Quiz: The Purpose of a Cold Call
When you call a sales lead for the first time (i.e. a cold call), you naturally hope it will eventually lead to a sale. What happens next, therefore, is crucial. So here's the most important question ever posted in this blog:
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The correct answer is eliminate the lead from your list.
I realize that this probably isn't what you've been taught but the most useful thing that can happen during a cold call is discovering that it would be a waste of time to continue to contact that lead. Here's why.
Selling costs money. It costs your company money. It costs you money. The longer a sales "opportunity" takes to close, the more money it consumes. That's fine... if the sale eventually happens. But what if there never was a chance of making a sale? In that case, any money spent pursuing that "opportunity" is wasted.
Cold calling, even with highly researched lists if people who've indicated an interest in your offering, always involves contacting some percentage of people who are not real prospects. The longer those folks remain in your pipeline, the less likely you are to focus on REAL prospects who will actually buy.
Don't assume just because somebody with the right job title cruises your website that they're a sure thing. Even top executives have been known to window shop.
And the ABSOLUTE worst thing that can happen to you when cold-calling is to reach a false prospect who agrees to a meeting but has no intention of buying from you. That's just flushing money down the toilet.
Therefore, your PRIMARY goal in cold calling is to disqualify leads. The leads that you don't disqualify are the leads that are worth pursuing.
Unfortunately, a lot of sales training teaches you to assume that every lead is a potential customer because you can just "convince" or "persuade" them to buy. Good luck with that! Never worked. Never will.
READERS: Care to argue this point?
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