I will be the first to admit it. The first cold call I made, made me sick. Physically sick. I didn’t know what I was doing and the pressure to pick up the phone and sell was scary. Ultimately the experience was nerve racking to the point of making me sick. However, with practice it has become the most natural thing in the world. Once you get good at it you will love making cold calls, because you know you will be generating new business. The best thing is that is doesn’t take very long to become good at making cold calls, the reason is that failing is so painful you get good at it very quickly. You just need some belief in what you are wanting to achieve.
Cold calling is perhaps the hardest element of growing you business. Cold calling to promote  running your own job board franchise is no different to cold calling in general. I gave this article to the Jobs in Ireland franchise holder you can see there are over 75 employers now advertising. You can cold call successfully to grow your business even during the toughest of economical times. Here are five steps.
1. Firstly I do my research. Find companies that should be interested in my product or service. Look at the website and identify the people resonsible for recruiting.
2. Write down some key points you want to get from the conversation.
3. Make the call. Firstly I insure I have the right person, talking to someone uninvolved with the sales process will not help. You should try and get the decision maker as this is the person who signs the checks. If you can’t get this person then make sure the person you speak to has some influence in the decision.
3. Introduce yourself and come straight to the point. Nobody likes sales people who are wasting their time on the phone, so cut to the chase. If you tell the listener who you are, the purpose of the call and offer some benefit for them to listen on you will have earned the right to continue.
Example: ‘Hi my name is Mark I’m the sales director calling from salesjobsinYork.com we are a job board and have thousands of registered job seekers looking for sales jobs in York. As a company hiring in this field, would you be interested in finding out if some our talent would be suitable for you?’
- This might be a bit ‘long winded’ but it is very natural and focuses on benefits to the customer. By finishing with question you are encouraging the listener to speak. Don’t make the mistake of talking before they answer. They will feel stupid if they don’t reply and will come with a response quickly. If it’s a Yes, then continue if it’s a No thank them for their time, get as much information about why they are not interested perhaps you can answer some objections and turn it into a Yes. If you can get their email to follow up all the better.
4. Assuming you get a Yes, they are listening. I would give them your USP and back it up with a testimonial. For example, “We are number 1 in Google for keywords ’sales jobs in York’ thus we get a load of traffic from people specifically searching for interested in this, our candidates are highly qualified. XXX company started using us 2 months ago and have reported an increase in the quality of their candidates. Would you be interested in trying us out?
5. Here you can make them an offer, be it a free trail, of reduced price trail etc. They’ll either go for it, want to think about it or say no. If they go for it great. If they want to think about it, give them a deadline on your offer and follow up with an email and phone call nearer the deadline. Try to answer any objections they may have and turn it into a Yes. If it’s a No, try to find out why etc.
oneJobworld franchise owners get a detailed ‘map’ on making cold calls, dealing wth objections and closing the deal. Interested in running you own job board? Then Contact us Alternatively if you want a customised cold call plan for your business then again Contact us
