Cold Call Success

Turn cold calls into warm calls 

My experience has taught me that you can never, I repeat never ask too many questions. It is important for a sales person to understand the logistics of the organization you are attempting to sell a product or a service to. If a sales person doesn't take the times to research who is who, or why a person is looking to buy they are doomed from the beginning.
I recall a recent call to my place of business from a telemarketing. It went something like this: "hello, is the owner of the business available?" (sales rep to me) Me: Well, no he is not, he works in the field. Sales rep: " Ok, thank you." Click.
Now, I mention this particular call because I receive the same call from the same company once a week. I finally asked to be removed from their calling list. Having been in sales for a long time, ending the call at that point would not have been the best move. I would want to know who the owner of the business is, why they were "working in the field" and also what would be a good time to contact the owner. So why didn't the sales representative ask any additional questions? Because it was a sales dump and guess what, sales dumps NEVER work. I don't know about you, but I absolutely hate sales dumps! Engage me...spark my interest, get me talking!
As a sales person we have to remember the fundamentals of selling. Who, what, when, where & why? I recommend writing down a list of questions that relate to your industry and using those questions on every sales call that you make.  Think of your "cold call" as a first date. You want to learn more about this person to see if it will lead to something else. This will give you a foundation for starting the conversation. Now, once you have engaged your client the rest is up to.