Two Powerful Tips for Better Cold Calls

Cold callers always leave literature. It’s typically replete with paragraph after paragraph detailing all of the oohs and ahs of companies and their products.

Have you ever read your own literature yourself? Have you begun at the first sentence and read through it in its entirety? Or have you even scanned it to know what it really promises? Boring stuff.

Your prospect’s don’t either. They will generally never get past the top headline on a glossy slick.

So if you’re stuck making in-person cold calls as your primary method of lead generation, I’d recommend doing these two things to generate more responses.

Make prospects an offer. Focus on one powerful benefit you provide people, write a 1-2 page, personal letter to offer it, give it an interest-generating headline, and end with a specific call to action that includes a tangible reward for them contacting you. Great articles to read to get you going on this can be found here, here, here, here, here, and here.

Wrap it up. Instead of leaving behind a naked, glossy brochure that will likely be thrown away, put even single pieces of paper in a high-quality envelope that you can write your prospect’s first name on the outside of, and leave that behind. Some idea-starters can be found here, here, and here.

The most important point to be made on cold calling and literature leave-behinds is to think through it. If you continue to make calls and expect someone to be stunned by the quality of your four-color glossy slick designed and printed back in your company’s marketing department, you’re mistaken and inefficient.

It’s time to try something new, don’t you think?