5 Tips for Cold Calling

5 Tips for Cold Calling

I receive at least one daily cold call voice mail message. As the Director of Marketing I receive cold calls from people selling everything: printing, creative and design, trade show displays, logo’d premium items, meeting and event services, sales incentive and employee recognition, web/SEO/social media, marketing technology, and services unique to the direct selling industry.

Wow! Are people wasting their time! These voice mail messages can be so annoying. I hate voice mail. It slows me down, is cumbersome and a pain. So here are my 5 tips for cold calling...thoughts on how to improve your efforts, get me to call you back and even schedule a meeting.

1. Get my name and title correct. You can call my company’s main number and our receptionist will not only give you the correct spelling of my name and title, but she will transfer the call to me. But don’t move too fast, don’t waste this first shot to dazzle me.

2. Warm me up. My preference is to receive a compelling mail piece that I can quickly scan, get an idea of how you can help me be more successful and tee up the idea that you will be calling me in the coming days. It can be a simple postcard, an envelope with brochure, letter, white paper etc. Or a clever dimensional item that links your creativity to my presumed strategic need. If you are local and drop off candy or a tin of popcorn…you’ve got my attention. I know that’s dorky and maybe shallow, but I will at least give you a few minutes on the phone to thank you for the snacks.

If you address the piece to Marketing Director, it goes directly into the recycle bin. I’m the Director of Marketing. If you can’t get that detail correct, what makes you think I can trust you to execute a campaign without mistakes? The picture above is a piece I just received...Two qualities marketing communications must have? ...accuracy in personalization is a start.

If you address the piece to Mr. Chris Scherting, it goes directly into the recycle bin. Come on!

3. Have a story. Think this through. Your story begins with your warm up and continues with your voice mail message. Script it out. Link the mailing and the vm message. Practice and leave yourself the message you plan to leave me and see how annoying it is.

Remember, I get at least one cold call vm a day. How am I supposed to remember you and your company and why you are different or better? It might be a creative theme; it might be a specific value prop statement or tag line; something to link the warm up to your message. If you follow up with an e-mail, continue the ‘story’ in the subject line. Otherwise it will be quickly and easily deleted.

If your plan is to leave me a sequence of two or three voicemail messages over a period of time, weave the story through all three messages. Script all of them. Give me some value-added tip, intrigue me, be patient, polite and friendly.

4. Give me your name and number up front. I am ready to take transcription at this point. I pick up voice mail once a day and have a pen and paper handy. My preference is to get the name and number up front, listen to the blabbity blah blah, and then repeat the name and number at the end so I can double check my hearing.

5. Speak slowly. Again, I may be taking notes on your message so I know why I am calling you back. I hate-hate-hate it when people speed-talk and I have no idea what there name or company is and they ramble for several long, torturous minutes and then zip through their number so fast I can’t write quickly enough. At that point I hit delete. You just wasted my time. And yours.

In the past several months, I’ve met with several potential vendors who cold called me. One company outsourced the appointment setting. She was great, I thoroughly enjoyed her approach.

One time I actually picked up the phone even though I did not recognize the number and knew it was going to be a cold call. This guy did his homework. He knew my name. He immediately built a rapport based on details in my Linked-In profile. So simple.

I’m always reading business books, white papers, marketing newsletters etc. to stay up on new technology and strategies. You may offer valuable services that can help my company grow. Somehow you’ve got to stand out from all the other blabbity blah blah in my voicemail box and get my attention.