If you're a business owner or a senior buyer/purchaser, then this post is written with you in mind. When someone you've never heard of before calls your organisation, what is your typical reaction?
- You regard the call as an intrusion into your ivory tower?
- You form a mental image of someone looking to extract hard-earned cash from your pockets?
- You firmly believe there is no way that the person calling you can be of any help to you or your company?
These are just three negative viewpoints on what has long been referred to as the cold call. If, by contrast you hold a different perspective, you could be thinking:
- I'll have a couple of ready questions for the caller based on my business values and priorities rather than "Is this a sales call / cold call?" or similar fob-off question before hanging up.
- A good cold caller deals in issues that face businesses BEFORE selling products or services. I respect the fact they must make a living, just as our company representatives do.
- I could access someone influential or helpful in their network. We can exchange value and points of interest even if it's clear there's no business to be done directly between us.
- I can learn something about their company and the way their people operate which can help me make decisions later.
- If they've caught me at a bad time, I can elect to schedule 2 - 5 minutes with the caller later, to see if it's worth pursuing. If they fail to articulate any value, then we stop talking.
When you think about it logically, conversations with some structure and purpose to them, are the lifeblood of business. Unless you're buying cheap, no-brainer commodities, then conversing with another person in business is where meaningful business relationships start. How can it be otherwise?
Now, respecting the fact we're too busy to answer every call that comes our way, the people that really believe they have something of value to share with you will persist and leave messages and send emails. Those that do not, will not. It's as simple as that. Let's face it, someone that cares enough to call on you ten times or more is rarely a pest: That sort of persistence and belief of purpose is in short supply. It shows some guts and character on the part of the caller. If you're unsure about this, read Alan Sugar's book "What You See Is What You Get". It's hard to argue with someone with a track record of achievement such as his when dealing with qualities like pro-activity and persistence. He has it in spades.
For the cold caller, pandering to paranoia will get you nowhere fast. If you consistently hit the proverbial "brick wall" where none of your calls are being taken by anyone that you want to speak with then you either have to try alternative approaches, or stop pandering to other people's paranoia. Paranoia in this sense meaning fear of the cold caller and his/her intentions. This manifests itself in a number of ways, the most common of which is getting the caller to send information in response to their request that hasn't even been qualified and that is solely a means of fobbing you off. If you sense paranoia, bring the subject up: "I sense you're a little uncomfortable with me calling you, is that true?" "What do you think is the worst thing that can happen on this call?" Get real. The fact is, it's a phone call, not an atomic bomb!
By asking questions like "what do you hope to get from the information?" and "in which areas of the business do you expect it to be most helpful?" you do what the vast majority of cold callers never dare to do: Effectively question the person you're speaking with and who is making the request. This is important because any business person that values their time will only spend that time in endeavours that will help them to achieve their business objectives. Armed with this knowledge you're perfectly within your rights to ask why the information is being requested. In short, deal only in specifics or get the hell out of there. Whatever you do, never pander to paranoia.
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photo credit: Vicchi
Continuing our series of blogs about the reasons people say that they don't want to outsource their sales to a telemarketing compny, here's #3:
