Sales calls – the good, the not now and the no thank you.
Salespeople - slick patter and shiny suits? not interested, thank you. Managed correctly, speaking to someone on the phone is the most powerful and quickest way to reach a prospect and find out their needs. We like to reframe the initial ‘cold sales call’ to the less daunting ‘fact-finding call’. If we need to find out some information, most people have the confidence to pick up the phone to call a business, so what’s the difference?
Calling a business cold with a view to introducing your services requires research and planning. From navigating past scary, military trained receptionists (receiving hundreds of similar calls daily), to introducing yourself, the reason for getting in touch and surviving past the first thirty seconds is indeed a skill.
Here are our tips to help you plan your call.
Do your research on the company ahead of the call (latest news, LinkedIn profiles, website) and write down questions you would like to ask.
— On the call, very briefly introduce yourself, your business and the reason for getting in touch.
— If you sense it’s not a good time, politely ask if there would be a better day/time to call back. Never push a conversation, you can usually tell if the person sounds stressed!
— Yes, they have a need. Fantastic! Now you have a clear path to ask the questions you’ve researched and to suggest finding an hour for a face2face or Teams/Zoom with the relevant senior people in your organisation. Ask them if they have their diary to hand and if we can book something in now?
— No, they are happy with their incumbent supplier, manage in-house etc. There will always be a % of businesses who don’t have a need. All this requires is a simple thank you for your time and goodbye.
Make sure you log the details of the call in your CRM or database (in accordance with GDPR guidelines) and set an activity for a follow-up call or action. Before long you will have a growing audience for you to nurture. When the prospect eventually does have a need, you will be front of mind and included in any process.
