Cold Call Selling Strategies For The New Year

by Frank Rumbauskas⁽³⁾
http://www.nevercoldcall.com

Cold calling has morphed a lot over the years, and as time goes on, it continually changes, so I decided to draft this tip sheet now that the New Year is upon us.

A long time ago, cold calling was the main technique of lead generation. Countless sales reps went out, walked the street, go canvassing whether it was business-to-business or business-to-consumer sales, and started making calls.

Back then, sales prospects would invite you in for a cup of coffee, sit back, and gratefully hear what you had to sell. If you cold called an office, you would have the chance to explain why they should buy your product. And in door-to-door sales to residences - think of the old-fashioned Kirby and bible salesman who used to go door-to-door - you'd have a chance to show off and demonstrate your goods, and have a good shot at closing a sale.

As years progressed, the challenge of cold prospecting increased. Prospective clients became more closed to it, and salesmen had to invent new and clever approaches to making sales calls.

Now that we're in the new year, it's important to consider the many problems that you will run into while making cold calls, and make sure you're prepared to meet them:

1. Cold prospecting is increasingly intolerated by prospects. Today, prospects may not take cold calls entirely. As it happens, a recent business school report concluded that 80% of B2B decision makers positively will not accept cold calls and will never buy as the result of it. This means that salespeople must invent better and innovative ways to prospect for leads.

2. Cold call sales has become unlawful in many areas. Particularly in the UK and other EU nations, many regions are outlawing it altogether and anyone who gets caught doing it will face jail time. In the US, a surprising number of cities and states require a license or permit to make cold calls on the phone, something few salespeople are even aware of, putting them in potential trouble. And some areas require a canvassing license.

3. Cold calling causes numerous time management challenges. Since cold calling is particularly time intensive, it requires sales professionals to manage their time to an extreme level, and frequently it becomes impossible to find enough time to accomplish all that you need to do, and have enough time remaining for prospecting.

4. Prospects generated from cold calls have the worst close rate of all leads. This is known to all salespeople: Leads from trusted referral sources are best - they're practically sold before you even meet with them - while leads from cold calling can be extremely challenging to close because they're not fully qualified in the first place.

5. Cold call selling is something that few, if any, salespeople want to do, and therefore they can't do it well. Napoleon Hill's principles of success include the literal fact that no salesperson can be successful at work they do not enjoy, while conversely, it's practically unfeasible to fail at work that you love. Salespeople who want to have great success need to partake of sales prospecting techniques that they enjoy. Some salespeople are master networkers and prosper at networking events, others are good at getting referrals, while still others can successfully use social media like Facebook to generate leads; but, it's practically unheard of to find a salesperson who is enjoying tremendous achievement by cold calling.

I personally endured many disturbing experiences while prospecting, experiences that hurt my motivation and seriously harmed my ability to make sales. People have cussed at me, I've had doors slammed in my face, I've been threatened with violence, and so much more.

Once I even had the police summoned because I was cold calling in a building with a "no soliciting" warning, and the only way I avoided arrest and jail was because a friend's father was a policeman on that town's police force.

Considering all this, is cold calling really worth the trouble and pitfalls? Especially when it's neither tolerated nor effective today in this new year?

If you want to become a hugely prosperous salesperson, the solution isn't to make more calls. The solution is to use cutting-edge, Information Age methods to connect with new prospects like the Internet, social media, and good old-fashioned referrals and networking, whether that networking takes place online or at a happy hour business mixer.

Make a commitment to eliminate cold calling and use effective lead generation methods instead and watch your results explode!

Frank Rumbauskas has taught over 50,000 salespeople how to stop cold calling forever. To learn more about his cold calling alternatives, please visit http://www.nevercoldcall.com/cold-calling/

Article submitted Wednesday, January 04, 2012 & read 7 times.

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