The Only Thing You Need for a Successful Cold Call—An Interview with Jim Keenan

RainToday.com's Podcast: Marketing & Selling Professional Services

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Most people struggle with cold calls because they just can't get prospects to give them their time. People are so busy and are pounded by so much information that they block things out. They've become particularly adept at tuning out salespeople.

"What happens with cold calls is you're interrupting somebody. You're calling them and saying, 'Hey, look at me. Talk to me for a second. Get off your computer. Stop reading what you're reading. Stop doing what you're doing and start talking to me,'" says Jim Keenan, author of the ebook All You Need for a Successful Cold Call. "But [people] still have to get something done. [They] still have problems that need to be fixed. … They still buy things. It's our job as salespeople to capture their attention long enough to give us an opportunity to demonstrate that we can help them. "

You do that with intrigue, he says. You disrupt the thought patterns that enable them to block information and tune things out.

"What happens when those patterns are broken is another part of our brain called the interior singular cortex fires off a signal—the error-related negativity signal. And it says, 'Hey! That's not right! That is inconsistent with the patterns that you know,'" Keenan says.

You then have their attention and have them wanting to know more. Now you can translate that to your call to action.

Listen as Keenan discusses:

• Strategies to intrigue prospects
• What to do after you capture a prospect's attention
• The benefits of combining cold calls with email
• Why cold calling is still the best active prospecting tool available