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Telemarketing > News > Telemarketing – Cold Calling Techniques To Motivate Prospects To Engage With You

Telemarketing – Cold Calling Techniques To Motivate Prospects To Engage With You

Posted on Tuesday, 12 July 2011 11:36AM by
Cold calling – What a great name and term for referring to the making of calls to new business prospects which are currently unfamiliar with you and/or your company.Unless you are delivering a telemarketing campaign on behalf of a very highly regarded organisation, selling just what the doctor ordered at the perfect time, no doubt you are accustomed to a chilly response to your calls, reminiscent of a trip to the North Pole with insufficient layers of clothing. Previous negative experiences of course lead to your/our prospects to erect a wall of ice, metaphorically speaking, every time the call recipient answers the phone and realises its effectively a sales call. This blog features some methods for warming prospects to your call to encourage them to want to talk to you and ultimately buy from you.
 
Fortunately there are countless ways to warm prospects to you and the call, to get them to discuss their challenges and problems and get them interested in listening to what you have to say and offer. You must however, achieve this within the first few seconds of the call.
 
Here at Optimum Resource Group we typically follow a five step approach when cold calling prospects during a telemarketing campaign , but…. the method used for selling does depend upon exactly what we are selling i.e. solutions, services and products, because from our collective experience and opinions, there truly ‘is not’ a one size fits all approach.
 
We start by introducing ourselves, our company, what the company does. Next, undoubtedly the most important step, we explain the value proposition, describing in clear, easy to understand terms, the benefit to the prospect in continuing the conversation. In doing so, it is important to always be honest, behave and converse naturally and put the concerns of the prospect first.
 
Throughout all our campaigns we are business like in manner and we focus on the value of the conversation for the prospect, and to us that is one of the most significant differentiators to acknowledge and respect when making outbound telemarketing calls.
 
Those we have come across who do not apply this kind of approach appear to have suffered the unfortunate consequences of audiences simply tuning out/disengaging.
 
We always remind ourselves that the decision makers, the buyers, which we contact, don’t care about us generally; they don’t want to listen to us talk about our services as if we are just another telemarketing campaign . They want instead to be asked about their problems, their challenges and their goals. They then want to know what we can do to help, with a solution and fresh ideas to help them overcome the problems and challenges, achieve their goals and generally help them to improve their business performance.
 
Be Prepared (Remember the 5 P’s – Proper Planning Prevents Poor Performance)
 
Before you get stuck into a cold calling telemarketing campaign, you need to ask yourself a series of very important questions!
 
1. What is the goal and purpose of the call? – Do you want to sell something over the phone, schedule a meeting or demonstration of some kind, to offer or share some written information with them or gather market intelligence?
 
2. Who are you and what company are you representing? – In 20 seconds flat, you should be able to introduce yourself, the company you represent and your company’s value/commercial proposition (what you are selling to the decision maker you are calling).
 
3. What can you offer the person you are calling (to address their curiosity ref; WIIFM – what’s in it for me)? – For this part of the telemarketing script, you can use your research of the individual or company you are calling (using Linked In/Facebook/Google), or industry, to help you communicate your understanding of their challenges and concerns and to present your solution in motivating context. If you have a case study or past experience in mind about a similar problem you have helped solve for someone or a company, you can quote it and apply the positive solution outcome to the person’s situation. It’s crucial that the benefit to the person you are calling is quickly apparent and obvious to them, so that they see the value of continuing with the conversation, at the very least.
 
4. Why does the solution work? – Describe what differentiates your service or product and how you can help the person you are calling to achieve their goals and overcome certain challenges.
 
5. What is the next step? – Should you close a sale before the conversation ends, arrange a telemarketing call back at a more suitable time, ask to set up a meeting, forward them something in the post, gather some precious intelligence about the person or company you are calling or send a follow up email? Find a way to either generate immediate value from the call or to continue the dialogue with the person. Remember that CTA (call to action) and ABC (always be closing) are always front of your mind.
 
Cold Calling Examples
 
Here are some examples of past cold calling telemarketing scripts to help you to get started. This is just a guide and you need to tailor the scripts to suit your prospect and what you are selling (i.e. solution, service or product). Try not to read from the script when speaking with a prospect, as it can sound very robotic, unnatural and insincere, which can detrimentally affect your performance, unless of course selling financial services in what has become a highly regulated market. Use any script you write, simply as a beginners’ guide, which you must practice and practice before picking up the phone and using it. Once you have worked from the telemarketing script for a while and developed your confidence you should find that you no longer require a script and instead feel confident enough about your sales ability and what you are selling, to be able to talk/sell freely.
 
Example A
 
My name is Valentino Rossi and I am a representative of Repsol Honda. We specialise in XYZ and provide XYZ products.
 
The reason I am calling you today is that we have been asked to invite specific individuals and a partner, along to an all expenses paid corporate Moto-GP event, taking place at the Silverstone Circuit on July 21st this year, at 2pm.
 
During the event you will be present for the unveiling of our latest state of the art motorcycle due to be launched this year. We are introducing a limited edition range, available for sale and made available only to the privileged audience which are being invited along to this prestigious event.
 
Would you like to attend?
 
Would you like to be considered as a potential purchaser for one of the small number of limited edition motorcycles available during the event?
 
We will send you the invitation by recorded delivery tomorrow, with details on how to submit your closed bid for the motorcycle. You need to return your confirmation of acceptance and closed bid within 7 days of the date of the invitation.
 
Example B
 
My name is Max Cartright and I’m calling on behalf of Barrington-James. We specialise in employee engagement, providing services such as employee surveys and 360 degree appraisals. We help businesses like yours to increase levels of employee engagement and performance.
 
What’s different about us is that not only do we provide you with the powerful insight you require, through our surveys and 360 degree feedback, but we also provide a highly effective action planning tool designed to drive action and real change.
 
We would like to discuss your challenges and our services during a meeting. How is your diary looking for next week?
 
The Gatekeepers
 
In pursuit of decision maker engagement you are sure to come across a number of gatekeepers, whose goal/purpose is to screen sales calls and avoid key decision makers spending too much time answering sales calls. During a telemarketing campaign you can choose to either side step gatekeepers or engage them. Here are some options:
 
Avoidance:
 
• Use senior title when calling (e.g. MD)
 
• Ask your PA to call decision maker’s PA & connect you
 
• Agree that the decision maker is expecting your call when asked by gatekeeper (last resort)
 
Engagement:
 
• Show interest in gatekeeper & make them an advocate (name/title/where they are from et al)
 
• Pre-research company for maximum pre-call insight
 
• Follow gatekeeper’s preferred route to contact/success
 
Finally, Be Persistent In Your Approach!
 
• Top telemarketing performers don’t give up easily
 
• Most sales professionals will contact a prospect 2-3 times
 
• Nearly half will follow up 4-5 times
 
• Only the top 10% will make the 6-10 contacts necessary to get the business
 
• These 10% have a good sense of who is likely to buy and who is a qualified telemarketing prospect
 
• A brief email (or letter) or call is all you need to keep your name in front of the prospect
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