The 4 leading reasons why cold calls fail

If your salespeople are not making successful cold calls, one or more of the following obstacles may be standing in their way. 

Here are four pitfalls associated with cold calling — with tips on how you can turn these negatives into positives:

1. The cold-call approach is confrontational rather than consultative. When prospects feel confrontation, they often feel provoked and challenged. Salespeople who are too anxious to close the sale in a cold call, or try to get their prospects to see their point of view, only decrease the odds of closing. Cold calling is not about getting people to see your point of view. It’s about allowing yourself to see the prospect’s point of view.
2. The prospect feels pressure rather than help. When prospects feel pressure during a cold call, they feel that demands are being placed on them. Pressure violates the prospects’ trust. Creating demand and force won’t work in a cold call. Patience, respect and understanding will. When you’re able to turn pressure around, it becomes your advantage because you become elevated to a level above your competition.
3. Prospects feel the salesperson is aggressive rather than supportive. They don’t usually reward aggressive behavior. There’s a big difference between aggressive and assertive behavior. When salespeople are assertive, they believe in the value of their products or services. Successful salespeople are self-assured and self-confident during a cold call, and they never allow their sales talk to overwhelm or push away prospects.
4. Salespeople have self-focused goals, rather than prospect focused ones. Prospects have a multitude of choices of how and what to buy. While they don’t need salespeople to be sold on what they want to buy, they usually will work with a salesperson who can assist them, service them and educate them. Professional salespeople help, support and share knowledge with their prospects. They pass along important information and ask prospects to buy after they have demonstrated how their product or service will help achieve the desired results.