One of the key steps where it is important to execute well when making cold calls is scheduling telephone appointments. There are clear things that we can do to improve our success rate in this area which is good news.

 

1. Communicate Value

The area of effectively communicating the business value that we have to offer is an area where there is often room for improvement. Our natural instinct is to introduce ourselves, give details about the company we work for, and explain our products and all of the great things that they can do. While these points are important to be shared with the prospect at some point, how we can help them from a business value standpoint is the biggest thing that the prospect cares about.

The set of features that our products or services have will provide some sort of technical benefit or value. An example would be if we sell software that helps automate a manual process; this automation is a technical benefit. It’s important to discuss with the prospect, but it’s not the business value we offer. The automation of this process will likely assist in decreasing costs, increasing revenue and profits, and maybe helping improve compliance. These benefits are at the business level and this value helps to schedule telephone appointments.

 

2. Uncover Pain

When we’re able to uncover pain, it assists us in persuading a prospect to agree to telephone appointments. Something that’s not working well or could be working better is the pain that the customer is experiencing. If we want the prospect to keep talking with us and move on to an appointment, It’s very important to identify pain if we want the prospect to keep talking with us as well as move on to an appointment because no pain exists; there is no reason to make any changes.

 

3. Build Interest

It’s important to work to build interest on the prospect’s side once the pain is uncovered. It could be like trying to reel in a fish that has a hook in its mouth but the hook isn’t hooked onto anything if we don’t build interest. Share some information with the prospect so that the hook gets lodged in there when it is time to close for telephone appointments.

 

4. Build Rapport

Building rapport greatly impacts our ability to schedule appointments and close deals because people buy from people they like. Some people think that rapport naturally builds between two people and that it’s either going to be there or it’s not, but the reality is there are very clear things that we can do with the prospect during a cold call to decrease their guard as well as take some steps toward establishing rapport.

 

5. Sales Role-Play

One of the most challenging sales activities done by a salesperson is cold calling. You never really know exactly how a call is going to go and there is likely a lot of information that you’ll need to have fresh in your mind in terms of some sort of call script. Practicing anticipated scenarios and objections through some sort of sales role-play is one way to make cold calling easier as well as improve results.

 

SalesScripter helps sales pros to improve telephone appointments through a call script tool.