Sales Prospecting Perspectives

Focusing Your Cold Calling On Helping Not Selling...

  

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We all know cold calling isn’t the most glamorous job. Before you can even get a word in edge wise you hear:  “Are you a Telemarketer?”, “We don’t accept solicitation calls” or “Mr. CEO doesn’t accept sales calls…”.

When banging my head against the wall, one thing that always grounded me was the concept of getting the prospect to understand that I’m here to help. My managers would drill that concept home when I was ramping up on new a project. Realizing that I was not trying to sell anything, and my job was to discuss someone’s pains and needs with them, often took the edge off.  Rather then getting caught up with acronyms and technical jargon (that alone often backed me into a corner), I focus on gaining the prospects trust, and that I’m interested in only helping them if there is a need. So I try to follow these guidlines below in order to ensure the trust is gained with each prospect I reach out to:

1. Introduction: Make it clear to admins and/or prospects the intent of your call. Be honest with them on what your role is and the level of knowledge you have on the technology. This will create strong rapport and will allow the prospect to feel relaxed in knowing that they are not dealing with a sales person or someone super technical that’s going bore them about product benefits.
2. Environment: Your #1 goal is to uncover what their environment looks like and what they need in place to run effectively and efficiently. So I let them know that I want to discuss how their current process/solution is working for them. What do they have in place that helps them achieve their goals? This paints a picture of not only what solutions they have, but can help you see whether they are a fit.
3. Specific Pain/Needs: Ask whether there is anything in particular that they’d like to change with their current process/solution. This allows them to vent about some of their pains and will allow you to find out challenges they are facing that your solution will be able to help. Listening to them discuss what they wish they had will allow you to get a better understanding of what they want in a solution.

There are many blogs out there offering tips on effective ways to cold call but the foundation to a strong conversation is to be successful at building that trust with the prospect. Going into each dial with the intention to listen and allow the prospect to tell you what their challenges are will ensure a next step phone call with the sales rep.   

What are some ways that you help build trust with your prospects?