They say honesty is always the best policy. But what about when cold calling? Should we dive in there, feet first and announce that’s exactly what we’re doing?
Well… yes, say Jack Frimston and Zac Thompson, Co-Directors of We Have A Meeting. And as experts in the psychology of sales, we should probably hear them out.
So, how does this work exactly?
Jack: “If you sound like a typical sales call, which would be to say: ‘Hi, Zac, it’s Jack here calling from We Have A Meeting. How are you today?’ That sounds like a sales call. That sounds like everyone from any sales company I feel like is going to try and sell me a mobile phone and I don’t want it. So what you’ve got to do is you’ve got to think what is the norm and how can I stand out against the norm?”
So what exactly do we do to stand out from the crowd of paint-by-number sales calls and avoid getting short shrift from the person we’re cold calling?
Telling it like it is
Zac just tells it like it is:
“You’re probably going to hate me for this. I’ve actually rung to talk to you about marketing. What makes you want to hang up or let me up for 30 seconds? It’s completely up to you.”
And the crazy thing? It works. But why is being blunt so effective when cold calling?
Pattern Interrupts
“That’s a pattern interrupt,” explains Jack: “It’s there to stop someone in their tracks and just stun them from their day to day life. Whether you’re interrupting them from an email or LinkedIn just to stop them for a moment and think: ‘This isn’t normal, I’m not sure how to respond’.”
But once we have their attention – what if they say no? All the better for cold calling, says Zac.
No is not necessarily a bad thing
“Basically, salespeople since the beginning of time have been trying to force us into saying yes. What we try and do is build everything around ‘no’.
You actually feel when someone’s trying to do it for you, when people used to ring up and say: ‘How would you feel about having cheaper energy bills?’ Realistic approach, we feel exactly the same, but we’ve cheaper energy bills.
And I know you’re forcing me into a yes and I start feeling hemmed into a corner.”
Making people feel valued
So by giving people the room to say no, we are building up trust and making our prospects feel listened to and valued. And who doesn’t want to work with someone trustworthy who listens to and values their clients?
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Jack Frimston & Zac Thompson, Co-Founders, We Have A Meeting (WHAM)
Zac Thompson & Jack Frimston are the faces behind outsourced sales agency “We Have A Meeting (WHAM.) Their sole focus is to put businesses in front of their ideal customers using a phone-first method. The pair use psychology and methodology to sound the furthest away from a sales call as possible. The two also offer training and consultancy when it comes to improving and generating growth and revenue within business.
