10 ms·

Cold Calling Techniques

77 points by faramarz 16y ago

lebowa 16y ago
a cold call is a pitch, and a pitch is a story. learn how to tell a compelling story from beginning to end and you will find cold calls much easier and more profitable. this takes REPETITION
Terry_B 16y ago
I found "The Cold Calling Podcast" to be quite insightful and practical if anyone is interested.
- sk5t 16y ago
  I've tried to fetch this podcast, but it seems to be somehow unavailable or defunct...
  - Terry_B 16y ago
    Wow, you're right. Their site is gone and it's not downloading properly on itunes. Wonder if its out there somewhere. They stopped recording them a while ago and said they had recorded all they had to say on the topic, but shame its been taken down.
    - MarkBook 16y ago
      Take the podcast down then human nature being what it is people get interested in knowing what they've missed. This is a good technique.
lsc 16y ago
>* cold calling alone can create and be a business in its own right - because cold calling is effectively the ability to make things happen - whereas every other business activity needs cold calling to start up and survive Huh. even if you expand cold calling to include all 'approach someone to ask for a sale' this is plainly untrue, especially after the advent of the Internet. I don't think I've cold-approached even one customer. And really, my business model simply wouldn't work if i had to. with my margins, paying even a mediocre salesguy a commission would eat me alive. Actually, this is everything I don't understand about sales. What sort of person responds to a cold approach, when it is almost always the case that you can get a better deal (either a lower price, /or/ something that better meets your needs, sometimes both) going out and searching for something on your own? Are you targeting people who don't care about price only?
- j_b_f 16y ago
  Everything is dependent on your market. To paraphrase Dharmesh Shah, "enterprise products are sold, not bought." Part of that selling process is making sure prospects know you exist, and understand the value you provide. Cold calls are one way to do that. Not a very cost effective (or effective) way to do it, but still one way. Personal example: today I got a cold call from a guy who runs a shop that produces short video interviews with companies and their customers. Their product looks awesome, but they're so small and I new I probably would have never found them otherwise. We'll probably use them. On the other hand, if we do it, that'll be the second cold-call product I will have purchased in 10 years running this business.
  - lsc 16y ago
    my biggest issue was his "all businesses depend upon cold calling" statement, which is simply not true. But yeah, in your case, that sounds like a company I might buy services from... but I wouldn't respond to a 'cold call' at least not via phone, just 'cause I find that so offensive. (I might respond if the sales pitch was soft, and it was pitched in a semi-social place. A "oh, and what do you do?" at a local hangout, sure, i might buy from that, if I thought that the method of sales wasn't adding significantly to what I'd pay (which is to say, if the product wasn't available from a 'price on the website is what you pay' type vendor.)
- edkennedy 16y ago
  I think a lot of people get caught up in the word 'cold', however what's most interesting about calling potential clients is the warm part of human nature and emotion. These elements of a sales pitch are learned in the form of raw feedback with the client on the phone. You can learn a great deal about human nature talking to people and selling them things. As a matter of fact I find that learning human psychology from books, or basing decisions purely off of numbers to be the 'cold' method. I think that the article itself is pointing out that cold calling is useful not simply for sales, but many other areas that will benefit your business. For example, strategic business partnerships, advertisers, public relations and surveying your customer base. In my experience cold calling, the people who only care about price are the tough nuts to crack. They usually ask the question within the first call as a 'time saver' and this can usually be side stepped with a qualifying question. Some sales people even think that these types of clients are not worth time spent on them, but I think handling the price objection is essential to progressing in your skill as a sales person. A few of the types of clients that prospecting uncovers that buy are clients who have a genuine need (easy to sell, sometimes hard to service), information gathering 'tire kickers' who are converted with the benefits, and personable people who prefer service to price that are converted to a sale with personal touches.
fauigerzigerk 16y ago
There is of course a paradox (albeit not a true one) when a sales person tries to act like an expert advisor. Prospective customers know he/she is a salesperson, so acting like an expert advisor may come across as phony. > "Your opening proposition in the introduction should be a broad strategic interpretation of your more detailed product offer" Right. It's exactly what makes you think, Huh? What on earth is their product? I see websites like that every day and I get annoyed. They show you a very general strategic message on the home page even though they are a one product company. I'm so grateful that startups do not follow this dated trick.
Helianthus16 16y ago
I wish this were actually about cold calling techniques--i.e., how to honestly approach someone and maximize the importance of the information you transfer to them--instead of how awesome cold calling is. excuse me, how awesome 'good' cold calling is. god. "why it's good that cold calling is so difficult for most sales people" because that makes it more exclusive. bleh. hacker news was made less worthwhile with this link.
- edkennedy 16y ago
  I was thinking the discussion on the Hacker News thread would make this link worthwhile.
- dpatru 16y ago
  He gets more specific later in the article. It seems that the key to effective cold calling is patience and seeing things from the prospect's perspective. Cold-calling is difficult for most people because they don't have the patience to understand the prospect's needs and help the prospect understand his own needs and how the product they're selling can help meet them. Bad salespeople try to convince prospects to buy their product. Once you understand the basic principles of effective selling, it's up to you to creatively apply these principles in your own situation. There is no one true cold-calling technique in selling just as there is no one true programming technique. The best you can do is study the basic principles and examples of their application.
dublinclontarf 16y ago
Bletch, I hate cold calling, that is having to do it, and I've plenty of experience. I had a job in a market research agency, and we'd do cold calls for mobile phones companies, car companies etc. usually to do a survey (yes I was one of THOSE people). Then about a year later I went to a sales recruitment agency (I'm not a sales guy, but at the time I was desperate for work and would try anything, despite my father warning me to keep away from sales). They were kind of a training outfit and recruitment agency. They would test a bunch of candidates to see who had potential, then put the ones who passed through a 1 week intensive coarse (great coarse by the way, I was exausted by the end of it). Then they try to "sell" you to other sales companies, it landed me with a telesales job which lasted for about 6 months (in which I did much cold calling). All I can say is I hate cold calling, it gives me the sweats, but it damnwell works, so if the margin is worth it, learn a little yourself and give it a try, you don't have to hire a salesperson, become one yourself.
- Robin_Message 16y ago
  Where was this and what was the agency?
  - dublinclontarf 16y ago
    This was in Dublin Ireland, and the agency was called School of Sales in College Green, their website was http://www.schoolofsales.com/ http://www.schoolofsales.com/ but theres nothing there now. It was 2007 when I went through there.
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pramit 16y ago
This is also useful The Superstar Salesman's Handbook: 150+ Greatest Tips on selling http://bighow.com/news/the-superstar-salesmans-handbook-150-greatest-tips-on-selling http://bighow.com/news/the-superstar-salesmans-handbook-150-...
keltex 16y ago
A partner and I used to have a used medical equipment business. Cold calling, unfortunately, was a big part of it. One trick we learned was to pitch the OPPOSITE of what we were trying to sell. That is, we asked if the medical office was interested in SELLING the equipment we were offering. So the typical call script (yes it was a script) was like this: "Good Morning, this is XXX from YYY. We're the largest purchaser of ZZZ in the country. I wanted to find out if you might be replacing any of your ZZZ over the next 12 months." Now we became somebody interesting to talk with because we could solve their problem, namely take some of their old equipment off their hands. Of course, anybody who might be "replacing" something could also potentially be interested in buying something.
arethuza 16y ago
Great - I currently have 41 missed calls on my office phone. 41 of which will be people cold calling me, even when I've had the receptionist repeatedly putting them straight through to voice-mail if I don't recognize who they are and why they would be wanting to speak to me. If you make want to sell things via cold calling please give some consideration to whoever you are calling.
skittles 16y ago
The best technique I ever learned was to say 'Mr. Smith Please' instead of 'May I speak to Mr. Smith please?'. The first sounds more confident and is a little devious (the receptionist often thinks you are a friend, coworker, or important client). You can't be called out for lying, and it is extremely effective at getting the cold caller past the 'gatekeeper'. I'm glad I'm not in sales anymore.

77 points by faramarz 16y ago

a cold call is a pitch, and a pitch is a story. learn how to tell a compelling story from beginning to end and you will find cold calls much easier and more profitable. this takes REPETITION

Terry_B 16y ago

I found "The Cold Calling Podcast" to be quite insightful and practical if anyone is interested.

sk5t 16y ago
I've tried to fetch this podcast, but it seems to be somehow unavailable or defunct...
- Terry_B 16y ago
  Wow, you're right. Their site is gone and it's not downloading properly on itunes. Wonder if its out there somewhere. They stopped recording them a while ago and said they had recorded all they had to say on the topic, but shame its been taken down.
  - MarkBook 16y ago
    Take the podcast down then human nature being what it is people get interested in knowing what they've missed. This is a good technique.

lsc 16y ago

>* cold calling alone can create and be a business in its own right - because cold calling is effectively the ability to make things happen - whereas every other business activity needs cold calling to start up and survive Huh. even if you expand cold calling to include all 'approach someone to ask for a sale' this is plainly untrue, especially after the advent of the Internet. I don't think I've cold-approached even one customer. And really, my business model simply wouldn't work if i had to. with my margins, paying even a mediocre salesguy a commission would eat me alive. Actually, this is everything I don't understand about sales. What sort of person responds to a cold approach, when it is almost always the case that you can get a better deal (either a lower price, /or/ something that better meets your needs, sometimes both) going out and searching for something on your own? Are you targeting people who don't care about price only?

j_b_f 16y ago
Everything is dependent on your market. To paraphrase Dharmesh Shah, "enterprise products are sold, not bought." Part of that selling process is making sure prospects know you exist, and understand the value you provide. Cold calls are one way to do that. Not a very cost effective (or effective) way to do it, but still one way. Personal example: today I got a cold call from a guy who runs a shop that produces short video interviews with companies and their customers. Their product looks awesome, but they're so small and I new I probably would have never found them otherwise. We'll probably use them. On the other hand, if we do it, that'll be the second cold-call product I will have purchased in 10 years running this business.
- lsc 16y ago
  my biggest issue was his "all businesses depend upon cold calling" statement, which is simply not true. But yeah, in your case, that sounds like a company I might buy services from... but I wouldn't respond to a 'cold call' at least not via phone, just 'cause I find that so offensive. (I might respond if the sales pitch was soft, and it was pitched in a semi-social place. A "oh, and what do you do?" at a local hangout, sure, i might buy from that, if I thought that the method of sales wasn't adding significantly to what I'd pay (which is to say, if the product wasn't available from a 'price on the website is what you pay' type vendor.)
edkennedy 16y ago
I think a lot of people get caught up in the word 'cold', however what's most interesting about calling potential clients is the warm part of human nature and emotion. These elements of a sales pitch are learned in the form of raw feedback with the client on the phone. You can learn a great deal about human nature talking to people and selling them things. As a matter of fact I find that learning human psychology from books, or basing decisions purely off of numbers to be the 'cold' method. I think that the article itself is pointing out that cold calling is useful not simply for sales, but many other areas that will benefit your business. For example, strategic business partnerships, advertisers, public relations and surveying your customer base. In my experience cold calling, the people who only care about price are the tough nuts to crack. They usually ask the question within the first call as a 'time saver' and this can usually be side stepped with a qualifying question. Some sales people even think that these types of clients are not worth time spent on them, but I think handling the price objection is essential to progressing in your skill as a sales person. A few of the types of clients that prospecting uncovers that buy are clients who have a genuine need (easy to sell, sometimes hard to service), information gathering 'tire kickers' who are converted with the benefits, and personable people who prefer service to price that are converted to a sale with personal touches.

fauigerzigerk 16y ago

There is of course a paradox (albeit not a true one) when a sales person tries to act like an expert advisor. Prospective customers know he/she is a salesperson, so acting like an expert advisor may come across as phony. > "Your opening proposition in the introduction should be a broad strategic interpretation of your more detailed product offer" Right. It's exactly what makes you think, Huh? What on earth is their product? I see websites like that every day and I get annoyed. They show you a very general strategic message on the home page even though they are a one product company. I'm so grateful that startups do not follow this dated trick.

Helianthus16 16y ago

I wish this were actually about cold calling techniques--i.e., how to honestly approach someone and maximize the importance of the information you transfer to them--instead of how awesome cold calling is. excuse me, how awesome 'good' cold calling is. god. "why it's good that cold calling is so difficult for most sales people" because that makes it more exclusive. bleh. hacker news was made less worthwhile with this link.

edkennedy 16y ago
I was thinking the discussion on the Hacker News thread would make this link worthwhile.
dpatru 16y ago
He gets more specific later in the article. It seems that the key to effective cold calling is patience and seeing things from the prospect's perspective. Cold-calling is difficult for most people because they don't have the patience to understand the prospect's needs and help the prospect understand his own needs and how the product they're selling can help meet them. Bad salespeople try to convince prospects to buy their product. Once you understand the basic principles of effective selling, it's up to you to creatively apply these principles in your own situation. There is no one true cold-calling technique in selling just as there is no one true programming technique. The best you can do is study the basic principles and examples of their application.

dublinclontarf 16y ago

Bletch, I hate cold calling, that is having to do it, and I've plenty of experience. I had a job in a market research agency, and we'd do cold calls for mobile phones companies, car companies etc. usually to do a survey (yes I was one of THOSE people). Then about a year later I went to a sales recruitment agency (I'm not a sales guy, but at the time I was desperate for work and would try anything, despite my father warning me to keep away from sales). They were kind of a training outfit and recruitment agency. They would test a bunch of candidates to see who had potential, then put the ones who passed through a 1 week intensive coarse (great coarse by the way, I was exausted by the end of it). Then they try to "sell" you to other sales companies, it landed me with a telesales job which lasted for about 6 months (in which I did much cold calling). All I can say is I hate cold calling, it gives me the sweats, but it damnwell works, so if the margin is worth it, learn a little yourself and give it a try, you don't have to hire a salesperson, become one yourself.

Robin_Message 16y ago
Where was this and what was the agency?
- dublinclontarf 16y ago
  This was in Dublin Ireland, and the agency was called School of Sales in College Green, their website was http://www.schoolofsales.com/ http://www.schoolofsales.com/ but theres nothing there now. It was 2007 when I went through there.

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pramit 16y ago

This is also useful The Superstar Salesman's Handbook: 150+ Greatest Tips on selling http://bighow.com/news/the-superstar-salesmans-handbook-150-greatest-tips-on-selling http://bighow.com/news/the-superstar-salesmans-handbook-150-...

keltex 16y ago

A partner and I used to have a used medical equipment business. Cold calling, unfortunately, was a big part of it. One trick we learned was to pitch the OPPOSITE of what we were trying to sell. That is, we asked if the medical office was interested in SELLING the equipment we were offering. So the typical call script (yes it was a script) was like this: "Good Morning, this is XXX from YYY. We're the largest purchaser of ZZZ in the country. I wanted to find out if you might be replacing any of your ZZZ over the next 12 months." Now we became somebody interesting to talk with because we could solve their problem, namely take some of their old equipment off their hands. Of course, anybody who might be "replacing" something could also potentially be interested in buying something.

arethuza 16y ago

Great - I currently have 41 missed calls on my office phone. 41 of which will be people cold calling me, even when I've had the receptionist repeatedly putting them straight through to voice-mail if I don't recognize who they are and why they would be wanting to speak to me. If you make want to sell things via cold calling please give some consideration to whoever you are calling.

skittles 16y ago

The best technique I ever learned was to say 'Mr. Smith Please' instead of 'May I speak to Mr. Smith please?'. The first sounds more confident and is a little devious (the receptionist often thinks you are a friend, coworker, or important client). You can't be called out for lying, and it is extremely effective at getting the cold caller past the 'gatekeeper'. I'm glad I'm not in sales anymore.