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Speech for cold calling. The perfect cold calling script. Improving overall call efficiency

Making cold calls, that is, making calls to sell a product or service, is easier than you think. You will immediately understand that when you pick up the phone, you have no guarantee that the sale will be successful. There is only a guarantee that if you don’t pick up the phone, you won’t sell anything! What many people don't realize is that successful cold calling relies on a system. Read on and you will learn about proven and working methods.

Steps

Handling calls with a smile

Make training calls to the people on your list. It seems that your call is not quite good? Need to correct the list? This is fine. Try it live on potential buyers and make sure the appeal works.

Rework the list or appeal if necessary. It's usually impossible to do everything right the first time.

There is no business without sales. An employee who masters effective cold calling techniques is valued by the company's management and receives a good salary.

Cold calling is one of the most difficult and, at the same time, effective sales methods.

What are cold phone calls

Cold calling is an initial telephone call to potential clients who have never worked with your company before, with the goal of attracting them to the ranks of your customers.

The client is not waiting for a call. The call is called “cold” because the person on the other end of the line treats it coldly. Even if he needs the proposed service or product, you need to try hard to interest him.

Cold selling techniques are complex and require effort, experience, and good knowledge of the product or service being offered by the seller.

Video - how to make cold calls, examples for a manager:

Mastering the cold calling technique is not easy due to the many barriers that must be overcome in order for the call to be completed effectively. Often you have to listen to the interlocutor’s refusals and objections and reluctance to talk.

All this affects the mood of the manager making cold calls. To make such calls more effective, you need to constantly train and improve.

In what cases are they used?

This active sales tool is essential for B2B sales. Recently, cold calling has become increasingly used in working with ordinary people.

Cold calling is needed:

to constantly increase the number of new clients;
when launching a new project, to inform the market that a new organization has appeared;
to update a large base of potential clients: when there is a list of potential clients, and from it those who are most profitable for work are selected.

Cold calling in Russia is more often used in the following areas of business:

forwarding companies - advertising rarely works, and clients are scattered throughout the country and abroad, there is no possibility of personal meeting;
advertising agencies, magazines, print publishers - use calls to find new advertisers;
manufacturing companies selling goods for business - to search for new markets and expand the customer base;
wholesale companies selling goods to organizations;
real estate agencies - for the purpose of selling commercial real estate.

Conversation outline

For a cold call to be successful and produce the desired result, you should prepare for the conversation in advance and draw up a rough outline. The conversation itself can be divided into the following stages:

call to the secretary, switching to the decision maker (DM);
getting to know decision makers, introducing your company, establishing contact;
clarification of needs, presentation of a company, product or service, elaboration of objections;
completing contact and scheduling an appointment.

Video - how to overcome the fear of making cold calls:

You should not call all clients indiscriminately. Before the call, you should study in detail the potential client, his profile, and possible needs. According to only 20% of customers make up 80% of the profits.

How to bypass the secretary

When working with organizations, there is often an obstacle between the sales manager and the person who makes the decision - a secretary or personal assistant. Many calls go through it throughout the day. Often people call and offer something.

In order not to distract the manager, the secretary does not call him, but answers that nothing is needed and hangs up, even if the product and service are really useful for the organization. The larger the company, the more difficult it is to bypass the secretary.

In such cases, techniques are used to bypass the secretary. Here are some of them:

first find out the name of the decision-maker and, when calling the secretary, ask to be connected with the right person, calling him by name and patronymic. The secretary will decide that the call is repeated and will connect without asking unnecessary questions;
use swiftness and suddenness, say in a confident tone: “Hello, please connect me with the commercial director.” Further questions should be answered briefly and confidently. For example, to the question: “Who are you?” We answer: “Serey Ivanov.” “What kind of company?” — “Company A”;
instill confidence that this is not the first time you have called. You can say: “hello, company “A”, switch to the purchasing department”;
call when the secretary is not there. This could be lunch time, the end of the work day, or 30 minutes before the start.

To get results, you should follow the following rules when communicating with the secretary:

speak confidently;
there is no need to tell the secretary about your proposal, since he does not make decisions;
Before calling the manager, you should find out his full name, this will help you bypass the secretary much faster.

Video - how to bypass the secretary during cold calls:

How to start a conversation with a decision maker and get him interested

The conversation with the decision maker is the most important stage of the call. The overall result and prospects for working with this company depend on how it goes. When you make the first call, you should not try to sell. The main purpose of the first telephone conversation is to collect information to draw up a profitable offer and a meeting agreement.

Here is an approximate diagram of a conversation with a decision maker:

At the beginning of the conversation, you should introduce yourself and identify your company. Briefly tell us what she does. It is better not to mention the position of sales manager, as it evokes unnecessary associations in the decision maker, fear that something will be imposed on him.

After the introduction, it would be correct to clarify whether the person has time to talk. You can start like this: “Hello, my name is Sergey, I represent company A, which produces raw materials for companies like yours. Is it convenient for you to talk now?”

If the decision maker says that he has time, then we continue the conversation using the sales script. If not, then you will have to find out what time is convenient to call him. You should offer the person several call time options so that he can choose from them. We call back at the agreed time.

During the first conversation, it is necessary to arouse the person’s interest: tell about your company, the advantages of work, say that you work with the same companies as the one you are calling. Try not to talk about numbers or a specific proposal; this information should be left for the meeting.

Basic rules for conversation with a decision-maker:

the main goal of the first call is not to sell, but to get acquainted, interest and schedule a meeting;
The recommended duration of the call is no more than 5 minutes; as the time increases, the effectiveness of the call decreases;
you need to speak confidently, smile when talking, as the client feels the mood of the caller;
your interlocutor should be called by name;
The key to successful sales is to feel the client’s mood and be able to adapt to it.

To make a presentation that may interest the decision maker, offer something interesting that makes the product stand out from the mass of other offers and explain how the client will benefit from the offer. It could be:

promotion or super offer;
cost reduction;
increase in sales;
reducing time costs.

Dealing with client objections

At the very beginning of a conversation or after a presentation, you can hear objections from your interlocutor. The main types of objections when cold calling:

“we already have everything”;
“we are not interested in the offer”;
“I don’t have time to talk to you”;
“Send us an offer, we’ll consider it.”

Having heard such phrases, you should not convince the client otherwise and prove the benefits of your offer. This is a common mistake and can end the conversation.

To avoid objections you should:

from the beginning of the conversation, try not to give reasons for objections, ask more, be interested in the interlocutor’s situation, his concerns, which can be solved thanks to the product or service you offer;
If an objection is voiced, it is necessary to answer them easily, arousing the interlocutor’s interest in continuing the conversation.

To the client’s response: “We already have everything,” you can answer: “I understand that you don’t want to change anything, everything is debugged and works great for you. But we will be able to make an offer for your company that will be profitable, because new is development.”

Video - how to work with objections:

How to make an appointment

Having worked through the objections, you need to end the call with an appointment, which is the main goal of the first cold call. You can offer several time options so that the client has no alternative - to meet or not. You should also clarify the nuances:

date and time;
place;
meeting participants;
discuss the purpose of the meeting;
get confirmation from the client.

When ending the conversation, you need to leave your contact phone number, renegotiate the meeting agreement and say goodbye on a positive note.

Cold calling scripts

A call script is a pre-thought-out or programmed sequence of a conversation with a client, established in the company. It is convenient to use ready-made modules when making an initial call to a client. There are rigid and flexible scripts.

Video - 24 tips on how to create your own cold calling script (part 1):

Hard- used when selling a simple product, where there are not many options for customer answers. Such a script does not require a lot of knowledge and skills from the operator.

Flexible- used for complex products that involve ambiguous offers. Such scripts require managers to be creative and prepared.

Video - 24 tips on how to create your own cold calling script (part 2):

When developing a script, it is necessary to take into account the specifics of the industry and the characteristics of clients. Standard, familiar phrases irritate people and cause rejection, so you should develop a unique script, different from other organizations, that will arouse the interest of your opponent.

How to organize: full-time managers or call center

An entrepreneur may be faced with the question of what is better to organize: cold calls on the basis of their organization and include them in the functionality of their managers or provide calling to a call center. To decide on this issue, all the pros and cons of these options are highlighted and considered.

The main advantages of outsourcing cold calls to call centers:

there is no need to recruit and train your staff, in the call center the staff is already trained in such calls and has experience in making calls;
no need to create sales scripts;
receiving a full report on the work done.

The disadvantages include:

lack of personal control;
lack of specific knowledge about your specific product. Call center specialists are working on several projects in parallel; their employees only handle your order and know everything about it;
minimal focus on results. Your staff, if motivated, is more focused on results than call center specialists.

Contacting a call center is beneficial when it is justified by calculations and the cost-benefit ratio. In small organizations where hiring an additional employee and training him is unprofitable, to increase sales it is worth contacting a call center.

Video - an example of a cold call according to the scheme:

If an organization has many employees who interact with clients, then investing in systematic training and motivation of its own staff brings good results over time.

In this case, it is better to choose the option of training your own staff and including cold calling in the functionality of your employees. At the same time, managers should be financially motivated for good results.

Pros and cons of cold calling

The main advantages of cold calling are:

saving time and money due to the absence of the need to travel when meeting a client for the first time;
faster communication by phone compared to correspondence;
the ability to understand the client’s reaction over the phone to the information received;
the opportunity to ask clarifying questions in a conversation and eliminate misunderstandings;
the ability to lay out cheat sheets and necessary documents in front of you during a telephone conversation and look at them if necessary.

Cold calling also has limitations that must be overcome:

the interlocutor perceives the call as a nuisance, distracting him from his own affairs;
It’s easier for a client to refuse or come up with excuses over the phone;
the opponent can end the conversation and hang up at any time;
it is impossible to track a person’s reaction, since gestures and facial expressions are not visible, conclusions about the reaction can only be drawn from intonation;
there is no way to support words with graphs or images;
When making a phone call, there is a high probability of misinterpretations.

Conclusion

Mastery of cold calling techniques does not come to most managers right away. This requires experience, patience, constant learning and motivation.

Having learned the technique of conducting such sales, writing scripts, methods of working with objections and other elements of a cold call, an employee improves his financial situation and increases the profit of the company for which he works.

A brief one will help you understand the difference between them.

What you should pay attention to when submitting the acceptance certificate for completed work.

With the help of cold calls, it is unlikely that you will be able to sell equipment for the production of self-tapping screws; in such cases, several meetings will be required.

Video - examples of real cold phone calls to set up meetings:

Often we are faced with a situation where the head of a company wants to use scripts for the work of managers, measure and improve the work process, but does not know how to do this.

And here it’s worth saying that the call script is just the tip of the iceberg. It represents the company’s entire experience in conducting telephone sales in the form of the structure of a conversation with a client. In other words, the fact that the manager decided to use a script is good, but for a truly significant improvement in telephone sales, it is necessary to work on all of its components, on the methodology, and reflect the results of such work in the script as in an easy-to-read repository.

Moreover, such a process is not done once, it must be continuous.

In this regard, we decided to write several articles detailing the consistent improvement of the company's telephone sales methodology.

The article that is now in front of you is a kind of “skeleton” of an organism called “telephone sales”. It will talk about the standard semantic blocks that make up the sales structure.

Types and stages of telephone sales

First, let's define what telephone sales are.

The most favorite ones are, of course, “hot” ones - when the client himself wants to buy the product. (Let’s give credit to the marketing department for such clients) The most important thing here is not to do anything stupid and not “lose” the sale! But alas and ah! How many mistakes are there!

Cold (warm, cool) - no one is waiting for you, but at least they know about your company. You just want to sell to someone who previously bought something or to someone who gave their number in exchange for a card, information, registration, etc.

Regardless of the type of sale, one way or another, the conversation always contains standard stages that are repeated from time to time.

The classic telephone sales genre consists of 5 stages:

Identifying needs
Presentation
Completing the deal

No matter how monster, god, unique or sales professional you consider yourself to be, following these steps is mandatory! Otherwise, you will always have an unpredictable result! And, even worse, “draining” the client.

So, let's take a closer look at each of these stages.

Greeting, establishing contact

At first glance, this stage is not the most significant. But! The course of the transaction, the tone of the conversation and the general mood of the client depend on it! You have about 10 seconds to avoid being sent away. And these are the most important 10 seconds. There are three parts to this stage:

Corporate greeting
Acquaintance
Arousing interest

The essence of the greeting is clear: the interlocutor needs to know who you are, where you are from and why you are calling at all.

The essence of dating: you need to clarify the name in order to understand whether you even got there and how you can contact the person.

The essence of the call of interest: make sure that your interlocutor gives you a chance to talk about your proposal. You need to ask a question that will spark interest or at least not make you want to hang up. And, of course, it is important to determine the time limit. It is important to have a conscience here! Don’t blatantly chatter about your product without finding out whether the person even has time to discuss it. It’s better to ask, hear a refusal and offer to call back, than not ask and be sent away for a long time. Experts recommend avoiding monosyllabic questions that can easily be answered “no.” It’s better to use open language: “Tell me, username, how much time can you devote to our conversation?”

Identifying needs

When we don’t know what the client needs, we try to sell it! On the contrary, when we can identify the “pain”, the problem, the need of a person, we help him - we give him a solution. And accordingly, when we identify needs and offer a solution, it is easier for us to present a specific product or service, since we obviously talk about what is important to the client!

Let’s imagine a situation: a person wants to buy a mobile phone, but if they don’t identify their needs, they will have to talk about all the models, all the manufacturers, etc. And by asking a few questions about how the client will use this phone, we will greatly narrow the circle to one or two models. Only by understanding a person’s true need can we easily sell him the product he needs.

There is a simple tool to identify needs - a question! There are different types of questions: open, closed, alternative and combined. This topic is so vast that it could easily be (or even an entire series).

But like everything else, the art of questioning has its basis. And within the framework of this article we will discuss it.

The key is to understand what asking questions does in itself:

specific offer (narrow your search from many similar products);
We do not offer just anything based on our own considerations, but what the client needs;
By asking questions, we sell ourselves as an expert of our product, because we clearly know how and what to ask and, accordingly, what to offer.

Presentation

Presentation is the sweet spot of the whole sale. The most important stage. Here are a few simple rules, following which you will doom yourself to success:

The presentation must comply with the “property-benefit” rule! It’s not enough to just describe a product or service; you MUST talk about the specific benefits that the product or service provides. Property + benefit. For example: a green dress (properties) will highlight your green eyes (benefits).
The presentation must meet the identified needs. If you find out that a girl likes the color green and has green eyes, there is no point in offering her a blue dress just because it gets picked up more often! Because your proposal will not meet her needs, desires, and you will simply face either refusal or objections.
When presenting a service or product, return to the identified needs. For example: “Remember, you said that your favorite color is green (returned to the need), so, the dress that I am offering you is exactly green (property) and it will highlight your green eyes (benefit). The example may be stupid, but that's exactly how it works. Your task: write a specific benefit for each property of your product!

A common mistake: stages are confused and mixed up. Identify one need at a time and make a presentation for each. Or it may happen that what follows contradicts the previous one. You need to identify all the needs at once, ask 3-4 questions that will allow you to offer something specific and not waste time on a presentation for each need. This is what the error looks like:

Manager: What color do you like best?
Client: Green.
Manager: Great! There is a beautiful green floor-length dress with rhinestones! What length do you want?
Client: Just above the knee.
Manager: Eeeeeeeee, above the knee only blue ones.
Client: And yes, I hate rhinestones!

A curtain…

It would be correct to ask questions like this:

What color do you love the most? (Closed essentially requires a closed, unexpanded answer)
Do you have a length preference? Maxi, mini, medium length? (Alternative)
Is there anything else I should consider when choosing a dress for you? (Open, there may be several points here, including rhinestones)

And only after these 3 questions was it worth making an offer and presentation of the dress.

Work with objections

A situation where a presentation does not meet needs most often leads to refusals or objections. Neither the first nor the second are the best options for the development of events. After all, it’s easier to anticipate objections than to fight them! Yes, and “fight”, in our opinion, is the wrong definition. To fight means to argue with the client, and the client is always right!

First you need to understand what is the objection?

When we ask this question at trainings, we usually hear the following answers: disagreement, resistance, refusal, distrust, reluctance to buy, etc. And only a few out of a hundred say that an objection is a doubt. Here it is, the stumbling block: those who believe that an objection is a disagreement begin to argue with the client; and those who understand that an objection is a doubt simply try to dispel it and help them make an informed decision.

It is important to understand that the client is stopped from making a decision only by his doubt, and it is important to determine what exactly this doubt is, dispel it and give more than the client expects.

For example, a “dispute” option with a client:

Manager: Why is it expensive? Is 5000 too much for you?

It is obvious that such a statement of the question implies that the client is not wealthy enough and cannot afford a dress for 5000 rubles! But, after all, the point is not that it is expensive, but that she doubts that it will suit her! Here's what a good manager will do:

Client: The dress is too expensive, especially since it may not suit me since I order it online.
Manager: Yes, I understand that you wouldn’t want to pay for something that doesn’t suit you, but our delivery is free, we can bring you several different models, different sizes, and if nothing fits, it’s okay, the courier will take everything back , Fine?

This is an option for working out an objection according to the rule “accession + objection to doubt + argument.” Here's another example from a different area:

Client: Your cleaning services are too expensive.
Manager: Yes, I understand (joining), perhaps it is expensive when compared with cleaning yourself (the objection was questioned), but a professional will come to you, in a short period of time will do a general cleaning using environmentally friendly means, and if you find what to do find fault, we will return the money (argument to objection).

Here's an example from insurance:

Client: I don’t need insurance, nothing will happen to me!
Manager: Yes, I understand, (joining), when everything is good, it’s difficult to imagine something bad (they questioned the objection), but does something really have to happen for you to think about insurance?

Train your managers to work with objections using this formula! It is incredibly effective, since not everyone knows how to overcome objections aggressively or with questions (also a separate topic for an article).

However, before working with clients according to this rule, you need to clearly understand what a true objection is! After all, as you know, there are two types of objections:

True
False

With the true one, everything is clear, it reflects the essence of the doubt: expensive, specific conditions are not suitable, there is no trust in the company, no trust in the manufacturer, etc. The true is something for which there is a specific argument, but what to do with the false is often not clear.

For example, to everyone’s favorite “I’ll think about it,” they most often answer: “Okay, think about it - if anything happens, call me!” And this is nothing more than “draining” the client... forever. What to do in this case? It's simple: get to the real objection. Let's imagine that the false objection is a bubble, and the true objection is the inside of the bubble, and in order to get to it, you need to burst the bubble. There is one simple trick for this: make a “fork” out of two of your assumptions.

Client: I'll think about it.
Manager: Yes, I understand (joining works here too), it is important to think about it, but tell me for my understanding, maybe you are not satisfied with the price or the delivery time is not suitable?

(In this case, most often, two developments are likely: either the client refutes your options and reports his own, or confirms):

Client: No, it’s not about price or timing, it’s important for me to consult with my wife!

And now we know the true objection, bingo! :)

Manager: Yes, I understand that in a family it is important to consult (attachment), but we are talking about family insurance and your wife would be happy that you took care and insured her and yourself (we question the importance of discussion with your wife). Moreover, if your wife is against it, you can turn off the insurance program within 7 days, and we will return your money (argument).

By the way, during cold sales, a frequent objection from millennials and simply the advanced part of the audience is a request to think and study the offer on the site. Here it is important not to fall flat on your face by failing to name a direct link, but at the same time you must also try not to “drain” the client by directing him to a page that does not correspond to the offer that you voiced over the phone! After all, there is nothing worse than disappointed expectations.

In this situation, the best solution would be a landing page. After all, only on the landing page can you calmly and in detail study the essence of the trade offer and all its advantages, without being distracted by secondary things. In addition, the purpose of a landing page is rarely sales: usually it is just a platform for getting acquainted with the product, as well as collecting contacts (email) of interested people for further work.

Therefore, do not be lazy to create a separate landing page for each offer in order to provide a link to it in time if asked. Many people have poor listening comprehension or even just don’t like talking on the phone with strangers - consider their needs too! Moreover, it is very easy to develop your own landing page using . Choose from hundreds of ready-made templates, a conversion optimization center, analytics tools, and numerous marketing automation integrations:

Completing the deal

The most valuable stage of the transaction, in the sense that it is the one that brings in the money!

And it’s a shame that most often the conversation doesn’t even get to this point. Managers don't even try to close the deal. They are just consultants! How often do we hear: “Thank you for the consultation, you are an excellent consultant, I’ll call you as soon as I decide!”

You should not take such phrases as an “insult,” although it is very offensive. You can’t shout into the phone: “Please, wait, I haven’t sold you anything!” Instead, you need to learn how to make an attempt to close the deal. It's simple! The script should contain a phrase that confirms the transaction, for example:

“Which address should I arrange delivery to?”
“What is more convenient for you to pay: cash or card?”

Or at least:

“Which email should we send you our proposal for detailed study?”

BUT! Under no circumstances should it be:

“Are you interested in our offer?”
“Would you like to buy this?”
“Well, how do you like our proposal?»

By including blocks for all stages in your call script and following the sequence, you will definitely increase the number of sales.

In the following articles we will talk about what to do next:

How to create a sales script from scratch.
Launching a script in a company - how to implement a script so that employees accept it.
Quality control of telephone sales - how to constantly improve sales methods and employee performance.

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From this article you will learn:

How to make cold calls correctly

How to make cold calls to a novice salesperson correctly

How to make cold calls correctly without making mistakes

In any business there is a need to call customers. And for an active sales manager, the telephone is the main working tool, like a car for a driver. You need to call often and a lot, and often you also have to receive incoming calls. The beginning of a sale is a conversation over the phone.

How are your cold calls organized? Have you developed any standards and schemes for managers? You may be surprised, but the more detailed and standardized the process of making cold calls is, the easier and less scary it is for the seller to start communicating. Our article is a short overview of how to make cold calls correctly.

The main purpose of a cold call

A cold call is a call that is unexpected for a potential client. In principle, a person may be interested in your product or service, but you will have to make an effort to get the conversation to the point of presenting the product.

Why are these calls called cold calls? Because the people the manager approaches treat them rather coolly. Being in the role of a subscriber who constantly hears a cheerful or monotonous “Hello, I represent the company “Horns and Hooves”, a leader in the market of such and such products since 1900...”, it is easier to understand the reasons for this coldness than from the role of someone who makes such a call.

For example, imagine that you are expecting some important conversation at work, but it turns out that the other end of the line is a cosmetics consultant selling lipstick. It's annoying and time-consuming. You don't need lipstick. And in general, you are a man. What will be your reaction to this cold call, what warm and friendly words would you like to address to the manager?..

Warm, and especially incoming, calls imply the client’s interest in the product, the intention to buy the product, and with a cold call you still need to make sure that this interest arises. The difficulty is that a potential customer does not want to talk to a stranger with whom there is no topic of communication, and he is not going to purchase your product or service. Statistics on unsuccessful projects show a high, more than 90%, percentage of failed cold calls lasting less than a minute.

Thus, you can characterize the bulk of a manager’s workday as listening to refusals (“Thank you, we don’t need this”) or requests for a commercial proposal, and this would be quite correct. But this result discourages the salesperson from continuing to make cold calls.

The answer: “Send me a commercial proposal” is also interesting. Novice managers think that by sending out a lot of CP, they are doing everything right and are already close to successful deals.

However, those sellers who have been actively looking for clients for at least three months by making cold calls understand that at this stage it is too early to rejoice: people do not read letters or look at a commercial offer if they have not had a competent conversation with them before.

So why do cold calls at all? Their task is to expand and correctly filter the base of possible buyers.

Algorithm of actions during a “cold call” to a manager:

Stage 1. Break through the secretary.

Stage 2. Explain to the secretary the purpose of the call.

Stage 3. We talk to the decision maker.

Stage 4. We differentiate ourselves from competitors.

Stage 5. We justify the price.

Stage 6. We send the CP after a cold call.

Stage 7. Further interaction with the consumer.

Making a quick sale is not the goal of cold calling. The client still knows nothing about your company or its products. The best thing a cold caller can do is to establish a positive relationship with potential buyers. Therefore, before making a cold call, it is advisable to find out more about the client himself: his needs, problems, and the specifics of the business. This will help give the first dialogue some warmth.

8 Basic Principles on How to Make Cold Sales Calls Correctly

The shell of the client base.

The manager gets all contact information from the database. It must be kept up to date, filled out correctly and carefully (an error in the phone number will negate all the efforts of the person making cold calls).

There are free software products for maintaining unified client databases. Once upon a time, all consumer information was stored in Microsoft Office Access, where each potential buyer had a separate help file, and several employees could have access rights. This homemade system was not user-friendly and certainly cannot compare to today's functional CRMs. But it was still better suited for maintaining customer lists than Excel, with its limitations and slow data processing. Now they have already abandoned it too.

Contents of the database.

You can add information to your list of potential buyers with information from information databases (reliable, up-to-date and with paid access). For example, Interfax is a valuable source of data on legal entities, individual entrepreneurs, etc. The FIRA PRO database, which contains information from the National Bureau of Credit History, is also rich in information about legal entities. Popular directories such as the Yellow Pages can also be used, but be prepared to encounter many errors when calling.

Experience and professionalism of managers.

If you think that making cold calls is useless, then you most likely simply failed to organize them correctly. The main thing here is to put managers into a mode that is comfortable for them. Operators who make a hundred such calls in a week and a thousand in a few months will sooner or later develop a sales technology: based on their experience, they will already be able to predict how their interlocutor will react and what questions they will ask, so it is easier for them to build a dialogue correctly.

Once you get to this pace, it is very important not to knock it down - it will be difficult to restore it later. After leaving cold calls for a long time, the operator loses his grip: complexes, uncertainty, fear of communication return, and speech becomes monotonous. The interlocutors notice this, and the results are disastrous.

Therefore, a sales manager needs not only knowledge of how to make cold calls correctly, but also practical experience. Although, of course, there are people who are naturally gifted in terms of communication and are able to easily persuade, win over, and establish contact with anyone, but there are not many of them. Everyone else will have to actively learn this.

Cold calling scripts.

Scripts are what professionals call the scripts used to build a conversation during a cold call. They are a serious help for a manager who strives to sell effectively. A script is a clear plan for a dialogue, providing for various options for the development of events, including ready-made phrases and the right questions that help keep the attention of a potential client. If cold calling doesn't lead to sales, improve your scripts.

The right attitude.

Managing your emotional state and influencing the emotions of your interlocutor is an extremely difficult skill, but it is necessary for everyone who wants to make cold calls correctly.

In one corporate sales department, where the responsibilities of operators included cold calling, a curious phenomenon was noted: the maximum effect from calling was achieved in the last days of December, right before the New Year. At this time, managers were already looking forward to the holiday and calling clients in a joyful mood. This helped them relax and connect with even those potential consumers who would probably refuse to talk. Confidence and high spirits were transmitted to their interlocutors, who began to feel interested and more willing to listen to the operators.

Work with objections.

Fear of receiving a sharp “No!” or facing difficult objections is one of the main problems preventing managers from making cold calls correctly. However, experienced salespeople know all the typical client excuses. No matter what products a company sells, consumers will always have 7-10 popular objections. You can write them out in advance, sort them out, and compose answers to each one. This measure relieves anxiety, helping the seller to get into the right mindset and not be afraid to make a cold call.

Make a good impression.

The first contact with the client is the fateful moment of the entire sale. If you miss the chance to create a favorable first impression of yourself, you lose this opportunity forever (and the buyer along with it).

The person answering the phone has no idea who you are, why you are calling or what you want from him, and immediately conjures up an image of a tired, indifferent operator with a headset making the thousandth call of the day and looking like a robot repeating memorized phrases . It is unlikely that anyone will want to talk with such an interlocutor.

Therefore, the manager should strive to give the client, first of all, pleasant and interesting communication, to be on the same wavelength with him, to correctly understand what worries him. For sales, for example, in b2b, knowledge of how the company's business is going and what it needs becomes the basis for building a conversation. But such information is difficult to obtain; you have to act according to the situation.

Typically, managers who make cold calls focus on the emotions of the interlocutor (even negative ones) and try to “hook” him. To do this, provocative questions and statements are used that make the client worry, make excuses (for example: “Are you competent to make decisions on this topic?”, “Do you take responsibility for the fact that you want to refuse me?”), as well as comparison of the company with competitors. If a potential buyer begins to argue and defend himself, the task of an experienced manager is to correctly structure the further discussion and bring it to the desired result.

However, arousing negative emotions in the client is quite risky. Positive impressions are much more effective when cold calling. You can, for example, make compliments, praise the company you are calling, and then unobtrusively move on to questions about its development plans. To make cold calls correctly and effectively, it is recommended to write down all the information received from the client and use it in the future.

Useful knowledge and professional secrets of successful sales.

To make cold calls correctly, it is advisable to know some professional tricks. For example, using only open questions that can be answered in detail and in detail. Closed ones do not lead to a constructive dialogue: the interlocutor only answers “no” or “yes”, and the conversation ends.

Direct questions like “Do you want to get a credit card with a three-month grace period?” are also undesirable - the client will immediately refuse and the call will end. A series of closed questions (“Do you visit such and such places?”, “Do you use such and such products?”) has a similar effect. But if you build a dialogue with a potential consumer correctly, there is a chance to get him talking.

Experienced salespeople always know how to describe the product they offer in the most vivid colors. At the same time, many managers focus only on its attractive features, forgetting about the shortcomings and vulnerabilities (they were not taught this in training, and they themselves also did not understand the qualities of the product). If, during a cold call, such a manager ends up with a client who is familiar with the weaknesses of the product (from personal experience or from reviews of acquaintances), then he will not be able to correctly respond to criticism and give answers to uncomfortable questions, that is, the sale will not take place.

Cold calling is relevant in two situations, namely, when you need to sharply increase your income because the incoming flow is not satisfactory.

Or there is no flow at all and cold calls are used when this can be called practically the only adequate way to attract clients in your business.

In any case, in order to do this efficiently, you need to invest kilos of money in training managers, who may, as a result, become stars and leave.

Or simply write a cold call script that will make any newcomer sell like an experienced one in your company.

GENERAL KNOWLEDGE

For cold calling, it is considered normal that the client is not expecting you and that you need to be extremely careful with phrases and approach.

Since an unsuccessful conversation can not only fail to attract, it can also scare away and create a bad opinion of you as a company. And you will hear “pip-pip-pip...” at the end of the line.

What cannot be said about an incoming call when the client is already interested in your company or your product. And it is important on a psychological level that he called you himself, and not you. Do you feel the difference?

Therefore, the first thing you need to do before creating your conversation script is to decide on two things:

1. Result

You need to decide for yourself what you will lead the client to. This is very important, since all arguments will need to carefully hint at what you need, and not at how the conversation will go.

And that's the problem with most sales. Three such goals can be roughly distinguished:

Making an appointment;
Sending CP;
Telephone sales.

The result is selected based on how warm the client is and how easy it is to make a decision to purchase your product or service. And we move from top to bottom.

That is, if everything is complicated, then we arrange a meeting, if everything is fine, then we send the proposal, if everything is simple, then we immediately close it for sale.

Important. The cold calling algorithm will depend on the final goal.

Let's imagine a situation: we are selling forest processing equipment for several tens of millions, is it logical to try to sell it right away?

Of course not. First you need to at least meet. And if we sell printer services, then in this case it would be more logical to first send an offer, and only then press for a purchase or a meeting. I'm sure you got the idea.

2. Occasion

You also need to decide on the reason for making phone calls. If the result should be a sale or sending a commercial proposal, then everything is simple, your main reason is to solve the client’s problem or offer more favorable conditions.

But when we meet, everything is different. The reasons may be different, as well as the conversation scripts themselves. And here are a few as examples:

Conduct an audit;
Implement one free method;
Carry out diagnostics;
Agree on special conditions;
Give out a free sample.

Ideally, even when sending a commercial proposal, you need to come up with a reason, as this will help you in all your phrases.

What's next?

After we have decided on the scenario, we take our initial data and begin writing a cold call script.

We start with the blocker, who can be a secretary, administrator or even a cloakroom attendant.

And believe our experience, for most companies it is this stage - going through the secretary in the case of telephone conversations - that becomes the most difficult in the entire algorithm.

But we will cover the passage of the blocker in detail in another separate article, the only thing I want to say is that now the classic option “Contact me with the director regarding cooperation...” no longer works.

WE ARE ALREADY MORE THAN 29,000 people.
TURN ON

When we first started, we were sure that our created cold calling algorithm would be suitable in all cases.

But experience has shown the opposite. Although our telephone sales script works well, it does not always lead to results. And all this is connected with the client’s sphere.

Important. If the customer’s field is not competitive and other companies practically do not use cold calls, then you can use the classics of the genre.

If the niche is complex, has its own specificity and is very competitive, then you have to come up with more complex approaches, changing the script, structure, phrases, reasons, sequence.

So be sure to take this fact into account when you develop your cold calling algorithm.

It seems that in the last paragraph the entire article could have ended with the words “Everything is individual.” But then it wouldn't be us.

Therefore, now we will look at that very effective and standardized algorithm, which can partly be described as a script template. This template consists of seven stages:

Greetings;
Self-presentation;
Indication of the purpose of the call + proposal;
Asking questions;
Proposal for “result”;
Closing the conversation.

The sequence of stages is strictly observed from the first to the last. The only thing that can move is the development of objections or, in a simplified version, they are called excuses.

Also, the FAQ block (frequently asked questions), which is not here, also appears periodically during the conversation.

The main task when developing a cold sales or call scenario is to make sure that the client does not have the opportunity to exit the tunnel through which you are leading him.

You won't leave!

If he “gets off the hook,” he can go in any direction, where your entire structure and phrases will break like waves on rocks.

Script structure

Before we begin, I want to convey another very important idea - the sales structure in the b2b and b2c segments is radically different. KA-R-DI-NA-L-NO!

That is, a call to a company or a person representing a company is fundamentally different from a call to an individual.

This article is aimed at b2b sales. If you need a script for the b2c segment, then use combinations of different solutions that you can find in this and our other articles.

So, below we will look at what a sales script for a cold call should include.

1. Greeting

The simplest block that you will quickly skim through and move on to the next step. But still. At the beginning of the conversation, we, like polite people, say: “Good afternoon, Stepan Pavlovich.”

And I advise you to wait a pause for a counter greeting after this, to make sure that the client is listening and hears you at the moment.

Please note that we are saying the client's name. It is very important to verify the decision maker in advance or, at a minimum, find out the name of the blocker.

Thus, the director is no longer a faceless character, but a person with a name, which means, firstly, he will focus his attention on you, and, secondly, you say with your whole phrase: “I know everything about you, I’m prepared. And I don’t need to hang noodles on my ears.”

2. Self-presentation

After the greeting, you need to say who you are and where you are from. Moreover, you can say where you are from in different ways, here are examples:

Plant “Ingetrik”;
Rail production plant "Ingetrik".

As you can see, in the first case I deliberately do not open the company's sphere, while in the second I open all the cards at once, knowing that this will increase efficiency.

We use the first case when our field of activity initially causes negativity (each field has its own list of stop companies).

The routine “Are you comfortable talking now?” does not always need to be used, since there are types of clients who begin to get nervous when asked this question and say: “Say what you need to!”.

I know it sounds strange, but remember, this is a cold call, you need to do things differently. If you are still worried, then believe me, if it is truly impossible to speak, the decision-maker will tell you about it at the beginning of the conversation.

And besides, with such a question you are burying yourself in a hole, giving the interlocutor the opportunity to say “No, it’s inconvenient” and hang up.

PTYSH! On the spot!

3. Identification of the purpose of the call

In this case, it would be logical to tell the client why you are calling, since if you start asking him questions without explaining the reason, then you are unlikely to hear anything pleasant in your direction.

Again, there are different ones on the phone, namely, voicing the purpose of the call, any can be used, there are many of them, we will study three options right now:

The “We-You” technique is aimed at showing the client the connection between you:

Example: – Ekaterina Dmitrievna, your company organizes banquets, and we specialize in attracting clients to restaurants and cafes. That’s why I’m calling to s_____...
“Forehead” technique What could be better than telling the client what you want directly and without tricks? But in this case, immediately get ready for excuses like “Not necessary”, “Not interesting”, “We work with others”, which will be 100%.

Example: – Veronica Viktorovna, we provide computer maintenance for companies and want to start working with you. How can we do this?
“Does it make sense?” technique This approach is very relevant when you need to verify a decision maker to determine whether he is suitable for you as a client or not.
For example, if you work only with companies that print more than 3,000 documents per month.

Example: - Egor Aleksandrovich, in order not to insist on a meeting in vain and to save your time, please tell me, do you print more than 3,000 documents a month?

4. Asking questions

If you are closing for sending, then you just need to ask a few clarifying questions in order to send what you need.

If you are making an appointment for a meeting or audit, then questionable questions (sorry for the tautologies) can only shift the focus of attention and distract from the topic. But again, everything is individual.

Example: – In order to send me exactly the offer that will be relevant to you, please answer just a few questions.

It is advisable to ask no more than three questions, since we do not forget that a cold call is when the client was not expecting you, so you need to work through this moment very well and create such powerful questions that will reveal all the needs.

There is definitely an option that they will tell you “I don’t need questions. Send the CP immediately.”

And then, by changing the places of the terms, the sum will not change, but the needs will be studied 😉

5. Proposal for “result”

In previous sections, we have already discussed with you various reasons for moving to the next step (meeting/CP/audit, etc.).

But, if you are selling by phone, then it would be logical that after asking questions you should offer something to the client, if, of course, he has not yet hung up. And only then close the reins.

Why do I say this? Because it is very difficult to sell to a client from the first call if your product is not widely used and does not cost several hundred rubles. But, notice, I didn’t say it’s impossible 😉

Example: – Pyotr Nikitich, based on your answers, s___ is ideal for you. Therefore, in order not to immediately insist on a meeting and to save your time, I suggest doing the following.

I will send you an offer by email, and tomorrow afternoon I will call you back and clarify the solution. If there is interest, then we will start working; if there is no interest, then not this time. I'm writing down my email.

We sneak, the main thing is not to scare

6. Handling objections

How did they get these phrases “Not interesting”, “Expensive” or “”. We got it and still can’t go anywhere without them. They were, are and will be.

Therefore, your sales scripts must contain an objection processing block, where the manager can find answers to all possible objections. In our company, just when selling sales scripts (sounds strange, I know), there are as many as 17 of them.

As some gurus say, objections appear only when the previous stages were poorly carried out.

We fundamentally disagree with this, since we believe that objections are a natural test of any product for reliability, credibility, and honesty. It's like in the Middle Ages people tested a coin to make sure it wasn't a fake.

It is also very doubtful that this stage can be called the sixth, since it can appear at almost any stage.

And so as not to leave you without an answer, I’ll tell you about the universal formula for working out an objection. It looks like this:

Agree with the client (– You are right, we cannot be called the cheapest company on the market...);
Make a transition ( That is why);
Argument/Alternative ( Those who do not want to pay twice work with us.);
Question/call ( By the way, have you already determined the approximate volumes for the month?).

Of course, you can replace any phrase in brackets with your own. The main thing is that it be in the same context, which is confirmed by one of the points.

7. Closing the conversation

It's a win if you get to this step when talking to a client. This means your phone sales script was worth all the work.

But it happens that the interlocutors agree to everything you offer, as long as you leave behind, since they are embarrassed to send you directly.

In this case, of course, there will be difficulties in the next step, but in order to minimize the risks, you need to record the outcome at the end of the conversation and be sure to agree on the next step, if you have not done so before.

Example: - Nikita Andreevich, then tomorrow at 13.00 our specialist will come to you for s____, and you and him will further agree on s____.

Briefly about the main thing

That's all. Although no. Then you need to run thousands of tests to create a cold calling script that works 100%.

This is why we always provide subscriber adjustments when developing scripts, because we know that there is no limit to perfection and even an individually written ready-made cold calling script does not always show the required indicators right away.

You also need to provide scripts for telephone calls after sending a request or meeting.

For us personally, this is an integral part of a cold call. Therefore, it is also included in the price and the most interesting thing is that sometimes it is even several times more than the first call.

In this article, I specifically did not touch on the creation of a script from the point of view of visualizing what it will look like in the end. This is a separate, large topic, which is the subject of a separate article.

Word, Excel, or maybe a sales script designer? Choose for yourself, for this read the article.