Cold calling is dead?
The Death of Cold Calling - by Ron Bates
I saw an advertisement for a sales training course recently stating boldly that in the new information age - cold calling is dead.
I don't think so.Anyone that thinks "cold calling" as a business tool is dead is only trying to sell you an alternative way to - cold call. The Internet has made cold calling more challenging, that is for certain, but it is far from being dead as a way to engage a prospect.
When I was a sales executive I used to ask sales reps the following question:"Do you like prospecting?"
There are two kinds of sales reps: Those that hate cold call prospecting, and liars.
Prospecting is a critical sales skill. This is also a foundation skill critical for networking. Can you reach out to someone you don't know - proactively?
Cold calling is -not- about being able to pick up the phone and mindlessly start "dialing for dollars".
Cold calling doesn't even have to involve a phone, letter, email or fax. Cold calling is not "a numbers game".
Cold calling is about one thing: gaining access to a targeted individual.You can strive to be 100% effective in your cold calling efforts. With out exception, anyone successful in selling or networking is adept at cold calling.
Whether you're approaching someone as part of a sales process, job search campaign, or you're simply trying to develop a critical networking contact, the key to successful cold calling is to do everything you can to turn the "cold" call into a "warm" call before you make the call.
You want to be able to do the same thing when making contact for the first time with someone you want to network with.How do you do this? It's really simple.
Do your homework. What does that mean?Find out everything you can about the individual you are attempting to prospect (or network) with before attempting contact. Understand their current business situation in as much detail as you can get your hands on (e.g., market, competitor, technology, product, finance issues/challenges and associated critical success factors, etc.), and if it applies, relevant personal details as well (e.g., you both go to the same church, his kids play soccer too, your spouses went to the same school, you both like skeet shooting, etc.).
A master at this is Harvey Mackay, author of Swim with the Sharks Without Being Eaten Alive : Outsell, Outmanage, Outmotivate, and Outnegotiate Your Competition
Harvey Mackay epitomizes the concept of knowing your prospect with his 66-question customer profile.How do you find out all of this information? The Internet is a good place to start. You can identify a ton of current business intelligence via the Internet. Even better, you can discover most of this information, and the most important aspects of this information by -networking- with people that know the individual you want to approach! Hey, one of those individuals might even provide you with an introduction to the individual you are targeting.
Prospecting is a skill-set (emphasis on the word "set"). This implies there are different tools to leverage, which in turn implies that there are proficiency levels associated with the various tools.Read as many books on Cold Calling and Prospecting as you can stand.
Why?
Because not all techniques work in all situations, and you want the techniques to become integrated into your personal style of communicating - not change your style of communication to conform to one technique.
At a minimum read:The Power to Get In: A step-by-Step System to Get in Anyone's Door So you Have the Chance to…Make the Sale…Get the Job… Present Your Ideas - by Michael A. BoylanandSelling To VITO (The Very Important Top Officer) by Anthony Parinello
These are without a doubt the best two books I've ever come across for how to approach new prospects in a deliberate targeted way. These principles can be extended to many forms of cold calling and prospecting, and they can most certainly be extended to cover networking objectives. But don't stop with these two.
There are many, many, more worth reading.The key to getting good at cold calling - is to do it.
The additional success you realize will take the sting out of the process.
Happy Networking,
Ron Bates
Managing PrincipalExecutive Advantage Group
rbates@executive-advantage.com
http://www.cv-advantage.com/www.job-search-campaign.com
Connect with me on LinkedIn
Copyright Ron Bates 2006 and reprinted with his permission,
I saw an advertisement for a sales training course recently stating boldly that in the new information age - cold calling is dead.
I don't think so.Anyone that thinks "cold calling" as a business tool is dead is only trying to sell you an alternative way to - cold call. The Internet has made cold calling more challenging, that is for certain, but it is far from being dead as a way to engage a prospect.
When I was a sales executive I used to ask sales reps the following question:"Do you like prospecting?"
There are two kinds of sales reps: Those that hate cold call prospecting, and liars.
Prospecting is a critical sales skill. This is also a foundation skill critical for networking. Can you reach out to someone you don't know - proactively?
Cold calling is -not- about being able to pick up the phone and mindlessly start "dialing for dollars".
Cold calling doesn't even have to involve a phone, letter, email or fax. Cold calling is not "a numbers game".
Cold calling is about one thing: gaining access to a targeted individual.You can strive to be 100% effective in your cold calling efforts. With out exception, anyone successful in selling or networking is adept at cold calling.
Whether you're approaching someone as part of a sales process, job search campaign, or you're simply trying to develop a critical networking contact, the key to successful cold calling is to do everything you can to turn the "cold" call into a "warm" call before you make the call.
You want to be able to do the same thing when making contact for the first time with someone you want to network with.How do you do this? It's really simple.
Do your homework. What does that mean?Find out everything you can about the individual you are attempting to prospect (or network) with before attempting contact. Understand their current business situation in as much detail as you can get your hands on (e.g., market, competitor, technology, product, finance issues/challenges and associated critical success factors, etc.), and if it applies, relevant personal details as well (e.g., you both go to the same church, his kids play soccer too, your spouses went to the same school, you both like skeet shooting, etc.).
A master at this is Harvey Mackay, author of Swim with the Sharks Without Being Eaten Alive : Outsell, Outmanage, Outmotivate, and Outnegotiate Your Competition
Harvey Mackay epitomizes the concept of knowing your prospect with his 66-question customer profile.How do you find out all of this information? The Internet is a good place to start. You can identify a ton of current business intelligence via the Internet. Even better, you can discover most of this information, and the most important aspects of this information by -networking- with people that know the individual you want to approach! Hey, one of those individuals might even provide you with an introduction to the individual you are targeting.
Prospecting is a skill-set (emphasis on the word "set"). This implies there are different tools to leverage, which in turn implies that there are proficiency levels associated with the various tools.Read as many books on Cold Calling and Prospecting as you can stand.
Why?
Because not all techniques work in all situations, and you want the techniques to become integrated into your personal style of communicating - not change your style of communication to conform to one technique.
At a minimum read:The Power to Get In: A step-by-Step System to Get in Anyone's Door So you Have the Chance to…Make the Sale…Get the Job… Present Your Ideas - by Michael A. BoylanandSelling To VITO (The Very Important Top Officer) by Anthony Parinello
These are without a doubt the best two books I've ever come across for how to approach new prospects in a deliberate targeted way. These principles can be extended to many forms of cold calling and prospecting, and they can most certainly be extended to cover networking objectives. But don't stop with these two.
There are many, many, more worth reading.The key to getting good at cold calling - is to do it.
The additional success you realize will take the sting out of the process.
Happy Networking,
Ron Bates
Managing PrincipalExecutive Advantage Group
rbates@executive-advantage.com
http://www.cv-advantage.com/www.job-search-campaign.com
Connect with me on LinkedIn
Copyright Ron Bates 2006 and reprinted with his permission,
posted by Michael at
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