Cold calling: Fun and fear–free

By Michelle J. Bloom

Dear Michelle,

I’m ready to start doing cold calls, but I’m really nervous. I’m not quite sure how to even begin. Any words of advice?

Dear Entrepreneur,

Cold calls are as much, if not more, about relationship building than selling. When making calls, be sure you are coming from an open, honest, and authentic place.

Use the passion you have for your product, service, or idea to communicate your sales pitch. Authenticity breeds confidence.

Write your sales pitch. First, write a very brief introduction of yourself and your product, service, or idea, setting it in context right away so your prospective customer understands its relevance.

For example, an accountant might say, "With the recent downturn of the economy, having a tax accountant who knows tax law inside and out is vital to saving as much of your hard–earned money as possible."

Ask if now is an appropriate time to speak with the prospect. When you are invited to go on, prepare more detailed information about your purpose in calling.

Describe your product or service, pointing out the benefits. Provide some statistics or other hard data to support your claim(s) when possible and, if you have any, a well-chosen testimonial.

Finally, prepare what you want to do after learning about the prospect’s needs. Do you want to send a sample of your work? Do you want to set an appointment with this potential customer?

Plan to follow up for good measure. If you provided something for them to read, give them a couple days to do so and then check in. If you have an appointment, call the day before to confirm.

Practice. Rehearse your sales pitch as though you’re talking on the phone. In fact, unplug the phone and use it. Practice and edit until it takes less than a minute and you sound natural and confident.

Good is good enough…at first. Jump in and start making calls to those prospects you find less intimidating, just to get some experience.

This will help you tighten up everything and deal with any unforeseen rejections and/or incorporate any insights to improve your approach. As your confidence grows, begin adding higher profile prospects to your call list.

There is no such thing as perfection and, remember, this is a numbers game—you will figure out your own ratio of calls to sales.

A highly successful colleague of mine started out producing one sale for every 50 calls she made.

Since this may be where most of your time is spent, strive to be in the moment and enjoy the people you are talking to. Just have a realistic sales quota and keep working towards it.

Follow up. Let prospects know you’ll call back on a specific day and then do so. If they are busy when you call, try back the following day.

If needed, give them a bit of a nudge—the personal touch, by way of a hand-written note, when appropriate, will build that all-important relationship.

It is in the relationship that sales are made. Find your voice, stick to your quota of calls, and enjoy the process—these efforts will all add up.

Michelle J. Bloom has more than 20 years experience working with home-based and small business entrepreneurs. You may contact her with questions or for reprints of earlier articles at post@michellejbloom.com or 888.878.3380.