Cold Calling Techniques for Print Professionals

The majority of clients I work with, run a mile at the very mention of cold calling. Let's be honest, nobody enjoys it, well there might be a select few! But the truth is, if you want to build a successful printing business, it matters! 

• Direct Connection - It allows you to speak to potential clients and key decision makers. 
• Relationship Building - It can be the first set toward long-term partnerships.
• Proven Success - I credit cold calling as the foundation for many successful client relationships I've built over the years. 

Good things happen when you do uncomfortable things! It's natural to feel nervous. You could be interrupting someone's day and it's ok to acknowledge that fear of it not going well. Worst case scenario, they hang up on you or worst still, shout at you before they do so. I've had that happen too! What about the best case scenario though? What if you catch them at the right time and they're open to hearing how you can help them? The most important thing to remember here is that it isn't personal. It's just a numbers game. 

Cold calling is about service. I try to take a problem solving approach. You're not necessarily selling, you're helping. Demonstrate how your printed products and service solves their problems. And just because someone says 'no' today, it might still lead to a 'yes' in the future. 

Preparation is Key

This is so much easier to do today than it was when I first came into the Industry. You can use Linkedin to do your research on a company, look at their website and recent news. I had a call recently where this worked really well. I'd spent about ten minutes on Linkedin researching my prospect and found something on there that it turned out we were both personally passionate about. When I got the chance to bring it up on the call, we just clicked and needless to say, the sale went through pretty quickly after that. 

A couple of tips I would suggest to consider before you start calling:

• I personally find standing or walking around when doing this helps project a bit more confidence.
• I always have a notepad at the ready as you never know when they might start throwing a brief at you to get a quote for a print job.
• Make sure you are in a private space and unlikely to be hit with any unforeseen distractions
• Lastly, always map out what you want to achieve from the call. Is it a chance to quote? A meeting? The opportunity to send a sample pack out? 

You always want to confirm the next steps when closing the call. If you're wanting to send a sample pack out, confirm when would be a good time to call back and gather their feedback. 

It's important that you track your progress as you build up your cold calling process. Let's say for every ten calls you make, you get through to five and from those five you get three quotes. You convert two of those quotes to orders so you know if you want to gain ten new clients that week, you need to make 50 cold calls. 

Remember, nothing good happens if you don't push yourself outside your comfort zone and it's a numbers game. Once you get used to this and are willing to put the effort in, you can nail those sales goals.