Fixing business meetings has never been that easy as it’s always difficult to digest a tight slap while cold calling (I have received many). We have been spending days and even nights in generating leads and maintaining sales funnel, however adding a little tactics to our efforts could make a huge difference. Presenting below the 10 Best ways to cold call, bypass gatekeepers and opening other bottlenecks.
- Act like a CEO: The best way to get through gatekeepers is to act like a CEO of your company and not just a Business Development Manager. Tell him that you need to talk to Mr. Henson for 3 mins and for that you want to take an appointment to discuss business. Taking an appointment is the finest way ever to crack through. Ask her what time is he free and you can call him that time. Do not take the first time suggested by EA. Tell her that you are extremely busy at that time and have back to back meetings scheduled on that day. Take the next best time slot from her.
- Calling Hour: Calling in early hours works better than calling at late hours (assumption based on experience). Do not worry, if you have missed early hours; the next best thing could be calling 5 mins. before every complete hour as that is the time when any prior meeting will come to an end.
- Reach higher in Hierarchy: The best way to reach a Director IT could be dialing in CIO’s EA and asking for Director IT. Tell that you got transferred to her extension by reception and then ask direct number for Director IT. Once transferred, tell Director that you just got transferred from CIO’s Desk and have been suggested to talk to you. He will greet you, if you do that.
- Find Direct Numbers Direct numbers are the best when cold calling as it saves you a lot of time when you have to call 100s of these. You would usually not get any direct number from US switch boards. The best way to get a direct number could be calling in
- Straight Messaging: Be very straight to your message. Do not ever hide your objective of call while speaking to prospect. Tell the prospect on the face that you want to follow-up regarding services to Oracle which was implemented by Wipro last year and want to know the status of the contract renewal.
- Circle the Best: Be confident about your product/service. Circle down the best points of your product and impress the purchaser about you being number 1 in your space. Tell him that if he is not listening to you then he is loosing something.
- No waste of Time: Be precise about the time you want to take in that call. – “I would like to take next 30 Sec. and not even a single sec. more than that”. Assure him that you are not here to waste his time.
- Avoid Slaps: Ask him his profile or search for his profile on internet just by Googling his name before you make a call. It could be a “One tight Slap” situation if you are pitching wrong proposition to wrong party.
- The Gyan: Do not try to sell him in the first call. Do not try to give him all “Gyan” (he being the right guy to trap) in one go. Request him for a time; if he is not interested to give you time then it is clear that he doesn’t require any services at this point; move on for new prospect. Give him freedom to select his time. It could be after 2 weeks.
- Call Closing: Do not close the call before you take a next date to follow-up with client. They are going to need your services some day for sure if not today. It doesn’t matter if your prospect tells to follow-up next year. Immediately mark your calendar wit the same.
