Savage and Greene

Readers of the book, "I'd Rather Have a Root Canal Than do Cold Calling!" might recall that the key issue in qualifying is what do you need to know, to know if you want to ask for the next step?

The book focuses on qualifying questions that really help answer that issue. Well, there is another very good reason to ask questions; to help you provide more specific information about how your products or services might fit. Why? Because providing more specific info can help spark interest in taking that next step.

Shown in bold is where such questions fall in the consultative format:

Who you are.
Ad/value statement (optional).
Why you're calling.
Request to proceed.
Information sharing, including qualifying.
Request next step, when appropriate.

Information sharing should usually start with an overview or some examples of how clients use your products or services. Cold call etiquette says you go first with information because it prevents prospects from feeling invaded.

Beyond that point, information sharing is the most conversational part of the cold call. This means you won't be able to script for all of it-just the main questions. That's okay, the rest will come naturally.

As always, your scripting should provide a guide without locking you into sounding canned. The format that often works best is a question, with bullet-point reminders that include benefit statements. (See below.)

Try to formulate questions you can use to qualify and provide more specific info at the same time. You'll find a few examples below. The first set comes from a person who sells AV equipment rentals; the next two sets come from a financial advisor.

Example Questions

Set 1: Tell me about the kinds of AV equipment you use now for meetings, and how you get that equipment to the meeting.

We bring the equipment to the meeting, so you don't have to store it or drag it to and from.
We handle the set up, so you know it will work well no matter where you are.
We can show you how to use new tools to add even more impact to your programs.
We provide the latest and greatest, so you have the best without the expense.

Set 2: I'd like to get a sense of where you are with your investments. How long have you been investing?

Many clients are fairly new to investing: They say they value our clear explanations of the options.
Many clients have mature portfolios yet need to meet changing goals: Could be your situation, too.

Set 3: Tell me about the kind of involvement you prefer.

Little involvement: Lots of experience in ensuring things are on track without overloading you.
High involvement: Have several clients who prefer a hands-on approach so I may be a good partner for you, too.

More Tips

As you formulate questions remember that you are marketing, not selling. Ask too many questions and it will seem like you're jumping into selling, which will usually backfire.

Keep the number of questions down to as few as possible. Four to six is usually a good guideline.

However, having lots of options helps keep your calls fresh so you might want to create a bunch of questions to choose from.

Take care to ask questions that will generate meaningful information. Get your favorite devil's advocate to critique them:

Do you really need to know that?
Does it uncover information you can use to present something that might be interesting to lots of prospects?

Remember to hold off on presenting information in response until after you've asked all your questions. Give one cohesive presentation/response, just as you should in a sales conversation.

One more tip: Not all questions can both qualify and uncover information you can use to try to spark interest. This is especially true for the one question that is often most important, the one where you ask for the next step!