Cold Calling IS NOT Selling!

I think many salespeople are under the impression that COLD CALLING is the same as SELLING and it is NOT.

Cold Calling is approaching, better yet grabbing the attention and securing interest of, prospects who weren't expecting the contact.

Selling begins once you've grabbed attention and secured interest. -Seth

Why is this a topic of concern in your company? In my company we don't get hung up on textbook definitions and we just do what needs to be done to get the sales. We put effort into sales strategy... IMO cold calling is one tactic that is part of the whole strategy... it can be the beginning of the sales cycle. -Andrea

Seth is right. Cold Calling is not the whole picture. Selling is the whole picture. Cold Calling is a component of selling process. -Julian

sorry didnt understand what u disagree with seth thmbdn2; ;bg -pinnyz

very good point as i see some sales people try to sell while cold calling
good luck -pinnyz

I don't disagree with Seth. I'm just asking what prompted his post. -Andrea

What else could it be? -Seth

I meant that in the sense that other things could also be the beginning of the sales cycle. Referrals, tradeshow leads, direct mail leads... and warm leads from any other marketing activity. I will repeat... cold calling is just one of the tactics one can use get leads so that one can sell... -Andrea

That's the point. Cold calling is not selling. -Seth

You didn't answer my question... why does it matter what one calls selling or not... as long as it gets done and one gets results?

Who is saying that cold calling is selling? Nobody in this thread is... where are you getting this info from?

I would say that I use sales skills to cold call effectively. I sell them on agreeing to an appt or agreeing to receive a sample or info. Maybe that is what they mean... they use sales skills in cold calling. -Andrea

It's all part of the package, and I agree with Andrea in that you have "commitment objectives" for every step of the process; There is something we want done... appointment, exploration, followups, sales, deliveries, billing... whatever... and as both Andrea and Ace have alluded, they are all part of the process and all part of the sale.

Aloha.... shds; ;bg -rattus58

Prospecting is not selling. They are two different activities with two different mindsets. Cold calling is prospecting. -Seth

I am a sales person.... I prospect via networking, cold calling, asking for referrals etc. etc.

The day I quit prospecting as part of my sales process the funnel runs dry and then I am unemployed or broke.

I am not even sure of the value of this thread. It all sounds like symantics to me. -Sell4alivn

How can you ask a salesperson to perform a task that you can't even describe accurately?

I'm pretty sure that in this thread you are saying that cold calling is selling. Your not alone which is why I started the thread to begin with.

From your perspective what would that look like - "selling" someone on agreeing to an appointment or "selling" somone on agreeing to receive a sample or info? -Seth

Cold calling might in fact be a form of prospecting, but our understanding of prospecting is one of qualifying a suspect first. Cold calling by itself would not be what we'd consider prospecting.

And I beg to differ with you on the selling features of the call. I forget if it was Andrea, Ace or helisell who made the point, but calling and making the appointment is definitely part of the selling process.

Aloha... shds; ;bg -rattus58

How would you describe "Selling" to someone who was unfamiliar/ new to the business?

How would you describe "Cold Calling" to someone who was unfamiliar/ new to the business? -Seth

Cold calling is selling. -Ace Coldiron

That's disappointing. I thought you would see it differently. -Seth

At one time I did, Seth.

Much of my work has taken me into a study of advertising. It's partly due to the fact I have designed direct response marketing programs for a company I own. It's also due to the fact that along with a partner, I own a strategic advertising firm specializing in copy and promotions and ad campaigns. I studied that field relentlessly, and learned that all the true experts in advertising agreed that advertising IS "salesmanship". Sources for that are Ogilvy, Barker, Claude Hopkins, Caples.

That said--advertising as I know it is Lead Generation. Person to person prospecting (Cold Calling), just like DRM or Third Party Marketing is also lead generation.

It followed then to rethink Cold Calling as part of the selling process. Also--a solid understanding of selling is vital to the cold calling process. The reverse, of course, is not necessarily true. -Ace Coldiron

Advertising (print, radio, television, etc.) is a ONE WAY interaction. Selling is NOT a one way interaction.

Telemarketers setting appointments around the globe with little to know sales training show otherwise. -Seth

Selling is a process. From investigating names from a list to becoming qualified prospects, it all part of a process. From making that first call to a prospect to establish interest in a product or service to the final delivery off your shelf, it is all part of the process.

Calling for an appointment. How is it possible to ignore the fact one is persuading another when making an appointment?

Aloha... shds; ;bg -rattus58

In sales, some salespeople have to generate their own leads and some even have to deliver what they sell. Is lead generation or product deliver selling? No. Is it part of sales? Yes.

Is scheduling appointments selling? No. Is it part of lead generation? Yes.

Is introducing yourself to strangers selling? No. Is it part of cold calling? Yes. -Seth

I'm ending my participation of this conversation with this post. Making an appointment with the dentist is making an appointment.

Calling on a business owner and asking to take precious time in order that I can ask his opinion or evaluation of a product or service is a DEFINITE STEP IN THE SALES PROCESS. It requires in many cases a skillful understanding of the selling process in order to accomplish that commitment objective. That you have a stubborn resistance to the obvious doesn't change the facts at hand.

Lead Generation in my opinion, is a card left for information after a seminar, or someone sending in a coupon. This are people who have expressed an interest in our products or service.. a lead generated.

Aloha... :cool: -rattus58

I agree...

From my perspective I see selling as something that will have a direct impact on whether a sale is closed or not. I use my sales skills when coming up with copy for advertising/direct mail/websites and crafting my sales pitch, sending out quotes or proposals. Time spent on a pre-call is also time well spent. From learning about the product you are selling to learnng about the competition to learning about my customer.

I will tell you what isn't selling. Order entry... arranging for product to be shipped... purchasing the raw materials we build our stuff with... project management once the sale is closed... Calling a customer for an unpaid invoice. Tracking an order shipment... etc. Occasionally they try to dump that on my plate and that is when my back gets up and I say that is NOT sales... and that is what I do... I sell...

Follow up after the sale... how do you like it? wanna buy more? IS selling thmbp2; -Andrea

I'm not buying that Seth shds; -Andrea

No!! Product delivery is not part of sales... may be part of their job but it isn't a part of sales. I do a bunch of stuff that is part of my job but it sure isn't sales and I'm not dumb enough to confuse the two. -Andrea

So do Girl Scouts selling cookies.

Is THAT what we're talking about-- TELEMARKETERS? Is THAT what YOU do? When is the last time you told anybody you're a telemarketer?

BTW, I know you're into semantics. Did you know that telemarketing and teleselling are two different things. PLEASE don't go start a thread on it.

You're really reaching to prove a point that has little to do with selling and everything to do with semantics. -Ace Coldiron

Says you. Salespeople will be better off when they have a crystal clear understanding of what selling is. It is not advertising. It is not cold calling.

Girl scouts selling cookies? Is that how you identify "Selling"? Please Mister, won't you buy a cookie? -Seth

Ace... this just brightened up my day... sn;

I can now go cold call with a shiny new confidence!! -Andrea

Stories abound of salespeople who walk into sales calls, give a one-way (Think Advertisement) information dump and walk out without a sell. Is that selling? If you did it well would your sales manager feel you did a great job of selling? No, because telling isn't selling.

If the first thing you did after walking into a sales call was say, "Please Mister, won't you buy my photocopier?" would that be selling? Would your sales manager feel you did a great job of selling? No, because selling is more than simply asking someone to buy.

If a customer walked in to your dealership and said I want to buy that car right there right now. Is that selling? No, that is order taking.

Semantics? I don't think so. -Seth

Yup... semantics... because I would call your exmaples "bad selling"

As far as the person that wants to buy a car... a good sales person would upsell them from one model to the other and get referrals from their friends or family. Why not upsell them to buy two cars... one brand spanking new one for themselves and a used one for their teen.... -Andrea

So the salesperson who couldn't upsell them from one model to the other wouldn't be a good salesperson? You see what this implies right? -Seth

I left out one word... "try".. a good sales person would try... but a bad one would just take the sale and not even try or know that he can try... -Andrea

Hi Andrea... :)

You didn't really mean "bad" did you? I'm not sure that any salesman of any kind who makes a legitimate sale can be considered "bad" but average salesmen may neglect to upgrade being so happy to have any sale.

Much Aloha... Tom shds; ;bg -rattus58

Ha Ha Ha what a great thread.
I sold cars for 15 years.

Once.
Only once, not twice, but only once i all that time....did someone walk in and say I want to buy that car there now.

I was the top salesperson in my group and, for one particular product, the top salesman in the entire network (all the UK)
So I was kinda good at selling cars. Know what I did with the guy who said 'I want that one now'?

I filled in the order. It wasn't selling. It happened only once. It was never going to happen again...so I did the right thing and took the order.

...... Paragraph Deleted by Moderator....


I was grateful for the easy money, got the order done asap so that I could get back to the job of selling cars.

I'm fairly new here so forgive me but......has anyone here ever put a definition on 'selling'.

I know that if you did (and if it was the correct definition(there IS one)) you would see very clearly whether cold calling and selling were the same thing or not.

Hey great fun all this though. -helisell

sorry Tom... one "neglect" here and there does not a bad salesperson make... but frequent neglects and low sales do....

the usage of good and bad was only to relate to wether something is considered selling or not. I once had a boss tell me that I wasn't "selling".... it all comes down to semantics as many of us have mentioned. How can one call anythign selling if nothing is actually bought? In my first year of sales I hardly "sold" anything. I mostly took orders. that is why my boss said I wasn't "selling". And it wasn't for a lack of trying... it was because of a lack of skill and lack of effectiveness. So while he could say I wasn't selling I could say I was selling badly. I mean I was doing something all day every day that resembled the sales process but at the end of the day I wasn't qualifying effectively, not demonstrating the value effectively and not closing effectively. -Andrea

Hi Andrea.... :)

You make a very persuasive argument that makes it difficult to disagree with you.... thmbp2;

Aloha... Tom shds; ;bg -rattus58

Andrea, I posted this before and wanted to share it with you so that you might better understand why I don't believe this is a matter of semantics.

Selling to me is defined as "motivating a prospect to take action now".

Engaging the client, gaining acceptance and trust, understanding wants and needs, asking for the sale, eliminating resistance, etc. may be necessary to reach that objective but if the prospect is not motivated to take action now there will be no sale.

Effective cold calling only gets you into position to sell. -Seth

What is a cold call.... motivating a prospect to take action... IE.. to see you for an appointment. All the elements of a sale are usually there. It doesn't matter that one sale gets you to another... these are commitment objectives in the process. -rattus58

Thank you for sharing your point of view. thmbp2; -Seth

No... selling to you is "motivating a prospect to buy now"

because when you say "to take action" that is very open. Maybe I want them to take action into using my product as a trial... once they like it they will buy it. That is a multi step process. I want them to take various actions which ultimately will result in a sale. During a cold call I can motivate them to take action now to move forward with the next step. I don't disagree with you on your selling definition... but I do think there is some "motivating to take action now" during a cold call... otherwise there is no rest of the process. -Andrea

p.s. I have sold product during cold calling... -Andrea

How do you define "cold calling"? -Seth

Lead generation by calling on potential customers.
Objectives during a cold call
- introduce myself, my company, and what we do (briefly)
- find out who decision maker is
- qualify them - where are they at in their purchasing process for my product offering (I sell B2B) (I call on targetted companies whom I KNOW use the product I sell)
- Give them one or two major benefits to get them to:
- Agree on next step (i.e. send info or quote)

The times I've sold is because they urgently needed my product and I called them at the right time. -Andrea

It looks like cold calling, most of the time, as you explained ends just prior to the interview step. Did I get that right? -Seth

What interview step? -Andrea

The point where you find out what the prospect wants. -Seth

You mean the qualification process? no. because during a cold call I start qualifying them but that doesn't mean I don't get to qualify them further down the line. I just get enough info from them to know whether I can offer them something now. It is during the subsequent calls that I can do a deeper probe of what they want.

As far as I'm concerned a cold call ends when I hang up the phone after talking to them and they either agree to go to the next step or NOT.

Sometimes the cold calling takes two or three calls. Why? because they may not be there when I call. I might just find out who the decision maker is on the first call and then I have to call back and catch them at the right time. -Andrea

Hi Andrea
I couldnt follow this discussion well enough it was getting a bit to deep for me,but your words grabbed my attention so i would like comment.
Delivery can also be part of the sales process if your client is asking a delivery option different than the norm and you as a service do as he askes then this would be considered selling.
To sum up,
Any thing done to make sure that a client is satified and will continue the buying or convincing the client that by buying is going to make him happy is considered selling, cold calling is not to satisfy or covince the client,its just grabbing attention so he will consider to listen .
Hope i didnt bore you stay well shds; -pinnyz

[quote=pinnyz;43205]...cold calling is not to satisfy or covince the client,its just grabbing attention so he will consider to listen./quote]I like the way you think about this. thmbp2; -Seth

While I may be in the dramatic minority of one here, I disagree with EVERYONE who thinks one who is in conversation with another for the purpose changing their mind, seeking change, seeking an appointment, or seeking qualifying information, is not engaged in the sales process, and is selling by MY DEFINITION.

My definition of selling is that if you are engaged anywhere in the process where you are directly engaged with the public and the outcome of your contact a moving forward of the process is effected, you are selling. To convince someone to sit down with you to go forward with listening to your service or product offering, is selling. Without that intial "SALE", there is no sale, no agreement, no paycheck.

This is MY DEFINITION. It is MY OPINION, and if you are on the phone with a businessowner, housewife, or client of any type seeking a second meeting, you have engaged in the sales process, furthering your Commitment Objective of moving forward to the next level of sales process and are SELLING.

Aloha.... Tom :cool: -rattus58

OF COURSE, that is correct!

As I wrote earlier, I used to be wrong on that topic. You live, you learn. -Ace Coldiron

We are maybe now a minority of two .... thmbp2;

We are a minority our belief is to sell
our job is to bring them out of their shell
A means to communicate, with only a phone
To a true salesman, it's like offering a bone

Aloha.... shds; ;bg -rattus58

This thread appears to have ran its course. I am going to close it down. -Jeff Blackwell