Cold Calling Secrets: How To Eliminate Fear, Failure, And Rejection

Sales teams can improve their performances by using a sales dialer and smart calling. Read on to find out how here!

In this article:

1. Make More Productive Calls with Smart Calling Techniques
2. Phone Prospecting Myths
   1. Myth 1: Prospecting and Cold Calling Are Dead
   2. Myth 2: Prospecting Is Just a Numbers Game
   3. Myth 3: For Every “No” You Get, You’re That Much Closer to a “Yes”
   4. Myth 4: You’ve Got to Love Rejection
3. How to Get Your Prospects Saying “Yes”
   1. How Smart Calling Works
   2. The Smart Call Process
   3. How to Gather Useful Information
   4. How to Set Clear Objectives
   5. How to Craft Your Opening Statement
      1. Here’s an Example of a Good Opening Statement
   6. Using a Sales Dialer to Get More Prospects

Can a Sales Dialer Help Improve Your Sales Process?

Make More Productive Calls with Smart Calling Techniques 

Art Sobczak champions a type of telesales he refers to as “smart calling.” He teaches sales pros how to have more fun selling by phone.

Sobczak shared his secrets in his presentation, “Smart Calling: Eliminate the Fear, Failure, and Rejection from Cold Calling,” at the Inside Sales Virtual Summit. His presentation is embedded below. He also talks about these secrets in his smart calling book of the same title.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s8G1y3Cod00

Phone Prospecting Myths

There’s a lot of garbage floating around about telephone prospecting. It goes to show that just because an idea is popular doesn’t mean it’s true.

So, let’s take a look at some of the biggest myths:

Myth 1: Prospecting and Cold Calling Are Dead

Only one word in this myth is accurate—the “cold” part is dead.

“Cold” means you contact somebody you don’t know, who doesn’t know you, and you try to sell them on what you have. 

On the other hand, calling and prospecting are alive and well.

Here’s the fact about prospecting: it is the fastest, cheapest, and most direct way to win a sales conversation with somebody who didn’t contact you and you’re not doing business with already.

Myth 2: Prospecting Is Just a Numbers Game

Make so many calls, and you’re going to get so many sales. That’s not true at all.

A casino is a numbers game. Phone prospecting is a quality game because you need to be doing the right things to get the results you want. Yes, dialing like the wind can be done, but make sure you’re making quality calls.

Myth 3: For Every “No” You Get, You’re That Much Closer to a “Yes”

Not if you’re doing the wrong things.

If you keep receiving negative responses, then there must have been something wrong with your approach. For better results, you’ll need to adjust your sales approach.

Myth 4: You’ve Got to Love Rejection

Not really. Rejection is a matter of perception.

Let’s change our definition of what happens to us so we’re never rejected again.

Let’s plant a seed so that we get a win on every call.

RELATED: Five Myths Of Prospecting

How to Get Your Prospects Saying “Yes”

Here’s a newsflash: Your prospects are crazy busy. Sadly, they don’t have time to talk to every sales rep who wants to sell them something.

Far too often, sales calls and voicemails are all about the salesperson and not about the prospect.

Who do they want to talk about? What do they care about? That’s right. All they care about is themselves.

So, you’d better be prepared to talk about them: their job, their company, their trigger events, what’s going on in their world. Also, you have to do that pretty quickly to have any chance at winning an audience with them.

That’s why smart calling trumps traditional cold calling—smart calling is knowing something about the people, the industries, the companies, and the situations that you’re calling in to. You do this so you can quickly prove that you are relevant and are worth your prospects’ time.

How Smart Calling Works

Here’s an example of a smart call approach:

What happened there? The sales rep obviously knew something about who he was calling, what was going on in his prospect’s world, and he mentioned some social proof.

All he’s looking to do at the end is just move it to the point where they can have a conversation.

The Smart Call Process

The smart call process contains three essential stages:

1. Gathering Information
2. Setting Objectives
3. Crafting Your Opening Statement

How to Gather Useful Information

You want to find factual information about your prospect and situational information about your prospect’s company, such as a trigger event that might make somebody more likely to buy from you.

One way to do this is to simply call employees in your prospect’s organization to gather sales intelligence. People are naturally conditioned to answer questions.

Here are some quick steps you can use to gather sales intelligence:

• Call into your prospect’s organization.
• Identify yourself and your company.
• Ask for help.
• Use a justification statement that explains why you’re asking questions. Example: “I’m going to be speaking with your VP of Sales and I want to make sure I’m prepared when I do so. I’d like to ask you a few questions.”

How to Set Clear Objectives

What do you want somebody to do as a result of your call?

Here are some examples of primary objectives. You would want them to:

• Agree that they will take my proposal to their planning meeting with their recommendation.
• Agree that the next time they have a need for our product, they will call us.
• Buy my product.
• Accept my proposal and place an order on this call.

Have a primary objective, a destination in mind.

If you never want to experience rejection again, go into the call with a secondary objective as well. This will help you maintain a positive attitude about your work.

Here are some examples of secondary objectives. You would also want them to:

• Leave them with a good feeling for my company.
• Give me permission to stay in touch.
• Agree to sign up for my email marketing list.

This isn’t earth-shattering stuff, but you’ll be amazed at how much small victories can improve your attitude.

How to Craft Your Opening Statement

Let’s get into the opening statement of your phone calls. There are lots of ways to muck up your opening and kill your chances of success, but the biggest blunder of all time is making it all about you.

Look at your opening statement from the perspective of the person hearing it. Can you say without a doubt that there’s some value in it for the person listening to this? If not, go back and revise it.

Here is the sales call process:

• Identify yourself and your company: First name, last name, and organization.
• Connect with your intelligence: Here you would inject something like, “Art Sobczak here with Business by Phone. I saw on your blog that you’re growing so fast that you’re having a hard time training all of your new sales reps.” The key is to identify a problem this company is facing, so you can mention it in your opening and instantly increase your relevancy.
• Hint at the possible benefit: Keep your message focused on them by telling them what you have done for others or what you may do for them.

Suggest another possible benefit and move to questions.

Here’s an Example of a Good Opening Statement

“Hi, Dr. Miller. I’m Steven with Smile Marketing. I noticed the coupons you’re running in the local school paper and I spoke with your office manager about some of the marketing that you’re doing to build up your practice. We’ve helped other pediatric dentists cut their costs of new patient acquisition by 50 percent on average while increasing their number of new patients by 25 percent within six months. Depending on what your goals are we might have a few options worth taking a look at. I’d like to ask you a few questions.”

Are you ready to stop “cold” calling and start smart calling?

Using a Sales Dialer to Get More Prospects

Whether or not you’re already practicing smart calling as described by Art Sobczak, calling many people manually can get a bit tiring. This could also take up your sales reps’ precious time. This is when using a sales dialer becomes convenient.

With an automated dialer, you can have more outbound calls to build your pipeline. More prospects mean more chances of actual sales. It’s important to have the right sales toolkit to gain successful results.

Sales Dialer Definition: This is an electronic device to simplify manual calling prospects.
When it comes to calling and prospecting, it’s important to remember three things: information, objectives, and opening statement.

First, gather information about who you’re calling, which can give you an idea of how to approach your prospect.

Next, set objectives. A primary objective gives you a clear idea of what you’re want to accomplish, while a secondary one cushions the blow of rejection.

Finally, even as the caller, avoid making it all about you in the opening statement—make sure you establish yourself as someone who can provide a solution and benefit to the prospect.

Also, if you want to increase the chances of success and simplify the process of manual calling, try a smart dialer! We hope this guide on smart calling has been helpful and enlightening for you.

Do you use a sales dialer in your smart calling? Share your thoughts in the comments section below!

Up Next: How to Find Direct Dial Phone Numbers When Prospecting

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Editor’s Note: This post was originally published on July 23, 2013, and has been updated for quality and relevancy.