Cold Calling Techniques for Start-Ups

Cold calling is arguably the most important activity for any start-up or small business. Software companies are usually quite good at this however companies in other industries such as Trades or financial institutions for example, do not leverage the power of cold calling as much as they could. When was the last time you received a call or email from a carpenter following up on the work they done or if you would like to look at a remodel? Or what about a call from a bank to inform you of the benefits of banking with them and why you should switch? Yet so many software companies have proven that a structured sales team with an ingrained culture on cold calling not only works, but is pertinent to the future of their business.

Why is this, you ask?

In this post, I aim to give start ups and small businesses a place to start when it comes to cold calling. You don't necessarily have to have a huge salesforce with a 'smile and dial' approach. Two hours per day is enough to start! Schedule some time in the morning or work through lunch, or even do an hour before wrapping up for the day! I worked for a company that used 'power hours' to encourage a culture of continuous cold calling and move away from relying on inbound leads. Guess what?! it worked! 60% of my number came from cultivating existing accounts and prospecting into new accounts.

Could you be leaving 60% of potential revenue on the table?

Below I have outlined 5 steps to successfully begin your cold calling journey based on my experience to date;

1 The Pitch

This can be daunting. Half the battle is putting pen to paper and actually creating one! You usually get a maximum of 10 seconds on a cold call to deliver your message to the prospect and "hook" them, This means your pitch needs to be precise, clear and focus on one key message you want to get across- any more than one message is overkill and confusing.

A good example of a successful cold call is as follows;

Hello, My name is Joe Blogs and the reason for my call today is because we helped save [relevant company] $X on their [X solution] costs. I have some ideas on how we can similarly help your organization. Would now or early this week suit you to discuss further?

A beautiful combination of real financial statistics, a brief targeted message as well as open ended questioning leaves the prospect hungry for more.

Once you have your pitch perfected, you now need to ensure you have good qualification. Fail fast should be in the back of your mind so you don't waste your precious time on leads that you know will go nowhere.

2. Value Proposition

I always remember getting through to a CIO's direct line in a large multinational organization in my territory and completely blanking when it came to my value proposition. I remember the disappointment when i hung up the phone knowing I blew my chance of what could have been a massive opportunity.

The call went as follows; I dialed the number mindlessly as I went through my list of people to cold call. To my surprise, the CIO answered. I rambled off my script about productivity and digital transformation when i was cut short. "You have 10 seconds to tell me how you can help me, he snapped. I froze and began reciting my script again when he cut me short once more to tell me he wasn't interested. I was gutted! From that, I learned to ALWAYS have my value proposition ingrained when cold calling whether it is a proven statistic to save money or a direct quote from a customer on how they increased productivity, understand your value proposition and be prepared for that "10 seconds to convince me" question!

3. Good Qualification

This is possibly one of the most difficult tasks when cold calling. The person on the other end of the line is not expecting your call, therefore may not have the information you need or may not trust you enough to provide that key information. If your prospect is open, try get all BANT (Budget, Need, Authority, Timeframe) questions answered. If they are not that open with information, try get some level of pain or need.

Some probing questions to understand the pain are as follows;

- Tell me how your company currently dealing with this issue?

-On a scale of 1-10, how satisfied are you with your current provider? How can i get you to a 10?

Try ask open ended questions rather than closed questions to gather momentum and build trust. By simply listening, you adopt a consultative selling approach and end up getting more valuable information than you may even get on an inbound! This brings me to my next point; Find the pain!

4. Pain, Pain, Pain

Throughout my sales career, getting to the heart of the pain is always challenging. We tend to take a pain at face value, note it and move onto the next question. True value selling seeks to get to the pinnacle of any pain. Once a customer opens up to you, latch onto that and probe further! Once you hear a pain point, express genuine interest and ask "tell me more" or "that's interesting, could you tell me how that's affecting your job and overall company goals?" You may be missing out on those key nuggets of information!

The reason why you need to find the pain is twofold:

a. By having a good understanding of a prospect's pain, you can refer back to that later in the sales cycle if there is resilience during the pricing stages. You have more power when you understand both the individual's pain but also the company pain so when you speak to the decision maker, you can refer back to the company goal. In my experience, the overall company goal will be to either save money or increase productivity. Try draw that out.

b. You build trust. If you don't delve into the pain enough, you have only scratched the surface and as soon as you hang up, the prospect will immediately look for other pricing options. All you succeeded in doing is highlighting a need and left yourself right open for the prospect to go elsewhere. In order to ensure they don't look elsewhere, ask them to open up to you. Really draw out that hurt and dissatisfaction they are experiencing and just when they have poured out their heart to you, tell them you have a solution that will solve all their business needs, The prospect will be left feeling that you truly understand their problem and cost will not matter to them, once its resolved. Now, in saying that, the cost might matter to their manager or whoever is holding the budget, that's why its so important to understand the company goals/pain so you can refer back to when you are introduced to the budget holder.

5. Next Steps

Never finish a call without some promising next steps. You may have heard the term ABC? (Always be closing). Always book your next meeting or next call before hanging up. Also, make sure to get other key information you may not have available such as email address, important names and direct lines. I can't count how many times I have hung up only to realize I had to call back again which dilutes the success of your beautifully perfected cold call.

One last thing I would like to leave you with, don't be afraid to pick up the phone! As shown in the image, the phone is your (new) friend. If you are not cold calling - get started!

Contact me if you have any questions on my post or would like to discuss further.