Stop using ‘How are you?’
“How are you?” A harmless enough phrase, right? Heck, without it, 80 percent of all phone calls would never get started.
It seems to work as an ice breaker when we call our friends, colleagues and others that we know, so why not use it as an ice breaker on a cold phone call? Apparently that’s how most cold-calling salespeople think since that’s how the vast majority of cold calls start…to utterly disastrous results.
But why? Why if “how are you” is fine when I call Aunt Millie to say hello is it not fine when I call the unsuspecting prospect in hopes of selling him something? Most people would say it’s inappropriate on a cold call because it’s disingenuous since you don’t know the prospect and he knows you don’t really care how he is.
Guess what? Aunt Millie knows you don’t really want to know how she is. She knows you’re just using the question as an ice breaker, kind of a warmer-upper, and that’s fine with her.
Unfortunately, it’s not fine in a cold call. Again, not because it’s disingenuous, but because it utterly screams “salesperson.”
You might now say, what’s so bad about that?
Let me put it this way. If “how are you?” on a cold call screamed brain surgeon you’d be just fine because the world automatically respects and trusts brain surgeons. Does the world automatically respect and trust salespeople? Well, we know the answer to that question.
In fact, when I teach cold calling to new client salespeople, I like to jump into a role as if I’m on the phone making a cold call. I’ll then ask them to see if they can come up with a way to say the following 95 words using three words:
“Hi, this is Joe Schmedlap calling from XYZ Company. I’m a sales guy here and I’m calling to sell you something. I don’t really care if you need it, want it, or can afford it. I just want you to buy the stupid thing so I can make my numbers. I mean, c’mon, I got car payments man. Heck, let’s be real. The thing’s probably going to break the day you get it. But that’s not my problem sucker, I’ll be long gone and there won’t be anyone to take your whining, complaining phone call.”
At this point, the salespeople in the room are staring at me with that familiar and awkward deer-in the-headlights look. I let them squirm for a bit, egging them on, “C’mon you guys, surely there’s a more efficient way to say all of that, right?”
Squirm. Stare. Invariably, someone then asks, “Why would you want to say that?” Great question.
I then go on to explain the obvious. Nobody would ever actually want to say that. Unfortunately, it’s precisely what they are saying when they open a cold call with language that includes “How are you?” You can include some of the other more common openers in this category, too: “Did I catch you at a good time?” “Got a minute?”
I’ll then ask, “So what are we going to do to open our cold calls?” Usually, someone chimes in with something like, “What I like to do is jump immediately into my value proposition in the form of a question as soon as the person says “hello.” “Hi, if I could reduce your packaging line waste by 15 percent in 6 months would that have value to your company’s bottom line?” Seriously, some salespeople actually think this is a good idea.
Let’s cut to the chase. I believe there’s really only one way to open a cold call (and hundreds of client salespeople are doing it this way every single day): “Hi Mr. Smith, this is So-And-So from XYZ Company. Sort of calling you out of the blue here, could I take just a second to tell you why I’m calling?” That’s it. I call it the perfect cold call language.
Interestingly, if you change “second” to “minute” the hit rate drops way down. The reason for this is that the word “minute” is dangerously close to, “…Got a minute?”
At this point, however, you must remember what you just received permission to do: to tell the person why you are calling, NOT to go into your pitch! This should never take more than another 30 to 45 seconds and it must include the words, “So, the reason I’m calling is…”
I don’t make a lot of guarantees in my work (there are WAY too many variables outside of my control). But this is one guarantee that I do make. If you use the “calling out of the blue” language—exactly, verbatim, without changing a word—your hit rate on keeping people on the phone on cold calls will exceed 70 percent. You just have to have the guts to overcome the fear of saying, “calling out of the blue!”
