A phone in the hands of a sales manager is an excellent tool that allows him to effectively promote a product. However, this task will become feasible only if the specialist builds a productive dialogue with a potential buyer.
After all, most people do not like it when they call on the phone and begin to impose what they absolutely do not need. However, such a method can hardly be called an empty pastime. Cold calls, as they are called, in the hands of qualified managers are not at all trivial calls. The main thing is to know their main features and follow the necessary recommendations.
What do we mean by cold calls?
Recently, a new sales technique has begun to gain momentum. It is called "cold calls." What it is? The phrase cold calling from English came to us. These are advertising calls or visits. Their main goal is to attract potential customers and buyers.
All conversations that are conducted by telephone can conditionally be divided into two categories - warm and cold. The first of them are contact with the client who already has an idea about the company. Maybe he already bought the goods offered by the company, or was interested in its services. Warm calls are a reminder of yourself that helps restore cooperation. In other words, with this form of product promotion, the operator already has information in advance about the buyer and what he might be interested in.
What, then, are cold calls? When they are executed, the operator knows almost nothing about the client located on the other end of the wire. Such communication is carried out according to a script prepared in advance. The manager calls the potential customers on his list, offering them company products.
Cold calls tend to have low productivity. However, sometimes they are the only way to talk with the head of the enterprise.
According to statistics, only one out of a hundred customers agrees to the operator’s offer and purchases a specific product or orders a service.
Mastering the technology of cold calls
What in the hands of a manager will become an effective tool with which he can achieve the expansion of the customer base and increase their number? This is a well-established cold phone call technique. It’s not so easy to interest a potential buyer in your product. No wonder this technique is called "cold calls." Moreover, they are called “cold” not because of the tone of the operator, but because of the attitude of the person who picked up the phone. Very often, sales staff cautiously approach such a call. Indeed, often their unexpected offers receive rude and unpleasant answers.
Listeners show disinterest, indifference or distrust. All this clearly does not lead to an increase in sales of products. That is why marketers have developed a large number of different techniques that allow you to make cold calls as competently and efficiently as possible. And it should be borne in mind that a single recipe for any business does not exist here. Each industry has its own specific characteristics and features. They should be taken into account when applying certain techniques of telephone sales - “cold calls”.
What do you need to get the result?
The cold call manager must be prepared for a lot. After all, it is not without reason that applicants seek to get the job of an operator working with an already prepared customer base. These customers are well aware of the organization and are interested in its products or services. But if it was not possible to take such a place, then you need to understand that working with the cold call technique is suitable only for those people who have a fairly high stress tolerance. Such a character trait will allow you to easily survive the defeat and not fall into a depressed state, which will reduce the risk of psychological disorders.
So, what needs to be done so that the sales technique with cold phone calls leads to the desired goal?
Keep confidence and calm
The manager should always remember that the client’s failures, which are the result of a dialogue held by him, will occur constantly. The sales technique of “cold calls” implies the need to maintain confidence and calm. The manager should keep in mind that intermittent failures should not be considered a failure. They are an unavoidable outcome, especially in the initial stages of a specialist. And even professionals with extensive experience often get refusals when making cold calls. The main thing at the same time is to adhere to the rule providing for the preservation of mental ease and balance.
Ideally, you can conduct training with your colleagues or supervisor. They are an attempt to sell them the goods and receive denial. This practice allows you to accurately describe the feelings that have arisen in this case, to understand for yourself which of the forms of answers hurt the interlocutor most of all, and also to learn how to make extraordinary decisions and ways out of the current situation that will ultimately allow you to attract a client to your side.
Have complete product information
The manager needs to know well the products that he offers to potential customers. Unfortunately, often operators are not ready to answer even the most basic questions of the client. But telephone sales (cold calls) imply free orientation in the company's products. That is why managers need to fully possess information about the benefits of the products or services offered, to know their features, important information and history. All this is intended not only to interest the person who picked up the phone, but to solve his existing problem. Cold calls can become warmer if the manager can confidently and easily outline all the attractive sides of the product he offers. To do this, it is recommended to study the positive feedback from consumers. Such knowledge will greatly enhance the confidence of the client and will set the person in relation to the seller quite benevolently.
Follow the tone of voice
The manager needs to be calm in any situation. Before making cold calls, each operator undergoes preliminary training. Such training should not bypass voice training. Intonations during a conversation should be calm and friendly. Only in this case will they be able to arouse the trust of a potential buyer. The best cold calls are certainly made with confidence in the voice.
In order to develop this quality for yourself, you will need to pre-train. For this, for example, you can start your telephone conversation on a recording device. When listening to the text, you will need to parse the mistakes made in it in the form of parasitic words, prolonged pauses, inappropriate humor, uncertainty and incorrect construction of sentences. For a novice manager, sometimes it’s quite unpleasant to hear your conversation in the recording. However, this method will detect weaknesses, and then work on them.
Cold calls are made using a variety of intonations, which will attract customers. This can be achieved with a simple exercise. It involves repeating a passage of any text using a different color. The notes in the voice should express sadness and joy, condescension and discontent, conviction and perseverance. Such an exercise allows you to well train the skills of control over the spoken text.
Another method that allows you to develop the necessary intonation is to highlight each word in a sentence, considering it to be the key. Such a training will allow you to get rid of haste in a conversation, add confidence and persuasiveness, and will also help to focus on the most important words in the future.
It is worth remembering that for the most part cold calls cause the same reactions among customers. The excuses are usually the same. They should learn to reflect the correct phrases in which there is a certain keyword that allows you to smooth out sharp angles in the conversation.
So, the most frequent of the customers' responses: “There is no time to talk on the phone.” It will be correct if, at the same time, the manager asks a clarifying question: “Is there no time to talk on the phone now?” Such a keyword is likely to not only extend the dialogue with a potential client, but also bring it to a completely different level. For example, arrange a time for a repeated call.
It’s good if the manager will train for the cold calls and the pace with which he will make a speech. One and the same phrase in such classes should be pronounced at different speeds. Thus, the operator will learn to adapt as quickly as possible to the mood of the client and his speech. Without this skill, making cold calls is much more difficult.
The text of managers sometimes contains complex fragments. On them, a specialist can easily stumble. Such a pause is sometimes mistaken by a client for insecurity, confusion or incompetence. How to prevent such a situation? For this, complex fragments will need to be read out according to a previously prepared template.
Also, the manager needs to pronounce his text with a smile. With the tension of the facial muscles there are certain shades in the sound of speech. A smile will give your voice a benevolence that will allow you to position the client.
An operator using the cold calling technique needs to take breaks. This will allow the vocal cords to relax. Also, only warm drinks should be consumed, refusing to take cold drinks. This is important for preserving your voice.
Be prepared for stressful situations
Proper training of the manager involves the development of various options for reactions to his proposal. After all, conflicts and awkward moments arise quite often, especially among beginners. It can be ridicule of the company, tricky questions, elevated tone, etc. Such a reaction of a person on the other end of the wire can unsettle anyone.
In order to avoid stress, it is necessary to consult with experienced colleagues. They will tell you how to properly deal with objections and respond to rudeness. A manager who does not know the answer to a question asked by a client cannot talk about it. In this situation, you should literally go away for a minute and consult with an experienced colleague.
Remember the main goal
A manager working with the technique of cold calls should be aware that the final result of his activity involves concluding an agreement with a client, familiarizing him with the products, an invitation to a presentation, an appointment to meet, and much more. The operator should always clearly remember the goal set for him, going to it, not being distracted by many associated questions of potential buyers.
The use of cold calling technology
The manager picking up the telephone must remember that during the dialogue the advantage should always be on his side. To do this, you need to know everything about cold calls and to perfect your professional skills to perfection. Each call is a new way out, a small battle for the result, because the interlocutor hears only the voice and, as a rule, does not have the desire and time to communicate. In order to reach the intended goal, it is necessary to study the conversation scheme developed for cold calls. It should be followed by every manager. It is a series of successive steps consisting of the following:
- Collection of information. At this stage, the operator needs to obtain as much information as possible about the interlocutor. This will allow you to learn about the problems of the client, his needs and behavior.
- Preparing a telephone conversation plan. After viewing the information collected about the interlocutor, it should be carefully studied to understand in what form it would be better to offer the potential client products or services of the company. In this case, a small plan should be drawn up. Before starting the conversation, the prepared template must be said out loud. Of course, if the operator has the ability to improvise, that’s fine. However, the handy cold call scheme will not let you forget about important points that require special attention.
- Presentation and acquaintance with the client. According to what scheme should the telephone conversation be conducted? Already at the beginning, after the uttered greeting, you need to introduce yourself. In this case, you need to name your position and the name of the company in whose interests a cold call is made. If the company is well-known, well-known, it will greatly facilitate the work of the manager. In this case, the client is unlikely to begin to express hostility, especially if he has already purchased the company's products. Well, if a call is made on behalf of an organization whose reputation is already somewhat tainted by its obsession, then its name should be reformulated somewhat. In this case, it is better to simply name the type of activity of the company (for example, the field of investment or cosmetology), omitting its name.
- Additional collection of information about a potential client. In the technique of cold calls, a portrait of the buyer in the dialogue process is provided. To do this, you will need to obtain additional information, figuring out whether these customers use the company's products or services, and if so, for how long and what types of them. The manager finds out all this during the conversation, asking control questions. Such tactics help him to understand whether the call will end in a positive solution to the question.
- Increased interest. Conducting a dialogue with a client, the manager does not need to try to sell goods or impose services. It is necessary to focus your efforts on heating the buyer’s interest in the company's proposals, as well as its products. Implementation must be handled by other managers using special sales techniques. These specialists will later conduct specific negotiations with the client, contacting him through other services (e-mail, skype, etc.).
- Work with objections. This moment is considered key in the activities of managers. After all, what was said in categorical form “no” means that the conversation did not lead to the desired result. As a rule, the interlocutor really has no desire and time not only to conduct a dialogue, but also to understand the essence of what was said. How to respond to objections during cold calls? To do this, there are a large number of hints and templates. The main thing for a manager is not to cross the line that separates perseverance from obsession. After all, the clients strongly dislike the latter. Perhaps the potential buyer does not really have time for dialogue due to employment. In this case, it will be possible to contact him periodically in the future, which will gradually turn cold calls into warmer ones.
- Respect for the client himself and his preferences. During a telephone conversation, the interlocutor must be aware that they are treated with confidence. In the manager’s voice, in no case should there be even the slightest note of pressure. You can ask the client about personal tastes, about what he sees as positive aspects in the company’s activities, as well as in the product it offers. Interest in the interlocutor and confidence in him will provide an excellent opportunity to get a favorable outcome of the dialogue.
- Call duration. The manager needs to tell all the information to the client in a short period of time, in just 2-4 minutes. Such a duration is optimal. This time is enough to arrange an appointment during a cold call. In 2-4 minutes, the client briefly summarizes the essence of the proposal and he is invited to the office, where he can get acquainted with the subject of the proposal in more depth.
- Repeat calls. Based on existing experience, one productive conversation is often not enough for successful sales. Customers need to be reminded periodically of a company’s offer.After all, a person due to employment can simply forget about the call, although he was interested in him. That is why it is worth periodically reminding yourself. At the same time, bringing communication to the end, it is necessary to be attentive to the client, while maintaining the line between polite courtesy and annoying obsession.
Contracts with Call Centers
The task of making cold calls can be outsourced. This solution has several advantages. First of all, the provided services for cold calls bring more positive results. After all, Call Center specialists have sufficient experience in applying sales techniques, which makes it much easier to reach the official who makes the decision.
The services of a third-party organization will become effective even if the customer already has a customer base, but it is so large that the whole process will require a significant amount of time.
The disadvantage of this method of product promotion is the cash cost, since such services are priced quite expensive.