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Cold calling is an art, but does your elevator pitch fit your masterpiece?

Targeting your potential customers takes research, but getting them to respond takes a lot more practice and selling. I am opening up this forum to help people such as myself to either get over the fear of cold calling or just to be able to develop the best script for your product or service.

The idea for this post was from a MSNBC video:
Video: Advice on cold calls and paperwork
~Basically saying that cold calling is not the way to go. They went on speaking on working with the contacts that you already have and asking them to see if they have any leads for you.

Two problems with that comment. One, what if you are a new business and have no contacts? Two, why are there so many cold call centers if it is not profitable?

There was another video posted on the same site that caught my attention too:
Video: Marketing your message
~This video mentioned that there is a specific order to sell your product or service. The model is based upon the golden circle, what, how, why?

The bottom line:
Does your elevator pitch have time to fit in a cold call when you already have someone on the phone thinking to hang up on another sales call?

I open these questions up to you, my fellow startupnation.comers!
Thank You.

In my opinion, cold calling is reaching out to a thoroughly disinterested person who likely is doing something other than listening. An elevator pitch is a more opportunisitic event, where the pitch replaces common small talk.

I think an elevator pitch is more about a targeted person or audience, with the intent to get an opportunity in the future to present a sales pitch. A cold call is a fast advertisement, with an attempt to develop interest.

That`s how I see them, at any rate.

Great definitions and thank you for responding.

An elevator pitch and cold calling are not the same thing, but they both aim to the same objective. You use cold calling to sell and you use an elevator pitch to get investment, so in either case you are trying to part someone of money.

A sale is a sale, no matter if we are talking about tracking down sales or an investor. Most of the time when we think of cold calling, we think of a salesman calling in the middle of our dinner to sell you something. The targeted cold calling I speak of is directed to a business that can very well use your services to prosper their business.

Open question(s):
Does your sales pitch answer these 3 questions? What, How, & Why?
Would anyone like to share their format or outline of their sales pitch or calls?

Thank You.

Interesting comparison but I believe it is incorrect. An ‘Elevator pitch’ attempts to monetize the time usually spent on cordial superfluous conversation of semi-social occasions, while a cold call is potentially an interruption/distraction of a persons agenda/task with an attempt to sell a product. On the former the interaction is expected and you know the person on the receiving end is not otherwise engaged, on the latter you don’t know what the other person is doing and often times the interruption is undesired, specially if your target is a business person. 

ElidS and I are on the same page. I think "cold call" has become a pejorative term, and regardless of the technical meaning, the common meaning (its sense) has become a push, interruptive event.

An elevator pitch, coming from being caught with someone in an actual elevator in a building, I think assumes a friendly atmosphere, or at least a casual ambiance. A cold call is from a salesperson, often under commission, "churning" the market to produce sales out of thin air.

Having managed direct sales, telemarketing, and tele-sales operations, and myself having done a lot of cold calling in my career, I think the distinction being drawn between the definition of a cold call and the definition of an elevator pitch is off the mark.

The two are not mutually exclusive. In fact, a good call of any kind, whether cold or warm, should always begin with an elevator pitch. You must communicate the purpose of your call and what benefit you are offering as quickly as possible. You should then quickly follow up with an open ended question (as opposed to a yes or no question), to give the person on the other end of the phone a chance to articulate why they are or are not interested in your pitch.

Here`s a quick example. Hi Joe, my name is Jim Smith and I`m calling from ABC Co. I know you are probably very busy so I`m only going to take about 30 seconds of your time (put the customer at ease by letting them know you are going to get to the point quickly but do not pause to give them a chance to say they don`t have time). Joe, (repeat the customer`s name because people like to hear their name, and it gets them focused on what you are going to say next) ABC Co. (repeat the company name because they probably weren`t listening the first time) is the best in our industry at doing [What] for [Who] because we [Why/How].  Joe, how are you currently doing [What]?

As to the question about why there are so many cold calling centers if cold calling is not profitable; the answer is simple. Cold calling is profitable! Especially if you have a call center and lots of prospects who are afraid, unable, or ineffective at making calls themselves. But more to the point, profitable call centers focus on no more than 1-3 demographic or vertical markets. In other words, Call Centers tend to specialize. This is necessary for two reasons, 1) before you can begin making cold calls, you must have a list of names. Lists cost money. So the call center will re-use the list as many times as possible. Lists of names are usually categorized into certain demographic (in the consumer market) or vertical industry (in the commercial market) segments, and 2) it is extremely helpful if the call center staff actually know something about what they are selling, as opposed to just reading from a script. Reading from a script with no intrinsic knowledge of the product or service is a sure way to get hung up on. If you do find someone who is interested but then cannot answer any questions about the product or service unless it is on the script, you`re cooked.

The number one rule of effectiveness when it comes to cold calling is making sure you have a very well defined target list of potential prospects. Never make a call to someone who you do not know should or could be interested in your call. This applies to all products or services, whether is selling tickets to the fireman`s ball (get a list of known philanthropists or those who have made donations to good casues in the past) or high end technology (find out which products and services the company has purchased in the past and from whom).

If you are a new company and don`t have any contacts, you will need to start doing your homework on who you believe your best prospects could or should be, and dig up some names. There are an infinite number of sources for names and phone numbers. You just need to get creative. If you cannot define your target list, forget about your business idea. If you can`t define your customer you have no chance of coming up with a good elevator pitch, and therefore no chance of making an effective cold call.

Kregg, thanks for your reply to this topic.   I think the assumption that "Cold Calling is a waste of time" is simply not true.  I`m in a similar situation to the OP, and I am trying to refine my pitch because the list of possible interested parties in my case is very small, yet the amount of work available is potentially huge.  I am an engineering services business, so I`m working on nailing down exactly how to differentiate myself in the first 15 seconds of a phone conversation enough to keep the sales process going forward.  I can only assume that people who think cold calling is a waste simply have big enough networks/referrals to make their business somewhat profitable. 

I think the elevator pitch is essentially the same thing.  It`s an introduction, and a statement of why you can offer them something better than anyone else.  I`m going to do something like (for example):

Hi, I`m Rich from ABC Limited, and we do engineering services.  Mr. Importante, I am working with a team of Supermen from the planet Krytpon, who have also worked for companies in your industry.  I`m contacting people in the industry who could also use our services....
Then pause and ask a leading question if I`m not interrupted.

I think telling people I`m not going to take their time is sort of disingenuous.  I really want 3 minutes of their time and then about 30 minutes later that week to find out more about them/tell them more in person ideally.  Everyone is busy so I figure I`ll just get right into what I`m talking about. 

Of course my biggest problem is jumping in and doing it.

qsoundrich,

I don`t who said cold calling is a waste of time but I agree with you that it can be effective if done well.

Regarding your proposed script:

Hi, I`m Rich from ABC Limited, and we do engineering services.  Mr. Importante, I am working with a team of Supermen from the planet Krytpon, who have also worked for companies in your industry.  I`m contacting people in the industry who could also use our services....
Then pause and ask a leading question if I`m not interrupted.

I would suggest:

1. The term `engineering services` seems vague to me but perhaps it has a specific meaning to the people you will be calling. If this term is meaningful to your prospects, then it is fine. If there is even a slight possibility the term could be misinterpreted by the recipient of the call then I would be much more specific about what it is you do and for whom. As quickly as possible, you should try to answer the basic questions: [What you do] for [Whom] and [Why/How] you do it.

2. Referring to the fact that you have worked with other companies in the recipient`s industry is a great idea. If you can use a specific customer name (one of your current customers) it is even better. If your customer is a competitor of the recipient, or a company that the recpient would recognize by name, even better.

3. I would add a value statement. Something like; XYZ company realized a 50% increase in sales after our project. It should be a quantifiable measure of the benefit your customer derived from your product or service.

4. Using the value statement as the introduction to your open ended question can be very effective. For example, after delivering the pitch, your open ended question could be something like; How are you doing (whatever it is you can help them do better, faster, cheaper) today? If they answer, they will probably give you an opening to probe further into ways you can help them.

I respect your point about being honest about the time you need from the recipient, but I think you may be misinterpreting my intent. The intent is not to provide full disclosure about the amount of time that will be required during the length of the sales process. The entire sales process could be months long and require many, many hours of the prospect`s time before they come a decision in favor of your proposal. The idea is to let the recipient know that you are not going to be launching into a 45 minute diatribe or a lengthy marketing survey during THIS call.

I hope this helps.
Kregg

Wifistudios,

You`ve received some good information regarding the difference between an elevator speech and cold calling, but I`d like to point out an error mentioned by both qsoundrich and yourself--that to generate a large number of referrals requires an experienced salesperson with a large base of clients.  That simply isn`t true.  What is true is that most (about 85%) salespeople fail at referral selling.  They`ll get a few names and phone numbers, but most are far from qualified referrals.

But all salespeople--even new salespeople with few clients--can learn how to generate a large number of high quality referrals from clients, prospects and known others. 

One of the major issues is that many, many salespeople think getting referrals is simple--just do a good job and ask for referrals.  Fact of the matter is--that method just doesn`t work.  Generating referrals from clients and other is a whole process that starts the second you meet a prospect and continues throughout the sale--and long afterwards.  If done correctly, it is far more effective than any other lead generation system there is. 

This isn`t to say that you don`t use other lead generation methods.  Few salespeople are referral only--the super mega-producers.  But the way those superstars generate their business and the relationship they have with their client is far different than other salespeople`s.  But their techniques and strategies can be learned and implemented.

The methods they use can be used by any salesperson, no matter their primary lead generation method.  I work with salespeople involved in the most sophisticated sales process to those in the most direct and simple process.  With those involved in highly complicated lead generation processs to those using the most simple, such as cold calling.

I`d encourage you to investigate the process of referral generation and incorporate it into your marketing mix.  If done correctly, referral selling can add many, many thousands of dollars to your income in just a few months.  Learning to referral sell isn`t easy--but it isn`t impossibly complicated either.  Learn how to generate a large number of high quality referrals and combine that with your current prospecting methods and your income will increase significantly.  I`ve seen new salespeople learn how to referral sell and shoot to the top of their organization`s performance charts in only matter of months.

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Paul McCord Author, Creating a Million Dollar a Year Sales Income: Sales Success through Client Referrals http://www.powerreferralselling.com