Colleen answers a Question from the the trenches

Hi Colleen,

I have heard you have between 4 and 30 seconds to make a good impression on a cold calling. Taking that into consideration what is the best way for me to open my call....and what should I avoid doing?

Thanks
Erick

Thanks Erick,

You are right - 4-30 seconds is all we have before a prospect thinks to him self either "oh darn, it's a sales person, how do I get them off the phone," or "oh, this is interesting, I think I should stay and listen!" I think you would agree that we prefer the later.

In order to ensure your prospect wants to stay and listen you need to start with openings that create a relationship, rather than creating resistance.

How do we create resistance?

Generally speaking, resistance is created by openers that start with a cliché, such as: How are you today? Or Is this a good time to talk? Or Could I have a few minutes of your time?
How can you use your first precious few seconds to cut through the resistance, and begin building a relationship?

First - get rid of the clichés!

Cutting cliché statements out of your calling script will instantly increase your success rate by up to 20%. This is especially true for the ubiquitous "how are you?" Every customer on the planet has heard that exact phrase at the beginning of a sales call they didn't want to take, or which was interrupting their dinner.

Believe me, you don't want to get lumped into that category. What you do want is to sound different, more interesting, more professional - and more relevant.

According to a study conducted by the American Association of Professional Organizers, the average executive has 52 hours of unfinished work on their desk at all times. Why should you care? Because this is proof that they're not sitting around with nothing to do, just waiting for you to call!

At the exact moment you call them, your prospects are 99.9% likely to be busy doing other work - which means that, when you call, you're 99.9% sure to be interrupting them. Instead of ignoring this fact, I recommend that you use it to your advantage, by trying something like:

"Mary? This is Colleen Francis. Have I caught you at a bad moment?"

Or

"Did I catch you at a bad time?"

Be careful with these statements, and be sure to use them with precisely the wording given above. My own experiments have shown that "is this a good time?" and "is this a bad time?" are far less effective.

Why does this work? When it comes to receiving a sales call, it's always a bad time, so having the person who's making the call recognize this upfront is a refreshing change. 95% of the time that we use this statement at the beginning of a cold call, we're met with the same answer - a laugh or chuckle, followed by either: "It's always a bad time, but what's up?" or "Sure it’s a bad time, why are you calling.

Hope that helps!

Dedicated to increasing your sales,

Colleen