Have you ever decided to undertake and plan a cold calling campaign for your business? If you answered yes to this, then my assumptions would be that in the planning phase you probably spent a LOT of time, thinking about what you were going to say and scripting how you were going to say it right?

You might have even gone as far as to role play it with a colleague, or record your message into a tape recorder so you could ensure "it was smooth" and sounded professional. If you have a grin on your face at this point and have a knowing nod, then you know what I'm talking about!

Unfortunately, when you finally get to making your calls, and you've gotten over all those neves, sweaty palms and been and made yourself a cuppa, had a toilet break and done all the paperwork (you absolutely HATE) you eventually make a call or two. Very quickly you realized that you planned in vain, becuase the people on the other end of the line simply don't want to talk about how good your services and products are.

If you're lucky you get to have a decent conversation with about 1 in 20 people you call, and out of that 20 you call, 1 is rude and hangs up, at least 3 to 5 are obviously not wanting to communicate but aren't rude, 5 say they'll get back to you and never do (thus enticing you to "chase" them, a cardinal sin in any form of selling), and the remainder talk politely but with no intent of buying (and most likely wonder how they can get this darn salesperson off the phone!).

The reason why the above scenario happens and we as salespeople decide that we're never going to do cold calling again because "it simply doesn't work!" is due to the way we make these calls. Becuase we're talking about ourselves and using the old school (and quite out of date) way of connecting with prospects (if you could even call them that, as a prospect is someone who is "Interested")... a natural guard goes up on the other end of the phone, and once this barrier is put up, it's often too late for us to get bring it back down... No matter HOW NICE we come across on the phone!

Below are 4 points that will help you transition softly and elegantly into your prospects world and communicate with them on "their terms" and not yours:

1. Create the Oppotunity For Them To HELP You
When you make your calls start with a low tone, and gently ask for their help... This was a valid point that Dale Carnegie from the book "How To Win Friends & Influence People" has used successfully a hundred years ago or more and it's still as valid today as it is back then, because we all want to feel important (even secretaries who screen calls).

So by positioning yourself in the area of requiring help (and you really do when you cold call, becuae you have "no idea" who to talk to) your sub-conciously warming up your reciever to really wanting to assist you.

You might gently say something like this after the receptionist answers the phone and says their name, "Hi <Name>, you might be able to help me out?"... <Be sure to pause here and let them say "yes">. 

What this does is make them want to say yes and reach out to assist.

2. Speak Like You Would To a Friend
Remember that when you make your calls, don't try and turn into someone, or something that you're not!

A lot of the time we try and become so scripted and professional in our calls that we end up hiding who we really are and that's why we're screened out of the call early on.

So be yourself, talk half-pace, half-tone and relax.

3. Don't Try And Manipulate A Sales Outcome
You might think that this doesn't make sense as that's the whole reason we're making these calls right?... WRONG!

What we're doing by making these calls is an attempt to connect with our reciever, we want to know about them first before we ever try and talk about solutions.

Why might we do this?

Well have you ever been in a car yard and wanted a particular colour and model of car, say it's a Black, Holden, Station Wagon... And the salesperson was to come over to you and instantly start trying to sell you a pink, VW, Convertible... Would you stay around long?

The same is true if they were to make small talk with you, find out about what you, your family, their needs and then all of a sudden turn the talk around what he wants to sell you.

You'd become supsicious from that moment on and probably not trust that salesperson, so instead, try and re-align yourself with the essence of your connection with that person, and that is to just learn about them and focus on the conversation at hand, because once they like you and know that you're not likely to pounce on them with a forced (or even un-forced) sale, they'll open up to you.

4. Help Solve Their Problems
I can hear you wondering... "What do we talk about and do we only make small talk?"...

Not entirely, what will naturally progress from an open conversation is what their looking for, either directly or indirectly. And it's from this source that you can then genuinely attempt to help them (without mentioning your products or services).

Just try and authentically connect with them and solve a problem for them. This will be quite a shock to a lot of people and they'll think it's some form of sales technique you're running on them, and this isn't a technique, it's a genuine need from your heart to help that person, company or business.

Once people know you're genuine, you will learn things that other conventional sales styles people will ever learn.

So in the end, remember you're a human being connecting naturally with another human being who may or may not have a problem to solve!

If you enjoyed this piece, I have written a lot more like this at my site specifically written for sales people who wish to connect and prospect in a more authentic way, so go ahead and visit www.NaturalColdCalling.com it's more than just cold call training, it's about connecting authentically with others.