How do you stay true to yourself during cold calling?
Picking up the phone remains one of the best
ways of finding new customers. At the same time,
many entrepreneurs dislike the idea of cold calling. Why is that? Is
the threshold of making a commercial call to somebody you don't know simply too
high? Are you embarrassed? Or is it because you assume a role
that they don't feel comfortable with?
These are the questions that came up when I recently provided a hands-on training about cold calling. Because these questions are relevant to many entrepreneurs, I'd like to share this case study with you, including the insights the attendees had gotten by the end of my training.
Case study
Some time ago, the founders of JobBootcamp asked me to provide a training about cold calling. JobBootcamp is well known for their active one-day job application training, which provides attendants with a wide range of workshops, as well as the tools for successfully taking part in job interviews. Since JobBootcamp was professionalizing their sales department at the time, they needed a hands-on training that dealt with cold calling.
Preparation is key
This particular training consisted of two half days. The first hands-on morning dealt with preparing for a cold call. We asked ourselves the following questions: Who are our prospects? and What are their needs? As the saying goes, "good preparation is half the battle won" – that definitely applies to cold calling as well. During this preparation, you will definitely need a conversational structure and cold calling script. These will provide you with a clear framework during your phone call. It's also helpful to keep a certain goal in mind. However, we found out during a number of role-playing exercises that rigidly keeping to your cold calling script actually works against you. That was when the workshop got really interesting. We decided to let go of the standard calling script and focus on the difficulties a prospect may face. In case of JobBootcamp’s services, this often meant saying goodbye to employees, as well as employee mobility.
Staying true to yourself during cold calling
Once we started actually making calls to prospects during the second part of the workshop, we discovered that staying true to yourself yields the best results. We didn't start conversations from a closed framework while trying to close a sale, but with an open mind that allowed us to have a conversation on a personal level. How is a prospect deal with certain issues? What is the prospect's vision on these? How does this play into the USP's for your product or service? Cold calling is not about just reciting a standard script or aggressively selling products. It's about being able to be yourself in a conversation. By assuming the role or conducting a "fake" conversation, you'll not only have less success in your cold calling, but you will most likely feel less at ease while doing it as well.
Prepare yourself, use a sound basic conversational structure, keep your customer in mind and be yourself. And before you know it, cold calling will be second nature to you!
These are the questions that came up when I recently provided a hands-on training about cold calling. Because these questions are relevant to many entrepreneurs, I'd like to share this case study with you, including the insights the attendees had gotten by the end of my training.
Case study
Some time ago, the founders of JobBootcamp asked me to provide a training about cold calling. JobBootcamp is well known for their active one-day job application training, which provides attendants with a wide range of workshops, as well as the tools for successfully taking part in job interviews. Since JobBootcamp was professionalizing their sales department at the time, they needed a hands-on training that dealt with cold calling.
Preparation is key
This particular training consisted of two half days. The first hands-on morning dealt with preparing for a cold call. We asked ourselves the following questions: Who are our prospects? and What are their needs? As the saying goes, "good preparation is half the battle won" – that definitely applies to cold calling as well. During this preparation, you will definitely need a conversational structure and cold calling script. These will provide you with a clear framework during your phone call. It's also helpful to keep a certain goal in mind. However, we found out during a number of role-playing exercises that rigidly keeping to your cold calling script actually works against you. That was when the workshop got really interesting. We decided to let go of the standard calling script and focus on the difficulties a prospect may face. In case of JobBootcamp’s services, this often meant saying goodbye to employees, as well as employee mobility.
Staying true to yourself during cold calling
Once we started actually making calls to prospects during the second part of the workshop, we discovered that staying true to yourself yields the best results. We didn't start conversations from a closed framework while trying to close a sale, but with an open mind that allowed us to have a conversation on a personal level. How is a prospect deal with certain issues? What is the prospect's vision on these? How does this play into the USP's for your product or service? Cold calling is not about just reciting a standard script or aggressively selling products. It's about being able to be yourself in a conversation. By assuming the role or conducting a "fake" conversation, you'll not only have less success in your cold calling, but you will most likely feel less at ease while doing it as well.
Prepare yourself, use a sound basic conversational structure, keep your customer in mind and be yourself. And before you know it, cold calling will be second nature to you!
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