Cold calling techniques?

[Kerwin]

I need to get in contact with a range of organisations I have never spoken to before. I'm fairly sure they will be interested in what I have to say but I've never really done much cold calling before. Does anyone have any tips for things I should do?

 

[Lucan Unlordly]

By phone or on the knocker?

 

[Kerwin]

By phone or on the knocker?

Telephone.

 

[Mark T Jones]

There are whole books and courses on this, so we will only scrape the surface on a forum thread, however a few pointers to get things rolling:

• Identify and research the individual you need to speak to
• Have a clear and compelling reason why they will want to listen
• Have a defined outcome for the call and stick to it - don’t over sell
• Script and learn the opening stages of the call (eg getting PST the ‘gatekeeper’, opening statement to the prospect)
• Learn and use open and closed questions in context
• Questions get them talking - don’t talk at them
• Get little bits of agreement as you go along
• Once you have your desired outcome, STFU and move on (politely)
• Ignore anyone who says cold calling doesn’t work, or that they always tell cold callers to F off - I’ve cold called over 30 years and it has never happened to me

 

[stuartm1962]

Good points from Mark on this.

Try reading Lessons from 100,000 Cold Calls, it covers pretty much everything that you will come up against and advice on the initial call, through to closing.

Also Sean Mcpheat writes some really good free articles on selling. His company is MTD training.

It's worth signing up with him, just for the weekly tips.

 

[davidlee21]

Cold-calling is one of best techniques to generate. We generate majority to our leads through cold calling. When it comes to learning cold calling. You need a basic knowledge about it. If you follow 2-3 books on cold calling you can learn the theoretical part of it. Other than that you need some experience in this field.
I will suggest have a basic knowledge and start it.

 

[Nochexman]

It hasn't been mentioned here, but I would suggest that you write to your targets before your call. Keep it brief and to the point. Say when you will call. Give them the chance to opt out or suggest a better contact. Always follow through. Good luck.

 

[Gordon - Commercial Finance]

Very good point from @Nochexman above.
It has been said before plenty on this forum that as people move away from a certain medium, it becomes much more effective (less people doing it). This is true for cold calling by phone, but also for writing a good old fashioned letter.

It is very easy indeed to delete an email without reading (I do it myself 10-20 times a day), but generally a letter will be opened and read. Follow that up with a phonecall while it is still fresh, and you will be very effective.

 

[stuartm1962]

It hasn't been mentioned here, but I would suggest that you write to your targets before your call. Keep it brief and to the point. Say when you will call. Give them the chance to opt out or suggest a better contact. Always follow through. Good luck.

Morning Peter

Good advice here. Years ago we would make an initial enquiry call and then send prices and a brochure by post and 3 days later, a follow up call.. The conversion rates were much higher than pure telesales, as you had broken the ice, plus they had something physical to look at.

Today everyone receives tons of emails each day, whereas they don't receive a letter personally addressed to them.

Try for example 20 posted letters and follow ups and 20 cold calls and monitor the response to each method.

 

[The Byre]

Follow the advice of @Nochexman and @Mark T Jones to the letter!

I suggest you send a physical letter to the director (or other key person) as an introduction.

 

[Kerwin]

Very good point from @Nochexman above.
It has been said before plenty on this forum that as people move away from a certain medium, it becomes much more effective (less people doing it). This is true for cold calling by phone, but also for writing a good old fashioned letter.

It is very easy indeed to delete an email without reading (I do it myself 10-20 times a day), but generally a letter will be opened and read. Follow that up with a phonecall while it is still fresh, and you will be very effective.

Great idea to send a letter first before I make a telephone call.

I have an Excel spreadsheet with a list of companies and their registration number on Companies House so I can get the directors name and address from there but do you happen to know of any quick ways to import that data into Excel so I can do a mail merge in Word? I haven't used the postal service in quite a long time so this is all new to me .

 

[Gordon - Commercial Finance]

I have an Excel spreadsheet with a list of companies and their registration number on Companies House so I can get the directors name and address from there but do you happen to know of any quick ways to import that data into Excel so I can do a mail merge in Word

https://support.office.com/en-us/ar...eadsheet-858c7d7f-5cc0-4ba1-9a7b-0a948fa3d7d3

That link will walk you through how to connect Word to your database for a mail merge.

If what you are asking is how to scrape companies house directors data into excel, then I'm not sure it is possible. You might be able to buy some kind of scraping program but then if you are using that data for commercial gain there will be legal implications to doing that.

Depending on how long your list is, you could just go through companies house data for each company one at a time...

 

[Mark T Jones]

Great idea to send a letter first before I make a telephone call.

I have an Excel spreadsheet with a list of companies and their registration number on Companies House so I can get the directors name and address from there but do you happen to know of any quick ways to import that data into Excel so I can do a mail merge in Word? I haven't used the postal service in quite a long time so this is all new to me .

I don't know how many people you are thinking of contacting or what the value to you of a client is, but time spent on a little research via the company website, LinkedIn, Companies House etc can repay you many times over. You could even add a little note specific to them.

Scraping data isn't ideal unless you really are in the high volume, low margin arena

 

[Lucan Unlordly]

I need to get in contact with a range of organisations I have never spoken to before. I'm fairly sure they will be interested in what I have to say but I've never really done much cold calling before. Does anyone have any tips for things I should do?

Can you give a better indication of what you are selling as the letter first, phone call first - the whole approach even - can often determine the way you open a sale?

 

[Kerwin]

I don't know how many people you are thinking of contacting or what the value to you of a client is, but time spent on a little research via the company website, LinkedIn, Companies House etc can repay you many times over. You could even add a little note specific to them.

Scraping data isn't ideal unless you really are in the high volume, low margin arena

Problem is the Excel spreadsheet has 8000 companies in it . I have a feeling I'm going to need to buy some extra coffee. I can't sell to all of them, but they are all in the market I am targetting. I might do batches of 24 letters since that is the size of an A4 sheet of address labels.

 

[Kerwin]

Oh, since we are on the subject. Where does everyone get their stationery from? I need address labels and envelopes primarily. I would normally just use Amazon but wondering if I could get better prices elsewhere?

 

[Mark T Jones]

Problem is the Excel spreadsheet has 8000 companies in it . I have a feeling I'm going to need to buy some extra coffee. I can't sell to all of them, but they are all in the market I am targetting. I might do batches of 24 letters since that is the size of an A4 sheet of address labels.

Because you have 8,000 names doesn’t mean you have to sell to all of them at once

Again, questions like the lifetime value of. Customer, buying cycle and your ability to meet demand come into play here data is cheap (often free) the value lies in what you do with it

Subject to the above, your process might go something like:

• Select 20 companies a day. Probably those closest to your targe; arguably further away as practice prospects
• Identify the individual to target
• Potentially connect via LinkedIn (or possibly not at this stage)
• Send concise letter introducing yourself and confirming you will call in 7 days Consider a personal para, freebie, hand-written envelope
• Put detail on proper CRM such as Zoho or Hubspot. Aim to get business emai address and link to Mailchimp or similar
• Diarise call on CRM
• Call when you say you will
• Diarise future action

Etc, etc. It’s a process, not an event or 2 events.

 

[Gordon - Commercial Finance]

You have a list of 8,000 companies....you could automate a mail merge to send 8,000 letters, but there is no way in the world that you're going to be able to follow up all 8,000 with a phone call in good time.
Break it down in to chunks - do 20 per week. That gives you time to find the director's names on Monday, send out the letters on Tuesday, follow up with phone calls Thursday and Friday.

 

[MandaBarnes]

I need to get in contact with a range of organisations I have never spoken to before. I'm fairly sure they will be interested in what I have to say but I've never really done much cold calling before. Does anyone have any tips for things I should do?

Can I ask why you would choose to use this technique? I get very frustrated when callers phone me out of the blue, so I would never use this method in business. Have you considered a walk-in technique to approach them if they are local? I feel that a friendly face with a good pitch is much better received than a call that comes in. I know many use cold calling, but I just can't find any situation in which I find it acceptable.

 

[Kerwin]

Can I ask why you would choose to use this technique? I get very frustrated when callers phone me out of the blue, so I would never use this method in business. Have you considered a walk-in technique to approach them if they are local? I feel that a friendly face with a good pitch is much better received than a call that comes in. I know many use cold calling, but I just can't find any situation in which I find it acceptable.

I know cold calling can be annoying at times, but I have a disability that makes leaving the house difficult, so face to face stuff isn't an option for me. I think I'm going to go ahead and send out 24 letters and see what happens from that. If no one is interested, then I'll move on to the next idea, but if I get some interest, I'll persevere.

The list of companies comes from the government as they are companies working in the public sector.

 

[MandaBarnes]

I know cold calling can be annoying at times, but I have a disability that makes leaving the house difficult, so face to face stuff isn't an option for me. I think I'm going to go ahead and send out 24 letters and see what happens from that. If no one is interested, then I'll move on to the next idea, but if I get some interest, I'll persevere.

The list of companies comes from the government as they are companies working in the public sector.

Ahhhh, now that does make all the difference! I was wheelchair bound in the past and I do understand your plight here. It's wonderful to hear that you're pushing ahead, past the "disability" and working to make something better for yourself. I say you have an ABILITY, leave the "dis" behind and go get it!!! Good luck!

 

[richofwombwell]

Cold calling is how i generate 100% of my business.

I first call on a fact finder getting the information i need to find out what sort of client it is.

I then send an information pack through the post with a sachet of popping candy stapled to the letterhead as it brings in the eye and is something to be talked about !

I then call a week later and aim to close the prospect !

 

[Office Mover]

Others have provided some good information here already but one good tip I will give you is this; Don't ignore the receptionist (gatekeeper) Explain why you are calling, don't bear about the bush. Involve them in your quest and sometimes they will suggest who or what department you need to speak to and try putting you through.

 

[Nochexman]

...I think I'm going to go ahead and send out 24 letters and see what happens from that...

Would be interested to know how you have got on?