How to Do Pre-Cold Call Planning

No Comments

August 2, 2012 · Actionable Business Sales Intelligence, Cold Calling, Pre-Call Planning, Prospect Qualification, Prospecting, Prospecting Tactics, Sales Research, Sales Strategies, Sales Tips, Sales Triggers, Selling, Success, triggers

By Ron LaVine, MBA and President of Accelerated Cold Call Training, Inc.
Cold Calling System for Sales Success – Live Cold Call Training Workshops®

Before you have gotten your first appointment, the need to do your pre-cold call planning homework and collect background information about a prospect’s company really kicks in. While you may not be able to cover all the areas mentioned, being aware of them, can be very beneficial in differentiating yourself from other sales reps that do not take the time to do their homework. Instead, they just call a prospect blindly, “flying by the seat of their pants” and hope they get a result.

The Main Objectives of Pre-Cold Call Planning are to Understand:

Where is the prospect and their company now.

Where does the prospect want their company to be.

How does the prospect currently plan to get their company to that objective.

Start by checking the prospect’s web site and other Internet web sites for information related too:

Alliances

Are any of these organizations, customers of yours?

Are you able to leverage the people in these relationships?

Business Environment or Industry Trends

Look for industry or government potential change or change events* or business drivers such as increasing regulations, decreasing costs, increasing agility or decreasing risk.

Contact Names

Are names, titles, extensions or email addresses of people related to your solution (possibly an organizational chart) available by doing a search either publicly or on their web site?

Competition

Who are their direct and indirect competition?

Are you able to leverage these relationships by demonstrating the benefits and results your prospect may miss by not doing business with your company?

Decisions

Are they centralized in one location or does each location have the authority to make their own decisions?

Do you know who are the real decision-makers and other buyer types?

Distributors, Alliances, Resellers or Partners

Are any of these organizations, customers or in reseller or alliance programs of yours?

Are you able to leverage the people in these relationships?

Investor Relations or Corporate Communications or Community Relations

Are there any change events listed?

Are there any contacts phone numbers or emails listed?

Locations and Employees

How many locations and employees are at each location?

Are you able to leverage the people in these relationships?

Management’s Discussion & Analysis of Financial Condition & Results of Operations from the Annual Report

This information, usually found in a publicly traded company’s annual report, can tell you:

What are the prospect’s current & future goals and objectives.
What are the change events that may effect the prospect’s business operations.
What are the prospect’s current or future strategies.
Who does the prospect consider as their main competition and why.

Markets and Customers

Who do they serve and what types of marketing delivery vehicles do they use (Such as social media, their web site or direct mail?

Solution Development

What solutions does the prospect offer and how are these solutions developed?

Solution Offerings

How are the prospect’s solutions delivered to the marketplace?

Properties or Locations

Any changes such as expansions or contractions?

Creating an Pre-Cold Call Planning Template

We have already established when you are going after large prospective clients, you need to do some research first. Start by preparing a Pre-Cold Call Planning Template either as a document or by copying the information into your SFA/CRM system. To build this template, you need to:

Copy the Prospect’s Organization Contact Information

Company Name, Address, Zip, Phone Numbers, etc. into your Template. Look for non toll-free numbers. These numbers will keep you away from call centers that often cannot help you,

Copy the Prospect’s Company Management into your Template.

Read the Career Section or Jobs Offered Look for careers or jobs related to your solutions.

For example: technology in use or the people the prospect is hiring for specific projects. Copy this information into your Template,

Copy the About the Company from the Career or About the Company Sections.

These typically explain the prospect’s company mission statement, objectives, values and goals,

Review the Corporate Communications, Press Releases, Investor Relations or Community Relations pages

Look for additional contact information within the prospect’s company. Call on these people if you are having trouble getting into your prospect’s company over the phone. Copy this information into your Template,

Search for change events and articles of interest as they relate to your solution. Search on words applying to your solutions. Here are some examples of change events decision-makers care about most:

Acquisitions
Collections
Competitive Environment Changes
Compliance with Regulations
Cost of Goods Sold
Customer Retention or Churn
Downtime/Up-time
Employee Turnover or Churn
Inventory Turns
Joint Ventures
Labor Costs
Lead Conversion Rate
Lifetime customer value
Locations Changes
Market Share or Percent of Market Owned
Mergers
Net Payback Period
New Funding
New Hires
Operating Costs
Pending or Changes in Government Regs
Productivity
Profit Margins
Promotions
Return on Investment
Sales Velocity or Sales Cycle Speed
Share of Customer Market
Time to Market
Time to Profitability
Total Cost of Ownership
Turnaround Time
Waste

Copy these into your Template.

Look at other Networking, Contact Sources, Free and Paid Sales Research Sites.

My favorite is http://www.LinkedIn.com which allows you to do advanced targeted searches on names, titles and companies.

Here are some other web sites where you can find this information:

Use complementary Google Alerts http://www.google.com/alerts to find and track these events that occur within your prospects’ and clients’ companies. This information will help you determine the main business reasons how and why prospects and clients use your solutions.

www.crusharmy.com (provides email addresses)

Other Sources of Actionable Business Sales Intelligence™

For publically traded companies, read the Management Discussion & Analysis in their Annual Report or go to the Security Exchange Commission’s web site: http://www.sec.gov/search/search.htm to find this information.

Go to Yahoo Finance’s website http://finance.yahoo.com/ to find information about the prospect’s company officers and their main competition.

Key Point – Use your relationships with people at your and your prospect’s competitors, partners, resellers or distributors to lend credibility to your organization’s offerings.

Key Point – Do not spend more time researching than you do actually making calls. Do not fall into the Paralysis by Analysis trap.

In conclusion, do your Pre-Cold Call Planning homework and you’ll be miles ahead of your competition while making more sales and putting greater amounts of dollars in your bank account.

You can use this content in your own publications.
Please include the following reprint permission…

This article is reprinted with permission from Ron LaVine’s “Sales Tips for Success” complementary e-Zine. Ron LaVine, MBA is President and Founder of Accelerated Cold Calling Training, Inc., an Oak Park, CA cold call training company. Get two FREE Reports, plus the FREE e-Zine, Sales Tips for Success by clicking here. Learn more about Cold Calling for Sales Success On-site, Virtual, Individual or Group, Live Cold Call Training Workshops® by calling me, Ron LaVine at +1-818-991-6487 by clicking here. Follow me on Twitter by clicking here.

CLICK HERE TO GET YOUR FREE COLD CALL TRAINING NEEDS ANALYSIS

HOME PAGE // SITE MAP // STORE // WORKSHOPS // REINFORCEMENT // CLIENTS

TESTIMONIAL LETTERS // MORE TESTIMONIAL LETTERS // QUOTES FROM CLIENTS

ORGANIZATIONS CALLED // FREE SALES TIPS // FREE RESOURCES // FREE ARTICLES

FREE INFO // ABOUT US // FREE SALES TIPS E-ZINE

Comments are closed.

How to Do Pre-Cold Call Planning

The Main Objectives of Pre-Cold Call Planning are to Understand:

Where is the prospect and their company now.

Where does the prospect want their company to be.

How does the prospect currently plan to get their company to that objective.

Start by checking the prospect’s web site and other Internet web sites for information related too:

Alliances

Are any of these organizations, customers of yours?

Are you able to leverage the people in these relationships?

Business Environment or Industry Trends

Look for industry or government potential change or change events* or business drivers such as increasing regulations, decreasing costs, increasing agility or decreasing risk.

Contact Names

Are names, titles, extensions or email addresses of people related to your solution (possibly an organizational chart) available by doing a search either publicly or on their web site?

Competition

Who are their direct and indirect competition?

Are you able to leverage these relationships by demonstrating the benefits and results your prospect may miss by not doing business with your company?

Decisions

Are they centralized in one location or does each location have the authority to make their own decisions?

Do you know who are the real decision-makers and other buyer types?

Distributors, Alliances, Resellers or Partners

Are any of these organizations, customers or in reseller or alliance programs of yours?

Are you able to leverage the people in these relationships?

Investor Relations or Corporate Communications or Community Relations

Are there any change events listed?

Are there any contacts phone numbers or emails listed?

Locations and Employees

How many locations and employees are at each location?

Are you able to leverage the people in these relationships?

Management’s Discussion & Analysis of Financial Condition & Results of Operations from the Annual Report

This information, usually found in a publicly traded company’s annual report, can tell you:

What are the prospect’s current & future goals and objectives.

What are the change events that may effect the prospect’s business operations.

What are the prospect’s current or future strategies.

Who does the prospect consider as their main competition and why.

Markets and Customers

Who do they serve and what types of marketing delivery vehicles do they use (Such as social media, their web site or direct mail?

Solution Development

What solutions does the prospect offer and how are these solutions developed?

Solution Offerings

How are the prospect’s solutions delivered to the marketplace?

Properties or Locations

Any changes such as expansions or contractions?

Creating an Pre-Cold Call Planning Template

We have already established when you are going after large prospective clients, you need to do some research first. Start by preparing a Pre-Cold Call Planning Template either as a document or by copying the information into your SFA/CRM system. To build this template, you need to:

Copy the Prospect’s Organization Contact Information

Company Name, Address, Zip, Phone Numbers, etc. into your Template. Look for non toll-free numbers. These numbers will keep you away from call centers that often cannot help you,

Copy the Prospect’s Company Management into your Template.

Read the Career Section or Jobs Offered Look for careers or jobs related to your solutions.

For example: technology in use or the people the prospect is hiring for specific projects. Copy this information into your Template,

Copy the About the Company from the Career or About the Company Sections.

These typically explain the prospect’s company mission statement, objectives, values and goals,

Review the Corporate Communications, Press Releases, Investor Relations or Community Relations pages

Look for additional contact information within the prospect’s company. Call on these people if you are having trouble getting into your prospect’s company over the phone. Copy this information into your Template,

Search for change events and articles of interest as they relate to your solution. Search on words applying to your solutions. Here are some examples of change events decision-makers care about most:

Acquisitions

Collections

Competitive Environment Changes

Compliance with Regulations

Cost of Goods Sold

Customer Retention or Churn

Downtime/Up-time

Employee Turnover or Churn

Inventory Turns

Joint Ventures

Labor Costs

Lead Conversion Rate

Lifetime customer value

Locations Changes

Market Share or Percent of Market Owned

Mergers

Net Payback Period

New Funding

New Hires

Operating Costs

Pending or Changes in Government Regs

Productivity

Profit Margins

Promotions

Return on Investment

Sales Velocity or Sales Cycle Speed