Cold Calling is the most difficult part of sales for most to find master and involves the most discipline to get through. At times, it may feel daunting. On the other hand, when telesales is done right, the experience is most rewarding.

As a sales person, there should be no question that making cold calls is or has been a part of your job. Many people don’t like it very much because it requires hard work, discipline and consistency. Let’s face it, closing the sale is a lot more fun. Here are some tips to make your power dialing experience more effective.

Time is Money, Schedule Cold Calling

Make each moment count after all your time is money.  Budget your time out wisely creating a schedule that includes cold calling time to build your prospect list. Great things happen when you manage your time effectively inside and outside of the workplace. We all know that we should do this, but we just plain don’t want to sometimes.

If you are calling head decision makers, you can typically reach these people in the mornings. Make a consistent effort to call for a set number of hours each morning. Once you get this completed, you will have time in the afternoon to visit clients and work on proposals.

Pre-plan your call to increase the likely hood of success. This means that you know what you want to say, and what direction you want the call to go in. The first step although obvious is often missed, “What is the purpose of your call?” Many times, the simple answer is, “I am calling to make sales”.

Do Your Research

Every call should be a unique experience for you and the potential sale. In reality, you need to know in advance details about your lead prior to the sale, so you can set the agenda for the call. By taking a few minutes to pre-plan your calls, you will make better use of time for the prospect and yourself.

Several methods are suitable reasons to call a prospect. For example;

  • Introduce you & your company – develop a business relationship
  • Qualify, analysis of the situation – identify prospects challenges
  • Set appointments
  • Follow through call – after introduction to move the sale ahead to the next step
  • Seminar/Workshop – inform leads of upcoming promotional events
  • Combination call – combination for any of the above includes products, services or information seminars

Customizing effective cold calling scripts is an art. Have you ever had to read from a script that was prepared for you to sell a product or service? Did it feel natural to you? Did you feel in control of the conversation? Were you prepared for all of the questions the prospect asked?

Build Solution-based Call Scripts

When designing your script, consider that decision makers do not necessarily buy products, they buy the solutions. Keys topics to address in designing your call script include;

  • How can my product/ service help the prospect?
  • Who am I selling it to?
  • What objections might the prospect have & how will I answer them?
  • What makes my product/service different?
  • Always set a follow up reason to call the lead back.
  • How will I effectively ask for the sale?

Avoid leaving a voice mail message, but rather tend to make personal contact with the decision maker directly.  If you must leave a message make it less than twenty seconds and/or begin building a relationship with a gate keeper such as personal secretaries that may be screening calls.  Building regular follow-up conversations with secretaries can give you an edge over the competition.

Power Dial with a Call to Action

When power dialing remember to have a call to action; you want to hook leads into the conversation quickly, get them involved. Find out right away if they’re a good prospect with qualifying questions designed to engage them and determine if they are a good prospect. Don’t be shy go in with your offer or close right away. Don’t keep them too long on the phone. You are rarely going to convince someone to listen to you if they aren’t in the right frame of mind to do so or caught them at a bad time.

Always measure your cold calling efforts and make adjustments by fine tuning your power dialing approach. Avoid burn out, every 3-hours take a break and stick to your consistent power dialing schedule. Make efficient use of your time by diligently executing your long term sales plan.

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