Cold Calling Technique

effective cold calling techniques, tips and methods for selling and sales training

Cold calling typically refers to the first telephone call made to a prospective customer. More unusually these days, cold calling can also refer to calling face-to-face for the first time without an appointment at commercial premises or households. Cold calling is also known as canvassing, telephone canvassing, prospecting, telephone prospecting, and more traditionally in the case of consumer door-to-door selling as 'door-knocking'.

Cold calling is an important stage and technique in the selling process. Cold calling abilities are also useful in many aspects of business and work communications outside of sales activities and the selling function.

Good cold calling - performed properly and not as merely an indiscriminate 'numbers game' - is a fundamental and highly transferable capability, whose basic principles are found in the behaviours and techniques of all great entrepreneurs and leaders.

In essence cold calling is the art of approaching someone, professionally, openly and meaningfully, with a sensible proposition.

All great entrepreneurs and leaders possess this ability or they would not have become successful.

Cold calling therefore enables success, chiefly because cold calling is strongly focused on initiative and action.


cold calling is how you see it

Since selling became a recognised profession a couple of generations ago, countless sales training organizations, sales gurus, writers, theorists, and sales people of all sorts, have attempted to create effective cold calling techniques and scripts. There is no magic script, and while there are many helpful frameworks and methodologies there is no single magic answer.

Successful cold calling - including the effectiveness of methods and techniques - essentially relies on your own attitude towards cold calling.

Viewed negatively or passively, cold calling is merely a numbers game, where the sales person's calling (sometimes called 'canvassing' in this situation) is no different to a junk-mail leaflet. Somebody might respond - maybe one in twenty, maybe one in a hundred.

This is the way that unsuccessful sales people see cold calling. No wonder for them that cold calling is a painful grind. Depressing, embarrassing, draining, exhausting, just horrible.

On the other hand...

Viewed positively and creatively , cold-calling is empowering and potent.

Cold calling actually enables the sales person to:

* supersede existing suppliers
* pre-empt the competition
* identify and create huge new business possibilities
* become indispensable as someone who can make things happen and create new business
* build (your) personal reputation beyond job title and grade
* establish relationships and a respect (for you) beyond normal sales responsibilities
* and be an entrepreneur.

So, do you want to be the human equivalent of junk-mail, or do you want to achieve entrepreneurial reputation and success that will take you anywhere you want to go?

Like so many other aspects of business, management, and especially selling, cold-calling is how you see it, and whatever you want to make it.