The Golden Rules of Cold Calling

Please, start with a script. I am constantly surprised by the frequency with which salespeople tell me that they prefer just to talk! Way too often I am told they don’t like to use a script as it makes them sound robotic, or “canned.” And therefore, they prefer to “wing it.” From observing these salespeople, most of them also don’t like to spend much, if any, time before a call thinking about or planning their upcoming call. It shouldn’t then come as a surprise to learn that these salespeople are the same ones who constantly complain about the crappy leads and barely scrape by in life, as they live paycheck to paycheck.

Remember, the script doesn’t necessarily have to be read word for word. However, it provides a valuable road map for the conversation. And if a person sounds robotic while going through the script, it just means they haven’t read it aloud enough times for it to sound natural, so that the listener feels they have an unscripted conversation.

So, Rule number 1 is always to work your cold or warm leads from a script.

Now that we have the foundation laid and we have an understanding that calling out on leads as a cold or warm call, must be done with a script, let’s get into the heart of the process for successfully working your leads.

Rule 2; You must immediately call your leads. Ideally within two or three minutes of the lead coming into you. The Harvard Business Review published the results of a large study (15,000 leads and more than 100,000 call attempts) showing that contacting a newly generated lead within 5 minutes of it being generated, results in a 100x greater contact rate as compared to calling later! That’s right; this means that conversely if you fail to call on a newly generated lead within the first 5 minutes, your likelihood of reaching that lead on a first call, falls by 10x!

Rule 3; You must be persistent in your attempts to reach your prospect. Most salespeople call on their new leads two or three times. After that, they give up and complain about the leads. The reality as borne out by multiple studies is that it takes 6 to 9 attempts to maximize the contact rate. Calling on your leads 9 times can result in a contact rate of up to 92%. If you are not attempting to contact your leads at least 6 times, and preferably as many as 9 times, you are letting new clients and commissions slip through your fingers.

Rule 4; Call at the right time of the day. And remember, the right time of the day refers to the prospect’s time zone, not yours. If your sales meeting or any other meeting that you are in is occurring at the beginning of the day or the end of the day, you or your manager is making a big mistake. In the study published by Harvard, the best time of the day to reach a new prospect is between 3:30 and 5:30 pm. The second-best time of the day is between 7:30 and 9:00 am. The average difference in contact rates from the worst time of the day to the best time of the day was 164%. How many of you are in sales meetings to either start or end your day? As you can see, that’s a big mistake!

Rule 5; Spend your days of the week on what is most productive. If you can generate or purchase leads by the day of the week, make use of this ability. The best two days of the week to contact prospects is first, Thursday, and second, Wednesday. Unbelievably, the third best day of the week is Friday. Think about it; most people are very busy Monday with getting caught up after the weekend and getting their new week started. They then do their follow up and continuation work on Tuesday… just like you! After they have their week under control, they are much more likely to take your call or visit on Wednesday, Thursday, or Friday.

Rule 6; Call to a Direct Dial number. When you are generating or buying leads, you must insist on obtaining a direct dial number for your prospect. If you only have an 800 number or the main company number, your chances of getting through to your prospect drop dramatically. Receptionists are there for a reason. You don’t want to have to try and first get through a gate-keeper to reach your prospect.

The other side of that is you too need to have a direct dial phone number to give out. When you call out, you don’t want to show up as some generic 800 number. You want to appear personal and personable with your own, personal number showing up on the prospects caller ID. Your prospects can also call you back as needed and get through directly to you. How many of you like to go through some long, automated voice tree to get through to somebody? Neither does your prospect.

Rule 7; Make your Direct Dial number a local number with the prospect’s area code. If you live in Florida and I live here in Orange County California, and you call me from a 305 Miami area code, I am probably not going to answer the phone. I will immediately see the out of State number and know that I don’t know you. And if I am at all busy, I would probably rather continue doing my work than answer the phone to talk with somebody I don’t know. With the technology available nowadays, it is a fairly simple matter to have a direct dial number that matches the area code of your prospect.

To recap:

1.     Always call your prospects from a script

2.     Call your new leads within 5 minutes

3.     Attempt to reach your prospects as many as 9 times

4.     Call at the right times of the day, early morning, and late afternoon

5.     Call during the most productive days of the week, Wednesday, and Thursday

6.     Obtain prospects best direct dial number and use a direct dial number yourself

7.     Use the same area code to call from as the area code of your prospect

Follow these 7 “Golden Rules” of prospecting and watch your sales numbers jump up!