The Cold Calling Podcast

CCP035 – Time on Your Hands?

mike — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 17:20:10 +0000

On today’s show, we talk about how to make the most of the current economic downturn by spending your time productively. We know you’d rather be in sales meetings, doing demos, writing proposals and negotiating contracts but if the business just isn’t there at the moment, then what else can you be doing? Yes, this [...]

CCP034 – Overcoming the Limitations of Remote Selling

mike — Sun, 16 Dec 2007 15:32:34 +0000

In today’s edition of The Cold Calling Podcast, we look atÂ some of the issues that come up when you are selling to people you cannot actually meet face-to-face. How do you get around the issues of trust when you are selling exclusively via remote channels such as telephone and e-mail? Thanks to Dan from Australia for [...]

CCP033 – Interview with Dan Nye, CEO, LinkedIn

mike — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 15:29:31 +0000

As regular listeners will know, we’re both massive fans of LinkedIn, using it on a regular basis as one of our most useful cold-calling productivity aids. In fact, we did a whole episode on it back in November (Episode 18 – Linking Up to New Prospects). So we thought we would do something a little different [...]

CCP032 – Pros & Cons of Outsourcing Telephone Prospecting

mike — Tue, 22 May 2007 13:49:38 +0000

In this week’s episode of The Cold Calling Podcast, we talk about the pros and cons of outsourcing your telephone prospecting activities to a third party or agency. Under what circumstances should you consider doing this? What qualities should you be looking for in the person or company who will be calling prospects on your behalf? [...]

CCP031 – Terminology

mike — Tue, 08 May 2007 16:01:24 +0000

This week on The Cold Calling Podcast, we talk through the terminology you probably hear on a daily basis, to help you figure out what it all really means. What exactly is a suspect? When does a suspect become a prospect, and what constitutes a lead? When can you say a deal is actually closed? What’s [...]

CCP030 – When to Stop Calling

mike — Tue, 24 Apr 2007 09:34:26 +0000

In this week’s episode, we talk about valid and invalid reasons forÂ stopping cold-calling specific individuals and moving on to new targets. We discuss sincere versus insincere objections, and ways to pre-empt objections so that you’re not moving away from valid prospects. And we have a formula for you to determine when it is actuallyÂ time to move on: x=(I/N)-T Listen [...]

CCP029 – Hitting The Streets

mike — Tue, 10 Apr 2007 14:40:25 +0000

This week on The Cold Calling Podcast, we talk about the toughest kind of cold calling – actually hitting the streets and calling on your prospects face-to-face, unannounced. There are circumstances where this is a good strategy, e.g. when you’ve been trying to reach someone without success and you’re in their neighbourhood anyway. We discuss some of [...]

CCP Special Edition – Pamela

mike — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 13:42:34 +0000

Following on fromÂ the recentÂ episode of The Cold Calling Podcast where we talked about using Skype “to fatten your pipe”, this weekÂ we have a special edition of the show where we focus exclusively on Pamela, a unique application that can completely “turbocharge” your Skype usage and productivity. We interview Dick Schiferli, CEO of Pamela, who tells us [...]

CCP028 – The Queen of Cold Calling

mike — Tue, 20 Mar 2007 16:52:45 +0000

This week, we have a special guest on The Cold Calling Podcast – Wendy Weiss, “The Queen of Cold Calling”. Wendy has trained thousands of sales professionals and entrepreneurs in her cold-calling techniques and her clients include Avon Products Inc., ADP Inc., Sprint, Newmark Real Estate and thousands of entrepreneurs throughout the USA. We talk to [...]

CCP027 – Using Skype to Fatten Your Pipe

mike — Tue, 06 Mar 2007 10:49:37 +0000

This week’s episode of The Cold Calling Podcast is devoted exclusively to a wonderful little application called Skype, which canÂ literally turbocharge your telephone prospecting productivity. We talk about ways to use Skype (and SkypeOut in particular) as a simple but hugely effective call management system and power-dialler, and how you can integrate it into your workflow [...]

CCP026 – Promoting a Prospecting Culture

mike — Tue, 20 Feb 2007 11:53:32 +0000

On this week’s episode of The Cold Calling Podcast, Greg and Mike talk about how, if you are a business owner or a sales manager, you can instill a culture of cold-calling within your firm. We cover the issue of realistic expectations, the “10/10″ rule, and a great way to incentivise salespeople to hit realistic calling [...]

CCP025 – Channel Selling

mike — Tue, 06 Feb 2007 16:39:00 +0000

This week, we have a special guest on The Cold Calling Podcast – Mark Whitehouse, Director of Channel Alliances. We talk with Mark about how “indirect selling” (i.e. using partners) can help you increase your sales pipeline and close more business. Mark explains why youÂ should add channel selling to your arsenal, discusses some of the criteria for [...]

CCP024 – Steering Conversations

mike — Tue, 23 Jan 2007 12:17:48 +0000

This week on the Cold Calling Podcast, we discuss some techniques you can use to steer telephone conversations in the direction YOU would like them to go, rather than be at the mercy of the person you are calling. We stressÂ the merits of recording your conversations, so you can listen back and fine-tune your approach, and [...]

CCP023 – Using Feedback

mike — Tue, 09 Jan 2007 12:24:46 +0000

Hello and Happy New Year! For our first episode of 2007, we discuss how to leverage information you might uncover on one call, on your next and subsequesnt calls. Using this technique can make your cold calling much more effective. Leading in with “inside information” that is both relevant and topical to the prospect you are calling, [...]

CCP022 – The Sales Prevention Dept

mike — Tue, 12 Dec 2006 14:29:18 +0000

This week, we talk about how to deal with the “Sales Prevention Dept”, or more accurately, all those annoying things that make your selling job more difficult. These can includeÂ interfering line managers, changing territories, quarterly targets, CRM/Sales Tracking systems, timesheets, the 9 to 5 office mentality, internal meetings, exhibitions, and a whole host of other things [...]

CCP021 – Trapped!

mike — Tue, 05 Dec 2006 15:01:40 +0000

On this week’s episode, we talk about easy it is to get trapped when you’re cold calling. There are a number of ways you can be trapped, including: - By personal assistants and secretaries - By middle managers and control freaks - By decision makers who don’t move things forward - By voicemail We discuss ways to avoid falling into [...]

CCP020 – Objection Handling

mike — Tue, 28 Nov 2006 22:46:58 +0000

On this, our twentieth episode, we talk about five common types of objection you might face when cold-calling, and how to deal with each one. The five most common are: Send me something in the mail We already have one of those We don’t have that problem It’s not a priority for us right now (on second call) I didn’t [...]

CCP019 – Direct Numbers II (The Sequel)

mike — Tue, 21 Nov 2006 13:23:07 +0000

This week, we revisit a topic we covered a while back in show number 2 – Finding Direct Numbers. Hot on the heels of last weeks episode, where we covered how to find target names using LinkedIn, we felt this would be a good time to explain again some of the more useful techniques for finding [...]

CCP018 – Linking Up to New Prospects

mike — Wed, 15 Nov 2006 00:05:31 +0000

This week, we focus exclusively on LinkedIn (www.linkedin.com) as a means of finding new prospects to call. LinkedIn is an absolute goldmine when it comes to finding target individuals, so long as you know how to get the best out of it. We talk you through how to use the People Search function to best effect. Please [...]

CCP017 – Cultural Differences

mike — Tue, 07 Nov 2006 21:46:41 +0000

On this weeks show, we talk about cultural differences. How should you change your approach when cold-calling decision makers who are based in a different country, or who comeÂ from an entirely different culture, to your own? What works in the US does notÂ necessarily work in the UK, and vice versa. Additionaly, we talk about some of [...]

CCP016 – Is The Water Too Cold?

mike — Tue, 31 Oct 2006 10:28:45 +0000

This week, we talk about the difficulties of actually dipping more than a toe into the Cold Calling water. We are aware that a lot of our listeners find it hard to actually submerge themselves in cold calling, so we talk through some tips and techniques to actually get yourself more into it. And forÂ the “old [...]

CCP015 – The Numbers Game

mike — Mon, 23 Oct 2006 15:50:48 +0000

This week, we talk about numbers. Can you really double the number of appointments you get by doubling your number of calls? What if it is not possible to double your calls? We look at three other ways you can get your numbers up,Â namely: Reaching the decision maker more often Making your value statement more compelling Doing more [...]

CCP014 – For Business Owners

mike — Tue, 17 Oct 2006 16:21:29 +0000

This weeks episode of The Cold Calling Podcast is directed squarely at business owners. If you own your own business, andÂ you are hittingÂ the phones in order to find new customers, what are some of the key things you should be thinking about? How can you use the fact that you are the President or the [...]

CCP Special Edition – Zubka

mike — Tue, 10 Oct 2006 18:10:01 +0000

This week, we have a special edition of the Cold Calling Podcast, where we focus exclusively on Zubka, a new company that will allow listeners to find better jobs for people they know and to find people for jobs they know about. The reason we are devoting an entire episode of the Cold Calling Podcast to [...]

CCP013 – Questioning Techniques

mike — Tue, 03 Oct 2006 20:52:25 +0000

In this weeks podcast,Â we talk about various different types of questioning techniques and when to use them. We dicsuss open and closed direct questions, as well as the following types of indirect or inferred questions: Tonal Latent Assumptative Injected/Interrupting Mindset We also introduce the concept of “Creditability”, and Greg does some poetry reading (!) Please continue sending your feedback to mike@coldcallingpodcast.com, or [...]

CCP012 – Pushiness and Aggression

mike — Tue, 26 Sep 2006 21:20:12 +0000

This week, we talk about the qualities of pushiness and aggression.Â Under whatÂ circumstancesÂ should youÂ adopt a more aggressive position than you normally would on a call? We discuss the right time and place for this kind of approach. We also talk about some techniques you can use to diffuse aggression when you face it from the person [...]

CCP011 – Staying On Track

mike — Tue, 19 Sep 2006 21:36:07 +0000

This week, we talk about how to stay on track when you are calling, and discuss some ways you can stop yourself getting distracted or derailed when cold-calling. From an equipment perspective, we explore the benefits of binaural headsets andÂ telephones with “last ten” redial functions. We also look at ways to make sure you are mentally [...]

CCP010 – Warming Up Your Cold Calls

mike — Tue, 12 Sep 2006 18:55:10 +0000

In this weeks episode, we talk about how you can use Social Networking websites such as LinkedIn and SoFlow to warm up your cold calls. These websites can be excellent sources of information, in that they provide you with ammunition to make your opening pitch more relevant to the person you are targeting. TheyÂ are alsoÂ really [...]

CCP009 – Cold Calling For Newbies

mike — Tue, 05 Sep 2006 20:11:06 +0000

Following requests from a number of listeners, this week we go right back to basics and talk about the key things to take into consideration if you are new to business cold calling. Here are the first few pieces of advice. Listen to the podcast to pick up some more… Don’t believe people who tell you [...]

CCP008 – The RIGHT Value Statement

mike — Tue, 29 Aug 2006 22:03:33 +0000

In this weeks episode of The Cold Calling Podcast, we go into more detail on the subject of value statements, and discuss some alternative approaches you could use, based upon your industry, product or service. We explore the following eight approaches (along with various combinations) and discuss when they might be most appropriate: Name-dropping approach Assumed problem approach Consumable/raw [...]

CCP007 – Call Objectives

mike — Tue, 22 Aug 2006 16:13:43 +0000

In this week’s show, we talk about the objectives of the cold call. What exactly do you want to have achieved by the end of the call? We discuss how to stick to your objectives whilst keeping them realistic and achievable, and cover some useful techniques to use whenÂ closing for a meeting. If you have any [...]

CCP006 – Your Opening Pitch

mike — Tue, 15 Aug 2006 11:55:22 +0000

This week, Greg and Mike talk about ways to open the call and make the initial pitch. We discuss the opening 15-30 seconds (the “positioning” statement) and the lead-in to the value proposition. We also talk about a couple of our own pet hates, which we definitely would NOT recommend leading in with. Comments, suggestions and [...]

CCP005 – Voicemail and E-mail

mike — Tue, 25 Jul 2006 17:33:16 +0000

In this week’s episode, we talk about how voicemail and e-mail can both help and hinder your cold-calling activities. We discuss when might be the right time and the wrong time to leave aÂ voicemail message, and what the best kind of message might be. Also, we go over the advantages and disadvantages of e-mail, and [...]

CCP004 – Dealing With Rejection

mike — Tue, 18 Jul 2006 13:55:14 +0000

This week, we discuss a range of issues to do with rejection, including types of rejection, how to deal with it, and ways to minimize the likelihood of it happening. We start the show with some feedback from a couple of listeners (thanks Jon and Katerina!), then go on to discuss: - Reasons for call reluctance - Ways [...]

CCP003 – Working Practices

mike — Tue, 11 Jul 2006 16:24:17 +0000

In this episode,Â we discuss various working practices around calling activities. We cover areas such as call planning, tracking systems, and paper-based versus computer-based tools.Â We also discuss circumstances where it might be better to track activities on your own personal tracking system rather than the firm’sÂ Sales/Pipeline or CRM system. Also on this show, our first listener feedback [...]