Cold calling is a difficult but important way to gather sales leads and market information. The presenter provides numerous tips for improving cold calling effectiveness, such as thoroughly researching prospects on LinkedIn and social media to find connections and tailor the pitch, being friendly to receptionists to get past barriers, practicing call scripts, scheduling dedicated times for calling to establish a routine, and using metrics to optimize strategies and track performance over many calls. While cold calling requires persistence and a high volume of calls, following these tips can increase the chances of securing valuable meetings, feedback, and eventual sales.

1. COLDC

2. Throughout this presentation,
you’ll find these yellow boxes.
These yellow boxes give you a
little more info about the
slides.
COLDC

3. @TjorvenD
TjorvenDenorme
www.twitter.com/TjorvenD
www.facebook.com/eMenKa
www.slideshare.net/emenka
TjorvenD.tumblr.com
www.facebook.com/tjorvendenorme
www.linkedin.com/pub/dir/tjorven/denorme

4. What is your dream job?

7. No current vacancies

8. Since my dream job was not
available I went for sales.
Company car, smartphone,
cool events, ... It could/should
be the closest thing to the real
thing.

9. But sales meant Cold Calling. I
come from an age before
internet and google and seo
and social media, so calling
was the way to go.
But still now it work and this is
why...
COLDC

10. Purpose cold calling

11. Meeting
Sales via the phone is very
difficult so you need 1 one 1
contact. It is easier to sell your
product or service and the
person will remember you
longer.

12. But something important is
often forgotten. Coldcalling is
very good for collecting data.
How is your market doing?
what are the trends? is there
money for your service or
product? When they don’t
want a meeting, try to gather
as much information as
possible.
Collect data

13. Start!

14. Research

15. Choose the right person
Who is going to buy your
service/product. Is it HR or IT.
Is it C level or lower. It is very
important that you select the
right person to call. So you
don’t lose time and you get
the right information.

16. You can search Linkedin to
look for more info about a
name, but you can also
‘advanced search’. You can
look for the R&D manager of a
certain company.

17. His profile gives you lots of
data. The picture shows you
something (tie or vacation pic).
Where he is from. But also
maybe someone in your
network knows him. This
makes it a warm call, not a
cold call.

18. Look at his career. Maybe he
worked at a company who is
already a customer. Or is a
customer of your competitor.

19. Is he an engineer or a
marketing guy. Calling to an
engineer is different than to a
sales guy. You must approach
them differently.

20. Groups and associations show
his interests. If you sell .NET
development, like we do. And
all his groups are open source
related , changes are that it
will be difficult to sell our
services.

21. In my opinion FB doesn’t really
help to get much valiable
information for cold calling.

22. But Twitter does. You can read
his tweets. That way you might
read something you can use in
your phone call.
Also follow your contact today
and call him tomorrow. Twitter
will have send him an email
that you started following him.
The secretary will call him and
he will know your name from
somewhere.

23. The secretary is your friend
Be very friendly because she is
the barrier between you and
your contact. She can help you
get through or she can make it
hard for you.
Your contact will be in
meeting, or not there, or not
in the mood, so you’ll hear the
receptionist a lot.

24. Otherwise, impress her

25. I’m calling you from the eMenKa Group
Headquarters in Antwerp.
If you call, as a small company
to a large entreprise, use
words as headquarters or
group. Fake it till you make it.

26. ... or with technical stuff
Or tell very technical stuff to
him or her that they don’t
understand. I would like to
speak to ... about that.
Because she doesn’t
understand she might connect
you.

27. But most are well trained and
there is no easy way past. That
is where the games begin.
But sometimes she tough.

28. Two-step
Don’t ask to speak to the
function name, but ask if the
name you have (from linkedin)
is the right person to contact
for your product/service. The
second time you can ask to
talk to a name. That might not
help at the reception, but it
does in the next tip ...

29. If you change the last digits of
a phone number you will end
up in a departement where
someone picks up the phone
who is not trained to keep you
out. Then ask if this is the
correct direct number for ...
(name you got). Huge change
they will say no and give the
direct number to you.
Change last two digits

30. If you call C – level even if you
have a direct nr, you still have
a personal secretary. Then try
different hours and days. If he
or she doesn’t work fulltime,
the direct nr may be a direct
line. Try Wednesday
afternoons , Fridays and
school holidays.
Timing

31. Smiling when you call makes
you more friendly. I know it
sounds stupid, but give it a try.
You’ll see it works.
Smile Even if it is fake

32. Always ask, so you are sure
you have a 100% attention. If
the answer is no, ask when
you can call back. And then call
back at exactly that time.
Because he asked you, it is
easy to go past the reception.
Do I call you at a bad time?

33. Script your call
Don’t script because the other
side will hear you read the
script, but because then you
think about what you say and
how. Change your script for
small and big companies and
change it if you feel it’s doesn’t
work.

34. If your contact has a lot of
questions,don’t answer them
on the phone. Say that is why
you want a meeting. To give
information about your service
or product. It’s not possible via
phone. Sell a meeting not your
product or service, that is way
to difficult.
Sell a meeting
not your service/product

35. Practice!
The more you do it, the better
you get at it. The more you do
it, the better you feel at ease.
The more you do it, the better
your script will become.
Practice makes perfect.

36. Practice on small companies,
or less relevant companies.
Make sure you are trained
before going for the big fish.
Easy targets first!

37. Nothing to lose.
Many people don’t like to cold
call because of the constant
rejection. You get a lot of no’s.
But you have nothing when
you call, if you have nothing
after the call, you haven’t lost
anything. All you can do is win.
Win a meeting, or collect
valuable data.

38. 3 times No is No
Don’t stop with your phonecall
after one No. Keep asking
untill you get at least 3 no’s .
You might get a yes in
between, otherwise you will
collect more data. Data which
can be used the next time you
call.

39. If your product/service is not
interesting today, it might be
in 6 months or a year. Ask for
that , and than ask if you can
call back. Cold calling is
persistence. Keep on pushing.
Ask permission to call back

40. Follow up.
Do follow up. If you may call
back in 3 month, do call back.
Refer to previous call. After a
while your contact will
remember you. Result : If you
didn’t get a meeting, you’ll be
top of mind. If they need a
product or a service like yours
they’ll call you, not the
competition.

41. If still no, choose different entry
If you keep getting no’s, maybe
you can try a different entry in
that company. Maybe another
function/person is more likely
to buy.

42. Choose the other one
Think of another person in the
same company that might be
interested in your product or
service.

43. Metrics
Use a CRM to keep track of
your calls, the contacts, the
companies, ...
The more info you have, the
better you can select your
calls, the higher your succes
rate.

44. What is the best time to call?
Once you have all that data
you are going to see the times
during the week with a high
succes rate. That might be
Tuesday afternoon or Monday
morning. Depending on your
product/service.

45. Schedule your calls on that
day, and don’t do anything
else. Don’t postpone your
calls. If you stop calling, no
more meetings, no more sales.
Keep pushing.
Schedule cold calling

46. What are you waiting for?

47. Action!

48. I called the secretary 4 times before
I could reach the right contact. I
called 10 different companies for 1
meeting. 1 in 6 meetings results in a
sale.
It’s f*cking hard work!
Your metrics might tell you
that you have to pick up the
phone 240 times to score 1
customer. A lot of work. But
very easy if you want 4 more
customers. Just make 960
calls. The more you do it, the
less effort for one sale. But at
the start expect big numbers.

49. ,

50. Have I got my dream job?
I ‘ m entrepreneur now. I have
a nice car, geek gadgets, I can
dress nicely and can attend
nice events. The women are in
fact just one woman, my wife.
And I like that. So I don’t care I
only score 4 out of 5. 

51. If you have questions.
Shoot!