What To Teach Your Sales Staff About Cold Calling
We can all understand the frustration of calling one person after another only to have the phone hung up on us, or the person lecture us on interrupting all their other very important things in life. We can see that it would feel like a giant waste of time.
But done well, it can still generate sales and it cannot be ignored. Sometimes, even if everyone feels there is a newer, better way to cold-call using social media, they must succumb to the demands of a sales manager who has reason to believe based on personal experience that they work.
Here are 3 tips to train your sales staff to make more effective cold calling:
- Secure a good list of targeted customers.
Cold calls are most effective if the staff clearly know what their product is and has a targeted list of potential customers. For example, if you are selling carpet cleaning services, it would be helpful if you could target clients that have carpets, or if you are selling a dog grooming service or kit, it would work better if those contacted had animals. Otherwise, you can waste a great deal of time. - Schedule your cold calls to appropriate times.
Some services are more relevant at certain times of the year than others. For example, if your company offers chimney cleaning services, a call just prior to the start of the colder days of autumn would generate an increased response. On the other hand, if you are trying to generate business during your off season, you might call with a summer discount offer. If you are selling landscaping services, a spring call will more likely trigger an instant response than one in February. - Use clear and concise sales script that gets right to the point.
People are busy and they become quickly frustrated when strangers waste their time talking about the weather. Instead, keep your opening statement to one or two statements maximum. In reference to the god grooming service, for example, you could simply say: “Hello. My name is Roz and we have just opened a new dog-grooming service in the neighborhood. Is this something that might interest you?” Keep your tone light and neighborly.
A skilled caller should be able to complete a call every three minutes. Take a short break after every 15 calls.
