Taking the Chill Out of Cold Calling!
By Andrea Sittig Rolf
What is it we hate most about cold calling? Is it calling people we don’t know? Taking time out of our busy schedules to make phone calls? Or is it the “cold” part of cold calling we don’t like? Here’s a tip on how to take the chill out of cold calling by warming up your cold calls first.
Choose your best referral partner and do a mutual endorsement mailer. A mutual endorsement mailer is a prospecting tool used not only to promote each others businesses, but to actually make personal introductions for each other. Here’s how it works.
Review your contact database with your referral partner and determine which of your customers or strong contacts (meaning those that have a relationship with you) best fits your referral partner’s Ideal Client Profile (those prospects who have attributes that make them ideal as a customer for your referral partner). Next, on your letterhead, have your referral partner write a letter to the contacts in your database who have been identified as fitting your referral partner’s Ideal Client Profile to personally introduce your referral partner to your contacts. Your referral partner is writing a letter on your letterhead, as if it is coming from you, as a way of being personally introduced to specific contacts in your database. By having your referral partner write the letter, he will be able to stress the key points he wants to convey to those receiving the letter. Also include any marketing material that is relevant to your referral partner’s business, as well as your business card and your referrals partner’s business card. Remember, you should sign the letter, as it is coming from you. Have your referral partner do the same for you, on his letterhead, with his signature, introducing you to the contacts in his database that fit your Ideal Client Profile.
About a week after the mailers have been sent, call the contacts given to you by your referrals partner, who have received the mutual endorsement mailer. When you call, say, “I’m calling to follow up on the letter you received from David Smith.” (David Smith being your referral partner.) From there, the conversation should flow fairly smoothly and you now have a great introduction into a new prospective opportunity!
Use this as a template for writing your mutual endorsement mailer introductory letter.
You may have noticed that I included a couple of quotes from clients both at the top of the template letter and near the end. When other clients have something positive to say about you and your company, it is the most powerful sales tool you have…use it. Be sure the quote you use speaks to the results you’ve created for your client, as this will give you credibility and inspire confidence in the prospect that you will deliver the same for him.
Also, be sure to include any other titles or accolades that will give your company credibility. For example, in the template letter you will see that not only am I the CEO of Sittig Northwest, Inc., but also a columnist with The Puget Sound Business Journal. Also, The Blitz Experience™ was featured on SellingPower.com’s website homepage so I included that tidbit as well. If you can establish credibility early on in your letter, it is more likely the prospect will read it the entire way through.
Finally, keep your letter to one page. You want to create enough curiosity about who you are and what you do that the prospect will accept your follow-up phone call, but you don’t want to tell everything there is to tell in the mutual endorsement introductory letter.
The mutual endorsement mailer and the subsequent follow-up call is a very effective way to generate new business and will take the chill out of your cold calls!
For more information about the mutual endorsement mailer and other great prospecting tips, check out Andrea’s new book Business-to-Business Prospecting: Innovative Techniques to Get Your Foot in the Door with Any Prospect (Aspatore Books, 2005).
ANDREA SITTIG-ROLF is a public speaker, author, and president of Sittig Northwest, Inc., a sales training and consulting firm. Contact her at 206-769-4886 or www.sittiginc.com.
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