Hello from the other side!

The first means of communication was, of course, the human voice, and it was the only way to deliver information between individuals until writing was invented 3400–3100 BC in Iraq and Egypt then in China and other parts of the world.

We hear a lot about how prospects hate being targeted for cold calling activities and the other way around; sales don’t like it either!

Lets stop for a second and think about a world without cold calling activities. If I am a CXO of a bank,  how would my bank stay relevant and competitive in the market if my colleagues in sales did not get out there and deliver information about the new incentive offer or the new service and captured more customers?

What about Telcos? How would a telco operator compete if their sales did not cold call each possible prospect to share what awesome strategies and offers their corporate are creating to keep and increase their market share?

The same example can be applied to healthcare, software providers, automotive dealers, media, even oil and gas companies and higher education.

Before calling a prospect, from my humble experience this is what worked for me:

1-     Know who are you calling: what do they do, where did they study and what is their background and previous employers. Their publishes, posts, skills and whether they have been mentioned in the news. All this information can make the conversation fruitful and only tailored to the person you are talking to.

2-     Respect that it’s an unexpected call and most of the cases its being done at a wrong time as they might be in meetings and not prepared to have you approach them and thus ask politely whether the timing is good.

3-     Be direct and deliver the message of why you are calling: share relevant successful outcomes that customers managed to achieve using your service or product, give a room for the prospect to say no and be okay with this.

4-     Have empathy and lead with genuine interest, it might be that the prospect is having a bad day, in a stressful forecast or what you sell is not in their list of priorities. Thank them for their time and get in touch later upon agreement.

5-     Be resilient whilst getting rejections, confident and bold as whatever you sell has helped your customers in solving a problem or innovate.

6-     Have fun in the process!

Next time you pick up a cold/warm call, or conduct one yourself, remember that cold calling is a way of life and its one of the fastest ways to communicate and help each other develop and learn. We do it to share information, start and build a relationship, connect companies and the wider eco-systems in the world.