The marketing game is consistently evolving and changing, and has only continued to do so over time. Fliers and newspaper ads have been replaced by YouTube videos and the internet. In order to have a company that has even a remote chance of thriving, they must have a web presence. Cold calls themselves looked completely different 30 years ago, and remarkably enough, a hundred years ago they didn’t even exist. There are countless obstacles that stand in your way as a salesperson, but as with any course, there are ways to get around and get through.
At Dialexis, we are committed to providing life-changing corporate training programs that can help you continue to grow your business and increase your revenue. Our cold call training has continued to show success for salespeople, and we would be honored to help you and your business. Take a look at some tips to make a difference in your cold call technique, and contact Dialexis to get the best sales training on the market.
Practice, practice, practice.
Most people would agree that one of the most crucial things you can do to improve in any area is to practice. Yet there are parts of practicing that are often not included in the description, but are crucial to turning the concept into something great. For practice to be meaningful, it needs to be deliberate, performed consistently, and done with intention.
We know what deliberate practice looks like, and even more so, we know what it doesn’t look like. As much as we wish we always looked like a Beethoven playing furiously at a piano or a LeBron diligently hitting lay-up after lay-up, we’ve all had those days where our practice is characteristically lackluster. While this is normal, this is without intention, and is not making a difference in our overall talents. The same can be said with practicing our cold call techniques, but fortunately, there are ways to get back into making our time deliberate.
- Embrace the difficulty. We have a tendency to try to make things as enjoyable as possible, which is undoubtedly a skill in its own regard. Conversely, we sometimes find ourselves avoiding things that are challenging and not nearly as fun, forgetting that growth and learning are pretty difficult. It’s important to understand that the purpose of practicing your cold call technique is not to have fun, it’s a time for you to hone your skills and continue to grow. Having fun while you practice is a great bonus! But ultimately, the joy should come from the satisfaction in making your technique better, and helping your sales success in the long run.
- Be receptive to feedback. At the basic level, you should find someone to listen to your cold call technique. In a more ideal situation, you would practice your technique with an experienced salesperson, someone who’s in charge of a company, and someone in your life who you know can give you some solid honesty. The eternal metaphor for practice, sports is the perfect example of what it would be like if players did not receive any feedback. A coach’s job is to help their players improve, and this cannot be accomplished without telling the athletes exactly what they need to do. In the same regard, in order to really become great, you need to always be ready to hear how you could get better.
- Plan ahead. Play around with your sales pitch, write it up, rewrite it, and practice again and again until it feels natural. Have more than one version if necessary. In addition to having a sales pitch of what to say to clients, plan ahead by researching who you’re talking to. If you’re selling a product specific to food trucks, you wouldn’t call an HVAC specialist (unless you wanted to waste your time). Figure out who you’ll be talking to, prepare how you’re going to approach them, and practice doing this again and again for each potential client until it feels natural.
Ultimately with your practicing, however, you want to come across as organic and natural-sounding as possible. When you practice your cold calling, practice with others in a way that’s more of a formal conversation. Get comfortable with speaking authentically and succinctly, and your cold calling will only be set up for success from there.
Work on your warm call approach.
Use resources like LinkedIn or other business/social media platforms to make a connection before selling your pitch. As Forbes points out, one strategy involves sending “a brief email to introduce yourself and your company, which also mentions that you’ll be calling in a couple of days.” Through warm calling, you’re building a connection first before trying to immediately make a sale—which will likely make a prospective client much more receptive to what you’re trying to sell.
Provide limited choices to clients.
In an attempt to be polite, we often phrase things as an open-ended question, complete with the option to say “no.” Instead of saying things like “Do you have a few minutes to talk?” or “Is there a time I can come in?” provide two options for the person to choose from. Try saying “Would now or this afternoon work to briefly chat?” or asking if the person would prefer you coming in on Monday or Tuesday. By presenting a limited number of choices, you are limiting the chance that the potential client will say no.
Follow up!
The Forbes article referenced earlier reports that “80% of sales happen AFTER the fifth contact attempt.” People need to trust you as a salesperson, they work much better if a relationship has been established, and the truest and best connections take time. This could be the beginning of a highly beneficial partnership, which is why you should try your hardest to not get discouraged after the first attempt (or the second, or the third). Humans are kind of wonderful in this sense, in that our interactions with each other are meaningful in life and work, and pretty much everywhere in between. Keep this in mind with every cold call—focus on building a partnership, and recognize that this process is hardly immediate.
Work with a corporate training program.
In order to improve, we must continue to learn and grow. The best way to keep getting better is to work with a corporate training program that is designed to help your cold calling and overall sales technique. Dialexis is known for its sales seminars, and our trainers will help you with live calls, and provide in-the-moment coaching and feedback. Keeping up on the cutting edge of sales trends, we remain at the forefront of the ever-evolving marketing and sales game. There’s a reason we are known for having the best sales training when it comes to generating leads, and we would be honored to work with you.
Contact us to get started, and see the difference that Dialexis can make for your sales success and the growth of your business as a whole. And don’t feel the need to take our word for it—see for yourself what our cold call training participants have to say about their experience with Dialexis. We look forward to working with you!
