Cold Calling For Outside Sales
Learn how to understand the objective of cold calling in outside sales.
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Cold Calling For Outside Sales
I have received so many questions about cold calling over the past month that I’m going to do a series on this subject. I’m going to kick off our cold calling series with a short discussion of the objective of cold calling for outside sales.
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Cold Calling is Important
The thing about cold calling is that just the mere words “cold calling” conjure up fear in the hearts of most people. If I stood in a crowd of salespeople and shouted “cold calling,” I’d be met with a chorus of “I hate cold calling” in return. That is especially true for outside salespeople who, when faced with cold calling, will almost always say, “but I’m way better in person.” To me this is just a cop out. Yes you may be better in person, but in sales, time is money and you can cover far more ground in one hour on the phone than in an entire day out knocking on doors.
The problem for many outside salespeople is they don’t understand the real objective of cold calling. I believe if they did they might look at cold calling differently.
What’s the Point of Cold Calling?
Here is a question: What is the best possible first-time sales call situation in outside sales? The answer is: A pre-set appointment with a qualified buyer who is in the buying window. Now consider what your closing ratio would be if each day you had an appointment book full of qualified buyers in the buying window. You would be having much more fun and making far more money. Sadly though, many outside salespeople stumble from unqualified prospect to unqualified prospect and wonder why, at the end of the day, week, or month, they sold nothing.
That is why the highest paid outside sales professionals are on the phone at every opportunity making cold calls. They are weeding out the bad prospects and setting appointments with qualified buyers, which is why they make more sales, win more contests, and earn more commissions than anyone else.
How to Succeed at Cold Calling
In outside sales there are only two objectives for cold calling: To set an appointment or to get information. That’s it. Cold calling is not for building relationships, selling, or chatting up your buyer. That is what you do in person–because you are better at that in person. On the phone you set appointments and get information that helps you qualify the prospect. If you are doing anything else–stop!
If you think about it this way, cold calling is a quick and easy way to fill up your calendar with pre-set appointments. If you want to be a top earner in outside sales, it is mandatory. And if you invest just an hour a day to make ten to twenty-five calls, I can absolutely and unequivocally guarantee that in less than ninety days you will have more sales than you can handle.
This is Jeb Blount, the Sales Guy. If you have a sales question please send it to salesguy@quickanddirtytips.comcreate new email.
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