A tough topic for salespeople and for clients is cold calling. It is a widely used but controversial method to catch new potential customers. Even the name "cold call" denotes difficulty and hard work with few results.
Cold calls are well known by customers and because of its constant and sometimes bad use. Many customers are already ill-disposed to receive the call since they hear "Mr. XL my name is .. And I belong to the company ." From this very second a lot of customers are preparing a good and polite rejection to finish the call.
This behavior is also well known by the sales force of the companies. They are constantly looking for improvements, mistakes to fix and new techniques. Experts, successful salespeople, psychologists and such has been giving opinions and building an entire theory about cold calls.
An interesting point is that even some experts agree about a lot of points. Some others experts defer so extremely that someone favor cold calling processes and some others totally reject the method.
Fear is the first wall to be destroyed by a salesperson, his or her own fear to be defeated. That is natural because cold calling produces the answer "no" very often. This can discourage salespeople, because they work for goals. The key to affront fear is to improve your response to "no's", and overcome this result always maintaining the vision.
Normally the process of cold calls is very simple. You first introduce yourself, and then ask for permission to continue, tell the objective of the call and then ask for an appointment and confirm it. But the battle you make through is more difficult than seeing the steps.
Presentation is one of the most important parts of cold calls. Experts recommend elaborating a presentation thinking of the customer and putting the ingredient of your originality. The presentations must also be attractive, simple, secure and short.
Then you will wait for the response of the customer. It is a matter of a fact that customer will answer by rejection. You should not be worried, this is normal behavior. Cold calls have created a suspecting feeling in the customer. You must remember that you are a stranger and the customer is a stranger to you as well. The good theory recommends you to build a sort of relationship with the customer in order to succeed.
To build a relationship with your customer is useful first to anticipate the negative answers and plan possible routes you can address in the conversation to overcome the negatives. Another advice is to use simple but proper language without being too technical because you need to be extremely clear for the customer.
In this critical point, experts start to disagree. Some people recommend re-building the offer and insist on getting the appointment, because it is useful to remember that your goal is to get an appointment not to sell product through the phone. But some others definitely disagree with this method. Some experts point precisely the hurry chase behind the appointment the reason of cold calls failures. They even assure you that more you try to get the appointment more you will be rejected.
Instead of this, they take back the concept of making a relationship with the customer. First you must focus your vision. When you call a non interested person, you should have the tact to leave the person and take another call, and be concentrated on interested people. With this potential customer, you should ask for information instead going ahead for the appointment right after your presentation. Asking for information will let you know how many possibilities you have with the customer and construct the rapport.
This is the reality: when you call, the person is not automatically interested in your product. Some salespeople prefer to work on the traditional way, others think they are obsolete. But the very truth is that customer will be interested, will assist to your appointment and even will buy your product just by their reasons, you just help them make up their up their minds about it.