trying to keep you from your task. The very last thing you want to do is to give your sales pitch and have the gatekeeper make the decision for the person you are there to see.
2. Don’ t waste time with people who don’ t turn out to be prospects. Even if you follow the typical prequalification steps, you are still going to wind up calling on some people who won’ t be prospects. If you can’ t get an introduction to the right people immediately, at least try to get their names so you can call later.
3. Don’ t waste time waiting for someone to show up. Remember that for the rep, the cold call is most practical when you can sandwich it between other calls. When you make a cold call, you are obviously at the mercy of the people you want to see. If someone goes so far as to agree to see you, but then keeps you waiting for an extended period of time in the lobby, don’ t hesitate to leave if that’ s going to impinge on your other— scheduled— calls.
Plan for your next visit
It’ s highly unusual that you’ re going to make a sale on the initial cold call visit. That’ s why it’ s so important to make sure you don’ t leave without trying to make an appointment for some time in the immediate future. Failure to do so results in a good deal of wasted time and effort.
Don’ t rush
If you’ re fortunate enough to get to a decision-maker in the course of a cold call, that usually puts the rep firmly in a time-pressure trap. The rep knows they only have a few minutes. As a result, they’ ll speed up their regular presentation. This is seldom a very effective way to make a sale. A well-honed presentation must be given at its proper pace. Speeding it up, talking faster than usual and trying to funnel everything into a shorter time frame isn’ t going to work. If you plan to do much cold calling, it would pay dividends to create a special presentation that you can give in a shorter time frame; or rather just use the cold call time to set up another meeting when you’ ll be provided more time for your presentation.
Business cards
While everything from agency websites to Twitter to LinkedIn profiles have gone miles to provide contact information, the good old-fashioned business card still fills a need. According to one rep,“ We’ ve got the same agency name that we’ ve had for more than half a century, but what we’ ve found to be effective are the names of the principals that appear on our company business cards. That’ s what our customers are looking for and that information points in them in the right direction from the get-go.”
In the end it’ s up to the individual rep to decide whether cold calls are for them or not. They could be if you set up ground rules to make them productive. We don’ t advise that you simply make cold calls; but we do think it’ s probably time to question conventional wisdom and see how you can complete them effectively.
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