As a professional speaker and business consultant one of the most frequently asked questions I receive is how to overcome cold calling and feel ok about approaching people that you do not know. My answer is always the same “take the cold out of cold calling”.

Here are 3 simple steps to do that:

1. Do your research
2. Send an introduction
3. Pick up the phone

Sounds easy enough… and it is all you need to do is follow these simple three steps and the cold will be gone from your cold calling forever! Ok, here is some additional detail for each step to assist you in getting started. I use this system every time I make contact with a potential new customer and have been using it successfully now for the past 15 years. You may need to make some adjustments to suit your individual circumstances.

1. Do your research

One of the most common mistakes I see people make in sales is not doing enough research on their ideal customers. In our business we spend 65% of the sales process profiling EXACTLY who our customers are. We always avoid using generalizations about our customers and always look for common values and traits.

When profiling customers we stringently follow these rules:

• Identify who needs our products and services the most
• Find out where they are primarily located
• Discover what types of publications, websites and information sources they read and use
• Identify the most appropriate contact methods to reach them
• Match the appropriate products or services to their needs
• Decide which customers we want to do business with

Once we have established the types of customers we want we do our best to find out what their name is so that we can make our introduction personal and targeted. Quite simply we discover who the person is that we are cold calling, we find out their full name, their position in the company and their mailing address. Many websites list this information freely these days; alternatively we call their advertised number and ask the receptionist!

2. Send an Introduction

Once we have established who we want to cold call, we construct and send a letter introducing our company and advise the recipient that we will be contacting them by phone over the next five days to discuss products or services we are offering.

A couple of hints for writing introduction letters…

• Always use a strong attention getting headline – always attempt to use questions in your headlines as it is impossible for the human mind not to answer a question!
• Describe in one or two sentences in your opening paragraph the answer to your headline
• Introduce yourself and or your company including the key benefit to them, this is also known as your unique positioning statement.
• What is your company unique positioning statement?
• Let them know what you want
• Tell them when you will be calling (Eg: I will be calling you within the next five days to see if we can organise a time to discuss.) Make sure you call within these 5 days or the timeframe you have suggested as missing this will jeopardize your credibility.

Always put a PS at the bottom of the letter with a great offer. (Eg: Call today and make an appointment to see Sue Henry and receive a FREE copy of “Network or Perish” yours absolutely FREE for making the appointment – no strings attached.

Keep the introduction to one page and keep your information to critical key points.

3. Pick up the phone

Finally all that is left to do now is pick up the phone!

Call and ask to speak to the person and open with “Hi my name is Sue Henry (your name). You should have received a letter from my company recently”. Wait for acknowledgement and recognition of the letter and then launch into your pitch. If they have not received the letter ask for their fax number or email address and send it through to them immediately and advise that you will call back tomorrow.

A couple of tips before you pick up the phone: Plan your time to call Schedule the time that you want to make your calls this way you will be prepared and have uninterrupted time allocated for the calls (helps eliminate procrastination). I usually make these types of calls on Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday’s as people are generally in “working” state of mind and not thinking about the week ahead or the weekend! I attempt to make my calls from 10:30am – 12:00 noon or 2:30pm – 3:30pm avoiding calls first thing in the morning (when people generally are planning their day or checking emails) and in the afternoons (while they are thinking of going home, picking up kids, what to cook for dinner etc).

Adopt a positive response attitude

Expect a positive response, after all you have taken the time to personally send an introduction and advise that you will be calling. Generally your call will be expected, put a smile on your face and go for it.

Be prepared

Make sure you have researched the company appropriately before you call, I finds it helps to read over their web site prior to calling. Make sure you have your diary open to make an appointment with them on the phone and a notepad or calling sheet to record any important information discussed.

Record your results

Most importantly record how you went with the simple formula – What Worked? What Didn’t? How will you change for the next call?

That’s it! It is as simple as this 3 step process and your cold will be eliminated from your cold calls forever.

Sue Henry is a small business expert and author (Network or Perish 7 Accelerate: How to accelerate your business, your networking skills & yourself). She is in demand as a public speaker, motivator and small business advisor. Visit www.suehenry.biz for further information.

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