Thawing out the Cold Call

Emails, articles and blogs are now promoting the “art of cold calling”..... and bosses everywhere are demanding that their sales teams start hitting the phones.

All too often during tough economic times, we have a tendency to sacrifice quality for quantity, or believe that working really, really hard will mostly produce better results.

Fortunately, tough economic times have an uncanny way of teaching sometimes brutal lessons for individuals unable to adapt to a changing climate. Clearly in good times, a rising tide lifts all boats; however, during difficult times, only those with a solid foundation and an honest assessment of their strengths and weaknesses will survive and thrive.

Which begs the question: “to cold call or not to cold call?”

Hey, we’ve all been there; at one time or another, we have picked up the phone and made those dreaded phone calls to new prospects. Well, giddy up cause the fun is just beginning. There will be fewer opportunities, more competition and our sales pipeline will not have the breadth and depth it once had.

Again, the question demands to be answered...“to cold call or not to cold call?”

Although the answer might surprise you, we’ve all been subjected to that familiar pensive feeling of...

What to do, what to do, what to do.

Do we....

Brush off the dust from a cold calling book we purchased years ago and start scripting the perfect cold call?
Take a cold calling course online?
Start smiling and dialing?

Hold on a second, and back up the truck just a little bit. It’s not time to panic; keep a level head and start thinking about what you can do in the short term with an eye on the medium and long term.

First things first; start right now and create an outline of your business. Begin with the easy stuff, Clients

Key Client Statistics: List them - if you use a CRM tool like salesforce.com, ACT, Siebel or simply using a notebook or Excel, make a list with the key data points.

Location
Industry
Key Contacts
What are they are currently buying
Just as important, what are they not buying

List the top 3-5 reasons why they use your product or service.

List your referenceable clients, video testimonials, client quotes, press releases, case studies, anything that you received from clients that touted you and/or, what you do.

This is crucial, so take the time to do it right - when the economy slows, folks like to do business with people they know, trust, or have been referred.

Now remember, your clients are golden, go above and beyond the “quote,” normal service and they shall reward you with repeat business, or perhaps just as important, a referral, reference call or a hot lead. But, please understand, whatever you do, your clients are the best and easiest prospects to sell to.

Okay, now for the fun stuff – Prospects:

Review your list of clients once again and list the top 3-5 reasons why they use your product or service, print it out and have it with you at all times.

Note: It’s really tough to start tapping into new niches or industries, unless you have a new product to sell, so stick with what made you successful in the first place.

Pipeline Review: A thorough examination: Clean it out – be honest with yourself – if you have a zero chance to close the opportunity, get it off your pipeline.

But remember, even if they are no longer opportunities, do not forget about them. They were interested at one time, perhaps budgets got cut, key contacts have left the company, etc....keep in contact with these through “Nurture Marketing” (more on that in another article).

Treat each opportunity like gold – make sure you understand where you are in the sales cycle. Create a SWOT (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SWOT_analysis) analysis (or something similar) for each opportunity, if you have 100’s of opportunities, then pick the largest and most important.

Determine which Opportunities can be closed this month, this quarter. Put a plan together on how you are going to close these opportunities.

Have honest and detailed conversations with your key contacts. Collaborate with your clients to determine steps and dates all the way to close – write it down and send to clients – make it a working document. This step will allow your clients to take co-ownership of the sales cycle.

Create unique offers and promotions to incent prospects to make decisions now, not later.

Okay, now what? Is it time to pull out the cold calling script?

Not even close. Make a list of all past opportunities that were delayed, lost to competition etc - again, create unique ways and offers for them to buy your product or service.

Is it time now?

Nope, make a list of all past leads and rework them. Try different techniques to get conversations going. Be creative.

List all partners, affiliations, sales contacts that might be of help – schedule weekly, bi-monthly chats – the goal is to share leads.

Do you get the picture? The idea is to warm up those cold calls.

The warmer the calls, the better and quicker the results.

Do yourself a favor, work your territory, don’t let your territory work you. Relationships take time to build. Don’t be consumed by the brainless numbers game; when you pick up the phone, make sure it’s a warm call.