3 Easy Steps: How To Warm Up The Cold Call
Let’s face it cold calling sucks, especially if you’re introverted, like me.
Maybe you’ve had this experience. You have a list of prospects who could desperately use your services. Maybe you look them up on LinkedIn or Facebook.
You have their phone number. Now it’s time to dial.
What do you say?
Will they hang up on you?
Just go back to what’s comfortable… send an email and hope they’re respond…
… Well THAT’S not going to help you grow your business, comfort is the devil inside us all. Sometimes we have to get outside our comfort zone to improve and to prove to ourselves that something is possible.
The fact is that the worst thing that can happen is someone hanging up the phone with you. It’s more about what’s going on in their world then about you. Remember you have something of value you’d like to offer to them.
Some of the best customers I’ve received were from cold outreach.
There is a way of warming up your cold outreach so it is received better than just someone trying to sell you something over the phone.
Below are 3 STEPS you can use to improve your conversion of cold calls to appointments and WHY it will work for you.
SOME BACKGROUND
If you’re just making cold calls without warming them up first you will convert less than 2%. Yet when you warm up the conversation you increase the likelihood of moving to the next stage in the process by 10 times. So instead of 2 out of a hundred you’lll get 20.
All you have to do is implement a couple of steps and you will increase your conversions with the same amount of effort. Or just slightly more effort.
Pretty cool right?
PSYCHOLOGY OF THE COLD CALL
In a 2007 survey by Marketing Sherpa (a marketing research company) 11 – 17% of call recipients were annoyed by the caller. That seems REALLY LOW to me. Marketing Sherpa goes on to explain that the recipients of the call were annoyed because they are in a fear state. Fear of being sold to. Interesting.
Which is why (in my tips below) tip #1 is to displace that fear as quickly as possible on the call.
In fact I received an unsolicited call the other night from a non profit organization and in the first sentence she said, “and this is not a fundraising call”. Boom, my radar was down. She was just calling to encourage me to fill out the US census.
TYPICAL COLD CALL STRATEGY
Let’s say you get a call from a number you don’t know but it’s local, so you pick it up…
Caller says, “Tom?”
Instantly my fear state would be up, I don’t recognize the voice, all they asked was my name… weird.
I say with trepidation, “Yes, who’s this?”
Caller reponds, “Oh great, I’m glad you answered, I’m calling you for the CHOOSE ANY CHARITY it’s a great organization and we could really use your help, can we count on you for a $50 donation?”
I’m thinking, “I shouldn’t have picked up the phone, and NO I don’t want to give you $50.” of course I say instead, “No thanks, have a good night.” and hang up the phone. Argh they got me and I’m irritated. Then I realized that I have donated to them in the past, and feel kinda bad.
HOW TO WARM UP THE COLD CALL
Rather, had they just been direct from the beginning and stated the intention of the call along with a memory jogger for me, that cold call would have warmed up quickly.
It should have gone like this:
Caller starts with “Hi Tom, this is Jane from XYZ Organization, I don’t want to take too much of your time, about 6 months ago you made a donation to us and I wanted to personally say THANK YOU for your support.” PAUSE and let that sink in.
Me, “Oh yeah, you’re welcome.”
Jane continues, “As you know things are a bit crazy right now and we could really use some additional support again, can we count on you for another $50 or did you want to increase that to $100.”
Me, “Um, yeah can we do $75?”
Jane, with a big ole smile on her face, “We sure can, same card as last time ending in 5887 Or did you want to put it on a different card?”
You see the night and day difference. From taking control, letting down that radar with a memory jogger and then moving toward the finish line… Jane made a sale… AND an upgrade from last time. Ring the bell in that call center!
So here is how to implement it in your own business to make sure you are warming up those cold leads and taking people to the next step.
THE THREE STEP PROCESS
STEP 1
Take control of the conversation and provide a memory jogger on who you are and why you’re calling so you can alleviate any fears of “being sold to”.
STEP 2
Only ‘sell’ the next step. – Baby steps… like dating… While your ultimate goal is to acquire a new client the likelihood of that happening from a cold call is pretty slim.
The next step in my sales process is always a phone call to find out more about the prospect or even a coffee meeting. I want to find out if they would even be a good fit for my business let alone if we’d be a good fit for them.
STEP 3
Go in with a giving attitude. What can you offer to them that they need? More clients, leads, even an introduction to someone they may want to know.
When you go in with a giving attitude your message will be much better heard. When I was building my personal training business and looking for referral partners I wouldn’t call up the local chiropractor and say “I own a personal training business down the street, can you please refer your patients to me?”. Yet so many people do that.
Instead, it was, “I have a personal training business and I’m looking for chiropractors who I can refer my clients to, are you currently accepting new patients?”.
See the start difference? How would you respond if you were on the receiving side of either of those conversation starters.
Just those three tips will get the conversation MUCH MUCH warmer. I’d finish the conversation with an invitation to have coffee to discuss or even to come visit their office.
FREE GIFT FOR YOU!
I’ve put together a little cheat sheet you can download for free… How To Warm Up Cold Call Scripting
There are several different scripts you can use to turn a cold call into a warm call into a new client and a new friend.
Let me know how it works for you, I always appreciate comments and hearing the impact my advice has. And if you’re looking to outsource your calling, let’s have a discussion to see if Business Lead Maximizer would be a good fit for you. www.BusinessLeadMaximizer.com/schedule-a-call