Warm-Up Questions for Cold Calls

You’ve scheduled your first meeting with a new prospective customer! You’re hoping for “beginner’s luck,” eager to make a stellar first impression—but what’s the best way to make that happen? Do you jump right into questioning if your prospect knows little, if anything, about you? How do you provide background on your company without falling into the sales pitch trap? You want to quickly set the stage and build credibility, otherwise your prospect may ask herself, “Why am I wasting my time with you, loser?”

It’s tempting to try warming up with small talk about the weather or an interesting item in your prospect’s office—but that can backfire if you’re not careful. I knew a salesman who discovered in advance that his prospect liked the game of cricket. He studied the sport so closely, he was able to engage his prospect in a lively 45-minute conversation—only to find that, after their cricket chat, the prospect had no time for talking business because he had to dash off to a crucial meeting!

Then there was another salesman who couldn’t help noticing a large teak turtle statue in his prospect’s office, and thought it would make a great launch pad for warm-up questions. After asking about the teak turtle’s origins and workmanship, he asked, “So what made you decide to put this handsome creature in your office?”

The prospect smirked. “Oh, I just use it to bait stupid salespeople like you who waste my time with lame questions.”

Ouch!

Sure, you’d like to be able to build a relationship with a customer before you start pitching your products and services. Talking about hobbies and office knick-knacks is a nice start, but you can only milk that so far. The bottom line for prospects is: how will you eliminate my business headaches and help me profit? The trouble is, the big businesspeople you want to cultivate are too overwhelmingly busy to take the time to build relationships first. They don't have time to chitchat about cricket, teak turtles, or charming family photos on their desks. Keep in mind, too, that you can’t hurry trust. Positive business relationships don’t just happen at your convenience, they have to develop over time.

So keep your warm-up questions focused and relevant; use them to give prospects a taste of how valuable you and your services are, in as short a time frame as possible. Nothing builds rapport with decision-makers like showing them you can help them save money and grow their business because you truly understand where they’re coming from.

GOOD PREPARATION = GOOD WARM-UP QUESTIONS

Trite questions roll trippingly off the tongue, but they also trip you up by inspiring trite responses, especially when customers are short on time. These people are guarded because they don’t know you, therefore they don’t know how far to trust you. How do you cultivate their trust? How can you tell when people want to do business with you, or if they’re just trying to pick your brain for free?

Segue into the aspects of business that matter to your customer, and you’ll find out what her most pressing concerns really are. The key is to formulate questions that reach the heart of the matter with surgical precision, while still being subtle enough not to intimidate your customer. Bring up market trends your client’s company is experiencing. Point out an article your customer would find relevant in a trade or business publication such as JAMA, The Wall Street Journal, or U.S. News & World Report. You can even say you came across the piece in your research for this meeting.

Let’s say you sell recruitment solutions, and you want to initiate a dialogue with Janet, your contact in your target company’s Human Resources department. You stop by Janet’s office and, after brief pleasantries, you lead in with, “Hey, Janet, the reason why I’m here today is, while prepping for today’s meeting, I came a recent article in HR News. It talks about the cost of losing a high-performance sales rep—as much as 20 times their salary. Did you happen to see that article?...A client I visited last week calculated the cost of losing their best sales rep to be as much as $500,000. What have you been experiencing in your market regarding retention strategies for hiring and keeping strong sales performers?” Feel free to condense. You can subtly touch hot buttons with safe questions touching on more controversial topics: “I read an article in the Wall Street Journal about compounded annual growth…How has this affected your firm?”

Do your homework well before the meeting. Search engines such as Google, Yahoo!, or MSN are good places to start gathering personal and business profiles on your prospect. Online business directories such as Hoover’s, Dun & Bradstreet, The Leadership Library, Reference USA, CorpTech, Datamonitor, Mergent, and Plunkett Research will help you understand the company’s ranking in its industry, its financial strength, its executives and their backgrounds, industry trends, competitors, and customer base. The more details you’re able to compile, the more personalized your questions will be.

GET THE BALL ROLLING

Once the meeting begins, these two basic steps will help you transition easily to the questioning stage and get your prospect talking:

1. Introductions and pleasantries.
2. The purpose of your meeting.

Step Two is when you give your sixty-second (or less) sound bite. Some call it the “elevator speech” because, as with an elevator ride, you have a fleeting window of opportunity to catch a prospect’s attention before she decides whether or not she wants to continue this discussion. But there’s so much info you want to convey—how do you condense it all into a sixty-second commercial that’ll leave your prospect eager to hear more? Since customers have so little time to spare, we must maximize our limited selling time with to-the-point questions leading gracefully into the issues.

After you briefly exchange pleasantries, make your transition with a remark such as, “Before we get started, would it be helpful if I spend sixty seconds on exactly who we are and what we do?” Spend eight seconds explaining briefly what your company does, or highlight a specialty that’ll grab your prospect’s attention. Then introduce a recent client success story. Everybody relates to stories; they connect with a prospect’s emotions. Just make sure the story is SSRR:

• Short.
• Specific.
• Relevant.
• Results-oriented.

Keep it succinct and to the point. A great sound bite speaks results in terms of dollars, percentages, or numbers. It should also strike an emotional chord, illustrating how to overcome adversity and/or achieve greater success. Studies show that 98% of prospects want one or the other.

THREE WARM-UP SUGGESTIONS FOR THE FIRST MEETING

1. Ease into the conversation with warm-up questions. Asking about problems right off the bat is risky unless your prospect has volunteered the info beforehand. But the overused approaches we’ve discussed only waste her time and yours; you can hear her foot tapping impatiently before you’re done saying, “Looks like sweater weather.” The best warm-up questions are open-ended, broad in scope, and focused on getting your prospect talking about herself—questions such as:

• “How long have you been with this organization? How has your job (or responsibilities) evolved since you started with the company?”
• “What would you say you like most about your work?” “Least?”
• “If your employees (team, co-workers, boss, etc.) were to describe this organization in five words or less, what words would come to mind?” (Listen to the words given, then respond, “The word ____ is a good one; could you elaborate on that?”)
• “What would your best customers say are the reasons they enjoy doing business with you?”

Based on your prospect’s responses to warm-up questions, you’ll quickly discover plenty about her interests, personality, beliefs, how she feels about where she works, and the company’s culture.

2. Write down the information your prospective client gives you. Capture any and all critical info before it evaporates from your brain. For example, listen for certain key words and the emotions behind them:

• “We’re having difficulty with…”
• “We’re trying to…”
• “We’re unsure of…”

After you jot down those words, it’s much easier to go back and get your prospect to elaborate.

3. Remove any assumptions you have about your prospect and her problems. Jeff, a rep who sold high-tech equipment in a complex selling environment, had been on the job only six months when he closed the biggest deal in his company’s history. Asked about his secret to success, Jeff admitted that he hardly understood the product. So how did he control the sales process? By asking lots of questions! “Beginner’s luck,” you say? More likely, Jeff’s fresh perspective and lack of assumptions about his client, her problems, and the product actually worked in his favor. His curiosity compelled him to ask questions that experienced salespeople would have skipped because they assumed they already knew the answers.

Once you’ve finished your sound bite, it’s imperative not to give in to your urge to sell! Ironically, if you seem anxious to sell, your prospect will pick up on that and get defensive. Desperation is unattractive in business as well as life. You don’t want to sound like every other salesperson trying to shove a solution down the customer’s throat. You’ll be more successful at establishing a relationship if you shift the focus onto your customer and keep it on her, not you.

Salespeople have strong egos—that’s what helps them survive the rigors of such a demanding profession. Keep in mind, though, that customers have strong egos, too, and they want to talk as much as you do! Use well-chosen warm-up questions to get your customers talking, and you’ll learn the best way to meet their needs. That way, it will be the first of many meetings and the start of a great business partnership.