Cold Calling - The first 30 seconds

[J Arnold]

Hey

I've been working on my cold calling to stop it sounding too much like a sales call. I'm trying to move away from the standard format. I'm selling Plant Hire (start new year) to companies with the purpose of arranging a interview so your thoughts would be most welcome.

Morning/afternoon. My name’s Jeff calling from ........... in ...........
Briefly (their name), the reason I’m calling is I see you run a _______ and I was inquiring to how often you use plant hire?

The purpose of me calling is we supply companies like yours with their plant equipment and I was hoping to have a brief chat with you at your convenience to gauge if you would benefit also from working with us plus I have some goodies to drop off to you at the same time...

Thoughts?

 

[Ashley_Price]

Firstly, you should do some research into the firm, so you find out if they do use plant hire and who you would need to speak to in advance of trying to set the appointment.

Second, you need to give a benefit of why the person should be interested in having a meeting with you. So, you need to find out what your USP is, what will differentiate you from your competitors (and it isn't always price).

Now, I know the following may not be exactly correct, but once you are talking to the relevant person, you say something along the lines of:

"Our customers find by using us by they have saved £XXX.xx as well as YY hours and I would like to have a meeting with you to discuss if we can do the same for you. When we meet I will be happy to show you the testimonial letters we have."

You are giving them a reason to meet with you.

Don't bother mentioning "goodies", this probably won't make a difference as to whether you get an appointment or not. It's like the previous owner of Pavilion used to give sweets with every order. Since I bought the business I stopped that practice and no one has complained. At the end of the day people really aren't going to swap from their current supplier to a new one just on the promise of getting a small pack of sweets.

 

[J Arnold]

I will be researching the calls first, my asking the question though is its not all was possible to gauge if Mr X the builder has his own machines or hires them in so it was my way of qualifying them straight away...

I've written a few out along the lines of what you have said but it still sounds like a sales call (which I know it is). Tradesman, contractors etc are most of the time not to friendly to sales calls! (I've sold PPE to them for the last 13 years)...

 

[Ashley_Price]

its not all was possible to gauge if Mr X the builder has his own machines or hires them in so it was my way of qualifying them straight away...

Although, admittedly I don't know much about the business, I am assuming unless they are a very big firm, they are unlikely to have their own machines, etc.

But the people you are focusing on are going to be very busy, have even less time - so need an even bigger reason as to why they should spend that time.

And, at the end of the day, a sales call is only bad if it's not targetted enough.

So, going back to your original idea, there is nothing in it original or different, and I can imagine lots of plant hire firms say pretty much the same thing. So, you do need something that makes you stand out,

 

[cjd]

Start from the postion that virtually everyone hates sales calls and that everyone you're going to call either has a need for what you're selling - and therefore already has what they need - or doesn't have a need for it - and therefore doesn't need it.

Your call is going to be redundant and unwelcome in almost 100% of cases. So at least make it short, honest, relevant and natural. I dunno, something like..

'Hi, 'I'm a new business in your area renting diggers (or whatever). I'd like to be considered by your company the next time you need one, Can I speak to whoever it is hires equipment?'

 

[J Arnold]

Thanks cjd, that's perfect. Straight to the point and honest!

 

[Vicky Limerick]

Companies are getting wise to a number of our different 'getting past the gatekeeper' techniques making it more and more difficult to get through to that decision maker, a lot of this can start with how your marketing team is working on providing leads for you.
In an ideal world we would only call qualified, hot leads right?
I work in Business Development for a marketing agency and we exercise inbound marketing efforts which provides the team with much more leads, website traffic etc and the process of inbound is much more client-focused which really helps with the retention too.
If you are interested in chatting abit more about it, please give me a shout!

 

[fisicx]

I work in Business Development for a marketing agency...

Interesting. Their whois profile says they are a sole trader. Have they expanded?

 

[Vicky Limerick]

Interesting. Their whois profile says they are a sole trader. Have they expanded?

Sorry I am new on here and didn't realise.
I will make amendments to my profile, I don't want to give the wrong impression.

 

[Chris Ashdown]

Find the Buyers or MD;s name

Sent the buyer or MD a letter stating your prices and terms and you would like to call them the next week

Follow up with a phone call next week (mid week)

Cut the crap you and they know your selling but give them your best deal first so they know what you can offer them

 

[NickGrogan]

I've spent most of my adult life selling on the phone at all levels, so can probably help out here.

Firstly, stop worrying that it sounds like a sales call, it is a sales call. You know that, the client knows that so why try and mislead them. Starting out dishonestly isn't a great plan.

Secondly, get to the point, fast. The buyer doesn't care who you are, where you're from, the name of your company, etc - unless you're well known. They do care about why you're interrupting their day.

Third, find and solve the problem. It is of no interest to anyone that you're starting a new business, or meeting you, or goodies, etc. They're all your problems, not the buyers.

A good script would be "Hi, are you happy with your current plant hire provider?"

that's it, stop talking, let them talk.

If they don't hire plant they'll tell you, if they're happy they'll tell you, if they're unhappy they'll tell you, people love complaining.

If they don't hire any plant, ask them if there is anything they don't have, might occasionally need and might hire.

If they're happy, ask them who they use, what are they like on price and do they always have everything they need available.

If they're unhappy, they'll tell you everything they want/need and you've just got to provide it.

Of course the same script works with everything else from hosting to web design to forex to energy.

It's called having a conversation.

 

[Annoying Donkey]

It's called having a conversation.

That's a forgotten art...

 

[Job Squirrel]

"Conversation"? What's that? Isn't it all about social media and emails these days?