How to Warm Up a Freezing Cold Call

I make my living calling complete strangers and having a conversation about my client's business and why they should have a meeting with my client. According to my mother I started calling people randomly when I was 2 years old. I would love to sit on the stairs dialing random numbers so perhaps I was destined to always call people.

On the internet there are lots of people saying this is how it should be done, and sales consultants and lots of other specialists telling you it is hard and difficult, but actually anyone can do this if they have three skills that can be cultivated but it is easier if they are more or less natural.

Engaging the mind in a positive way of the person you call this is one of the most important things a caller needs to achieve in the first 5-10 seconds. There are some simple ways to achieve this and some really excellent ways as well. This is the puppy bit, all calls have to be carefully nurtured, to grow into strong fully developed conversations that are satisfying to both parties. This was one of the litter that Jemima had one of which was Lavinia

The simplest way is to ask if they are responsible for the end result of what you want to talk to them about. Then to improve on this make what you say relevant to their company's particular situation, that means looking at their website, finding case studies and press releases that feature something about their company and use that to connect that to why you called them today. This uses skills 1 and 2

The good caller then has an opening tailor made for this particular person within this target company. Every call varies by a small but significant amount and each call, if the caller has the relevant traits, will have a much better chance of success. We all know about things like mirroring the manner of the person we are speaking to and open and closed questions but actually for most conversations most of the time all you need is to ask the obvious questions. Do you have a requirement for this? When will that be? Will anyone else be involved? Everything else is about setting those questions up and positioning the Client as the obvious person for them to speak to about it. This requires skills 1 2 and 3

Never be frightened of asking for help, if they ask you something you don't understand ask for an explanation if it is technical or product specific it is the ideal time to escalate the conversation to a meeting with the person you know can deal with this your client. When dealing with the gatekeeper then asking for help makes them feel valued! Again skills 1 2 and 3 are in play here

The Three Skills.

Be inquisitive and interested in the company, what goals they may have and how the person you are speaking to is achieving that.

Be flexible, you need to assess information you find out or are being told and then apply it to particular business situations, if not on this call then on the next one or one after that.

Gravitas, be confident in your manner, even if you are struggling take your time because what you are saying is valuable. This lends weight to why they should engage with your client.

This is not a skill but can be planned, the skill is not to go past it. Identify when it is the right time to present the meeting as the next logical step to your conversation.

Happy calling.