Leadership Training

Just the thought of picking up the phone to make an unsolicited sales call is enough to give any sales rep the shivers (pun intended)…

However, it is a necessary evil in the business world, and needs to be performed.  So how do you work on your cold calling skills?  For starters, check out this article in Entrepreneur Magazine by Barry Farber.  He offers eight strategies to utilize the next time you need to reach out and touch someone you’ve never met before.

In addition, as someone that has made his share of cold calls, I offer the following thoughts:

- Have your script in front of you, but make sure it doesn’t come across like you’re just reading it.  You should be comfortable enough with your pitch that you only need the script as a reference.

- There will be some days you have a good flow on the phone, and some you will not.  If you get in a rut, take a breather, step outside & regroup.  There’s no point in continuing down the list if you don’t have your best game going.

- Get to the person you need to, get the information they need to them, and get off the phone.  Be considerate of their time, just as you’d want someone to be considerate of yours.

- Above all, have fun with it!  Yes, it’s hard to think of cold calling as fun, but if you don’t, you will set yourself up for easy failure.  Have fun, make a personal connection, laugh, and you be pleasantly surprised how far a good attitude will take you!

cold calls, Entrepreneur, telemarketing