Mind Your Language 2 – Some Like it Cold

Picture courtesy of Naito8

Cold Calling – two words that send a chill down the spine of a lot of sales people, I can tell you!

There are so many ways to develop leads, and picking up the phone to speak to a complete stranger is among the least popular, as well as not necessarily being the most effective. There is a huge psychological barrier to overcome, which is even greater when targeting customers in a different country who speak a different first language to mine.

Psychologists tell us that, in a typical face-to-face conversation, our brains are processing information from a range of sources, only a relatively small portion of which is to do with the words being spoken. Some really persuasive sales people study the subject of body language carefully, and learn techniques such as mirroring. In point of fact, we all know a lot of this stuff instinctively without having to learn it. We read a lot from things like someone’s posture, whether they sustain eye contact, and we subconsciously modify our behaviour accordingly.

It’s the absence of these signs that make cold calling such a challenge. We hear a voice, but we have no visual information to support our impression of the person. We don’t know if they are sitting hunched over a desk with a huge pile of papers or a massive list of unanswered emails on their computer screen, or alternatively relaxing over a cold drink.

The absence of information is even worse when calling a new contact who doesn’t speak the same first language. Whether the conversation is held in my language or theirs, I am likely to miss something else, and that is the tone of their voice. Signs of anxiety, impatience, or alternatively of enthusiasm are much more difficult to detect when one person is not using their natural language.

For me, cold calling is very much a technique of last resort, but nevertheless it’s something I need to use from time to time when more gentle methods of establishing contact are not producing results. From my experience, incidents of truly unpleasant conversations are in fact extremely rare. If I tell someone I have a great product that is going to fly off their shelves, there’s a good chance they’ll give me at least a minute or two of their precious time.

Cold calling is a great way of finding out if there’s a market for my products in a certain country. Actually talking to potential re-sellers or end users invariably tells me far more than any market research can. And it’s free, as well.

Effective cold calling is something that can be learned. I find it’s really important to prepare for each call or batch of calls, to the point of working out a broad script. Scripting a call is also helpful in conversing with someone in English when it’s not their first language, as it’s a chance to ensure I keep the message simple, and avoid jargon or complicated sentences.

I claim to speak three languages, two of them with difficulty, but in my little region of the world, there are around 50 official languages, so in most cases, I don’t speak the language of my target. In those cases, my call starts with the inevitable phrase:

“Do you speak English?”

And the truth is that in virtually all smaller countries that have a unique language that is not widely spoken outside of their borders, the answer will usually be yes.

If I were calling a company in my country, I’d then explain briefly what my company did, but it really helps to keep it very simple at the first point of contact, so I would clearly and politely ask to speak to the Buying Manager. If the person on the other end is a confident speaker of English and is also well acquainted with the business, they may well ask who I am and what I’m calling about. If they are not, they will be pleased to pass the call to someone better able to deal with it.

On being passed to a second person, I’d begin by again asking if they spoke English, or if they had answered the phone with a fluent sounding English phrase, then I’d greet them, using their name if they have told me what it is, (this breaks the ice a bit, and also gives me a chance to get the name right and write it down) tell them my name and the name of my company and ask them if they were ok speaking to me in English. A silly question really, since if they say no, that’s probably the end of the conversation, although they might say they would prefer to speak French or German in which case I am still in with a chance!

I’d then have a brief script ready, of no more than two or three sentences that contained what sales people call a ‘headline’. I’d intersperse this with plenty of questions, to give them a chance to interject. Effective selling is at least as much about listening as talking.

For example:

“My name’s Axy Exporter, I work for a company in England called Super Spark Plugs, maybe you’ve heard of us?”

(“No, I can’t say that I have”)

“Not to worry. We aren’t very well known in Latvia yet. But in England and France, our sales are growing really fast, because our spark plugs perform well, are reliable and the price is very good too. Does your company buy spark plugs?”

(“Yes, we are a supplier of car parts!”) Well at least I know I got the right number.

Great. We are looking for someone to distribute our products in Latvia. Do you think you might be interested?

Now although that was a ‘closed’ question, it’s very unlikely that I’d get a simple yes or no answer. More likely it will be qualified with a few ‘it depends’ comments, each of which gives me a chance to gently probe them for more information about their company and their perception of the market.  If I’m really well organised on that day, I might even have a check list of things I want to know, such as how big they think the market is in their country, what their market share is, what resource they have in the way of sales representatives etc., whose products they currently sell and so on. I may only get a small part of this information, but I already have at least one friendly contact on the inside in that country.

The final stage of the call would be to agree what we are going to do next. We may agree that  I’ll send them some samples by courier, some literature and prices by email, or perhaps there is an opportunity to meet.

And it’s that simple. Except of course, that I do get a number of calls where people don’t speak my languages, already know my products and hate them, have a lucrative, exclusive deal with my main competitor, or are just about to go out of business. A small number just don’t want to talk. They are probably not the business partner I’m looking for. In all of those circumstances, I end up knowing more about the opportunity and getting a little closer to finding my ideal contact. Would I rather be responding to an enquiry via our website, or a recommendation from another customer? You bet! But cold calling can produce results, and it’s a quick, simple and cost free way for me or any other business to get started in a new market. Don’t knock it until you’ve tried it.

Happy accidents!