Here we are. The phrase sends shivers down the spine of so many salespeople. Cold calling. That’s it. Those two words. Those two little words illicit so much fear, but why? Yeah, we can sit and talk about the fear of rejection, how easy the medium makes it to be able to just hang up on you without responding, the impersonality, the list could go on. But let’s get real a minute. None of that matters. It doesn’t. Like everything with my process, my method, The Slaymaker Method, the deals are made in the details.
Cold calling should be no more fearsome than door knocks, emails, whatever. Before I get into how to overcome the initial dreaded cold call, let me talk a bit about mindset. The more I found myself out there promoting my process on the global stage, I noticed one thing that all of the super successful men and women had that was dialing for dollars. All of their actual processes were different, of course, but their mindsets were the same. At the end of the day, they believed, they KNEW that they were providing value to their prospects. They knew that nobody could solve their customer's problems as they could, and they dialed every number with that unwavering confidence?
Did they get hung up on? Yes. Did they get rejected? Yes. Did they keep dialing? Yes. Did they give up? No. Did they let it get to them? No. Did they close? More often than you would think, even some would consistently get the ever-elusive enigma in the sales world, the great white buffalo, the……ONE……CALL……CLOSE. I have long touted The Slaymaker Method as “Part mindset, part process, ALL SUCCESS.” And that really is true. You really can’t have true success, break those six and seven-figure barriers, without having both of these parts figured out. With cold calling, the process is easy, but it is the mindset that becomes the biggest issue. You need to be able to put yourself in the “I don’t care,” mode. You need to not even give yourself time to shrug off a hang-up or a reject and start dialing your next number immediately.
You really won’t hear me say that any sort of selling is a numbers game. Not even cold calling. Statistically speaking, I feel that everything is a numbers game, so saying sales are specifically is almost, I feel, disrespectful. Disrespectful to you, your product, your service, but most importantly, disrespectful to the entire profession you have chosen to either make a buck in or make your living in, your career in. Viewing sales as a numbers game will, undoubtedly, push you towards coming off as impersonal, and the prospect will see right through it. If you have done the targeting process right that I teach in The Slaymaker Method
So, by now, you are probably saying “But Kyle, my team all wants to succeed and they have world-class mindsets! Why aren’t they selling on the phone?!” Well, that answer is where my real fun begins, my real passion, and that is the process itself. Once you have truly mastered the mindset (If one ever can truly master anything), then you need to understand how to get your prospect, that person on the other end of the phone, or even the gatekeeper, to allow you to advance to the next stage. How? By hitting them with a world-class icebreaker that ONLY you can provide.
What is even cooler about this part is that The Slaymaker Method icebreakers that I teach are universal! They follow a very simple process, that I will detail in a bit, albeit briefly. You have to understand, that no matter what medium you are choosing to sell in (calls, knocks, retail, product, service, etc…), people are busy. They need to be given a reason to meet with you or to actually listen to you, and it better be a damn good reason. It better be a reason better than the last person who came in trying to sell them. So again, The Slaymaker Method icebreakers are simple and respectful. “Hello, I am……with……. I have been able to help…….take care of…..and I think I may have a way to…… I’d like to ask you a few questions to make sure I can…….” That is the basic framework. I stress basic, because every company that I work with, every salesperson or team that I train, gets a process and statements that are tailored to each specific company, and sometimes even each specific product.
Obviously, I wouldn’t be any good at what I do if I couldn’t put my money where my mouth is, so I want to give you a detailed example of what my cold call icebreakers sound like. Imagine you are a business owner, incredibly busy trying to do quarterly reports and worry about finances, and the phone rings. Since. Your assistant is out sick, you pick up the phone.
“Hello, this is John with Company X, how can I help you?”
“Hey John, my name is Kyle and I’m with the Slaymaker Method. I know you are probably slammed but I am a corporate sales strategist and I have been able to help businesses increase their closing rates by 60 percent with a tailored sales process. I’d like to ask you a few questions to see if I can’t bring some value to you and Company X, is that ok?”
Quick, to the point, and respectful to the person’s time. There is a hook in there, an attention-getter, and I am already asking for the close, by asking to talk for a few minutes. At this stage, one of two things is going to happen. Below are the two things with the next steps that should be taken.
“Sixty percent, wow. Yeah, let's talk.”-Awesome, set an appointment and get ready to close them using The Slaymaker Method.
“No thanks, not interested.” Followed by the click: Awesome, on to the next one, start dialing, and understand that while that person said no, the next phone call you make could be to a person who is desperately waiting for someone like you to come along and solve the problem for them.
It really is that simple. Obviously, this is part of the very earliest stages of the sales process, but at the end of the day, it sets the tone. The introduction will always be one of the most important factors in the sales process. It will set you apart, or it will set you on a course for the nearest exit. Obviously, there is much more that I teach my customers and their teams when it comes to cold calling
Remember, no matter the outcome of that phone call, there is ALWAYS another number to dial!
-Kyle
