Cold Calling Techniques – Are there Any Secrets?

Cold Calling is one of the most firecely debated areas of sales and had been for decades. The reason it is , is because it is probably the hardest part of the selling process. It is the ultimate sales prospecting skill – the ability to pick up the phone and cold call someone you don’t know and engage them in a conversation about your products or services.

Do Cold Calling Techniques Work?

There is a lot of debate as to wether cold calling is dead. Firstly let me say that yes – cold calling is dead, and winning business by phone is alive and one of the most profitable ways of winning new business. But surely that is a contradiction? Well, no its not. You see, cold caling describes the act of picking up the phone and making absolutely cold contact with someone you have neve spoken before. Unfortunately, in practice in the real world, it often entails a cold contact with no real reason for the call either.

It is often perpetuated by bad sales teams who’s only strategy is to smile and dial and cold contact people from the Yellow Pages or other vague and untargeted databases. When they ring it realy is a cold contact because they have no value that they are adding to the convesation from the perspective of the person they are calling. Cold calling like this is often represented by weak cold calling opening statements such as:

“Mr Smith, we a re a full sevice design and print company that can handle all of your requirements. Would you be interested in our services?”

Of course, Mr smith wouldn’t!! Where is the relevance for him, where is the value add?

Herein lies the contradiction. Yes cold calling is dead if you use approches like this because you will be struggling so much you will be constantly searching for those  next cold calling techniques that will magically open up the doors for you. I hate to tell you this that these magic cold calling techniques don’t exist. Yes, there are plenty of structures, approaches, proven words that sell, and ways of delivering value statements that can be called cold calling techniques but these are the icing on the cake.

The cake itself is the way you structure your prospecting activities. You see, it is not about cold caling techniques but more about warm calling or integrated sales prospecting. With warm calling you have very tightly defined the type of person or business you would like to contact and you have developed multiple approaches that are all based on adding value to their business. This act of warm contacting can be by phone, just as much as it can be by email, direct mail, postcards, or networking. It is not about cold calling techniques but more about the value you bring to the other party.

If you can identify and verbalise value that is relevant to the other person then you won’t be reliant on cold techniques.