Ryan Dohrn explains why cold calls fail without warming up prospects first. Use LinkedIn to build familiarity by following, liking, and sharing their content. Then send handwritten notes or small gifts like Starbucks cards or donuts to get your name in front of them before you pitch.
Hey friends and fans, Ryan Dohrn here, your friendly neighborhood sales coach, and this is your sales training tip of the week. You need to warm up cold calls if you want cold calls to be effective. Let me explain what I mean. Stranger danger is very real, even to all of us that are adults. That's why when you go to a cocktail party or a function, you look around the room for people that you know. Well, now I'm in sales, so I look for people that are standing alone because I'm going to sell them something, but you know what it is that I'm talking about. So why do you expect that you could reach out to a brand new person that you've never heard of before, they've never heard of you, and you think they're going to reply to your email? Warming up cold calls is critical. Here's what I do. I'll like— I'll connect with the person on LinkedIn. I'll follow them on LinkedIn. I'll follow their company on LinkedIn. I'll like and share things that they share. Even if they don't connect with me, they don't accept that request, I still will follow the company. I'll still share things that the company shares if it's appropriate to my audience. I'll go to Facebook, to their company Facebook page. Now, connecting with people out of the blue on personal Facebook, that's what we call creepy. So watch out for that kind of advice that's out there. Warming up those cold calls— maybe you send a handwritten thank-you note with a Starbucks card introducing yourself. Maybe you have donuts sent over. Maybe you use sugarwish.com to send them a little treat or something to get your name in front of them. Because of stranger danger, and we know that it's real, It's important for all of us to warm up those cold calls. Now friends, I talk about that and so much more in my new book called Selling Forward. That's available wherever you buy your books— Amazon, Barnes& Noble, Kindle, Audible, you name it. And we're giving money to charity for every book that is purchased— the Golden Harvest Food Bank. Friends, never forget, if sales was easy, everybody'd be doing it, and they're not. We're not crazy. This is a great career that'll feed your family for a lifetime. Hey, if you're watching this on YouTube, subscribe below and click the bell button, and you'll be alerted every time a new training tip is uploaded. All right, friends, we'll see you next week.
