Jay m A

iTrader: (2)

Specialisation in the workplace is dead!

I've been given the task of writing a cold calling script. The marketing experience of myself and my manufacturing colleagues are verging on zero, hence at the moment I'm gathering as much info on the subject as possible.

If anyone can point me to sites that give examples / advice then that would be a great, at the moment I need a base understanding of the concept to help get up to speed when the consultant I'm about to hire arrives.

Regards

Justin

carl

Can't offer much help, except that make sure part of your script is to look up the number you're dialling against those registered with the Telephone Preference Service. Otherwise you could land yourself in hot water.

beemerboy

Hi can i speak to ..xxx

good morning, afternoon, my name is ... calling from xyz...
the reason for my call is.....

is that something you or your company would be interested in???


.....KEEP IT SHORT!!

you will get an honest answer then.

plus ask if you can call back in say a months time to get an update.

good luck...

bb

ajm

First bit of advise is don't call me, I will hang up on any unsolicitated call straight away.

But... if you want people to respond I suggest you get to the point very quickly, it will save both you and your victim a lot of time if they are not interested, and 99.9% won't be!

The type of calls I react worst to are those that launch straight into a speech that is read out so fast you can't get a word in edgeways, when all you really want to know is what they are selling. Then its a simple case of "Yes I am in need of one of those" or "No thank you".

rik1471

Best advice is phone people who don't want the call in the first place, then constantly hound them regardless of previous requests to "BE REMOVED FROM YOUR ****ING DATABASE".

</rant>

RB5320

I would agree totally with ajm above. Coldcalling is a real pain in the backside. Definitely make it brief. Make sure whoever is calling actually knows what they are talking about. Try to make it seem as though the caller is not reading from a script (even though they are!)
A lot of the people who do this are obviously very bored and dont give a damn. Fair enough, but if they are not interested, why should I be?
Sorry, this was supposed to be constructive!!!

Good luck.

Steve

ChrisB

I hang up unless the caller is a)female and b)sounds nice....

rik1471

Try sliding down a 50ft blade using your ***** as brakes and landing in a bowl of TCP.

muppet paster

This really gets on my t!ts! You're running around like a blue arsed fly anyway and some dizzy bint/prat phones you up trying to sell you cheaper electric/ phone tariffs/ mobiles/ web space/ etc. Some days it seems as if every phone call is someone cold calling and over the years i have found myself getting blunter and blunter with these 'salesmen'. [img]images/smilies/mad.gif[/img]

Two word replies are the way forward...[img]images/smilies/mad.gif[/img]

Jay m A

iTrader: (2)

Granted WRT 'jesus not another student sitting in 1 of 1000 cubicals making my dinner cold' type of calls.

Fortunately this will be industry to industry type of thing, the 'potential customer' (not victim) will have a commercial interest in our product and will be contacted during work hours by people that designed and made the thing.

Cold calling is such a negative term, non?

Justin

Nimbus

"We're selling XXX. Do you want some?"

Ratman

rik1471

LOL. My sentiments exactly!!!

Ratman

12LEE

What's the purpose of the exercise? List building or selling?

IMHO (12 years repping/repmanaging in big ticket IT), buy/build a list, clean it, work out *who* you want to sell to, write a personalised introduction and follow up. It's not cold then.

Cold calling's good for list building/data gathering. Crap for selling. Selling requires understanding of problem/need.

Can recommend some good outbound agencies for b2b.

brickboy

I've had to do a fair bit of cold calling in my time. Tip #1: tell the caller in one short sentence only WHO you are and WHY you're calling. Then ask IF they are the right person to speak to, and IF it's appropriate to speak to them now?

So it would run something like:

"Hello, I'm XXXX XXXXX from ABC Limited. I'm ringing to ask if you are considering XXXXXXXXXXXXX. Would you be the person that deals with this? Is it convenient to speak now? If not, could I call on (date?)"

Little Miss WRX

I used to do cold calling, I hated it at first, but then you get used to the abuse, hanging up etc, etc.

We were as vigilant as possible to not contact "End users" or private telephone numbers as we were targetting councils/education and businesses.

Get straight to the point, As people have said before, who you are, who you work for, what you are offering/why you are calling. Be polite and just move onto the next one after the last successful, but more likely to be unsuccessful call

Good idea is to stand up, smile before you call or have someone crack a joke. It is always nicer to speak to someone who is cold calling and cheerful, than cold calling and miserable.

I eventually started to enjoy it Good luck 'Cos you do fecking need it most of the time

princessyin

Used to work for NatWest telemarketing. Always ask whether its convenient time to talk- you tend to filter out the bad, moany ones this way because obviously they say no. When or if appropiate try to make conversation with the customer- even if its just about the weather. The longer you keep the customer talking, the more chance they will warm to you and the more likely they will be in buying your product.

ProperCharlie

Off topic I know but we were getting deluged by those door to door cheaper electricity people. I open the door, guy says to me "would you like to pay less for your electricity" i say "no." guy looks at me, "but sir, everyone would like to pay less for their electricity" me: "well I wouldn't". guy "of course you would!" me: "look, I already told you that I would not" guy "what, you DON'T WANT TO SAVE MONEY?" me: "No. I really couldn't give a toss about it"

This went on for ages. The guy became really annoyed because I wouldn't change my mind and admit that I wanted to save money. He went off shaking his head like I was mad. I'm like, this pr!ck comes to my door and asks me a question. I give him a truthful reply. He becomes irate. WTF is all that about?

Charlie.

TopBanana

Don't call anyone in the Telephone Preference Register

RoShamBo

iTrader: (1)

Jay - I have some good stuff for you - will email you.

Ro.

Jay m A

iTrader: (2)

Thanks Ro, much appreciated

RoShamBo

iTrader: (1)

Your email just bounced back at me !

Ro.

DAC

wehayyyyyy

a topic I know something about.
usually its all about IT consultants and employers etc.

my twopenneth worth as ex tele sales manager - who cant get a better job at the moment.

make sure the person you are speaking to is the correct one to make any purchasing decision.
ask open questions ie. where do you buy from ? NOT - do you want to buy from me ?
what is important to you from a supplier - service, reliability ?
PRICE - immotive issue - try to avoid money, sell on service etc.
(if money was all important - we'd all have a kia pride or somet similiar)
when you talk money - do not be embarassed that you are dearer/cheaper - have facts to back up why.
make sure the facts you have are relevant to the buyer -
(no point trying to sell the virtues of a 2 seater elise to a man with 4 kids who needs a peoplecarrier)

and main thing - ASK FOR THE ORDER - dont be afraid to ask for it - alot of sales are lost as
the salesman is not able to close the sale with a simple - what order number shall I use ? whats your credit card number etc.

oh I could go on - thats why I'm ex-directory and get no telesales at all.

AllanB

DAC is right. Do NOT ask closed questions that get you yes no answers unless you are 100% sure you'll get th answer you want.

Get to the point very quickly and make sure you gain the interest of the person you are calling by making your reason for calling as compelling as possible.

Get the person you are calling to do most of the talking by guidling the conversation only with your questions.

A cold call is a voyage of discovery steered by your open ended questions with the destination being comittment in the form of a positive agreed action.

God thats cheesey but true.


AllanB

D Noble

at work,i will make time to speak to someone trying to sell a product,which is of genuine intrest to someone,i will always be polite and as accomodating as possible, but with the ones who you know are a waste of time,ie the gas/electricity mob,i go for the wind up!(my office is manned by three staff,each with a pc.....)
start by replying that we are high users,massive factory using about £10k a month lecky,then as he starts to get excited,hang up while i am in mid conversation,they phone back,repeat several times until they get pissed off!!! great fun!

regards
dave

fast bloke

I always go for the third no.

Hello
Can I speak to...
My name is.... from ....
I am contacting people who may be interested in....
Would you be interested

Yes - Make an appointment - complete cold calling you might get 5%

No - Be prepared - Most people are not blunt enough to tell you to **** off, so you will get one of 10 or 12 excuses.

EG - No I'm not interested
You respond - You know you are completely correct. I shouldn't expect you to be interedted until you fully understand what I am selling/proposing etc. When would be a good time for us to get together? - you should be up to about 20% now

Yes - make an appointment

No - (Applies only when you are selling financial products and services, but you need to get something similar)
OK Sir. Do you mind if I post you out a letter to sign stating that I have offered to give you advice regarding .... but that you have declined to recieve that advice? I would just like to make sure that you are fully aware of the potential loss you could suffer by refusing to recieve the advice.

most cases...... erm well maybe we should get together so that I am fully informed before I make a decision.

Most people will say no straight off, but they have to make a real effort to say no to three consecutive requests. At the minute I am having about 55-60% success rate using this to sell life assurance. I am having nearer 100% sucess selling mortgages/remortgages. Try it. Three NO's The first 10 calls are the hardest. After a week you can telesale three clients while waiting on the traffic lights to change

DAC

fast bloke - cant argue if it works -

but the idea is to creative a positive environment ie YES
the more they get used to saying YES - the most likely they will say YES when you ask the killer question.

when someone answers NO you are always on the back foot, and create a negative atmosphere.

phsyco babble but true.

just try opening with you my name is blah blah ... would 9.00am Friday be a suitable time to call and discuss-----.


and I do hate telesales to Private Homes - and would only do it if I was desperate for work

fast bloke

Make every question a killer - that way you only need to get them to say yes once at any point in the conversation.

AndyC_772

iTrader: (2)

I have the opposite problem - maybe someone can advise:

I'm a design engineer for a major electronics company, which means that I'm in a position to specify and design in parts that will ultimately be purchased in large quantities. As a result, I regularly find myself being cold called by people trying to sell me stuff.

More often than not, they've got hold of my name and phone number from a list, but don't really understand what kinds of products I design (and, therefore, what supplies I might be interested in). Nevertheless, they'll introduce themselves, the company they're representing, and the types of product they sell.

There are now three possible cases:

1) I'm actually interested. This has happened approximately once in my 5-year career in the industry. In that case, I'm happy to take things further.

2) I'm potentially interested, but not actively looking for new parts for a product. This often happens - I'll be well stuck into a project, the parts list will be complete, and I've no interest in new stuff at the time.

3) I'm not interested at all - the seller genuinely has nothing useful to offer. This is the most frequent outcome, and is almost inevitable when the caller has just picked my name from a list without really knowing who I am and what I do.

My question is: what to do in cases 2 and 3? In case 2, I often ask to be sent a summary of what's being offered in the post or by email, and I make some vague suggestion that I might get back in touch at some point in the future. This seems to work OK - everyone's happy.

Case 3 is the tricky one. I'm NOT going to buy anything. No amount of hassling or pestering me is going to make me need that particular product. We're both wasting our time, and the best achievable outcome is that we're both left to get on with our jobs as quickly and amicably as possible.

Is there some 'magic phrase' I can say that will just communicate this to the caller without either of us suffering an increase in overall stress levels? I've tried simply saying 'I'm not interested in your product', but that doesn't seem to work. I then get:

- 'Can I call back in a few months' time?'
No. Call me again and I'll bite your head off. I wasn't interested now, and I won't be interested later. I do have some idea of what products I might need in the future, believe it or not, and yours aren't among them. Don't make me start getting abusive.

- 'Is there someone else I should talk to?'
No. If I thought anyone else would be genuinely interested in what you have to offer, I'd have taken your number and told them to consider calling you. Otherwise, you're wasting my time, and it's not fair on my colleagues to have you waste theirs too.

- 'When would be a good time to talk to you about it further?'
F*** off. There will NEVER be a good time. Don't be so f***ing presumptious, I've told you I don't want to know. If you try and blag your way into meeting me in person, I'll be there waiting with a bat. OK?

I don't like being hostile - I just want to get on with my life, and let you get on with yours. 'No' means no, and 'no' twice means not now, not ever, and I've blacklisted your company for wasting my time.

Suggestions please?

Andy

DAC

AndyC - I gather you dont want to buy any then ? LOL

if its a lady - just ask them - whats got 12 inches and hangs up ? - then put the phone down.

CharlieWhiskey

If anyone phones me & launches into a script they end up reading it to themselves! I find that after their full on dribble without you hanging up on them that they are very surprised to find that you are not still listening and have actually gone off to finish cooking or whatever else it was you were doing before you were so rudely interupted![img]images/smilies/mad.gif[/img]

Or if I'm bored it is usually '**** off & get a propper job!'[img]images/smilies/mad.gif[/img]

It should be banned!