by Paul Cherry
CHAPTER
19
Cold Calling Questions That Get Prospects Talking
COLD CALLING SEEMS to be out of fashion these days.
I’m constantly hearing from companies promoting all kinds of “lead generation” solutions. Of course, there’s no question that companies need to generate sales leads. But it seems to me that many of these offerings seem to be promising that advanced marketing technology can finally eliminate the cold sales call—that companies can “nurture” prospects through a process, untouched by human hands, until they are “warm” enough to merit a call from a salesperson.
I’m all for making life easier for salespeople. And it’s true that salespeople can no longer afford to engage in the slow, laborious pick-and-shovel prospecting of days gone by. But the idea that salespeople will only be talking to warmed-up, ready-to-buy prospects who are waiting for their call is, frankly, a pipe dream.
Lead-generation programs can help you improve the quality of your prospecting lists, but they don’t eliminate cold calls. The reality is that salespeople still need to master the art of reaching out to strangers, quickly overcoming skepticism, and creating a dialogue that can help both parties explore whether there’s some basis for doing business.
If cold calling is falling out of fashion, that’s good news for salespeople who know how to do it. While other salespeople are waiting for prospects to be gently nurtured, massaged, and guided through a marketing process, you can be speaking to those very same prospects right now.
But let’s be honest: Cold calling remains the toughest task in sales.
Conventional wisdom suggests that salespeople are reluctant to cold-call out of fear of rejection. Rejection can be tough to hear, and salespeople hear a lot of it. You will talk to many people who aren’t willing or able to buy what you sell.
But a greater source of cold calling anxiety, I believe, is that you’re flying blind. Even if you’ve done your homework on the company, you’re speaking with someone about whom you know little or nothing. So how can you sell to them? You don’t know her personality, her likes or dislikes, what kind of day she’s having, or anything else. You don’t know what will resonate with her or what will turn her off.
Your prospects, by the way, face a similar challenge. They don’t know a thing about you—which means that they have absolutely no idea whether a conversation with you will be extremely valuable or a complete waste of time.
At that critical juncture, all you’re really looking for is permission to continue the conversation. And the best way to do that is with well-crafted questions. As I’ve said earlier, we’re highly socialized to answer questions—even when they’re posed by a stranger. As long as they’re asked respectfully and with worthy intent, we find questions almost impossible to ignore.
Here’s a very simple question-based approach to cold calling that can work in virtually any industry and with virtually any prospect:
Establish context. In earlier chapters, I’ve discussed the need for a brief “elevator pitch”—a quick summation of your value proposition. In a cold call, that speech needs to be stripped down to its barest essentials. Initially, prospects simply can’t focus on a complex value proposition, detailed descriptions of what you sell, or how you differ from the competition. They need just enough context to keep listening.
Specifically, they want to know (1) who you are, (2) who you represent, and (3) why you’re calling.
For example:
“Hi, Jan. This is Sarah Smith from Remote Surgical Systems. We build software and hardware that allows surgeons to perform operations remotely—even if they’re thousands of miles from the operating room. We’ve worked with several major health systems, including _______ and ________ in your area. The reason I’m calling is because [you recently attended one of our Webinars/ you’ve just announced plans to expand overseas/we’ve worked with one of your surgeons in the past/etc.] and I thought we might be able to help you ____.”
Ask permission. Next, ask the prospect for permission to ask a few questions:
“Based on our experience with other large health systems like yours, may I ask you a few questions?”
Ask value-building questions. Prospects might be willing to answer one or two of your questions out of politeness. But you need to move quickly to questions that build value, or they’ll suddenly find some urgent piece of business that they must attend to.
At the same time, you can’t go too deep too fast. Mentally, the prospect is still shifting gears from whatever it was he or she was doing when you called (and possibly hoping to get back to). So after you get their attention, start with simple or straightforward questions that are easy to answer. The goal is to get the prospect focused on the issue you want to discuss.
A first question might be simply, “I understand you’re responsible for evaluating new equipment for the surgical suite, is that correct?”
This sounds like a standard qualifying question, but it creates value for the prospect: The reason you’re asking is to be sure you’re engaging the right person and not wasting anyone’s time.
It’s at this point, by the way, that many salespeople jump the gun. Having established that Jan is indeed the person who evaluates surgical equipment, they stop asking questions and start telling Jan all about what they have to offer. But that creates no value for Jan. Instead of listening to a salesperson drone on and on, she can just request some literature or a web address where she can get this information at her leisure.
So this is the point where you need to have a powerful question—prepared in advance—that simultaneously achieves two objectives: (1) it signals to the prospect that this call will potentially be worthy of their time, and (2) it gets the prospect talking instead of you.
For example:
“Jan, let me ask: Have you ever looked into remote surgery suites as a way to increase surgery admissions, enhance patient outcomes, and improve market exposure?”
Or:
“Jan, are you familiar with what University Health Systems is doing with remote surgical suites?”
Or:
“Jan, often health systems turn to us because admissions in their smaller hospitals are too low. Is that an issue you’re facing?”
Each of these questions promises at least the possibility of value. If Jan believes that you just might strengthen her market position, or give her the inside scoop on what another health system is doing, or help her solve that nagging problem with her small hospital, she’ll continue the conversation.
Be ready with follow-up questions. If you can get Jan to answer that first question, it creates an opportunity to follow up with the kinds of questions I’ve described in the first half of this book. For example, you might use a lock-on question:
Jan: Yes, we have looked at what University Health Systems is doing in this area. It’s intriguing, but it seems risky.
You: You said it was intriguing. What specifically was intriguing you and your team?
The objective at this point isn’t to sell Jan or refute her objection. It’s too early. The goal is to get her talking. She gave you two important clues, the words intriguing and we. “Intriguing” tells you something sparked her interest and possibly a motive. She also said “we,” which tells you other people are involved. That’s why you asked about her and her team. The more she tells you about her situation, the more opportunities you have to create value.
So how long should this conversation last? It depends. Some prospects want to get to the point quickly, so you should go for the appointment right away. For others, you’ve identified something near and dear to their hearts, and/or they have time, so they’ll want to talk. Why rush them? Ask good questions. Judge how receptive they are.
But however long the conversation lasts, the key is to move it forward to the next step. You only get so much time before the prospect starts to get impatient or has other things to take care of.
Ask for a next step. Assuming you’ve determined
that the prospect is potentially a good fit, use the preliminary information you’ve gathered to propose a next step. For example, you don’t want to cite chapter and verse about what her competitor is doing or how they addressed the risks. Use that interest to get a meeting. You might say:
It’s interesting that you mentioned patient safety. That was the first issue that University Health raised. I have some specific information on how they resolved that question. And you might be interested to learn how they increased surgical admissions by 14 percent in one year, and increased bottom-line revenue by 5 percent as a result of this program. Can we meet next Wednesday at ten so I can show you as well as learn more about your needs?
Here are some more general examples of how to ask for the appointment:
“Well ________, based on what you’ve told me, it sounds like we might be able to help you with ________. When can we schedule a time to meet? (For a long sales cycle.)
“Well, based on what you’ve told me so far, I think our ______ solution might be worth looking at. May I tell you a little bit about it? (For a short sales cycle.)
Of course, you don’t have to follow these five steps in lockstep fashion. You can be flexible, depending on the flow of the call. For example, if I feel I have a receptive prospect or one who is short on time, I’ll quickly explain who I am and what we do, and then try to set an appointment. Once I have the meeting scheduled, I’ll say something like this: “So that I can prepare for our meeting and you get the most from it, let me ask you a few questions.” Then I’ll go through a version of the process I’ve described above.
For the right prospects, this cut-to-the-chase approach works great! It demonstrates respect and that I won’t waste their time. The follow-up questions show that I want to be prepared for the scheduled meeting and address what’s important to them. The pressure is off, and often they’ll keep talking for another five to ten minutes or more.
As part of this preparatory questioning, be sure to ask, “Who else should be involved that would like to learn more about this?” Because you’ve built rapport and demonstrated respect, prospects will often open up and tell you who else should be involved. Many times they’ll reach out to include them in the meeting. Which means you’ve now got more buy in and a shorter sales cycle.
Will this five-step method turn every prospecting call into a sale? Of course not. Will you still get a lot of nos? Absolutely. But it should make cold calling less stressful and more efficient. It will help you quickly yet respectfully disqualify nonbuyers (and allow you to ask who you should be talking to in their organization). It will position you as a knowledgeable salesperson who might be able to provide value. And perhaps most important, it will give you greater confidence on the call. Instead of flying blind, you have a clear path to follow.
CHAPTER
20
Shots in the Dark
Voice Mail and Email Questions
IT’S TOUGH TO craft good questions to leave as messages on people’s voice mail and email, but it is not impossible. In other sales situations, questions are used to spark a dialogue: You ask a question. The buyer’s response leads to another question, and so on.
In voice mail and email, there is no dialogue—at least not in real time. It’s all one-sided. You’re sending a message into the dark and hoping it will create a spark of interest.
So the purpose of the question is much different. Especially with voice mail, you’re unlikely to get a response. Your goal is to prompt the buyer to take your follow-up call or open your next email—and ultimately, to agree to engage in a discussion.
One of the best ways to achieve that is with the educational question (see Chapter 3). Recall that the purpose of an educational question isn’t to gather information but to provide information.
And not any old information. Too many voice mails and emails end up as a product dump, where the salesperson throws a bunch of spaghetti against the wall and hopes something will stick. A true educational question provides some fact, insight, or perspective that prompts buyers to stop and think. It may challenge an assumption they hold, or shine a light on an issue they’ve overlooked, or suggest a new direction that they hadn’t considered. You want your prospect to think, “That’s interesting. I’d like to know more, so I’m open to talking to this salesperson.”
Voice Mail Examples
Here are some examples of how to use educational questions in a voice mail:
“Kelly, this is Kevin Jones from _________ . According to JAMA, there is a case of pneumonia among ventilator patients every week at busy ICUs, and up to 40 percent of these patients die. Over the last twelve months I have been working with a hospital in northern New Jersey, and during that time not one patient on a ventilator has developed pneumonia. Is this something that could be of interest for you? If so, please call me at __________ .” (By the way, even though few prospects will actually call you back, you should always leave a number. For one thing, you might have stumbled across a prospect with an urgent need for what you sell. For another, it signals that you believe that the information you’d like to share is worth a return call.)
“Hi, Dan. My name is Amy and I work for __________ . I came across an article in American Cattleman that says the average rancher is pushing seventy and looking for better ways to manage their cattle operations—something that’s safer and less labor intensive. Is it fair to say you probably have quite a few customers who fit this profile? If so, I have an idea that might help you better serve this market. Please give me a call at __________ .”
“Hi, Lauren. This is Ryan Smith from _________ . Last week I saw a report on CNBC that claimed drug testing is an ineffective tool to weed out poor-quality job applicants. Yet, five times as many companies test for drugs today compared to ten years ago. I’ve worked with a company in your industry to put in place a better way to screen applicants. They’ve documented savings of more than $5 million and increased retention rates. Is this something that might be of interest to you? If so, you can reach me at __________ .”
“Hello, Dr. Wilson. The New England Journal of Medicine reports that sepsis is one of the top ten causes of hospital morbidity, and kills an average of 42 percent of the people it afflicts. We are working with a number of clinicians who have cut that number in half. Could sepsis be a potential risk in your hospital? Please call me at__________ .”
“Hi,__________ . My name is__________ . U.S. News & World Report just reported that over 75 percent of high-tech firms turn to foreign workers to manage their help-desk operations. One of the key challenges seems to be surmounting the language barrier and the difficulty customers have communicating with the help-desk personnel. My company is currently working with a client who has addressed this concern and increased customer retention by 30 percent over the past twelve months. Is this an issue you are experiencing? If so, please call me.”
Voice Mail Templates
Here are some templates to help you create educational questions to suit your situation. Simply fill in the blanks.
“Hi, my name is __________ with __________. I recently came across some information that would be of interest to you. While reading [trade journal X], I learned that __________. How has your company been affected by this issue? We have some answers. Please call me at __________.”
“Hi, my name is __________ with __________. I’ve learned about some pending legislation that might affect your company. The legislation is __________. Does your company have a plan in place to deal with this change? Over __________ in your industry have turned to us for solutions.”
“Hi, my name is __________ with __________ and I read an article this morning in __________ that claimed __________ . My clients’ experiences have been different, however, and I was wondering how your company’s experience compares.”
Using Email
For email, of course, you can omit your name, company, and phone number, since they’re included in your signature. As a result, you can get right to the point.
I am writing to you because my company has had great success working with pharmaceutical companies on new product introductions. We have been able to increase profit margins as much as 32% and reduce time-to-market by 25% Here’s the text of a letter of thanks that my company received from [a leader in the field that will inspire trust in the prospective customer] detailing the success it has had thanks to our system. I will call this Friday morning to introduce myself. How is 8:30 a.m. CST?
I happened to be reading an article in the Wall Street Journal that I thought would be of interest to you. The article quoted an industry insider saying that firms specializing in property and casualty insurance should expect record growth in the next five years. Tom, I was just wondering if you had seen the article and what you thought about it.
We are currently working with a number of firms that are already experiencing double-digit growth. If you have a chance, either drop me a line or give me a call at __________ and I can share some ideas I have with you. Otherwise I will call you early next week to introduce myself. Thanks!
Just this morning I read an article in the Washington Post that said that employees in large companies spend an average of two hours each day on the Internet for personal reasons. I’m curious to learn if you are looking to address this issue. My company’s product has helped other large corporations cut this time in half. If you think this is something you’d like to learn more about, please contact me. Or I can call you Friday morning if that works better for you.