Tag Archives: cold calling

Cold call selling: Checklist of 14 practical tips– part 1

non-verbal communication No Comments

"COLD CALL SALES AND PROSPECTING CHECKLIST: 14 PRACTICAL STRATEGIES WHEN COLD-COLD CALLING"  which had been here in four parts is  now  a short E-book,  available via Amazon. 

You can read it on a Kindle, or in various other E-reader formats, including your PC.  Amazon offfers free apps to enable that.

Order e-edition of "Cold call sales and prospecting checklist: 14 practical tips"


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Content adapted from How to Sell Face-to-Face: Survival Guide

Paper edition, via Amazon, $9.95, now special at $8.69

Amazon Kindle edition, $2.99, now special at $1.99

(Incidentally, you do not need a Kindle to use this Kindle edition. Amazon offers apps that let it run on your PC or other reader.)

Buying signals

Buying signals Finding & getting through to sales prospects Free sales training articles New business start-up Opening sales calls Sales cold calling Sales skills:non-verbals & buying signals Sales training Telephone etiquette & selling skills No Comments

Just what IS a buying signal?

A buying signal is some kind of often subtle signal that the mood has shifted and the other person is now ready to agree . . . or at least to be open to what you propose.

In other words, a "buying signal" may signal readiness to . . . 


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Buying signals gatekeeper: cues to be alert for

Finding & getting through to sales prospects Free sales training articles Opening sales calls Our sales training books-- info, samples, order Sales cold calling Sales skills:non-verbals & buying signals Sales training Selling skills for new business start-ups Telephone etiquette & selling skills No Comments

Buying signals from the gatekeeper or screen: What kinds of cues should you be alert for? (For the record, gatekeeper and screen are usually interchangeable terms, and may apply to anyone from the guard at the gate, to the secretary, to the Decision Maker's personal assistant.)

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Cold call sales: best uses

Finding & getting through to sales prospects Free sales training articles Opening sales calls Our sales training books-- info, samples, order Sales cold calling Sales management Sales tips & techniques -- how to sell Sales training Selling skills for new business start-ups Telephone etiquette & selling skills No Comments

First, what is cold-call selling?

Cold calling can be by phone, as you telephone prospects for appointments, or maybe to do some early research. (Telephone cold calling is a topic we'll be dealing with another time.)

What we'll be speaking of here are cold-calls made in person.

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Telephone sales training: if you encounter voice mail

Finding & getting through to sales prospects Free sales training articles Opening sales calls Sales cold calling Sales tips & techniques -- how to sell Sales training Selling skills for new business start-ups Telephone etiquette & selling skills No Comments

Considerations before you make that call:

1. If you encounter voice mail, will you leave a message, or keep trying to reach the prospect directly? If you leave your name, then you leave it in  the prospect's hands to respond, and you lose control.

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Cold-calls: Tips and Techniques

Consultative selling--developing prospect's awareness of need Finding & getting through to sales prospects Free sales training articles Sales cold calling Sales tips & techniques -- how to sell Sales training Telephone etiquette & selling skills No Comments

As you make cold calls (whether by phone or in person), on these initial prospecting sweeps for leads and information, your tone should be that of a conversation, not an interrogation. Be friendly. Don't put them on the spot with a barrage of questions. 

If someone you meet during these calls is reluctant to talk, it could be that they are only a temporary employee and doesn't want to admit it. Or it may be that they don't want to give away too much information without knowing why you're there, and what you're going to do with this information

To overcome this,


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Cold calling: the info you’re looking for

Consultative selling--developing prospect's awareness of need Free sales training articles Sales cold calling Sales management Sales tips & techniques -- how to sell Sales training Selling skills for new business start-ups No Comments

Cold calling is usually much more productive as a way of prospecting for leads than it is in making the actual sales.  In sales skills terminology, "prospecting" often means looking for industrial parks and the like, then doing a quick sweep in order to rapidly scan and flush out potential prospects. 71811

In those sweeps, you speak briefly with the receptionist or secretary to make a quick determination of whether it is worth calling back to see the Decision Maker.

Just what information you are looking for at this early stage of your search for viable leads will vary with your product and the market.

While these sweeps are, technically-speaking, cold-calls, the purpose is more to gather useful information: information you will draw from later in determining whether to come back here, with an appointment, as well as what kinds of questions to ask and information to present.

The checklist below is a starting point; adapt it to your own uses.


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Consulting, contract work, independent contracting

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On the topics of consulting, contract work, and independent contracting,  did you see Paul Davidson's article in USA Today (Dec 7, 2009), "Contract workers swelling ranks"?  Go to article   Some interesting points:

— About 8% of the US workforce consists of contract employees, most of whom are independent contractors.

— One person interviewed, a member of an employment law firm, predicts that half the jobs created in the recovery "will be filled by contractors, consultants, and other temps."

— More than half of all of these temporary slots are now "filled by professionals such as engineers and physicians."

— One of the key benefits for contractors like that is freedom: freedom to choose opportunities, and freedom to move on.

— From the perspective of an employer, one of the key benefits is flexibility: for example, firms can pull in specialists for product launches and new ventures without having to undertake the front-end costs in time and dollars of a permanent staffing-up.

All of this, need I point out, ties in with our overall theme: by learning to sell yourself (or your skills or whatever) face to face, you can help fill those needs. 

Telephone sales skills: if you encounter voice mail

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Voice mail, or answering machines on either land lines or cell phones, works as another kind of screen or gatekeeper keeping you from talking directly to the prospect in organizations both small and large.

Here , as part of our series here on telephone sales skills, we look  at five key rules that apply when you encounter the Prospect's voice mail.


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