Written by Dave Goates, Director of Human Capital at Launch Leads
The front end of the sales cycle is generally the hardest for your sales team.
Let’s be honest, people HATE to cold call. They read books, they attend webinars, and they hear testimonials about what a colossal waste of time cold calling is. Like water running downhill, if there’s a way to avoid it they will, seeking an easier solution to generate leads.
There are at least 8 good reasons why:
1. Not Interested. People who make the cold call just don’t sound very interested when they call. You know what I mean if you’ve fielded a call from someone who sounds bored, like they are reading from a script and obviously aren’t very excited.
2. No smiley face. I like to tell our employees that people they contact can actually “hear” their smile on the other end of the line. Your voice reflects what’s showing on your face. If it’s a smile, it will transmit through the phone. If you’re grumpy and you’re having a bad day for whatever reason, people can hear it in your voice.
3. Lousy script. Speaking of scripts – is your script to long and too complicated? Keep it simple, get to the point, get off the phone in that first call.
4. Rejection anticipation. When we hire people at Launch, we’re assessing how we think they will handle rejection. Cold callers get a bunch of it every day. Can they shake if off and not take it personally, or do they melt under the slightest hint of rejection?
5. Badly qualified. People you call tend to want to be qualified for your offering if it’s something they need/want at the moment. Using your qualification criteria as part of the cold call helps move the sales cycle quickly to the next level. Don’t waste their time. Qualify them early.
6. Unprepared. Make certain their “lips are loaded.” If you haven’t prepared them for the objections they are going to hear they will fail and become easily discouraged. They will hate cold calling.
7. Bad list. Dialing into a bad list is very discouraging. When your cold callers hear the person they’ve asked for has been dead for 14 years (no kidding), they will immediately shut down thinking management hasn’t done their job.
8. Not invested. Ownership, investment and accountability are key to their success as cold callers.
Here’s a great quote to help improve your cold calling efforts:
“A competent worker pursues excellence because they realize their work is an expression of themselves and so has personal meaning. An incompetent worker does the minimum to get by in relationship to expectations of someone else. If you need a competitor (or a boss) to inspire you to improve, then you may be missing a self-interested passion and purpose that would have you doing your very best regardless of what someone else was doing.” — Mark Shapiro, Chief Brand Officer, www.e-myth.com
