Ineffective Cold Calling

English: Cold Calling A paneless phone box nea...

Cold-calling - two words that fill most people with dread - either making those calls or being on the receiving end of them.

Having just been on the receiving end of a yet another cold-call, one of the things that annoys me most is when having established that it is actually you on the line - they launch into their script with hardly a pause for breath and with no concept of whether you actually might be in the middle of something.

I always wait to see how long it takes them to pause and ask me a question.  Sometimes the question comes fairly quickly, at other times they don't wait, they just keep going based on the assumption that I'm going to want what they're selling.

If there's a hint of dis-interest they either change up a gear or switch to their "How To Handle Objections" script.

Now I'm no expert on cold-calling and could certainly learn from the experts but doesn't it make sense to at least ask a couple of pertinent questions before launching into your 'speel'?  Better still don't use a script but a few key bullet points for discussion.

I did compliment someone on their calling technique the other day - they were informal, friendly and

Better to end a call quickly and move on and stop wasting both yours and their time.

[If you register with the Telephone Preference Service you can eliminate most cold callers - doesn't work for overseas, businesses numbers or if you've 'opted-in'.]

Image via Wikipedia

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