Do you think cold calling is dead? I surely do when it comes to calling consumers at home, cold. Absolutely no one wants to receive these calls so if you’re involved in this area of selling, stop it.
But if you’re doing B2B cold calling, you can still do so, but…don’t make it sound cold, otherwise you’ll be on the same losing side as consumer cold calling.
How can you make it non cold or warm? Here’s a few ideas:
- Sound scruffy and tangled, mince your words a little, uhm and hum, above all don’t sound scripted. For example rather than “hello, my name is Mike Singh, am I speaking to Mark Ramcash please”, try instead “Oh hi, Mark please, it’s Mike”. Try it, it works.
- Use a name of someone in your company that has asked you to call Mark Ramcash. “Hi, Pete Southgate asked me to give you a call” The person will be slightly more receptive.
- Or use your company if it’s big. “Santander have asked me to call you about….” actually works.
Remember the key is to sound unscripted and human; you’ll at least get the chance to get your sound bite in, but don’t make this appear too smooth.
