Low Cold Call Success Rate? Shake the Mental Fog!
Have you ever had that experience of when you were in your car, driving to a certain location, and, although the drive was supposed to take you 15 or 20 minutes, you seemingly blink and you were there? You don’t quite remember how you got there, what happened along the way, or even making the turns that you needed to in order to arrive at your destination. It was almost as if you zoned out, were on auto pilot, and seemed to arrive safely merely on muscle memory.
Have you ever had an experience like that? If not, it’s hard to put into words exactly what it feels like to go through something like that. Recently, I was mentally pre-occupied and was mulling over all of the thoughts that were on my mind that day, including what I needed to accomplish, as well as preparing for some of the meetings that I had coming up with clients.
I get in my car and, next thing I know, I am where I needed to be, without remembering a single thing pertaining to the drive that I just made. Speaking for myself, that is a scary feeling, because it made me wonder if I was actually paying attention to what I needed to.
If I don’t really remember how I just got here, could I have more easily gotten into a car accident? Was I as attentive behind the wheel as I should have been? Were there any dangers that I narrowly avoided on my journey to where I was going?
Since I started my business in April 2015, I have been blessed to work with a wide variety of sales professionals in many different fields. I have worked with professional sports teams, Fortune 500 companies, but also the stay-at-home mom who sells Norwex.
I have worked with sales people on an individualized basis, as well as teams of more than 50 people. I have conducted phone meetings, in-person seminars, and also have spoken to hundreds of people at once in public forums all across the Midwest.
Although the professions are different, individuals unique in their own way, and the delivery mechanism of my information varies, I have been amazed that time and time again one thing is abundantly constant: the clients who elect to work with me are usually on auto pilot when making cold calls.
I think one of the reasons why my clients become such successful cold callers is because not only do we take a very deep dive into what they should be doing moving forward, but we take a look at what they are currently saying on the phone. I spend ample time with them to diagnose their current cold call ailments, listen to their delivery, and see, based upon what they are saying and how they are saying it, where they are likely to encounter resistance and trouble.
One of the exercises that I use to accomplish this is to ask all of my clients to name five things that they either hope to accomplish or aspire to convey on their respective cold calls. For example, they may hope to make the prospect laugh, because making the person laugh will elevate his mood slightly and hopefully disarm him for the remainder of the call.
Additionally, my clients may hope to accomplish rapport building on the call, meaning that they can connect with the prospect at a deeper level. I ask this question because I want to see how strategic they are heading in to the call and what, exactly, they are hoping to accomplish in the limited time they have with the prospect over the phone.
Astoundingly, I have yet to have a single client readily name more than three things unprompted that they either hope to accomplish or hope to convey while cold calling. For me, this is an obvious sign of why the people that come to me don’t have very high cold call success rates to begin with. How can you succeed time and time again if you don’t know how to accomplish your goal?
How can you head into each individual call prepared to appeal to different people with different needs if you don’t know what you are trying to accomplish from the outset? Unless you are laser focused on every call, know what your road map for success looks like, and are prepared to react and anticipate to every little thing you may encounter on the call, more often than not, you will fail.
And, after failing a few consecutive times, it is easy to imagine a sales person as the driver of the car, asking themselves, dazed and confused, “How did I end up here?” To be a truly effective cold caller, you need a plan, strategy, and must head into every single dial knowing what you are trying to accomplish and how you will make that happen.
Think of your current cold call success rate and ask yourself if you are honestly heading into every call clear-eyed, open minded, and ready to attack, or, are you on auto pilot, making calls in virtually the same manner to different people and unsure of the specifics pertaining to how you are going to ensure the call ends well.
At The Cold Call Coach, we work with our clients to ensure they have an effective strategy, customized scripts for the various clients they are trying to connect with, and are filled with confidence knowing they can be successful because we have role played and made live cold calls together to prove effectiveness.
Give us a call at 414-313-8338 today and let’s get to work!
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