Cold calling is one of the things most people seem to ask me for help with usually because they want to get better results from it – although some people like to avoid it altogether!  However, for a smaller business, often the problem with their cold calling isn’t cold calling – it’s something earlier in the process that’s causing them problems later on.

Now, while in these circumstances getting better at cold calling can help, it’s sometimes more important to look earlier in the process to ensure you’re giving yourself and your team the best chance of success when it comes to the phone call.

Let me give you some examples we’ve uncovered while working with clients recently....

Problem No 1 – Poorly Planned Sales Process

This is a common problem that occurs far more often than it should!  Whether it’s the manager, director or business owner that hasn’t thought the process out fully, or that the salesperson just hasn’t ‘got their head around it’, either way this needs looking at before the sales calls start!

An important point to investigate is what has happened prior to the call you’re about to make?  And compare that to what should have happened!  Has the person responded to an advert?  Have they come from a web enquiry?  If it’s a ‘pure’ cold call, where have you sourced the data from and what is it like?

If it was a response to an advert for example, what ‘filtering’ have you done on the advert?  Did you want only the good quality enquiries (useful for a small sales team that can’t handle larger call-volumes, and salespeople with less experience), or did you want all the enquiries you can get, so you can use your sales skills to try and get a positive outcome when you call?

The more filtering you have done, the warmer the enquiry is, generally speaking.  I’ve seen far too many companies do too little filtering – usually because they naively think that the more responses they get, the better the advertising worked!  It just means you’ve got lots of ‘follow-up’ calls with people who are less interested – which becomes a problem if you don’t do a lot of cold calling and aren’t used to the rejection!

Problem No 2 – Poor Handling Of Initial Enquiry

Think about this for a moment.  If your enquiry comes in over the phone, who is the person who takes that call?  Someone that’s been well trained in sales?  Someone who’s completely conversant with the campaign that generated the lead and knows everything about it?  Someone you can rely on to have the best chance of converting that enquiry into business?

Far too often companies spend large amounts of money on websites, advertising, branding and marketing campaigns, yet when those campaigns generate an incoming lead, they fail to deal with it properly!  They fail to invest in the most critical part of the process - the part that could win or lose them the business – the training of the person handling the incoming enquiry!

If it’s an enquiry that came in via your website, how quickly do you respond to the enquiry?  Within a few hours?  Or, is it more like days?  Some people I’ve talked to recently often don’t respond to them at all!!  Hands up all of those who respond to the email or web enquiry with an email.  You deserve to be shot!  This is the main (or perhaps the ONLY) opportunity to engage the prospect into your sales process and you’re going to do it by sending an email?  Dear, oh dear....

If it was a telephone enquiry, what questions do you or your staff ask that person?  Questions that just get the ‘facts’ or the ‘details’ of what they want?  Or do you ask questions that uncover buyer motivation, desire, needs, control the call and win the business (and a new customer) at the end of it?

Problem No 3 – Wrong (Or No) Focus On The Call

The third thing you needed to think about is the call itself.  A common problem with people making cold calls or follow up calls is that they fail to consider what outcome they want from the call BEFORE they make it!

Are you trying to make an appointment from the call? A sale?  Trying to get the prospect to visit you?  A conference call?  If none of those, what specifically are you trying to achieve?

Far too many calls are made without an objective in mind.  Those are the sort of calls that tend to ‘drift’ – with little or no control from the salesperson – that give the recipient the impression that there wasn’t a clear reason for the call, nor for the conversation they’re now having – therefore they want to get out of it as quickly as possible!!

Your call structure needs to be designed and delivered with your outcome in mind!  Otherwise, the prospect is far more likely to achieve THEIR objective from the call (in some cases theirs is to get rid of you!) than you are to get yours!

Problem No 4 – Lack Of Confidence With Selling In General

If this relates to you directly, don’t worry.  The majority of people I’ve worked with have some challenges with confidence at some point – and some on a regular basis! 

As companies have ‘re-engineered’ themselves over the last few months, in a number of cases it’s meant that non-traditional sales staff are now having to handle parts of the sales process as part of their role.  These staff members didn’t sign up for a sales job, but are now having to do sales activities – whether they like it or not!

Whether it’s a marketing person making sales calls trying to get appointments for field sales representatives, or an administrator handling incoming sales enquiries, if they aren’t confident with the activity they’re undertaking, that means less effective calls, lost opportunities, and therefore – lost sales!

Any person tasked with taking on any element of ‘sales responsibility’ within a company needs to be confident with that aspect of sales.  A lack of confidence in any element of the sales operation can be a source of lost sales – something most businesses can’t afford at the moment. 

It’s vital that action is taken to equip all team members with the mindset, skills and confidence required in order to maximize sales opportunities right now.  Otherwise, you could be virtually gifting business to the competition....