cold calling – Rodric Leerling – Sales Power Provider

As most people know, the fancy term ‘elevator pitch’ stems from the use of elevators in the US. Tall buildings with sometimes 50+ stories where people huddle together to get to their office floors. Imagine you would literally bump into the person you are desperately trying to contact? Could you give him or her your pitch in 1 minute while going up?

Lots of sales trainings are gearing toward that 1 minute pitch. Also handy to use for cold calls on the phone: “Can I have one minute of your time?” Who would deny you that 1 minute? But first you need to get your prospect actually pick up the phone. Voicemails are mostly dead-ends and don’t forget those gatekeepers telling you ‘he is in a meeting’. Meaning, he doesn’t have time to talk to you because he doesn’t know you. ‘First send us an email what it’s all about’. You know that won’t work either, but what are your alternatives as sales rep these days?

Traditional sales people are struggling to generate new leads in order to get meetings for a demo, qualify leads and start sales conversations. All traditional roads seem to be closing for them. My advice: in stead of cold calling, start meeting your prospects where they gather and start getting used to Social Selling. It might take more than 1 minute though.

Your prospects are all using social media to gather information online. So, make sure you find them where they are searching. Offer them good pieces of advice, cheat sheets, white papers, case studies etc. It’s already been researched and clearly showing that sales reps using social networks are simply selling more.

Let’s explore the best social media platforms in another blog. Stay tuned!

It doesn’t happens very often, so it really took me by surprise. The lady I had found in my social network looked like the right person to talk to for my social media proposition. She also shared the same nationality and I tried the friendly native language approach, despite her probably English business environment.

Wrong choice, or just the wrong moment? I probably will never know, but she didn’t give me a chance and yelled at me why I called her! Well, that’s a question that can be answered in 30 seconds – the elevator pitch. Before I even could try to explain my reason and asking if she could help me find a better person, she just threw down the phone. So much for an international brand manager!

Ouch, that hurts. Of course, we sales people just start when we hear ‘no’, but I decided this time to leave it and dial another number. Just to get over it quickly and not to take it personal. The next person at the same company listened to me and suggested another colleague to talk to, who proved to be the right person. The door opened and he wanted to hear more.

I might bump into the bad-tempered brand person at my next visit. I will behave like a pro and will just tell her we have been on the phone, briefly, but maybe I should introduce myself properly this time?

Rodric Leerling