Cold Calling Quantity Versus Quality

There has been a rather heated discussion in one of the groups re this very subject that was generated by the question “How many calls can you do per day?” So I thought I would write something on the subject.

First and foremost you must understand that these things are not mutually exclusive. You can significantly increase both quality and quantity of calls at the same time.

The motivation for this article is that it has been my experience in working with inside groups or even field sales people that make calls. I have found that they’re usually quite inefficient and thus don’t make near as many calls as they could in the same period of time and without degrading the quality of their effort.

Call Quantity

It is stupid obvious that if you make more calls (assuming you don’t change the quality) you will reach more people and make more sales. Most people don’t even do 60% of what they could do because they haven’t worked out how to be really efficient and effective. Here are some ways to do that.

When you make calls, just make calls. What I mean here is that switching tasks takes tremendous amounts of time. If you are going to make calls have all the researched ready to call names in front of you and JUST make calls.

Control the calls. It is your job to control the flow and direction of the sales call and process. Don’t let prospects wander or waste your time. Make sure you efficiently gather the information and forward the sales process. If you take the time to record your calls you will probably find they run from 10-30 percent longer than necessary just do to inefficiencies in handling the call.

If you work from a CRM product fill out the record as you wait and as if you didn’t reach the person. If you plan to leave a message indicated that, or put that you didn’t reach the person. You can have all of this done before the call completes and thus move much more quickly to the next call. If they do answer you can simply edit your notes as you chat to reflect the actual results.

If you aren’t going to leave a message for the person, hang up after the third ring. Most people will answer long before the third ring if they are going to – this will save you tons of time.

Dial one number after the next – don’t allow yourself to be distracted until it is time to break or you have completed all your calls. The average distraction will steal anywhere form 11-22 minutes from your calling time – that’s one conversation or multiple dials.

These are just a few things you can do without affecting the quality of your calls that will make a big difference in your call numbers. I hope you find them useful.

I will now move on to call quality.

Call Quality

Call quality is very important. Rushing through calls with prospect’s, especially in today’s world where it is so hard to get them on the phone in the first place, is a very bad idea.

Here are some key things you can do that will improve call quality.

Have a documented sales process or presentation.

NO, I am not telling you to read a script even though this is workable if you know what you’re doing and have the delivery skills.

What I am saying is that you need a very clearly and well thought out sales process. It is my contention that not having such a document is the equivalent of saying this process has not be well thought out. It’s like goal setting – if you don’t write them down, they aren’t goals but wishes.

Develop a powerful unique selling proposition (USP)

For insight on just what a USP is all about read this post (opens in a new window)

The point is that call quality is improved when you have a strong USP – you engage more people and the people you engage will be more interested in what you have to say.

Make sure you’re doing the basics well.

I spent 23 years consulting to the high tech industry in telephone sales and management and it is frightening how many simple errors people make. Here are some of the most common.

• Starting to sell before rapport is developed
• Starting to sell before the person you’re speaking with has be qualified
• Speaking in a casual voice
• Not answering specifically the question or comment made by the prospect (changing subjects) without addressing the fact you are doing so

These are just a couple of the most obvious things you can do.

One final note, regular training is the absolute key to producing high quality calls. For those of you responsible for or managing insides sales organizations I am putting on a free conference call next week on driving high performance in inside groups – Click Here (Opens in a new widow) for details.