Cold call, what do you mean cold call? These are the fearful words that most people will cringe at the thought of making them. When I was a new salesperson and selling copiers in the early 90’s, I can remember driving around and driving around looking for the “friendly” building in my territory when I had to make cold calls on a daily basis. I didn’t want to make cold calls. I didn’t like rejection, but I had to make them for three reasons. Here are the reasons I believe a salesperson and a business must make cold calls.

1. Cold calling is the ultimate penalty and learning experience for new businesses and new salespeople that do not have a clearly defined business plan or marketing strategy. They must resort to cold calling or find a more accurate method of finding prospects.

2. Cold Calling is for any business that can afford to spend both time and man power to weed through contacts because they don’t have a clearly defined customer profile to narrow the prospect search in a more logical manner with an online search solution.

3. Cold Calling is for a business or someone that has something that almost everyone wants, because it is a HOT product or service that is unique and is not readily available online or in stores. It should be something that can be recognized as – I want this!

Based on the information I have outlined, do you need to make cold calls? Ok, lets’ assume that you must make cold calls because it is your only option at this time. Your first mandate is to define the perfect customer profile that you can use to measure prospects against. This action is a must. You should have at least three criteria that will determine if a suspect is a prospect. You will use this criterion to script questions that will flush out prospects for your business.

Let’s say your ideal customers have an average sales volume of over $500,000.00, employ 20 employees or more and manufacture over 20 products with an average price of over $100.00. With this information, you can script a few questions to ask any prospect that will determine if they are a suspect or a prospect. This becomes your measuring tool.

Questions are the Power Tools of Cold Calling

Before you get started, here is what you must understand. The questions you ask put you in the drivers’ seat in cold calling and turn the tables on who is going to be rejected. If you ask the right questions, you decide who qualifies and who doesn’t – thus, you are the one that rejects contacts. Cool huh!

Cold Calling Facts

• The people you call on view you as an interruption in their day.

• If you act and look like a salesperson on a cold call, you will be rejected most of the time.

• People don’t like to be rejected! If you are the one rejecting, you are in control.

• Most people you call on are willing to help someone who needs help.

• If you ask for help and a little time with a smile, you will get help most of the time.

• Most prospects aren’t ready to buy, when you are ready to sell them. You must wait.

Remember, when you approach a prospect, you need to come with questions. When you make your approach, lead with the questions and not with whom you are and not with what you do. If you do, you will appear like a salesperson and be rejected. Instead, your goal in a cold call is to identify prospects. You are not to sell something on the spot. Keep this in mind when you are making cold calls. I have listed below a few questions to ask someone based on the information we created in our sample customer profile earlier.

1. Is this a company that manufactures a product?

2. How many employees work at this location?

3. Where can I buy the products made here and how much are they in stores?

I need to say this again – “the goal of cold calling is to identify prospects and eliminate suspects” with the profile script questions you developed. If you walked into almost any manufacturer and asked good questions, you might be surprised at how easy it is to get this quality information. The secret is how you ask and if you are perceived as someone needing help. If you ask for a little help prior to asking your questions, you will get good information. If you also act as though you are lost and really need help, you will get assistance from some of the nastiest people who want to help you. It is all in the way you approach the gathering of information and asking your questions.

Remember, the definition of a successful cold call is when you are able to define and identify a prospect. Think of it as finding a diamond among many stones. Cold calling can only be a good strategy when the percentages are in your favor rather than against you. What I mean here is that there are more likely prospects than rejects in your territory. Otherwise, it is not a good strategy.

Why I don’t Cold Call

I don’t cold call because there are easier methods of identifying who is a viable prospect for my business. Instead of cold calling on the streets, I work with technology, online services and use the abundance of profile data and information available to qualify and quantify prospects on line. I adopted a sales and marketing strategy of finding likely prospects and warming them up to me with automated email and letter correspondence. With this system, prospects will actually become receptive to me, my products and services and let me know when I should contact them. This system works because it is an automated, systematic approach to selling that makes cold calling a relic of the past instead of a viable strategy for today.