When every no is a step closer to yes

A GROUP of us sit in a meeting room in a suburban Dublin hotel around tables laden with mints and carafes of orange and raspberry cordial. We are here to learn how to: "Overcome reluctance, build confidence and generate sales through cold calling." It's a harsh and lonely world out there when it comes to selling so The Irish Timeshas sent me on a cold-calling course to uncover the tactics employed by those who are paid to sell stuff over the phone for a living.

Courses like these are increasingly popular as companies with dwindling training budgets grow choosier about how they upskill employees. The likes of “business etiquette” or “email writing” classes were in high demand during the boom but these days etiquette is less of a priority than equipping staff with the techniques to make those all-important and harder to come by sales.

Our facilitator is Karen Sommerville from Call Focus, who has over 20 years experience in the business. Cold calling is dead, if you believe some business people who have already written obituaries for the marketing practice where phonecalls are made to potential customers that aren’t expecting the call. Others like Sommerville are of the opinion that cold calling, when used effectively, is still the way to get ahead in sales. Meanwhile, the rest of us believe that anyone who rings us at dinner time or in the middle of The Apprentice wondering if we have a few minutes to talk better be offering a wodge of free money and/or immortality. If not they know where they can stick their new mobile phone package.

First Sommerville asks us about what we find irritating in the average cold call. The answers range from people being too friendly or over pushy to callers who are over-rehearsed or, and the person who brings this up apologises for the suggestion, people with difficult to understand accents. Deepak in a New Delhi call-centre may be a stand-up guy but we’re not buying anything from him if we can’t understand what he’s saying. The idea is that if we are familiar with the turn-offs we will avoid those pitfalls. So far, so straightforward.

Sommerville goes on to talk about the difference between communicating on the phone and face-to-face encounters, offering some surprising statistics. With face-to-face conversations, she says body language and tone account for the vast majority of what the person you are talking to comprehends. The actual words you say account for a mere 7 per cent. On the phone, without any body language to interpret, your tone apparently accounts for 85 per cent of what is understood by the listener and your actual words just 15 per cent. We are encouraged to give our voice variety and inject it with enthusiasm. “Go over the top,” says Sommerville. “Making a call is like going on stage.”

We take notes. There’s a woman who works in shipping, a man who flogs security systems, a bloke who sells insulation and a woman who provides rental cars. Most of the group say they enjoy cold calling about as much as a trip to the dentist. Sommerville takes us through our pitch, emphasising that there should be an information-gathering conversation with the potential customer before you go in for the kill. She doesn’t say going in for the kill, mind you, or use that famous sales lingo ABC (Always Be Closing). Too crude, apparently.

“Think about it as though you were being chatted up in a bar,” says Somerville. “If someone came up to you and started telling you how wonderful they were and expecting you to go home with them immediately you wouldn’t be too impressed. You need to be engaged in conversation, you need to be drawn in. Going straight in all guns blazing saying how wonderful your product is will not get results”.

We are told to draw up a list of open questions and make a personalised pitch based on customer’s needs. We are supposed to show interest in the customer, gathering information from them which we can use later when it comes to showing them the benefits of our product. This softly-softly, catchy-monkey approach is not for everyone. The woman in shipping says in her experience it is all about price competitiveness and this business of gently chatting up the customer is a waste of time. “To be honest, in the current climate when I get on the phone all my customers want to know about is how much something costs and how long will it take. That is all they care about,” she says. Sommerville takes her through the philosophy behind the technique but the shipping woman never really seems convinced.

We all write sales pitches and then read them out with Sommerville offering critique and encouragement. We are taught how to deal with “objections” or reasons given by a customer for not wanting to avail of our product or service. She tells us not to take rejection personally but to “see every no as being one step closer to a yes”. We learn not to use technical jargon and instead employ some of the 12 words of extraordinary power set down by Yale University. These include new, easy, save, free and guarantee.

It’s been a long day with a lot to take in. I think I’ve got the gist of this cold calling lark but there’s only one way to find out . . .

THE CALLS

Back in the office I have a phone, a list of names and numbers and a script on which my sales pitch is printed. My cold-calling task is to convince readers of The Irish Timeswho already get their Saturday paper delivered to avail of the delivery service on other days of the week.

I ring Karen Sommerville for some last-minute encouragement. She tells me not to expect sales on the first calls and reminds me how important it is to engage the customer. “Ask them what they like about the service, how it makes life easier, then use that information to show them the benefits of getting the paper on other days,” she says.

The first call is the hardest. I have the cold-calling equivalent of stage fright. I try to remember to keep my voice bright and bubbly and only ask open questions. Then I punch in the digits.

It's not actually so bad. The Irish Timesreaders are a friendly bunch and don't mind my endless buttering up questions about how much they enjoy the service. I don't close any sales, mind you, but I do speak to a lovely nun in a closed order who seems keen to get the paper on other days but just needs to check with a superior.

“We like to know what is going on so that we know where to direct our prayers,” she says.

She seems keen on the promotions I have to offer. If the customers take the paper on at least one other day we’ll waive the delivery fee and if they take it for six days they get a €20 voucher for a well-known department store.

I find it difficult to deal with objections. Several readers say they wouldn’t have the time to read the paper any other day or explain that they get to see the paper in work the rest of the week. I ring Sommerville for advice. She says to empathise but gently counter the objection. I can’t do it though and I find myself agreeing with them most of the time without countering their objection.

One man I call seems so anxious to get off the phone that I get nervous asking him a series of closed questions which result in his getting away before I can even make my pitch. Then a miracle happens. I ring a lady, ask her some questions, emphasise the benefits of the service and she quickly decides to take the paper on a Friday in addition to her Saturday paper. After 15 calls, finally somebody uses that wonderful word of extraordinary power – “yes”.

I am wrecked after the experience. The brief highs and many lows of cold calling are not good for stress levels. In the future I will definitely have more compassion when I answer the phone to a cold caller.

Now, where’s my commission?

The next one-day Cold Calling course run by Call Focus and Profits.ie takes place in the Stillorgan Park Hotel on January 26th. Call 01 276 4347 or 01 244 9580 for more details