Thoughtful Thursdays - Cold calling?

There are many views on the subject of cold calling. For me, a cold call involves attempting to talk to a person I do not know about a something I have no idea whether or not they will be interested in and in my mind this is a marketing activity as  it results in the generation of prospects. Today, this is often a telemarketing function.
At that point the prospect is handed over to the sales force for follow up. You may have marketing and sales responsibilities, but do not confuse the objectives.

When talking sales, I don't consider any call 'cold'. In the worst situation I will be calling someone I have not talked to previously, but with the belief that they may be interested in doing business with me due to research that has been conducted. It is not a call out of the blue sky.

Here are a few tips when making those qualifying calls:

1. Approach each call as an opportunity to help
2. Know the benefits you bring to the table
3. Know your competitive advantage
4. Be excited about the opportunity
5. Know that not every prospect will be interested
6. If the prospect is truly not interested, have a response to find out why - after all they have been previously identified as a business or person that might be interested

Interestingly, these are tips that apply to making all sales calls. There is no such thing as a cold sales call.

Get out there and start helping.

Good selling,
Richard