Brian Tracy shares five cold calling techniques: research your prospects beforehand, focus on helping rather than selling, stay patient with objections, use scripts as guides not crutches, and practice overcoming common pushback.
Five Cold Calling Tips to Increase Sales Approach each customer with the idea of helping him or her solve a problem or achieve a goal, not of selling a product or service. Brian Tracy if you're looking to increase sales but don't know where to find prospective clients, consider cold calling. Cold calling is contacting someone for whom you have no previous interaction to initiate a sales process. While we think of it as making phone calls, it can also apply to making a contact in person. Cold calling can be challenging because you're asking someone who has never expressed interest in your product or service to listen to your pitch. However, as many as 82% of buyers say they are actually willing to meet with a salesperson who contacts them via cold calling. And for those buyers who are mulling their purchase, over 62% of them hope to hear from sales representatives to help make the decision to purchase the product easier. So while it may seem scary and strange at first, with the right approach and mindset you can be successful with cold calling. Follow these five steps to help you improve your cold calling skills and start closing more sales. STEP 1 Know your prospect Researching your prospect is the most important task you can do before making a cold call. You can visit their website and social media pages to gather information on their company's story, mission and leadership, as well as search for press releases, news articles, and read customer reviews. This can help determine the specific decision maker that you will call and give insight into the right questions to ask to discover their needs and build rapport. Step 2 Focus on helping not selling While your research gives you clues about how to make your prospect's life better during your first call, it's best to go in with an open mind to learn more and adopt a help not sell mindset. This will allow you to qualify your prospect while gathering more information to better understand their pain points and struggles as well as any other solutions they have looked at. One of the most important aspects of successful cold calls is to keep the focus on the prospect, not on your product. Focus on making a genuine connection that leads to further interaction with you. Once that connection is established, then set up another meeting to talk more about how your product or service can help solve their problem. Step 3 Stay patient to succeed at cold calling, you must have patience to provide some perspective. It takes an average of 18 calls to make a connection with a buyer. 92% of people in sales give up on a prospect after four nos. However, 80% of prospects say no four times before they say yes. This means that even though you may be sent to voicemail, countless times. If you give up too soon, you may miss a golden opportunity. Patience is key when it comes to successful cold calling. As potential clients or customers won't automatically trust a salesperson, you must earn their trust just as you would when building any other meaningful relationship. Step 4 Use a script, but have a Conversation While it's important to have a cold calling script, don't read directly from it. This will make you sound robotic and impersonal and your prospective client will notice and tune you out. Personalize each call so it never feels scripted or even consider just using some main bullet points to keep the conversation flowing. Also try using open ended questions and avoid questions that require simple yes, no or one word answers. These types of questions will encourage your prospect to open up and give you further insight into their needs. Step 5 Research and overcome Objections Almost every time you are on the phone with a prospect, they will have an objection. As part of your research, you will need to understand common objections and plan how you will respond ahead of time. For a prospect who says they do not have time to talk with you, ask when they might have five minutes to spare so you can help them manage the things that are taking their time or causing them stress. If they say they need to discuss things with their team, offer to set up a group meeting that includes everyone involved in the decision making process. For prospects that already use a competitor, offer them a case study of how you've helped another company similar to theirs reach a goal or solve a problem better. If they say you're too expensive, dig deeper into their needs by asking for more information on why your solution seems too expensive. In many cases, objections mean they don't understand your offer and need more clarity. While cold calling seems difficult and intimidating, when done properly, it is an excellent method to increase sales. By following the steps discussed, you can set yourself up for success and close more sales. Now. The question today is how many cold calls are you going to implement these steps on today? Leave a comment below and Brian will be sure to follow up with you. Thanks again for watching. And remember, as Brian always says, if you want to change your future, take action and take action now.
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