In the world of business, there aren’t many people who love cold calling!

Ever had sweaty palms, racing heart, shaky hand as you pick up the phone to deliver your spiel? Your recipient answers, and finds your rehearsed script annoying and insulting. You’re determined to get through your script though so the words spill out of your mouth in a mumbled mess, and when the torture is over: “we’re right thanks/we’re in the middle of budget/we already have a supplier...” you realise that it’s only been 30 seconds! How many times do you need to endure this pain as you look over the 999 contacts in your database!!!

What sort of person actually enjoys cold calling? A different breed of person? Certainly they must have a secret if they enjoy speaking to someone new every few minutes with the 50/50 chance of rejection on every single call? Regardless of the type of business you’re in, at some stage you need to accept that cold calling is the most direct method to speaking with and meeting face to face with decision makers – even if you do hate doing it. Remember, you can always complement it with other sales activity. So you get to thinking: what is the secret to successful cold calling? If others can do it, surely I can. But what is that element that sets them apart?

Finding the right words to develop a conversation is the least of your problems as, according to article ‘Cold Calling: Mastering the Telephone,’ produced by Edensilk: The Business Growth Architects, “tonality has 5 times more impact than words.” In “Tough Calls,” an article posted in the Sydney Morning Herald Blogs, Jackie Woods wrote “The biggest challenge for anyone making sales calls is getting past the knee-jerk reaction, caused partly…by poor telephone technique.” According to Woods, telemarketers only have around five to eight seconds to build rapport and keep a person on the phone. Without face-to-face interaction, callers have to employ strategies such as listening to voice tones, and trying to match it; “Finetuning ones ability to track breathing patterns and tonality can go a long way to building rapport quickly over the telephone…customers wont necessarily know that its happening but they will have a much more enjoyable experience.”

Neuro-Linguistic Programming is a technology used to enhance your communication and relationships, and develop new abilities in your thinking. It explores the relationship between how we think, how we communicate both verbally and non-verbally and our patterns of behaviour and emotions.

The reason NLP can be an effective tool to use when cold calling is that it can "thoroughly sharpen you observation and listening ability and enable you to identify patterns in peoples behaviour and language so you can respond to the subtext of their communication...enabling you to be more effective and cut through distractions." (Collingwood, 2001)

NLP teaches, when referring to a cold call for example, one to try and match the rate at which the receiver speaks and their tonality. One of the reasons telemarketers fail so many times is because they give their spiel so rapidly, and never have a normal conversation, at the same pace as the other person. If you match the tonality and speed of the prospect you are more likely to come across as friendly, understanding; ultimately you stand a better chance at communicating with your customers.

Attitude is also a key component in making a successful phone call. What are you initially thinking about when you first pick up the phone? Are you thinking 'I can help this person' or are you thinking about how poorly the script is written, 'they will never want to speak to me, and all I am going to get today is objections?'

Which train of thought do you think will yield better results? Harvest Management, the lead generation specialists employ a checklist before their Business Development Consultants make each call:

• Am I anchored in my success mindset at a state of 9 or 10? What do I need to do to be there?
• Have I put in the PRR - practice, repetition, and rehearsal?
• Am I clear about the goals I want to achieve? (for e.g. calls per hour, contacts per calls, meeting per contacts)
• Am I visualising a successful outcome? Can I picture it, hear it, feel it?

Harvest understands that attitude is everything, which is why their team is so successful at consistently generating quality meetings for its clients.

As stated in 'Getting Started For a Cold Call,' an article on InfoGoRound.com, "Cold calling is a powerful business strategy. First be positive with your self...There must be enthusiasm in your voice that people can feel right away."

Questions are an other essential component to the art of cold calling. People will always be willing to help, and questioning will enable them to lower their guard. Also, "you cannot expect someone to believe you right away and just sign up after describing your companies objectives. You have to ask the right questions." (InfoGoRound, 2005)

Ask questions that will help you understand what your customer really wants and to discover if there is a strategic fit between your company and theirs. If you can determine a need for your services, you are on your way; you can now only be seen as helpful, and people will appreciate your call.

Although it is ultimately your delivery, the tones you use etc. that will effect how your call is received, it is also very necessary to have a well-developed script about your company and services. Such a script should focus on your key features and benefits, including any limitations that people may bring up; the culture of the company you are targeting and any additional information about them that may prove useful. Such scripts may have to be changed continuously, and role-played continuously, until they are perceived as highly effective. Your ultimate aim will be to get a real feel for them, learn them, and then not have to use them.

With all the tips, the advice and secrets on how to make an effective cold call, it still comes down to whether or not you want to, or have time to, pick up the phone. In the Human Capital, Issue 5.2, Tim Jackson from Booz Allen Hamilton stated, "There is only one effective argument to put forward: outsource because there is someone out there who can do it better...You can go through a whole series of arguments about whether there's a labour cost advantage, or a technology advantage, but be really clear about where that advantage is coming from."

These days, outsourcing has become popular in a variety of fields; sales, marketing and customer service for appointment setting, web sales and marketing; HR for payroll, benefits administration, education; logistics and distribution are outsourcing for transportation, warehouse management and material management; and it is also being used in payment services, finance/accounting, administration, manufacturing and IT. The myth used to be that your company would ultimately lose some sense of control when they outsourced. And it is not to say that it doesn't in some sense, but "technological advantages have shrunk that difference...many internet based technologies, for example, allow companies a clear view - on their computer screens - of the days activities at their offshore process centres." (Hopkins, 2007)

If you want to generate face-to-face meetings, you have to make outbound enquiries and the most effective way is by direct phone contact.

If you are thinking about outsourcing your lead generation, contact Harvest Management today on 1300 300 485. Discover the benefits your company can receive using lead generation specialists.