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'When Dialing for Dollars Avoid These Pitfalls"
When sales professionals are dialing for dollars, every, single problematic script fails to align with the following cold calling secrets: • Keep your script(s) short • Focus on one goal • Take responsibility for the direction the call takes • Use the right words for a message to market match • Position yourself as equal to your prospect
Let’s take a look at how these secrets play out as you are making your calls. Here is a common opener that on the surface appears to be innocent enough. Take a close look at how many cold call secrets these few words actually violate! “Hello, my name is John Smith. Did I catch you at a bad time?”
A. The caller put the prospect in control of the call. This kind of opener is written as a dialogue. The caller who is dialing for dollars intends to engage the prospect in conversation. However, the caller forfeits control of the call by essentially asking the prospect for permission to proceed with the call. “Yes, you caught me at a bad time.” “No, you didn’t catch me at a bad time.” “Who is this?” B. The words reveal a message to market mismatch. As the caller puts himself/herself in an unnecessarily risky position by asking a “socially nice” question that can be answered, ‘Yes, this is a bad time’ which stops the call before you even get started with the client’s predictable responses of. C. The script has more than one goal. As you are dialing for dollars you must have one purpose in mind – to get an appointment. However, the above script introduces another purpose – to determine for the prospect whether or not this is a good time. On the receiving end of the call these words prompt an internal dialog for the prospect that goes something like this – no time is a good time, if I couldn’t afford the time to answer the phone I wouldn’t answer, get on with it what do you want? D. The caller’s words do not position the caller as an equal. The opening words unfortunately position the caller as an underling asking for permission to use a few minutes of the prospect’s valuable time. As an equal, the caller’s time is important and would not be wasted in an unnecessary call. An equal calls another colleague with the understanding that the prospect is in control of his/her time and will answer the phone – or not - accordingly. E. It is arguable that this opening line uses too many words before engaging the prospect with a question. As an important exercise, ask yourself, how you could slash the number of words used in this opening line by 50%? Those of us who are dialing for dollars with success make it a habit to examine each sentence of our cold calling scripts with this kind of brutal honesty. Then, after the script has been gone through with a fine toothed comb, we examine the structure.
Recommended ResourcesReady for cold calling success? Here are a several two to four minute video clips to get you "game ready!" Related ArticlesCold Calling Success Shaped by 10 Points
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