Larry Chiang never got his MBA but will be speaking at Ivy league b-schools and law schools all fall. Harvard, featured him in a cover story that shares the same title as his book, “What They Don’t Teach You At Stanford Business School“. Fresh MBAs that are currently unemployed could take this opportunity to go into sales. The Art of Cold Calling boils down about a dozen business books and movies into a Larry-Chiang styled blog post that takes about three minutes to peruse.
Piven plays a salesperson who is good at selling product.
Cold-calling like making a mid-day booty call to a person you have never dated :-] |
By Larry Chiang
Palo Alto, Calif, Tuesday, 4 August 2009
Cold calling is defined as an out-of-the-blue phone call that interrupts a person in the middle of a business day. It is one of the most difficult tasks in business. Its like making a mid-day booty call to a person you have never dated :-]
Because I cold call, I can recognize the secret fraternity of people that can pick up the phone and call strangers. MBAs (just like freshly minted West Point or Star Fleet Academy officers) sometimes don’t want to get in the trenches. I have this theory that in order to get ahead you have to do the difficult and socially challenging work of getting new revenue. Cold calling is a critical skill set. Here’s a behind the scenes look at the lost art of cold-calling.
-1- Hack the Phone System.
Knowing the ins and outs of the phone system are like getting the keys to every room in the castle.
Once you have your keys, the map of the castle is The Google + The voice mail ‘dial-by-name’. I love when voice mail system girl says, “would you like to dial by name?”. It’s like business foreplay for me. I just google the Plant Manager or the VP of Operation, dial their last name on my keypad and let the good times roll.
I also read an article on GigaOm that teaches me how to close deals via voicemail. I printed that article out and posted it in my cubicle.
-2- Something is Always Sold.
Either you sell them on staying on the phone, or they sell you on why they’re getting off the phone. True story.
-3- Email Me a Proposal.
It is really hard to get turned on via an email pitch. Even of Anna Feris emails me to meet up, I’m happy, but not turned on. A cold call phone conversation resulting in email work is a sign that the deal isn’t moving forward.
They might tell you to email them but they just “sold you” on why they’re getting off the phone.
Its nearly impossible to close a deal over email.
-4- Time Extension!
Do you ever play those video games where you get rewarded with extra playing time?! Well, that’s what cold calling has as a goal. Your goal is a one minute 20 second phone call or longer.
The ideal amount of time to talk is 2 1/2 to 4 min.
-5- Mentor Marketing.
I sell one thing over the phone to get a time extension. Mentorship. Keeping a person on the phone is tough to do. Selling a person after they hang up on you is impossible. Mentorship makes them want to take your call.
I also set aside my need to sell them something when I do mentorship flavored sales calls.
-6- Learn To Love No.
No mater how good you are, you’re gonna hear a lotta no’s. Learn to love ‘no’ because sales is a numbers game. If you make $3k per sale and need to hear 9 no’s per one ‘yes’, then you’re getting paid $300 per ‘no’. If you hear 100 no’s by Wed, you’ll be cracking $100k by the middle of your sales year.
-7- Get a Mirror.
Look good in the mirror to come across well on the phone. If the image in the mirror is smiling, your voice is smiling too.
-8- Read and Re-read “Cold Calling Techniques”
My phone sales mentor, Steven Schiffman, wrote the book, “Cold Calling Techniques”. It’s good.
-9- Physiologically Sell.
Tonality is 38% of communication. Words are 7%. Physiology is 55%. True story, so physiologically sell.
A great tool to help you do this is to use a hands-free head set. I use a double ear one where the microphone toggles to the front. People make fun of me for looking like the drive-thru order taker. Well, a good drive thru manager can do as much sales volume as three in-store registers. No lies, get a vs worx headset.
If you liked this, you may also check:
 Larry is writing a sequel to a book he did not write. It comes out 09-09-09. It is called ‘What They Don’t Teach You At Stanford Business School‘.
|
This post was cranked out in about an hour so email me if you see a spelling or grammatical error(s)… larry@larrychiang com
Larry Chiang is the founder of Deep Underground Credit Knowledge 9 (Duck9). He hacked Fair Isaac’s FICO credit algorithm and battles lies told by the credit industry such as Fair Isaac’s claim that the average FICO is 720. The real average is 535.
Text or call him during office hours 11:11am or 11:11pm PST +/-11 minutes at 650-283-8008. If you email him, be sure to include your cell number in the subject line.
Larry speaks on stuff they don't teach in B-school to help you get street smart in doing business. In college, he started a business that helps college students with their FICO score. He loves entrepreneurs, Ben and Jerry's ice cream and after parties. You can reach him at:
