How To Conquer The Cold Call

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Do you know what is cold call? The cold call is a term to describe a situation between the salesperson and the buyer. In this situation, the salesperson has never contacted the buyer before. Unlike the warm call, the situation is different. The salesperson has ever contacted the buyer, so the buyer has been quite familiar to the salesperson. In the cold call situation, the buyer doesn't expect or don't have any preliminary preparation of being contacted by the salesperson. Usually, the product or service offered is expensive. Hence, the chance of being rejected by the buyer is quite high. Unless, as the salesperson, you do pay attention to the certain things. To get the acceptance or trust from the buyer, you have to be:

1. Honest about yourself, your product, and your experience
2. Realistic about what it can and what it can not do for the buyer
3. Communicative, you have to maintain the relationship with the buyer, you have to help the buyer to identify the problems and offer a solution.
4. Concerned about the buyer and the buyer's needs.

Besides that, there are also some tips to conquer the cold call. Firstly, you have to be the resource. In the term of becoming the center of information. You have to be knowledgeable about the products, about the trends, about the competitors, and even about the world business. So, every time the buyer asks you some questions, you can promptly answer the questions dauntlessly. 

Secondly, by paying attention to give the question with care. You can throw any question started with "what" or "how" so it will make the buyer tend to explain the answer, not just saying "yes" or "no". For example: (the salesperson: S and the buyer: B)

S: How does it work?

B: It works well. We don't do a lot of copying documents do it suits us. 

S: What happens then?

B: The service technician usually doesn't come for a day or more, so we just have to wait until he gets here and fixes it. That delays things a bit. A few times we've had to send some documents to outside vendors for copying.

S: How will your copying situation change?

B: I haven't thought about that, we will be copying a lot more. 

Thirdly, we have to be ready resolving any objections. Occasionally, the buyer raises an objection by saying "It won't work for us" or "We don't need it". What you have to do is just listening to the buyer passionately and then you can demonstrate how your product or service indeed help the buyer's problem. If your product really isn't the answer for the buyer's problem, you have to acknowledge it and leave the buyer graciously. 

So, how to conquer the cold call are by being honest, realistic, communicative, concerned about the buyer and the buyer's need. Moreover, you have to be the resource, giving the question with care, and be ready to resolve an objection. 

To make it clear, I will give the example of a conversation between the salesperson and the buyer in the cold call situation:

S: What can I do for you?

B: I am looking for Glibenclamide and Metformin.

S: If I am allowed to know, for whom the medicine will be given?

B: The medicine is for my mother. She has been the diabetics for 11 years. 

S: I see, what has the doctor said to you or to your mother?

B: The doctor said that my mother has to intake the medicine routinely.

S: What will happen if your mother misses one or two tablets?

B: Her glucose concentration will increase and something bad to her health may occur.

S: I see. How was your mother's health condition so far? 

B: She was just fine. But, sometimes she complains about the big size of the tablet. However, it's not a really big deal since I can tear it into two pieces so the size will become smaller and she is able to intake it easily.

S: How was your mother reaction every time she intakes the medicine?

B: Still, sometimes she complains about other things. She complains about the bitter taste of the medicine. For this case, I couldn't do anything, I keep forcing her to intake it even though she felt uncomfortable with it for the sake to make her always healthy.

S: Well, so your mother feels uncomfortable every time she intakes the medicine due to the big-size and the bitter taste of the medicine. But, for the bitter taste, you couldn't do anything to make it better. 

B: Yes, that's what happened. I suppose if we could find something to make her comfortable every time she intakes the medicine, my mother will be very happy to hear that. 

S: If you don't mind. I would like to introduce you to this new device which is quite pricey around 40 million rupiahs. 

B: Yes, go ahead. 

S: This is a syrup maker, it can convert the medicine in the tablet form into the syrup form. So, of course, the size will become smaller. 

B: I know, yet, without that pricey device, actually I still can tear the tablet into two pieces to make her easily intake it. 

S: Wait, I haven't finished yet. Since it is in the form of syrup, so your mother will feel comfortable with the sweet taste. One more thing, special for diabetics patient, it provides an alternative sugar so it will not affect her glucose concentration. 

B: Wow, interesting! This is what I have been looking for, Well, I would need to know the exact amount of money we are talking about.

S: I can give you this brochure to let you know the detail of the price. If you would like to know more about the device. I invite you to come to our demonstration session in this place on Saturday at 3 pm. You will get information about how the device works, what kind of other features provided, and other technical things. 

B: Okay, thank you for the brochure and the invitation, I will arrange my schedule to be able to attend the demonstration session.

S: Well, I am looking forward to seeing you.

Beware: all of the things discussed in above conversation is not real. It's just for the example. 

Based on the conversation above. The salesperson was being honest and realistic because the salesperson didn't exaggerate anything about the products. The salesperson was communicative because frequently in the beginning of the conversation, the salesperson asked a lot of question to the buyer. The salesperson also concerned more to the buyer by asking the question which is only correlating to the buyer. If not, the salesperson may talk a lot about his/her syrup maker start in the beginning of the conversation. Then, the salesperson was also becoming the resource, as the salesperson was allowed to introduce the product. The question thrown was also begun with "what" and "how", for example:

"What has doctor said to you or to your mother?", 

"How was your mother's health condition so far?", and so on. 

The last, there was a time when the buyer addressed an objection by saying:

"I know, yet, without that pricey device, actually I still can tear the tablet into two pieces to make her easily intake it". 

But then, the salesperson was able to avoid the objection by explaining more about the product which is "Wait, I haven't finished yet. Since it is in the form of syrup, so your mother will feel comfortable with the sweet taste. One more thing, special for diabetics patient, it provides an alternative sugar so it will not affect her glucose concentration". 

So, that's all about how to conquer the cold call. I hope it can be useful for you and I am dauntless to dare you to implement this when you are facing the cold call. I hope you will become the successful salesperson. 

Reference: 

Advanced Manual of Toastmaster International about Persuasive Speaking page 11-15.