The art of cold calling - courtesy of Love Island

Cold calling is an art and one I am passionate about. It takes a lot for an individual to pick up the phone in an attempt to convince senior executives in a business to give up some of their time to listen to the value proposition offered by their product/teams/company and it requires hard skin to take the levels of rejection required to meet targets.

I have heard a lot of people comment on the sales call from Jack on Love Island and whilst he used it jokingly as an example of how he used his personality to open the door and get someone to listen, he demonstrates some fundamental skills that I see cold callers often forget. 

First he built rapport not only with the buyer of the goods but with their colleagues who made the internal referral to speak to them. The opening was light hearted, friendly and whilst it was obvious it was a sales call the were both willing to give him their time. We had an opportunity to have SAP Concur customers join us at one of our events recently who offered their opinion on cold callers and several admitted someone who does not attempt to build rapport is going to get a short and sharp rejection. It's people calling people there is nothing wrong with being engaging and interested in them and not just their ability to buy your wares.

He then knew what the objections were going to be and was confident on his talk track and rebuttal. Handling objections up front and giving the person on the line a reason to listen. Which business is not going to be interested in reducing their stationary spend or at least using the insight on competitive pricing to drive down their existing contract.

This is a great example for those in cold calling roles of the importance of rapport building and understanding your value proposition and common objections. This style will not work for everyone and each cold caller needs to be comfortable with their own talk track. But perhaps try building rapport with each person you talk too even those on the switchboard and see what impact it has on your calls.

 #teamsapconcur #sales #loveisland #coldcalling

 https://www.mirror.co.uk/tv/tv-news/love-island-favourite-jacks-best-12976284