Warm Up Cold Calls

An Inc.com posting from a while back listed phrases salespeople use in cold calls, phrases which irritate prospects. Better yet, the posting proposed alternative phrases to fit into your cold call script. Based on shopper psychology research, here’s my revised version of that valuable list:

• “I can give you a free estimate with no obligation on your part.” Consumers expect there to be no charge for an estimate, so “free estimate” comes across as bragging about nothing. The consumer then doubts the value of real benefits you describe later. And research at Arizona State University suggests that shoppers become more likely to purchase out of obligation after getting an estimate. The problem is that if you say, “with no obligation on your part,” you reduce the obligation the prospect feels. Avoid the problems by using, “May I run the numbers?” 
• “Unconditional guarantee.” Researchers at Ohio State University and Australia’s Deakin University find that consumers are less likely to believe an unconditional guarantee than an attribute-specific guarantee, which lists the reasons the retailer will take remedial action. At the cold call start, you won’t want to give a detailed list. Instead say, “Here are ways we support our customers.” 
• “I’ll be honest with you.” What? Were you lying to me up to now? Decades ago, the word “junkie” referred to somebody addicted to narcotics and probably selling narcotics. I tell you that so you can make sense of adhesive signs which appeared on university campuses at the time reading “Mary Poppins is a junkie.” A rumor began circulating that these signs were showing up all over the nation and Walt Disney himself was so outraged about it, he was hiring detectives to locate the miscreants for punishment. A phony rumor, I’d think, but in any case, new signs popped up. Each one read, “Mary Poppins is NOT a junkie.” Rather than say, “I’ll be honest with you,” use, “Here’s what I think.” 

      Many cold call scripts start out with something like, “How are you today?” This sounds phony. The suggested alternative is to launch with, “Here’s why I’m calling today.” However, researchers at University of Minnesota, Utrecht University, and University of Twente found, across six laboratory and real-world telemarketing studies, brief chitchat at the start, such as “How are you today” softens up the prospect’s resistances to a solicitation which follows.

For your profitability: Sell Well: What Really Moves Your Shoppers

Click below for more: 
Peer into Pressure from Obligation 
Serve Yourself to SST Guarantees 
Avoid “Not” in Influencing Shoppers