How Being a Problem Solver When Cold Calling Will Make You Successful!

When cold calling, you can now experience a wonderful new process of joy, by focussing on your prospects problems and not pitching your solutions. If you take their problems and make them specific and compelling to them to solve, then you'll experience a great new breakthrough with your cold calls.

Don't go into a sales pitch, which is what you would do if you were operating out of the old traditional cold calling mindset. What you need to remember is what you have and offer aren't relevant right now.

The only thing that matters is solving the potential problems of your prospect, and keeping the door open for future interactions in case there's a fit between you and them.

You may find it difficult to visualize what this kind of call feels like until you actually try it out. Imagine though, if you got a call like that yourself. If you were talking about things that were important to you, you'd be curious wouldn't you? And it would be more likely that you'd continue into a more substantial conversation?

Make it Concrete

So when preparing for your cold call, focus on a problem that you believe the other person has. Solve one specific issues that you can strategically challenge them on and that you know it's common problem that many of these companies have.

The best way to come up with a compelling problem is to put yourself in the other person's shoes and think about problems that your product or service can solve for them.

For example, instead of offering " office productivity problems," you could say, "I'm just giving you a call to see if you're still having issues around paper-based filing systems which slow you and your team down."

A statement like this gives the other person an immediate, vivid mental image of the problem.

As you should know your products / services really well, and you offer a very real solution to a compelling problem, the prospect will start to relax and have an open conversation with you.

Compelling Examples

So, ideally, the problem you bring up in your cold call is something that prospects can relate to based on their real work life.

To come up with a compelling solution is nowhere near as hard as you think once you get the hang of it. If you have long term experience with your offerings then you have the answers already. You probably already know three or four specific problems most of your prospects are experiencing. It's never really crossed your mind before.

So you could begin a conversation with a question similar to:

- "I'm just giving you a call to see if you'd be open to a different perspective around preventing profit loss gaps in your business?" (to a business owner)

- "I'm just calling to see if you're grappling with problems of employee performance related to a lack of training support?" (to a human resource department representative)

- "I'm just calling to see if you're open to looking at whether any department in your company might be losing revenue due to vendor overcharges?" (to an accounting manager)

Don't Slip Back

After this, you might be tempted to slip back into the traditional sales mindset and launch into a mini-presentation about the services you offer. It's premature at this stage of the conversation.

You still don't know enough about the person you're speaking with and their particular problem. Offering a solution before the other person even acknowledges having a specific problem is part of the old traditional sales mindset.

So what happens next? The two of you may start asking some questions back and forth. There'll be a natural rhythm to your dialogue. And you'll find that you're actually having a conversation without the usual instant rejection.

Basically, you're building a cold calling relationship around the other person's world. You're not sinking into the push-pull scenario of buyer and seller. Most people react warmly and unhesitatingly to a conversation that feels natural to them and revolves around their issues. So when you focus on their problems, you'll find that cold calling is much easier than you ever imagined it could be.