How to Avoid “Getting Off Track” When You Cold Call
by Ari Galper, Founder, Unlock The Game
Let’s say you’re on a cold call, and it’s going well. You have a strong connection with your potential client. But the conversation starts to wander off the topic. And you’re not sure how you can regain focus without the other person feeling pressured.
Well, the traditional sales approach tells us to always focus on getting the sale. So when cold calling conversations start to wander, we’re taught to bring the focus back to our linear sales road, including having the potential client answer certain questions.
The problem is that these questions only look like parts of a conversation. They’re actually covert attempts to make others to believe they need our solution.
Let The Conversation Breathe
A real conversation “breathes.” It wanders around a little – that’s what people do when they talk with someone else.
So why are tangents so stressful to us when we cold call? Because we’re attached to making the sale, and we see tangents as getting in the way of that.
But whenever conversations are contrived, potential clients feel caged in. They realize that they’re being put through a pre-ordained process that has nothing to do with them.
So when you start suggesting ways to move the process forward, it only confirms these suspicions, and makes the other person even more uncomfortable.
A New Way to Cold Call
As you begin to release your focus on making the sale, and allow conversations to unfold more naturally, you’ll probably find yourself spending more time with people. You’re operating within their timeframe, and that’s good.
You accept that any conversation is going to wander a bit. In fact, you enjoy it because you like what you’re learning about the other person.
So how do you refocus when the conversation starts diverting both of you from the purpose of your call? By returning to your core goal, which is always to see whether there are any problems or issues you can help them solve.
Keep in mind that you have only one focus for your cold calling, which is to identify the truth about the problems you can help people solve.
When you feel things are moving too far off the topic, or that you’ve been off it for too long, then you simply bring the focus back. It’s natural for conversations to wander, and it’s also natural for conversations to come back to their original purpose.
Remember, your whole focus is to identify whether there are problems you can help them solve. So if you find yourself talking with someone during a cold call, and the conversation moves well away from this focus, then all you have to do is bring the focus back to their problems and issues.
STATEMENTS TO REGAIN FOCUS
You might consider using phrases like these:
• “Well, based on what we’ve talked about so far, where do you think we should go from here?”
• “You know, I was just thinking that the idea of calling you today was to essentially figure out if there are particular issues that I can help you with. Help me understand in my mind – are these the sort of issues happening right now in your world?”
• “Well, can we take a few steps back? I don’t want to make any assumptions. What might make sense is if you can share with me exactly how you’re feeling right now, what you’re missing, what you’re thinking about, what you feel would be necessary to help you along the way, and I’ll see if I can help you.”
Along with your mindset of service, this kind of language makes it easy for you to refocus the conversation without introducing sales pressure. Remember, it isn’t enough to stop focusing on the sale or get them liking you.You need to re-center your focus on the truth about their problems and issues.
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