It may not be the most glamorous part of sales, but ‘cold calling’ is being put firmly back on the selling agenda. Indeed, our Live Telephone Selling course – which includes live calls to real prospects – has seen a huge increase in demand over the past few months.
The reason for this is simple – in the current climate businesses need sales from all sources. It is no longer enough just to rely on existing contacts – all sales people need to be focused on generating new business leads from existing and new markets both in the UK and abroad.
Cold calling was for a long time seen as the ‘embarassing relative’ of the sales industry, but in truth it is integral to sales success. Generating those business leads and having the skills to speak to new contacts and win meetings is key – now more than ever.
The problem is that for many sales people telephone selling has fallen by the wayside over the last 10 years, with many thinking they are above making sales calls. As a result, even when they do try to take the initiative and pick up the phone, their tired and unstructured techniques mean they aren’t bringing in new business.
If you are going to survive the current recession and come out if it stronger why not take another look at cold calling and the skills needed to succeed. There is a lot that can be learnt.
Tell us about your experiences of cold calling….
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3 comments:
We have noticed a marked increase in the variety of people attending our popular Live Telephone Selling courses. Traditionally attendees were those new to sales who were looking to increase their client portfolio and get their foot on the revenue ladder. Recently though experienced sales people and even Managing Directors have taken matters into their own hands and actively sought new business in the current tougher climate. Comments we have received from our recent courses include:
MD - “We have been running our business successfully for 5 years now but over the last 6 months the level of incoming business that we have always relied on has began to slow up so for the first time we have got to start getting on the phone and proactively generate new business ourselves”
Account Manager - “I have never needed to worry about booking appointments for myself in the past as this was done for me. As the number of appointments has started to dry up the need for me to actually book more meetings myself to keep hitting my targets is becoming apparent”
Alice Thomas, Training Project Coordinator
The sales people I manage are coming up against a different set of objections when cold calling. In the short term it has meant their motivation dropped as they weren't having the sucesses they had previously. The majority haven't worked in an economic downturn so its getting them to realise what is reality and what is 'media hype' as well as giving them tips on how to think as if they were the client at the other end of the phone. Client 'pains' have changed and therefore so must our sales approach.
I agree cold calling is part of the role of every successful sales person and is about having a structured approach on the phone. I have certainly found you cannot depend on existing clients and have to now more than ever be creative in finding new business contacts, asking for referrals from not only people you have a good relationship with but also any new contacts (if you don’t ask you don’t get!), look at your clients, their partners and who else works in their marketplace. What other creative ways could you use to generate new business leads?
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