Is Cold Calling Necessary as Part of the Contact Step?

What is cold calling?
By definition a “cold call” is described as contacting prospects from a list that you have no information about and have never talked to before. This would be a completely cold call. In the past this has been done from a phone book or list that one could purchase. Companies would create a “call center” where they would teach the sales people using “script selling” to call from a list and sign prospects up for a basic product or service. This was very common but the scripts and lack of REAL communication, created such a bad effect on the general public that they complained. This resulted in rules and laws about calling without permission. In actual fact, cold calling was not the problem. The real problem was the lack of communication skills to make real and effective contact with people. For example, have you ever met someone for the first time and immediately felt like they really cared about you and were actually interested in how you felt? Someone that could instantly make you feel comfortable and important. This is an example of excellent communication skills, especially during an initial contact.
Doing your homework
It is so important to do some research and homework on your prospects before you contact them so as to be able to communicate with them in such a way that is within their reality. This will help you to establish an understanding of the prospects and their companies prior to making that initial call and will allow you to get a better “connection” with your prospect while on that call and obtaining the necessary research information is so much easier these days with the internet and other means. You can do your research and/or homework in the following ways:

1. Internet research using search engines. Just researching a person on the internet is a great way to get an understanding of that individual. This search will normally lead you to their Linked-In or Facebook page as well as a personal web-site if they have one. You will be able to learn valuable information from this research. Another tip is when you are searching, look for any mutual friends or contacts that could be used to strengthen your contact. Many times you may be able to develop a direct referral this way as the person may be connect to a friend or colleague of yours.
2. Websites – Both personal and company websites can be researched to establish what they stand for, mission, values history, likes and don’t likes. Spend some time on this to get an understanding of this person as well as look for points of common interest.
3. Clients – After doing steps 1 & 2 above, it is important to pay attention to any connections they may have to your existing clients. If you find that you do have connections then contact that connection/client to see if they know the prospective client and would be willing to make an introduction or provide information on how to best contact them. In this way, you now have greatly strengthened your position with that prospect.
4. Vendors – After doing steps 1, 2 and 3 you now may find that you do business with some of the same vendors. That being the case, you can use the mutual vendor to make an introduction. Also you can find out what the best way is to make contact with this prospect.

 
Strategy to make the first contact
Having done your homework, document all of the information you have been able to find and based on this, you can easily formulate a strategy to make that first contact. As you make the contact, continue to build and maintain your sales strategy, which will provide you a good foundation to create a lifelong client. The client will likely recognize that you cared enough to do your homework and can be trusted to take care of their business account. This will also differentiate you from your competition.
Summary
In today’s world of high technology, there is more information available than ever before. There is no real reason to have to make a completely “cold call” in todays’ markets. I hope you use the above tips to create an effective strategy and in this way convert a high percentage of prospects into lifelong clients.
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