Do you find approaching people by phone/cold calling difficult?
Is the rest of the business relying on you to bring in the bacon?
Yes? OK, so let’s agree on three things first.
Fact 1 – Going in cold is hard
Fact 2 – People hate cold callers
Fact 3 – If you hate making cold calls or don’t find it rewarding – you’re doing it wrong.
If you can, please read this blog with an open mind, and try for one minute to forget everything you know about cold calling. Yes it’s hard, but bear with me.
Wouldn’t life be easier if your CRM presented snippets about the person and business you are calling?
Imagine if:
- You knew it was their first day.
- You could see a company org chart.
- You know they’ve just moved into new offices.
- You knew they’d just uploaded a job to their website.
- You knew they’d acquired another business and are doing really well.
- You knew the last 9 calls to the office went to voicemail, but the mobile gets answered.
- You knew who they’d just hired.
- You could see all phone and email activity in one place.
- You could read their latest tweet.
- You knew they’d just moved house.
Get the idea…?
7 Tips to Recruiter Cold Calling
- Calling From an Old Database/List – Does the last note help or hinder your ‘New Business Development’ journey? From now on when adding notes make them positive. Each call is a stepping stone forward – don’t look backwards.
- Open Your 3rd Eye – Does the receptionist sounds manically busy, or chilled? Is your favourite song on the radio in the background? Can you hear a fire siren, did that happen last time? Is it a noisy office? With every call you make, plan the next one!
- Only Write Positive Notes – This is no place for negativity! If someone hangs up on you, write ‘caught them at a busy moment’. React positively to every interaction and find a reason to follow it up.
- You’ve Struck Gold – Receptionist says “they’re in a meeting”. They’re probably not, but don’t get stressed about it, they’re just doing their job. You might have been told that 10 times already, but she’s only told you once. “Sally doesn’t work Fridays” means you can book a call Monday-Thursday. Lots of small steps make a journey.
- Phoning a Friend is Easy – because you have lots in common, your CRM should facilitate a very insightful conversation pulling Social Media information into one place. Imagine you’re calling a friend, not a stranger – its easier.
- Build Rapport and Find a Common Ground – without mutual respect, you’ll find it much harder to promote an idea or product, the gatekeeper has good and bad days too. Maybe your call is her first of the day too! Above all, keep the calls friendly and fun.
- Invest in the Tools You Need to Become a Success – Get a decent CRM.
In my time at Voyager, I’ve heard some refer to Telesales as ‘old school’, but selling over the phone worked extremely well before the internet, some might say that’s all there was, so isn’t it time you focused at least some of your attention in a direction that’s already proven to really work?
If you’re the sort of person that gloats about the number of connections you have but can’t ‘actually connect’ in the real world, this blog probably isn’t for you. In which case you might want to stop reading now.
On the other hand, if you’re determined to succeed and want to make a difference for yourself and those around you then why not get in the ‘driving seat’ and choose your own destination?
Time to stop being a passenger?
Whilst you’re reading this blog there is a good chance some of your colleagues are faffing around scheduling tweets, pondering over emails, e-shots and photos of cute kittens – they’re seemingly willing to do almost anything to avoid that phone on their desk, the one covered in dust, but fear not. The colleague who’d rather write a blog, post a tweet or share an image online in the desperate hope that someone is going to read it is exactly the sort of person you’ll learn to love if you have a decent CRM on your side – they’re going to be your ticket to success!
People and communicating with them is what recruitment is all about and as such that’s entirely our focus here at Voyager. We make recruiters more successful and make their lives easier, it’s that simple.
OK, so I’m not going to give away all Voyagers secrets on a blog, you’ll need to book a demo for that, but if you too want a transformational insight into your customers – lets talk.
Hate cold calling? Me too, I gave it up years ago.
Voyager Infinity and Voyager Mid-Office are software solutions that make Recruiters’ lives easier. Voyager Infinity is a CRM used by thousands of recruiters globally to source, nurture and maintain the relationships with their clients and candidates, and Mid-Office manages the entire Pay and Bill process (IR35 ready).
