Cold calling isn’t rocket science. If you’re in sales, you gotta do them at some point in your career. Heck, I do cold calling on occasion. You never know what you’re going to get. But before I pick up the phone, I want to make sure I have a good prospect. So I ask questions of myself:
Do I know if this company exhibits at shows? If so, what shows? Who’s the person that directs that effort? Is he/she the decision maker? What have they done in the past? How many shows a year do they currently attend?
Y’know, that kind of thing. A little ‘market research’ so you might have a clue as to where a conversation might go, or to perhaps keep up if it takes a swift turn.
This morning I received a cold call from a sales woman who hadn’t done much of anything before dialing my number:
She: Hi, I’m with (insert company name). Do you do any business with the federal government?Me: Yes…But I’m not sure exactly what it is you want from me. We already do a fair amount of business with the federal government.She: You do? I’m not sure exactly what it is you do.Me: Well, I suppose if you’d bothered to check out our website or do a little research on our company so you’d know what you’re talking about when you tried to sell something it would help. Which is what I do before I cold call someone.She: So you’re not interested?Me: It doesn’t sound like you know what we do. Did you even try and find out what it is we do before you called us?She: (giving up waaaay too easily): Well, I hope you have a nice day. Thank you for your t— (hangs up)
Hey, don’t give up so quickly! I might be interested in at least hearing your pitch – but by not getting a specific answer, and abandoning the effort, it was a wasted call all around.
At a tradeshow it’s a different beast altogether. It’s almost as if you’re allowed to ‘cold call’ without doing an research. People walk up to your booth, you start zinging them some pre-planned questions. Based on their answers, you quickly determine if they’re a prospect or not. But you still will be in a better position if your questions are well-thought-out to elicit responses that pertain directly to your product or service.
photo credit: 1Happysnapper (photography)
Tim Patterson has been helping companies navigate the trade show world since 2002. He owns TradeshowGuy Exhibits and writes here about exhibit design, marketing, industry trends, and lessons learned from more than two decades on the show floor.