Cold calling isn’t most people’s favorite method of prospecting, but it’s one of the most effective. How can you really take your technique to the next level?

In this episode of Stay Paid, Josh, Luke, and our Director of Sales, Nick Bianco, discuss the art of cold calling, how you can hone your skills to drive results, and the importance of emotional intelligence when on the phone with a prospect.

Key Points

• The importance of emotional intelligence in cold calling
• Putting together a successful script
• What goes into making a call and assuming the close

Why do people hate cold calling?

While most sales reps hate cold calling, it remains one of the most effective methods of prospecting. The reason people hate it so much? They don’t put in the preparation it takes to make a successful call.

If you’re open to trying new things and willing to overcome the fear and awkwardness that cold calling sometimes entails, you will succeed. Why is ReminderMedia good at recruiting? We go that extra mile and call to discuss resumes instead of emailing possible candidates. With cold calling, it’s the same thing: you need to find that thing that sets you apart and stick with it.

The Art of Emotional Intelligence

We’re working on coaching our sales reps on emotional intelligence. This can be the differentiator between an OK call and a successful call that closes. It’s all about the prep work you put into it: are you practicing and are you prepared for anything the person on the other end could throw you?

You don’t have to love cold calling to be good at it—it’s a means to an end. Understanding your mission and your “why” is key to making successful call day after day. This is where emotional intelligence comes in. You have to be respectful on the phone and get to the point ASAP. Small talk about the weather says one thing: you’re not confident. How do we get our sales reps to excel at cold calling? Through our morning meetings, which remind them of the “why” and the mission. Usually when we have a bad meeting, we have a bad sales day. Confidence helps you get excited, and keeps you focused on the mission behind cold calling.

The key to sales is building those relationships, which are built from trust. Having emotional intelligence and understanding the other person on that phone call can help you get there.

What to Do Before You Dial

Preparation cannot be overlooked in cold calling. If you’re not prepared, you won’t drive results. Putting together a script is a large part of this. A script is never set in stone, it’s always evolving because every prospect is different. Think about what industry you’re selling to, who you’re selling to, and what their biggest pain points are. If you know the industry and know their desires, you will always outsell a generalist who keeps with the same script every phone call. People want to talk to an expert—someone who understands them and will help get them from point A to point B.

Practice, practice, practice. Our sales reps role play, practice pitches in front of a mirror, and record themselves talking to see how their tone of voice sounds. You can hear when someone’s frustrated, just as you can hear when they’re excited or happy. No actor won an Academy Award by simply reciting lines, and it’s the same in cold calling. Practice your script every day and ask yourself the hard questions.

Making the Call

The conversion rate is your guiding light so you don’t get lost—track your progress and numbers as you go. Know that it’s OK that you’re going to lose the majority of the time. You’re going to get hung up on and get rejected—it’s simply a part of the game. Pushing through it and continuing on is what will set you apart.

What works? The double dial technique—calling twice within 15 minutes. The person on the other end of the call is still in the curiosity phase, so they want to listen to you. The resentment phase happens when you can’t connect with a prospect and is when most reps would give up. Keep pushing to connect and get to the respect phase. Remember there’s a fine line between harassment and persistence, and be willing to understand the psychology of it to go the distance.

Assuming the Close

The one thing that sets ReminderMedia apart from other businesses is that we’re willing to assume somebody wants to buy from us on every call. This is because we believe in our “why” and we can always get to the bottom of why someone can’t make a decision—which circles back to having emotional intelligence.

So many sales reps feel uncomfortable when making cold calls, but what makes you the best is not worrying what people think. You have to have the backbone to ask for the other person’s business, and if you don’t, you just wasted a ton of their time.

Action Items

Following the podcast, our goal is to provide you with as many actionable tips as possible. This episode includes…

• Make 100 calls this week and overcome your fear.
• Strive to make as much progress as possible.

As always, take action on these tips!