Mom Invented

From sending singing telegrams and direct mail to e-mail marketing, tradeshows and mixers, salespeople go to extraordinary lengths to avoid making cold calls. The reality is that even in our internet-based world, few tools are more effective and necessary for generating sales and sales appointments than the good old telephone. And I don't think much of farming out the cold-calling to someone who does not actually sell your product or service, which probably leaves it to you.

So what's the big deal? For some reason, telephone cold calls inspire fear. Perhaps that fear is driven by the fact that most of us, at one time or another, have been less than gentle with a caller who has interrupted our dinner or called right in the middle of a family discussion to ask, "How'd you like to save money on your phone bill?" Click.

I have 10 tricks to help you succeed at making cold calls.

1. Get over your fear. It's not personal. To recipients of your calls, you are a voice coming through a small plastic device, someone who has interrupted whatever they were doing. No matter how badly someone treats you, realize that the minute the call is over, she will forget about you, so you can do the same. Second, understand that telephone cold calling is a numbers game. You need to get enough no's to get to a yes. When viewed this way, "no" simply becomes one more step toward "yes."Once you are over the fear of making calls, there are a number of techniques and tricks that will help you be more effective.
2. Leads. Lead generation is an entire subject in and of itself, so for the sake of brevity I will assume you have identified a list of target customers to call.
3. Plan your calls. Set aside enough time to get into a rhythm--at least two hours per block. And plan to get through a set number of calls. Usually morning is better than afternoons, but after hours (see below) can also be very good. Note that I did not say to avoid calling at other times. More calls equals more sales. I have even had success calling during the holidays.

Read the rest of the tips in Tamara's WomenEntrepreneur.com StartUp Smarts column...

Tagged as: Business Advice, business marketing, business sales, cold calls, phone calls