What is a cold call? By simple definition, a cold call is a telephone call or visit made to someone who is not known or not expecting contact, often in order to sell something. That’s pretty simple.

Unfortunately, like most things in business, the reality is a little more complex. Cold calling is one of the most dreaded activities sales professionals engage in. For some professionals, it’s worse than going to the dentist office.

The problem is not the activity but the mentality. Most people dread cold calling because of inadequate pre-planning, rehearsal, and knowledge of their product.

In this three-part session, I’ll to show how a cold call can be turned into a much “warmer” activity. In the first part of this article I discuss the various actions to take before the call.

Product/Service Knowledge

Think of cold calling as a game. The first thing you do when playing any game is to learn the rules and understand how the game is played. Once you understand the game, you feel more comfortable in engaging with other players.

Cold calling is the same. You must understand the product or service that you are offering. Product knowledge gives you the confidence to engage prospects without the fear of what questions they may ask. When you know you product, you will be able to quickly ascertain if the prospect is right for your product and also quickly and intelligently answer any questions they may have.

Just think, would Michael Jordan or Tiger Woods, be any good at their sport if they didn’t understand the rules of the game? Regardless of their physical attributes, both of these men would be “shy” to play, if they were afraid of being ridiculed.

As professional sportsman, practice their sports, you to must practice yours, by:

Learning your product Role playing with colleagues Keeping informed of new ideas in your market and industry

Before the Call

The actions you take before the call are as important as the call itself. I consider myself a fairly good cold caller and communicator. But there have been some sales calls that I found that I wanted to make; needed to make; but was just putting off. Why, you might ask?

After doing a personal evaluation, I discovered certain similarities with these calls. First, I noticed, that I didn’t really have a plan of attack. In addition, I wasn’t really sure what I expected to come out of the call. What if he said yes? What is he said no? If I had taken the time, to determine the expectations and goals for the call, I would have probably faired a lot better.

So here are some things to do before the call.

Set your expectations

As anything in life, you have to set goal and establish a path to reach those goals. Determine what you want to accomplish in the call. Are you expecting to make a sale, set a meeting or enroll them in some trial offer? This all depends on your product, but by establishing a gauge for success, you have direction when the prospect answers.
 

Free Data Lookups

• Get a list of counties by state
• Get a list of Texas zip codes by county
• Get a list of zip codes for Texas cities
• Get a list of area codes by city