Cold Calling Dealers? How to Be the Navy Seals of Cold Calls

When you have to ask, "When's the best time to make cold calls?"... you haven't made enough cold calls. The first rule of cold calling is anytime is the best time to cold call.

Slow is smooth and smooth is fast.

It's a fact, that anytime is the best time if you're motivated and hitting the phones with determination. However, no time is a good time if you're hesitant, unsure, and timid, (your sales manager should have you coached-up and ready to go).

But just in case you're struggling with your cold calls here are a few tips to get you squared away. (Note: these examples are selling to car dealers but the information below is relevant to anyone in B2B sales).

Let's start with timing, anytime is a good time, but sometimes may be better than others. Starting your calls early can be a good thing, say 7 am. First, you beat all your competing salespeople who are calling the same prospects.

Second, you'll be seen as a go-getter and decision-makers appreciate your effort.

Third when a dealer answers at 7 am they're a go-getter too and you already have something in common to talk about.

For example, when they pick up say something like, "Whoa, I was expecting voicemail, glad to see I'm not the only one working at 7 am."

This technique provides a compliment, strokes their ego, and anchors yourself with their work ethic all in one quick sentence.

Another benefit is the receptionist usually isn't in so you can bypass the gatekeeper. Lots of upside to this tactic, if you're consistent and willing to get to the office early.

Here's what not to do when cold calling dealers

No distractions. Don't check your voicemail even if it's blinking. You didn't come into the office early to check voicemail did you?

I know what you're thinking, that voicemail is from the big prospect who finally called back and is ready to buy. Let it wait, it's too easy for one voicemail to consume your morning.

Let everything wait, no multi-tasking during your cold call time. Don't open your email, ticket system, Facebook, or any other distraction. You have 60 minutes to make as many quality calls as possible, (shoot for about 20).

Rookies lie to themselves and think they are working because they are responding to emails or updating LinkedIn, in actuality, they are avoiding, procrastinating, and fooling themselves.

Also, don't stop after one really good call, keep it going for the full hour. Remember you're making sure your pipeline is staying full so you can outsell the entire office. You're not trying to be Average Joe, you want to be the Navy Seal-Team-Six, Special Ops Sales Superstar.

Remember, Special Ops Sales Superstars DON'T SLEEP LATE.

Average salespeople get discouraged with cold calling because more often than not it doesn't work. But what if you could get it right the first time? What if you knew out of those 20 calls (and with your sales process, you'd close another deal), would you call every day?

Dam right you would.

But average salespeople don't close one dealer for every 20 cold calls. Its more like one in 100, if they are lucky.

And since we love instant gratification, that's too painful to tolerate, a week's worth of cold calling for one lousy deal.

Forget that, I'll cold email and troll LinkedIn before I do that.

Stop trying to win the war and instead focus on today's battle. Find the little victories like; having a good call, making a connection, getting an email or even finding out this guy is a complete jerk and will never call him again.

Find little victories every call. Your focus is filling your pipeline because you know your numbers, (you do know your numbers right?) For every X opportunity you have in your pipeline you get Y deals closed. The bigger your pipeline the bigger your commissions.

My belief is average salespeople get knocked out in the first 5 seconds of the cold call (death blow) and there's no recovery.

So remember, we aren't trying to sell them, we're just trying NOT to get knocked out. One of the most common knockout punches on the cold call is when prospect says, "I have someone in my office." or "I'm in a meeting." or "I'm with a customer."

You're done, you push and the call gets hostile, even though you both know he'd never answer the phone with a client in front of him. This is why it's critical to prevent the "death blow".

If you know what your death blow is, (car business it's "I'm with a customer") you have to find a way to take it off the table immediately. So the opening statement has to be less sales pitch and more command presence. I like to thank dealers upfront for taking my call. This makes me their equal and I don't sound like the average sales rep.

When they drop their guard, you hit them with your 3 best value statements and your "ask" question, then wait for a response. The value statements are your strongest reason why this prospect should listen. Your trail close is your low-risk and low-pressure ask to move the call forward. (Note: your not closing the deal, you're just testing the water to see how they feel to move forward to the next step, whatever that is, qualifying, email, demo, or webinar).

Being in command is much better than a generic, "Do you have a second?" You'll get knocked out 99% less and it's more fun than the alternative. (Note: Don't use the line, "is now a good time?" it gets you knocked out more often than "do you have a second".

What do you do after your first hour of cold calling? Well if you had success and it's working for you start calling a time zone that's still 8 am.

Yea that's right, there are different time zones, so just follow the sun and make your cold calls to prospects always at 8 am and watch your pipeline fill up.

Once you figure out how to fill your pipeline yourself your income will skyrocket.

The real message of this post is if you're doing and saying the same thing as everyone else, how do you expect to get different results.

Try being brave enough to be different, it's what all Special Ops Sales Superstars have in common.

Andrew Compton is an experienced automotive SaaS sales executive. He's been teaching companies how to double (or more) new sales since he helped his first automotive SaaS client grow to over 2,500 dealers. He has helped organizations win more than $15,000,000 in new business with his engineered sales processes and highly actionable automotive experience over the past decade.?To schedule a call click here

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