Cold calling/Sales techniques

[macker]

If you are new to your sales job and need to generate activity this approach does work. It is a great way to learn to think on your feet and learn a lot about human nature to refine why people buy. Try it for a week and you will be forced to know everything about what you are selling by effectively handling objections. With the right attitude it is fun and with the right appearance it is easy. There are a lot of people out there just waiting to hear what you have to say. Many others will tell you to beat it but if you are new you are hungry for business and won't care. ABC

[return to the red]

When I first graduated from university I pretty much had to take a job cold calling over the phone. Hated it but it was great experience. I always make a point of not being rude to someone because I know they could be in the exact situation I was in.

"I know my life sucks sir and I'm sorry to inconvenience you with this call but is it really necessary to tell me to go find the dullest object around me and impale myself with it or staple my eyelids shut so I can't dial your number anymore? I have to eat too!"

Advice, switch things up. It gets boring when you use the same intro, greeting, whatever all the time and in turn you sound like "that sales guy" that hates his job or treats everyone as just a name. You'll find greater success when people can relate to you or generally feel you are interested in their business and having something that could benefit them.

Never say "I don't know". You should be saying "That's a good question, let me find that out and get back to you"

[-TC-]

Originally Posted by J pold

I tend to agree but my question is what is a viable alternative?

We don't have to cold call, it's just one of the recommended means of prospecting for what we do. It's a tool in the tool bag, but probably the one that gets used the most often.

what do you do?

[J pold]

Originally Posted by -TC-

what do you do?

Commercial Real Estate Broker – we advise companies on economics of their real estate (office space) so service related rather than an actual product. 90% of companies in Calgary lease space in various building from their landlords. We represent companies in lease negotiations or help them find new space as most companies aren’t sure what fair market value for space is. As a broker I get a fee when I put a company in a building but our fees are paid by Landlords (think fees being paid by sellers in res real estate) so my services don’t actually cost anything to the companies I am calling.

I mostly call companies a couple years in advance of their lease expiry, offer them up some market information, and keep up the updated regularly so that when the time comes for them to sign a lease they use our services.

[yads]

I know our company uses a cold calling service and we've generated leads and work from them. So it does still have a place.

[Daradon]

Yeah, some great tips from Captain, as he said, it's necessary in most businesses to fill in the slow times, to average out your highs and lows. To have a constant stream of leads and prospects coming in. And like a few of us have mentioned here, it's really a good exercise that will make you a better salesperson in general.

[bootsnixon]

Interesting thread. I'm a small business owner in the service industry and have noticed a shift in the last couple of years. If you can believe it, I only advertised in the Yellow Pages and got more work than I wanted. I've been knowing this is coming and am not very comfortable with sales, but know I need to start selling my service a bit to grow the company. Thanks and keep the advice coming Salesmen!

[J pold]

Originally Posted by Slava

I'm going to type a fuller post later when I have some time, but cold calling is a waste of time. I know some people swear by it, and there is always some cold-call cowboy who built his business that way and will tell you otherwise, but its a complete waste.

Any follow up on this? I'm interested to hear what you have to say on the topic.

[-TC-]

Originally Posted by J pold

Commercial Real Estate Broker – we advise companies on economics of their real estate (office space) so service related rather than an actual product. 90% of companies in Calgary lease space in various building from their landlords. We represent companies in lease negotiations or help them find new space as most companies aren’t sure what fair market value for space is. As a broker I get a fee when I put a company in a building but our fees are paid by Landlords (think fees being paid by sellers in res real estate) so my services don’t actually cost anything to the companies I am calling.

I mostly call companies a couple years in advance of their lease expiry, offer them up some market information, and keep up the updated regularly so that when the time comes for them to sign a lease they use our services.

Ahhh gotcha...

What about getting your customers to give you referrals so you can at least make a warm call? Or, offer up a free lunch to a client who will put you in front of potential clients and say good things about you? Does your company ever do events?

[Slava]

Originally Posted by J pold

Any follow up on this? I'm interested to hear what you have to say on the topic.

Ya sorry, just ridiculously busy here! I definitely plan to poatmy thoughts here, hopefully in the morning when I have a few minutes. I think there is a fair amount of overlap in what I do and what you in a few ways actually. Obvious differences, but a lot of similarities.

[Slava]

OK, so here are my thoughts on cold calling and sales in general. I better say that I work in an industry where we don't really have a "product". Or at least I don't sell anything exclusive where if you want say a Honda you go to a Honda dealership or that kind of thing. Its a service more than a specific product I would say, so my thoughts are more related to that as opposed to those other kinds of transactional sales.

I think cold calls are a waste of time for a number of reasons:

A) People, specifically private people at home, won't answer the phone if they don't know who's calling. Nine times out of ten this is the case. IF they have a landline to begin with, (which is a steadily decreasing portion of people), they have call display and aren't interested in taking calls to sell them things.

B) A sort of follow-up to point (A) is that people hate being sold things. Even if you know you need to buy it and are interested, how many of us walk onto a car lot (sorry car salesmen...) and just don't want to hear the sales pitch? The idea is that I hate being sold on anything, but I do lie buying things and sometimes even have no alternative! That is a critical point IMO. No amount of cold calling gets you past this point.

C) People buy things and do business with people they like. So if a guy needs to lease some space and he knows you and likes you, chances are he gives you a call and has you find him that space. People liking you goes a long way to overcome other possible issues. No cold call gets you over this either; because people hate being sold to, and that is the only reason you're calling, you have to have something pretty damn impressive to earn that likeability and trust enough to bypass points (B) and (C).

Now some people will quickly point out that you can easily call businesses and they always answer. Fair enough. I get cold called all the time to meet with people about their investment products. We end up taking the calls, because its work and we can't very well leave these people on hold. I suppose if you consider that an increase to your odds, that is fine. I don't. I generally listen politely and have no intention of doing business with these people for the same reasons as above.

I also understand that people have the idea that they'll send an email ahead or maybe even mail ahead. I receive hundreds of emails a week promoting things. I rarely if ever read them. I'm not special....I just don't have the time. When I get the follow-up phone call asking if I saw it I'm candidly telling the caller that I probably got it and deleted it. I think that is the case more often than not. As far as the mail out goes, we fill our recycling bin at the office every week with this stuff. Many times without looking or thinking twice. I do confess that one company included actual money in their pitch and I did note only open that, but spent the money, only to laugh at them giving me money for no real benefit! It might no surprise you to hear that they're no longer in business.

People need to know what you do, and they need to be able to find you. I still think that the most effective way to do this is through networking and meeting people. In businesses like ours you have to have referrals and people telling other people about what you have done for them. This is the way you get qualified leads; the other issue with cold calling is that 1/10 guy who picks up the phone and needs your services isn't the kind of guy you are actually wanting as a client!

Lastly (and this has been way longer than I would've thought), don't fall into the "numbers game" trap. Its a joke. This is where some old-timer tells you that "If you want to make a million bucks its just a numbers game. If every appointment averages you $1000, just book a 1000 appointments. To book 1000 appointments it might take you 10,000 calls and once you get good at cold calling you can make 50 calls an hour, so that's only 200 hours. You're going to work 200 hours this year, aren't you?"

Anyway, those are my thoughts and I apologize for rambling on so long here!

[macker]

If you don't buy what you are selling nobody else will either. This can also apply to buying how you are selling or approaching people. There are many people out there that are too busy to talk to you but luckily there are many people that are ready to sit and listen. Set a limit of one day per week and go out and knock. You will soon be busy yourself.

Should this be your go to approach? No chance, you want referrals and the goal is to eventually only accept new customers by referral only but that doesn't mean that you can't go out into an industrial park and take the temperature. The phone approach is dead but the door to door salesman out on the front line will never die IMO and is making a comeback IMO in the age of faceless remote call centers. This is an easy way to stir things up. You will find out what the current providers are doing wrong and neglecting and ironically that is often that they aren't going out to the front lines to meet with their customers often enough in person.

It is surprising how much the right prospect will actually let you in on.
Let them talk/complain and then close them.

[J pold]

Originally Posted by -TC-

Ahhh gotcha...

What about getting your customers to give you referrals so you can at least make a warm call? Or, offer up a free lunch to a client who will put you in front of potential clients and say good things about you? Does your company ever do events?

We do the best we can to get referrals from our other clients. My senior brokers mostly works solely on referrals and warm introductions from his long time clients. Being a younger guy I’m tasked with building my own book, so it’s tough to get referrals when you’re starting out and your book of business is limited. Last year I started a young professionals event centered around networking with up and coming people in Calgary which was somewhat successful but got effected by the flood.

A lot of good responses and thoughts in this thread, appreciate the feedback guys.