Making a Cold Call Warm
On September 14, 2016 | 2 Comments | Sales Call Skills |

ilustratorSalespeople dread the thought of making a cold call to set up a meeting with someone they do not know and potentially for a company they have never worked for before—maybe in a city where they have no business that is in a country where they have no business. Help! I think I’d rather go to the dentist.

Well it does not have to be stressful. Warm up your cold calls by doing some up-front preparation, as listed below:

  • Check your internal CRM system to see if the prospect is in your CRM system and whether anyone has contacted the person If so, con- tact that person and ask for some insider information on how to deal with this person
  • If there are no recent contacts but the person is in your system, then check to see who entered the person into the system and contact them hold a marketing event (lunch and learn, breakfast briefing, webinar, etc.) for the targeted company or territory and specifically invite the list of people you considered cold calls. If they attend now, you have the opportunity to meet them and thank them for attending, and now they are no longer a cold call
  • Send out an email to generate awareness by addressing a challenge or issue you believe the cold contacts have. Include two levels of requesting information: a link they can go for additional information and a second link to be contacted with your email link
  • Check with your suppliers to see if they know the people on your cold call list and ask if they could act as a referral
  • Check with your current customer base; if someone knows the people on your cold call list, ask them to act as a referral
  • Check one or several of the social media sites for insights about the person. This may lead to a common point of interest or you may discover someone who knows them and may be agreeable to introducing you or providing some insights about the person
  • If you cannot find any information or anyone who knows the people on your cold call list, research their company and use your experience with similar companies as your common ground

Chances are, with a minimum amount of preparation before you pick up that phone, making a cold call could turn out to be a walk on the beach!

JP Amlin JP is the author of B2B Professional Sales: Theory, Process, Applications and Tools 670 page textbook covering all aspects of B2B sales. His passion is sales training. JP leverages his 36 + years of B2B sales and executive management experience as a Sr. Sales Trainer and Executive Business Coach. JP has taught and consulted globally delivering over 500 seminars to over 6,000 students. http://www.b2bprofessionalsales.com
Comments 2
Andrey Posted September 17, 2016 at6:39 pm   Reply

Good methods, i used just some of them. That makes difference between professional sales and others
JP Amlin Posted September 17, 2016 at10:07 pm   Reply

Andrey you are absolutely correct. A lot of sales people do not make enough effort to learn as much as they can about their customers and their customer’s needs before they start trying to sell. When a sales person makes this effort if demonstrates you care. First impressions are important.

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