Cold Calling Mistakes

More Cold Calls Equals More Sales

The outcome and success of your calls will be much greater if you make less calls and do more research on your sales prospect's website prior to picking up the phone. Many sales managers focus on the quantity of calls versus the quality of the call and this is a terrible mistake!

Cold Calling is about Selling on the First Call

Those who say that cold calling doesn't work probably say this because they think that cold calling is about making "the sale" on the first call. Cold Calling is really about planting seeds of information. If you go into the call with this philosophy you may not get the sale right away, but in time, you will make that sale!

Not having a Contact Management Software System in Place

Every cold call made should be entered into a contact management software program such as ACT or Salesforce.com. In your notes, detail facts such as what the company does, the names of all owners and senior executives, recent news, birthdays, top competitors, current vendors and the details of each and every conversation, the date and finally, the result of what happened on each call to your prospect.

No Sales Appointments for the Week

Try to set about 5 new sales appointments each week. That's really not too much to ask, that's only 1 appointment each business day with a qualified sales prospect. If this sounds like too much then you're probably not really taking the time to make engaging and strategic cold calls.

No Knowledge of Your Sales Ratios

Most sales reps don't even know how many calls they need to make to set an appointment? If you're really good at cold calling then I would estimate that you need to make from 15 to 25 cold calls to set a
face to face meeting. If your just average at cold calling then I would estimate that you need to make from 25 to 35 cold calls to set a face to face meeting.