The question whether Cold Calling can be fun is a paradigm shift just being brought up as a possibility.

Sales people as well as Entrepreneurs working to expand their business all know the horrors the typical Cold Call prospecting brings to mind. The hang-ups, the curt/short answers, the ‘I’m not interested’, etc. The sad fact is that people who are engaged in Cold Calling see the absolute worst in people.

This in turn either results in one or more outcomes:

· The sales person quits because they get too much grief compared to the rewards

· The sales person becomes hard and cynical and ends up abusing prospects

· The business suffers because their message is not being delivered to prospects.

People have been contacted too many times by poorly trained Cold Callers. People have been tricked, taken advantage of, badgered, and disrespected by telephone sales people for three decades now. The voice used by these ‘sales people’ is either pumped up with fake enthusiasm or sounds like a lifeless monotone.

Both the language used by the caller and the posture they try to employ are dead giveaways. It starts with the very first sentence. “Hello Mr. Jones, how are you today?” Mr. Jones knows you neither know him nor really care about him so your asking the ‘How are you?’ question sets a bad beginning for the conversation right from the start.

Prospects are now ‘street smart’ in that practically everyone recognizes a sales call within the first five seconds of answering the phone. And since the good nature of these prospects has been taken advantage of in the past they now feel justified being rude to the sales person currently on the phone.

Their ‘wall’ goes up instantly, and once that’s the situation any notion that you’re going to have a fun and productive call is pretty much toast. If you’re looking to reach a particular outcome (such as being effective at cold calling) it’s always important to know where you are currently (a starting point).

I’m assuming you’d prefer that outcome to be to actually ENJOY making cold calls and have it working EFFECTIVELY for you. The most effective way to bring about a major shift /breakthrough is to literally break the existing paradigm. The information below should do exactly that for you in the way you look and react to Cold Calling from this day forward.

Since reaching out to new prospective customers is literally the life blood of 98% of all business you should find the following material of huge importance.

One of my favorite Sales Coaches offers the following Cold Calling Tips which will turn it from a dreaded task into one that you’ll actually start enjoying.

Cold Calling Tip Number One:

Stop making cold calls with the intention of ‘making the sale’ – or even an appointment! Go into the call with the genuine intention of helping another person. That means adopting ‘service’ mentality instead of a ‘sales’ mentality.

The sales mentality / approach basically requires the prospect to defend themselves – whereas the ‘service mentality’ approach generates rapport.

Yes; there are some specifics on the type of words and structure to use, but it is never reduced to a ‘script’.

Cold Calling Tips – Number Two:

Be open and honest. In an earlier post (Magical Sales Script Part Two) I explained why building Trust with your prospect pays off multiple times better than anything else you can do.

Everything from accelerating the sales process, to receiving tons of referrals, to the having your sales job really feel fulfilling, and more.

Cold Calling Tips – Number Three:

I remember discovering a wildly successful Sales Pro from California who focused on hiring low key and unassuming newbie’s to become sale people.

This flew in the face of what I used to believe sales people had to act like to be successful (brash, egotistical jerks).

This gentleman taught (key word) these newbie’s some basic principals which included asking the client what their unique problems were before spewing out about how great my company/product/service was.

Unless your prospect feels you understand what their problem is why in the world would they think you could offer a solution?

Cold Calling Tip – Number Four

Get into your Prospect’s World: If you are being yourself and not applying the typical ‘sales pressure’, your prospects will most likely open up to you.

Take the time to calmly ask truly pertinent open ended questions. This process can actually help the prospect crystallize what their problem, and then a potential solution may be.

If your company / product / service ‘fits the bill’ the prospect will ASK to purchase it!

Cold Calling Tips – Number Five

Let go of expectations. Tony Robbins taught me an analogy about expectations that blew me away.

He explained that ‘expectations’ can be extremely damaging for the following reason. When we form an expectation we actually feel that it’s already ‘ours’.

The problem is if it doesn’t work out the way we expected we feel something akin to being robbed! It’s not a good feeling and that feeling lingers – therefore it effects our attitude and forthcoming Cold Calling behavior (and not in a good way).

These cold calling tips have been paired down from the original, but by just by adopting the information above you’ll undoubtedly see a huge improvement in how you feel about Cold Call prospecting as well as the sales success you experience.