sell and your credibility flies out the window.

Here's how to get rid of salesman voice. First, learn to identify it. A good way to do this is to listen to some of the sound clips in Top 10 Classic Cold Call Blunders, Or you can watch the following clip from the movie "Pursuit of Happyness" where (despite his success at this call) Will Smith -- an excellent actor -- has exactly adopted a real-life "sales voice."

Note: the clip above is what NOT to do. Yes, it worked in the movie, but that's the movie. I assure you that Chris Gardner (the real guy the movie is based upon) does not sound ANYTHING like a typical sales guy.

Now that you know how a "sales rep" sounds, set up a tape recorder by your phone and record your voice saying the script. (Say it from memory; don't read it.) If you've got "salesman voice," try it again, but instead imagine that you're you're one of your customers talking to a customer in the same industry and job level.

In other words, if you're selling to CEOs, keep practicing until you sound like a CEO. Similarly, if you're selling to IT managers, keep practicing until you sound like an IT manager. The point here is to practice until that "sales voice" is completely eradicated.

CLICK for Step #4 » STEP #4: SCHEDULE THE RIGHT TIME
You'll never get the cold calling done unless you schedule a regular time each week to make the calls. The trick here is scheduling your cold calling at the times when prospects are most likely to agree to a future meeting and thus become a potential customer.

The "right time" varies according to whether you're working from a static list (like one built from the search of a database) or working on leads being fed to you from a web site where potential prospects are constantly coming and going.

If you're working from a list, the best day to call is Thursday while the worst day to call is Friday. In addition, the best times to call are 8am to 9am and 4pm to 5pm, while the worst time to call is 1pm to 2pm.

If you're working from a website feed, the best time to call is within 5 minutes from the time that the potential prospect was viewing your website. Turns out you are 4 times more likely to successfully qualify a lead if you call within 5 minutes than if you call between 5 and 10 minutes. And you are 21 times more likely to qualify a lead if you call within 5 minutes than if you wait for 30 minutes.

The above is based upon the research of Dr. James Oldroyd (from the Korean business school SKK GSB) who recently examined and analyzed the electronic logs of more than a million cold calls, made by thousands of sales professionals inside approximately 50 companies.

Want some more info the timing of cold-calling? See: What's the Best Time to Cold Call? or The Mad Scientist of Cold Calling.

CLICK for Step #5 » STEP #5: GET THE RIGHT ATTITUDE
Most of your success in cold calling will depend not upon your product or the quality of your leads, but on your attitude as you approach the cold-calling process. Here are five tips to help you achieve the best attitude for this part of your job:

1. Use a headset, not a handset. You want both hands free so that you can talk as if you're talking in person.
2. Sit up straight and smile. If you're slumped and frowning, the prospect will "sense" it, even from a distance.
3. Visualize success. Think of a time when you won a big sale. Put your mind and memory and emotions in that place.
4. Practice your script. Practice what to say if you reach a gatekeeper and what to say if you reach a decision-maker.
5. Lay aside your sales goals. These get in the way if you focus too much on them. It's about the customer, not about you.

This is a VERY important point. As my friend Ron Silver points out, "cold calling" is a "discarding" or "disqualifying" process, like panning for gold or digging for diamonds. You have to turn over a lot of dirt before you find the gems.

If you fail to get this, you're destined to get frustrated. So, rather than trying to get as many leads as possible into the pipeline, use the cold calling process to avoid wasting time and effort on people who will never buy.

Because of this, you must make a point to make every cold call into a "win." It's a BIG WIN every time you can scratch a "lead" off your list, because that means you're not going to be chasing wild geese around mulberry bushes.

Note: if you want a good laugh, check out this post: Top 10 Classic Cold Call Blunders. It's got some hilarious examples of what NOT to do.

BE FOREWARNED: You'll often end up dealing with voice-mail and intermittent delays. To overcome this, you can use a service like ConnectAndSell, or you can extend your cold-calling technique to include overcoming gatekeepers and leaving effective voice mails. Here's some advice on this:

• How to Prospect Using Voice Mail
• How to Bypass a Gatekeeper
• Talk to Gatekeepers with Authority

If you're serious about moving the sale forward and eventually moving to closing the deal, there are four posts that you absolutely MUST master. They are:

• A Foolproof Cold-Calling Script
• The Ultimate Cold-Calling Tool
• The Ultimate Prospect Qualification Tool
• How to Close a Sale in 6 Easy Steps