In this article we’re going to introduce to you a new game/theme for your cold calling sessions, it revolves around the concept of

“Giving you a reason to call”

It’s a powerful concept yet simple to apply, should you apply it you’ll start to notice prolific results.

In our work with sales people and businesses from diverse industries we see a common similarity when it comes to cold calling. Often sales people are reluctant to make cold calls.

Do you know why most sales people are reluctant to make a cold call?

• They don’t have a good enough reason to call

That’s it, they don’t have a good enough reason. They’re not sure what to talk about, or how to steer the call, or what to open with. Most sales people need a good reason to call or they just won’t do it.

That reason to call doesn’t necessarily have to be something substantial, it just needs to be something that will give us a slight bit of confidence to call that buyer.

What many sales people do is start with an email, or direct mail or LinkedIn message. Once they’ve conducted this activity they’ll feel like they have more of a reason to call a buyer and the proactive ones will make that call.

Previous activity, like an email or direct mail are great reasons to call. So if you don’t conduct activity like this then we encourage you to do so, why not try using a nurture campaign, for more on how to use nurture campaigns do read our article below:

In this article we’re going to give you another reason to call, and quite a powerful reason at that.

The next game/theme is…

Dial My Neighbour

This is the next game/theme and of all of those that we recommend you try, this game has some of the best feedback both for results and enjoyment.

Why’s that?

Well it’s twofold

1. Sales people have a strong reason to call which gives them a great deal of confidence
2. The execution in itself is a powerful Hook

If you’re not au fait with the terminology of a Hook then do have a read of our previous article around hooks:

If you don’t have time to read this article then just to paraphrase

“A Hook is a statement used to reduce the buyers barriers to which they give you more airtime. More airtime with a buyer leads to better conversations, more meetings booked and more business closed”

How Does It Work?

Here’s the crux of the game

Why it Works?

With every cold call we make, we desire to

• Find out the decision maker.
• Intrigue that decision maker, enough so that they give you airtime on the phone.
• Find out key criteria about their business, operations and whether they’re the right fit for your offering.
• If they’re the right fit then gain more airtime with them whether that be through a meeting, another call etc.

This technique of ‘Dial my Neighbour’ works so well because it builds almost instant credibility with the decision maker. You reference someone you work with close by and more often than not it’ll intrigue them enough to give you more airtime.

That’s what we crave, more airtime means more chance to get in with that prospect and convert them into a customer.

Points Scoring

The same as every game we recommend for cold calling sessions, make it more competitive with a point scoring system and an incentive for those whom score the most points over a couple sessions using this game.

The points system we’ve used historically mimics the below but tailor this to your use case:

• One point for every time you use the “Dial My Neighbour” hook
• Five points for every conversation with a buyer that lasts over five minutes
• Twenty points for every meeting booked

Take Action

Give the “Dial My Neighbour” game a try, whether you do this by yourself or a group, just give it a go, we promise it’ll show astounding results!

Please do let us know how this technique works for you, we’d love to hear about it.

Do look out for our future posts around cold calling techniques, games and incentives.

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