If you are spending a significant amount of time cold calling, take it as a sign that your sales and marketing process is not effective. You need to be “out there” with your value proposition when your prospect is searching for an answer to their problem; Branding, referrals, internet marketing, trade shows, advertising, blogs, etc are all methods that can be used to spread your value proposition so that prospects can find you. I would rather fire a shotgun in a tree with lots of birds than to hunt with a sniper rifle in a forest full of trees. Cold calling is like searching for a needle in a haystack. Warm calling is fishing in a pond stocked with fish. Marketing is having 100 fishing poles in the water, waiting for the hungry fish to bite.

What is it about the topic of “cold calling” that always seems to generate a tremendous amount of interest and passionate opinions?

I don’t think you can define “cold calling” without additional information.
1) Have you clearly defined your target market to ensure that the prospect can utilize/benefit from your product/services?
2) Have you taken the extra effort to “warm” the prospect with timely and pertinent articles, mailers, emails, marketing pieces?
3) Do you have a clear and concise message to convey so that you do not waste the time of the executive/prospect (and can differentiate yourself from your competition)?
4) Do you have a system/CRM in place to capture key information from your prospect so that you can follow up at a different time (next week, next month, next year…timing is everything!)?

With those questions answered, I think “cold calling” is not as “cold” and an important piece in the sales cycle.

Confidence! Act like you have been there. If you act like a salesperson (overly nice, dripping with “can you please help me, I sound just like every other cold-calling salesperson”), the gatekeepers will smell you a mile away.

Be polite and professional, but act like you belong. Pretend you are calling a friend of yours at his or her work place. You would be amazed at how easily a gatekeeper will put you through if you are confident and act as if he/she is expecting your call.

A surefire way to get around gatekeepers: Call when they aren’t there and the C-level probably is still in the office (think before 8am and after 5pm!).
Terrence

I hate “cold” calls.   I hate to receive them and I hate to make them.  Then again, I have yet to meet a salesperson who likes to cold call, but in order to fill the sales pipeline (the lifeblood of every successful salesperson), it has to be done….or does it?

I hate “cold” calls and I refuse to make them.  However, I have been one of the top salespeople in each of the companies I have worked for and with my own businesses, I have rocketed past the competition.  What I developed was a surefire process that anyone can employ and enjoy the same level of success as the top salespeople in their industry.

My first job out of college was an inside sales position with a specialty alloys manufacturer.  Not very sexy and just a step above a “commodity” type product (think copiers, cell phones, payroll).  I was given a list of clients who had not done business with the company for over 5 years.  I will never forget the words from my boss as he handed me this list:  “I am sure there are a few diamonds in there….now go find them.”

After sitting at my desk for a month, hoping my phone would ring, I needed to do something and cold calling was not something I was good at, so I had to come up with a strategy.   This became the starting point for developing my formula for creating multiple strategies, that I would continue to tweak and improve at each step along my sales career.  By the way, my boss was right…I found a few “diamonds” on that list on the way to becoming the top salesperson in my company (318% of quota!).  Three years later, I was promoted to Regional Sales Manager (one of the youngest managers in the 110 year history of the company) and took on the responsibility for the $125 million sales office.

What has been my secret for avoiding “cold calling”….it may sound simple, but I make sure the call is a “warm” one, before I ever pick up the phone.  Pre-call homework and guerrilla marketing tactics are a huge part of my formula and I will provide many of the details in this blog, so stay tuned.