“Enjoying
Cold Calling”
Dave
Defore
Speech
# 6,
December
12, 2002
For most salespeople, Cold
Calling is the fuel that keeps the engine running. You wouldn’t expect your car to go very far if you didn’t
fill it up with gas once in a while, and you’re not likely to have a
successful sales career if you aren’t Cold Calling to acquire new business.
Someone once said: “Cold
Calling is like shaving. If you
don’t do it every day, you’ll soon start looking and feeling like a bum.”
I believe there are two major
reasons why most salespeople dislike the Cold Calling process and it boils down
to attitude:
The first attitude that
prevents me from picking up the phone and dialing is the fear of failure.
What if the prospect says no, or asks me a question I’m not prepared to
answer? Or, what if the prospect
says never to call back, threatens to call the state police, and hangs up?
…Rejection, failure, embarrassment.
The second attitude that
prevents me from Cold Calling is that I see myself as a deal maker, a
relationship builder, and a closer (as in closing the sale), not a cold caller.
But when I found that my
commercial real estate business was falling off, I decided to change my attitude
about cold calling. I turned Cold Calling into a game and made it fun.
This helped eliminate fear, and I changed my attitude from thinking of
myself as a Deal Maker to a Cold Caller. I
developed a simple daily registry to log new business calls.
Each time I attempt a call and each time I reach a client or prospect, I
check it off and total it at the end of each day and each month.
When I make a cold call and get
an assistant on the line, I ask for the prospect’s voice mail.
On the first attempt, I usually don’t leave a message, but I listen
carefully to the voice message because:
·
I want to hear how the prospect pronounces his or her last name, and
·
I want to know whether he or she uses a nickname, like Bill instead of
William.
But
many times I use voice mail as an opportunity to leave a short commercial about
my consulting service. “Hello Bill, my name is David DeFore.
I am a Commercial Tenant Consultant with CB Richard Ellis.
I help my clients renegotiate their leases and in the relocation process.
And, I help companies find ways to lower their cost of occupancy.
You are probably very busy, so I’ll call back later.”
I don’t mail anything to a
prospect unless I’ve first spoken with them and qualified their company as a
potential client. When
I do mail my package, I always follow it up with a phone call about a week
later. “Hi Bill, this is David
DeFore with CB Richard Ellis. I’m
following up on our conversation last week and want to make sure you received my
green file folder and real estate cartoons. Many
times they have my file right on their desk and thank me for sending it. This gives me the opportunity to ask more questions to learn
more about their business plans and concerns.
The most important aspect of my
cold calling campaign is to remain focused and be persistent.
Follow-up, follow-up, and follow-up is the real key to acquiring new
business opportunities.
Here’s
a quick story to illustrate how my persistence and follow-up paid off for me:
About
five years ago, I began working with a business unit of Chase Manhattan Bank.
Chase wanted to explore the Warner Center office market to relocate a
10,000 square foot lending office. After
several months of work and delays, I discovered that Chase’s New York office,
which I had been reporting to, was no longer in charge of the requirement, and
it was being handled out of their San Diego office.
So, I made a new cold call to Nick
Carrigan, the Real Estate Manager for Chase in San Diego.
After introducing myself and explaining the previous work that I had done
on this requirement, Nick told me that he was already working with a local
broker in Warner Center and did not need my assistance. After
biting my tongue I realized that no one was coming to my rescue.
And to my chagrin, Chase signed a five-year lease for half of the 20th
floor in the high rise next to Houston’s Restaurant, utilizing a competitive
broker.
Oh, well, better luck next time!
But rather than giving up completely, I decided to stay in touch with
Nick, include him in my quarterly mailings, and call him once a quarter to see
if we could help in any way.
About a year later I called and
discovered that Nick had left Chase and was replaced by Patty Carrol.
It was time to make a new cold call.
I had a nice chat with Patty, and although she had no immediate
requirements, she invited me to stay in touch, which I did over the next 2½
years.
Earlier this year, I called and
discovered that Patty left the firm and had not yet been replaced.
I got the name of her former boss in Boca Raton, Florida, and after
several weeks of attempts, I finally reached Mike, and in 4-part harmony, I
explained my entire relationship and past work for Chase.
He said it he just hired another replacement Real Estate manager and gave
me the go-ahead to call Charlie Copelan, in San Diego.
It was back to another cold call
to my new best friend Charlie.
To make a long story short, I am
now about to close a lease transaction for a loan office for Chase in Santa
Maria, California and Charlie has given me the Warner Center assignment to
renegotiate the lease on the 20th floor, the deal I lost out on 4
years ago.
So, you can see, cold calling can
be fun and with persistence, will pay off!