Marketing Mondays: 5 Tips to Better Cold-Calling

Very few people find cold-calling fun. I generally advise against it – at least not as a first course of action.

Sales don’t get made over the phone on a first call.

But when the time comes that you need to cold call, here are a few tips to help you do it effectively:

Select your targets well – Establish a criteria for the kinds of companies you want to contact and who would be your ideal client.

Do your research – Learn as much about each company and person before you call them.

Don’t talk about yourself – Make the call about the person you’re calling. Your job is to figure out how you can help them. What can you do to help them make more money?

Solve their problem. Help them to buy.

Don’t sell – Sales don’t get made over the phone on a first call. The goal of your call is to get a next meeting. You should ask the person whether they’d be interested in learning how they can ___________ (increase their sales 10% in 30 days, speed up their manufacturing process, etc)? If you’ve qualified people properly they will say YES. And then you suggest that you meet on a specified day for 5-10 mins to talk more with them.

Time – Sales takes time. Don’t rush it. With each contact you should be moving closer to the sale. But don’t sell. Nobody wants to be sold to. They want to buy – but because they feel it’s the right decision, not because you’ve sold them.

Another approach is to offer something of value for free to the company. A free audit, assessment, review, report, etc. If they say yes, they are a good candidate to spend more time with. And once they do, you now have your chance to demonstrate your consulting expertise and skills and to build credibility with them…again, moving them closer to being ready to buy.

Solve their problem. Help them to buy.