We've all been there. Your boss - or maybe your boss is you, and to eat you've got to start - says, "Time to start 'Dialing for Dollars'. Here's the script, here's a list of five hundred people who have never heard of us: get started." Eww. You mean, I have to cold call complete strangers, rattle off this script word for word, and hope they'll stay on the line long enough to tell me whether they are interested or not??
First of all, let's throw out that old saw, "Dialing for Dollars". That's a bad intention and not what you're going to do. Maybe you've been doing that, but I want you to stop immediately. The intention of your calls is now to make genuine connections with other people, and find out if you can help them in some way. If you can't, that's fine: this is feedback, not rejection.
You must have a consistent sales process. You can't wing it, not have a plan, not know what the next step is. Applied with the intention of genuinely helping others, this will be your most powerful tool in kicking the Prospecting Blues. Also the first key to sales transformation.
Second, scripts are good, but you have to develop a way to say those words in your own voice. I can say "I pity the fool..." all I want, but those are Mr. T's words and will never be mine. You will do much better if you take the script and move it into your own intention and voice.
There will probably be resistance to this... particularly if you're in a call center. In that situation it's tough, because some supervisor was told everyone has to use that script, letter for letter. If you're going to succeed at cold calling, however, you're going to have to put the words into your own voice.
Let's look at an example. Say the script reads, "67% of all data entry productivity is derived from the software the data is entered into." Do you talk like this? If you do, then go ahead and say it that way. Assuming you don't talk like a technical manual, how else could you accurately express the same idea and yet not have that little voice in your head announce "You sound like a robotic moron" as you say it?
You could say, "You know, when it comes to data entry, two-thirds of the productivity your people experience is a direct result of what software you're using." Or maybe, "It's a surprising thing, but typing skills don't matter nearly as much as what software you're using to record data: the specific software is responsible for sixty-seven percent of your data entry productivity."
Figure out how you can say the idea naturally. I encourage having a script, and also taking the extra step of personalizing it to your voice. This will considerably help you feel better about prospecting.
Now let me clear something up: a script is merely a framework for discussion. To be a successful cold caller, you must have a consistent sales process, and that will lead you through the call's stages. The script gives you the confidence of knowing what your message is, what you're going to say. If it becomes necessary to deviate from the script, or not mention some of the things in it at all, so be it. Following a process and being genuine are far more powerful tools to help with cold calling and for kicking the Prospecting Blues.
Now, as a bonus, I'm happy to share four more pointers to help you beat the Prospecting Blues!
Third, repeat after me: "Not wanting to talk with me right now is not Rejection. It just means they don't want to talk to me right now." Write this on a sticky note and thumb it up somewhere you'll see it every day. Especially while prospecting.
Fourth, do a little research on the company you're calling. Not too much: I don't want you getting over-awed by whomever you're about to call. Remember, Vice Presidents and CEOs put their pants on the same way you do. They may have insulating layers of people between them and you and deal with numbers with more zeros on the end-but (and these are the stats of inside sales pros, not just mine) one out of every four times, the Big Cheese will pick up the phone, completely unprotected by a well-meaning gatekeeper. That goes for everybody from the owner of a 3-person company all the way to the Chairman of IBM.
However, it is important to know something about the organization you're calling. Corporate or Non-Profit structure? Distribution or Marketing field? Accounting or Information Technology department?
Fifth, and very importantly, Pick Up The Phone. Yep, this is tough. It's what you get paid for, remember? If it was so easy, everyone would do it...but just about everyone, from company presidents on down, doesn't want to. Usually the basic problem is that they're viewing prospecting as "Dialing for Dollars", and figuring they have to slavishly follow a script as they do it, worrying that they're sounding wooden as they do it. Reverse these things. When the call is over, don't spend too much time thinking about it. Start the next call right away.
Add this to your sticky note: "I am the best at prospecting around here."
Because you are. Nobody else is reading articles, trying to improve their craft, putting in the effort to become a top salesperson. Prospecting means genuinely reaching out and discovering if there's a way you can help the person on the other end of the line. If you cannot, it's not rejection. What it happens to be is Not A Fit. And that's okay. Knowing this, having the skills and right intention, and the laugh-it-off it's-no-big-deal calmness to pick up the phone and call the next person is what will drive away those Prospecting Blues.
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