Cold Calls, the very phrase is enough to scare off most and make even the veteran sales person cringe. I’m not entirely sure if I’ve ever met anyone who thoroughly enjoys cold calling. I’ve met some very talented cold callers and some that make it look easy. I’ve even met some that don’t seem bothered in the least by the task of cold calling. However, I am still not sure I’ve met anyone who enjoys it.
Every sales person wants to work primarily referrals and warm leads. However, the reality is, most of us in sales will have to do some cold calling, if not a great deal of it. Yes, we will have to either hit the streets and door to door cold call or jump on the phone and make cold calls. Both have their advantages. Door to door has the advantage of that face to face personal touch. However, unless you live in a large metropolitan area, it is nearly impossible to visit as many businesses or households face to face as you can on a phone. Thus, phone cold calling has the advantage of covering more ground in a given amount of time. This article primarily deals with phone cold calling.
That being said, it does not take away the fact that cold calling can be a dreaded chore. Along with having a great presentation, a clear purpose and realistic goals, the key to effective cold calling is to find ways that motivate you to get at it and stay at it. I personally call it playing games with my thoughts. Think back to when you were a child and how often chores where made into a game or contest to make it more enjoyable. Basically, either we or someone around us, learned that if we paired something that wasn’t much fun with something that was, it made the chore less of a chore 
I do sort of the same thing with cold calling to make it more enjoyable, or at least, bearable.
I ran across an incredible article on the topic, written by Larry Prevost. In this article he gives 8 motivational tips for making cold calls. I have used many of the tips he suggests and will be implementing the others immediately. The eight tips included taking a walk. This is a great tip and one that can have a great impact on your overall effectiveness and general moral. Getting up and taking a quick walk gets the blood flowing properly again, it gets the oxygen levels back up and the overall energy level up. A quick walk can also refresh the thought processes and thereby increasing the effectiveness of the calls themselves.
Another tip he suggests is to spend some time doing door to door cold calling. Perhaps one day a week or a couple days per month. This can do a number of things to aid your cold calling including breaking up the monotony of being in the same environment and doing the same thing day after day. It also uses a different skill set than over the phone cold calling, therefore it gives the brain a chance to flex its muscles.
Larry also suggests getting creative with voice mails. This is one I need to work on. He points out that leaving the same message time and time again will not only bore your prospect, but bore yourself. I, for one, do not like the idea of boring a prospect, since that means they are tuning my message out. Larry also notes, “Remember that monotony and sameness breed de-motivation. Consider yourself a voicemail artist; make each one a creative masterpiece and get excited about the possibilities of what you can create.”
Setting compelling goals is another tip Larry suggests in his article. That is, sales goals that have meaning for you, or, are tied to a goal that has real meaning for you. I like the example he gives, “Setting a goal of making 100 calls a day helps my organization by generating interest in our products and nurturing leads, but it does very little for me personally. However, calling 100 people to introduce myself and develop a relationship that I can call on in the future has a lot of potential value to me. I’m a lot more motivated to call those 100 people if I can identify how this activity is going to impact me professionally and personally.”
He goes on to suggest getting competitive with your team. This is a great idea to get a team of cold callers motivated by tapping into human competitiveness. I personally think this works best if the contests are made to be fun. Mr. Prevost suggests mixing up what the contest is based on. For example, one week the contest is for most calls made, another week the most appointments set and perhaps another week a contest for the most No’s. Now, if you are a one man show, this means setting fun goals for yourself tied to the next suggestion given in the article, which is give yourself a pat on the back.
Mr. Provost says it is important to reward yourself for reaching goals and for doing a good job at the task you are focused on. I could not agree more. Too often we just keep driving on with that next to-do item, working on that next deadline, taking care of “life” and all without much fanfare for what we have accomplished. It is not only OK to give yourself a pat on the back once in a while; it is a great idea for keeping yourself motivated. To tie this into the last suggestion of competition, perhaps you could set a goal like: If I average 80 or more calls per day this week, I will take my family to my favorite restaurant. Now you have a goal and a reward. Of course you will want to pick rewards that have special meaning and motivation to you.
The last two suggestions are to unclutter and simplify your work area and to break your time into manageable blocks. Given that cold calling can be tedious and anything but fun, it should go without saying that we can become easily distracted while making calls. Having a clean and simple work area can do a lot for keeping on task. Also by staging your work area so that only those items you need for making cold calls are in front of you, you will find yourself being more productive. No more looking for a pen or a note pad or a price sheet, etc.
Another distraction can be all those other tasks a sales person needs to do; like follow up calls, e-mails, social media, paper work, etc. Breaking your time into manageable blocks will stop those distractions as well. If you have a block of time once or twice a day that you look at and respond to e-mails, you won’t be so tempted to check them between calls or sporadically throughout the day. The same can be said for social media and any other tasks you may be tempted to stop cold calling and perform. Block off a set time for each of them and stick to your schedule. Remember to set blocks of time for cold calling.
Having been in sales off and on for many years, I know firsthand what a pain cold calling can be. I also realize that cold calling takes clear attainable goals to be effective. Unless you’re selling subscriptions to the local paper or something similar, you probably aren’t going to make a sale cold calling someone. But, if you set realistic goals, like setting an appointment to talk to the decision maker, or to get the decision maker’s name, or to determine if the company is evaluating for your service or product, or other specific goals, then, phone cold calling can be part of a successful sales approach. Besides having a clear and realistic goal for phone cold calling, we must also remember that all we have to work with is our voice; the words we use, the way we say them and our tone. Staying fresh and motivated is paramount.
I welcome you to read the original article. You can find it at:
8 Motivating Tips for Making Cold Calls | Manta Sales Expertise Center.
“People often say that motivation doesn’t last. Well, neither does bathing – that’s why we recommend it daily.” ~ Zig Ziglar
