Top ‘Sales-Call Mistakes’ Identified From My 45,000+ Phone Call Experience

To develop a business or to grow an organization, people need to approach to different individuals and organizations through their ‘elevator speech’ of solutions, so that they can win their trust for earning their business. And, one of the old ways to conduct that is phone ‘cold calling.’

But why it is not effective in today’s business places?

Several reasons are there: old way of reaching out to clients, the information age, the I.T. policy of the organization to restrict incoming calls, etc. The primary reason is people are not appropriately conducting the cold-calls. And surprisingly, the cold-call is still an efficient method of gaining new business opportunities.

How do I know?

Because of my experiences in different industries, with varying exposures of the market. In the last four years, I have dialed 40k+ calls to reach out to various individuals and organizations, and based on that experience, I can mention one thing. The ancient, old obsoleting method of cold-call is still useful if you do it effectively and efficiently.

So, why not make a list of certain things, which should be avoided during your next cold-call sessions.

1. Starting a call without any prior research, notes or history on the organization or contact person.

I mean, come on people. It is not the age of dialing 100 calls a day by speaking the same script to 100 organizations.

What you should know (at minimum):

• Listed organization details,
• prior call records,
• conversation history,
• contact person information etc.
• Industry trend,
• new technological changes on the field,

• new practices in the industry,
• challenging aspects,
• benefit components of your solutions (not features/functions) etc.

2. Dialing at a wrong time.

Think, you just sat on your desk in your office, and started working essential things in the morning, and suddenly someone called you, pitching a product at 9.00 am. What will be your reaction?

Way-around

Based on industry, find out the best timing to engage. 8.30 am to 10.30 am is not suggested; so is the lunchtime (depends). Wednesdays and Thursdays are usually the best days, arguably.

3. Using a generic introductions.

Ever heard of any of the following:

• Hi, my name is ‘X,’ and I’m calling from ‘Y.’
• Hi, I’m ‘X,’ from ‘Y.’ Do you have a minute?
• Hi, I’m ‘X’ from ‘Y.’ Is this a good time to talk?

When you hear these sentences, you will think of a sneezy salesperson, trying to sell you something that you don’t want.

What you can do instead:

• Hi ‘(contact person),’ I’m ‘X’ from ‘Y,’ previously had any interaction with ‘(reference person’s name).’
• Good morning/afternoon. Ms.’ (reference person)’ mentioned your name to connect with you. I’m ‘X’ from ‘Y.’
• Hi ‘(contact person),’ I’m ‘X,’ managing client portfolios from ‘Y.’ As previously introduced myself to your office, I’m wondering whether this is an excellent time to speak, or should I call-back around noon?

4. Mispronouncing a person’s name.

I have made similar mistakes a couple of times, and I know that it offends the people. A person’s name belongs to his/her identity, and by mispronouncing it, you are showing the person that you don’t care, or it doesn’t matter to you. If you are getting the same sort of respect, how would you react?

What you should do:

You can start the conversation by simply asking whether the pronunciation you are doing is right or wrong. It will only put you at a better level. By the way, that can be a conversation starter.

5. Rigid script reading.

You are a human, not a SCI FI robot or android man from the future, or a computer bot. Rigid script reading doesn’t attract anyone. Not everything is mentioned in the script, and not every question can be answered from the script.

Alternative:

I’m not telling to tear down your script, instead have a script with points that can be covered during the conversation. You should have a great introduction and guiding path of the discussion in your writing pad, which can help during the conversation.

6. Selling pitch product or solution at first call.

Go ahead and continue to do it, please. You are already making it easier for your competition in the field.

What you should concentrate:

Have a great discussion with information gathering, so that in the coming connects, you can elaborate on those topics to identify relevant pain points, to provide a solution when required.

7. Talking too fast.

Your prospect and you, both are busy — so why not, right? If the person receiving the call doesn’t understand what you are talking about, what’s the point to call?

What you should do:

It is a discussion, so speak with clarity and in a clear voice, which will eventually take your speech speed at a reasonable level.

Not knowing who the contact person is or not knowing the front desk person (or, speaking to the wrong person).

Apart from the pure cold-calling (shooting arrows in the flying mosquito), you need to have at least one person’s contact information that you can refer to. It is difficult to get traction if you do not know anyone from the organization.

What you should do instead:

Research more, and identify. Even, a retired person’s name can work wonders, if you had a previous connection.

8. Treating gatekeepers badly.

So, you have misbehaved with the front desk person for getting the contact person’s information. Good luck with that (along with your professional sanity)!

What you should do:

• Behave gently, calmly, and with a warm tone.
• Not letting the other person speak (or, not listening).

If you are not up for a conversation, instead want to speak out about your excellent product — why don’t you send a cold email then? Apart from the Anti-Spam law, the results will be mostly the same — ‘Failure to get any traction.’

What you should do instead:

Speak with one of your friends with your product speech and get his/her reaction. Or, ask questions in intervals during your conversation. Eventually, you will have to let them speak to answer your question, right!

9. No clear goal of the call/connect.

If you are calling an organization to know how they are doing, do not call them. If you do not have a proper objective for the call, you will not get anything meaningful from the call; rather, you might lose a good prospect.

What you should do:

As you shouldn’t sell at the first call (depends on the industry), you should categorize either your calls or the day to attain a particular objective. In some days, I connect with the clients to get updates on their latest system and how users are experiencing it; in some days I call to invite for webinars. You choose your objective and execute it accordingly.

10. Pretending to be their friend (fake friendliness).

You are a professional, helping people with your solution. Friendship requires time, so do not pretend within 10 seconds of your call that you are their friend. Stop pretending, start acting mature and be real.

What you should do:

Your natural conversational tone for a professional discussion.

11. Call with a list of bad questions.

And you have successfully distracted your prospect, as they will think about your capability and competence as a professional.

Example of a bad question: Are you satisfied with the service with your current vendor? Of course, they are, as by saying ‘Yes,’ they can cut-off the phone call.

What you should do:

Prepare a list of questions for discovery, think about the objective of the call, and set aside the items that serve the purpose. Think, if someone asks you the same question for their product sell, how would you respond? Then, adjust.

12. Not doing a problem solving connect/not demonstrating your value.

That means you are wasting the time of the prospect, and time is money. If the client doesn’t get what benefit is there to listen to you, they will hang up the phone within a few seconds.

What you should do:

Differentiate. Validate pain-points. Showcase the vision-path they can achieve.

13. Ignoring objections.

Often we try to ignore the objections so that we can come to a point where we can have a smooth discussion. That means you are ignoring the clue client is providing you to win their trust, thus your future opportunity.

What you can do:

Please validate their objection by asking questions that can elaborate on the scenario and then provide communication on how to resolve that. Make it more comfortable for them; they will love it.

14. Communicating too many propositions.

Can you watch two movies simultaneously with proper attention at a given time? How do you expect a person to listen to all of your propositions at one phone call?

What you should do:

One thing at a time. If you are inviting the client for s show, only concentrate on that part, do not include any other product promotion communication to dilute the conversation.

15. No next steps.

Most of the salesperson thinks that after a successful call-connect, clients or contact personnel will remember the session, and when the next call happens, the client would be able to recall everything. So, they don’t fix a next call-to-action session or follow-up call session in the initial connect. Good luck with that!

What you should do:

Even if your call didn’t went well, communicate that you can connect on a specific date or month to reconnect. Or, you want to share quarterly information update to the client, so ask what will be a great week to connect on next quarter? If there is an event on any upcoming month, communicate to reconnect with the client whether s/he can attend.

16. No follow-up note.

Courtesy brings courtesy. And the prospect doesn’t require to remember you at all, you do.

What to do:

Please send a thank you note after the call-session is done and mention that you will be touching base on next mentioned that. It will reconfirm the follow-up, and you also have a note to go through before the next call.

You can make the things closer to perfection, once you start doing experimentation in the initial stages of your career. Please, do not expect everything to be perfect or close to godliness.

My 40k+ calls had similar stories. Initial days, I had tried to perfect every call, which made it worse for the time being. Then, I started to work with my strength areas, experimented in calls, and tones. Eventually, I got it better. And, so should you!

Do experiments in your approaches. Adjust your approaches. Learn from mistakes.

You will be achieving wonders.

This article was initially written in Medium (link).