The worst reactions to a cold call are boredom and complete disinterest.
No salesperson sets out to develop an ineffective cold call method, but sometimes phrases slip into our dialogue that hurt our chances of generating a sales lead. Read the list below for the 5 phrases you should avoid if you want to make an impression with your cold call.
1) “Tell me a little bit about your company.”
Cold calling best practice says to make your call about their company, not your company. While asking your sales lead to tell you about their company may seem like a good way to do just that, what it really says is that you’re completely unprepared.
You only have a few minutes (if not seconds) to capture someone’s attention and entice them to continue the conversation, so don’t waste that time requesting information you should already know.
2) “Our company is constantly winning awards for . . .”
Self-focused narcissism is not the way to impress clients. Great, they’re thinking, you won X, Y, Z Award, but how does that help me? There’s a fine line between proving your company’s value and alienating eCommerce leads with self-aggrandizing comments like these.
3) “Are you up for signing a contract today? It’ll only cost you . . .”
This is like asking someone to marry you on a first date. Yes, that may be the end game, but it’s just too soon. Don’t rush into those kinds of details. Develop a relationship first (a business relationship, that is) and then worry about selling something second. You’re creating leads, not closing deals at first sight.
4) “We just developed A, B, and C, and we’re working on D through G next quarter.”
Don’t ramble on about the details of your latest product upgrades if they’re not relevant to the customer. Similar to point #2, prospects only care about what’s in it for them, and if you can’t tell them exactly that, then you won’t be getting a callback.
Discern what matters most to your sales leads by having discovery conversations.
5) “Our product is easy to install, easy to manage, and will increase your lead generation by 200%”
Avoid making unnecessarily huge claims about a product’s worth. Nothing worth doing is usually that easy, especially if the promise is a 200% increase. If a flip of a switch can cause that large of an increase, it’s probably too good to be true, or to last at any rate. Your eCommerce leads know this and they’ll see right through your big numbers.
It’s easy for one of these phrases to slip into a cold call, but you can and should avoid them now that you know how to make a better cold call!
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