Cold Calling Doesn't Have To Be Hard
Today's Coach Interview With Keith Rosen, MCC
As appeared in Today' Coach: Wednesday, August 11, 2004
Interview by Kim George
Cold calling is a cold subject to many people. It's not one that a lot of people want to start their day with, so why write a book on cold calling?
It's funny; I never even had a project like this on my radar. It evolved through one of my strategic partners, (which I developed through prospecting). He connected me with the agent who works with Alpha Books - a division of Penguin Publishing. Now, I may have mentioned to you, Kim, that I had twins in January….
Yes! Congratulations!
Thank you! And prior to that, my wife was on bed rest for 14 weeks. During this time, we were selling a house, moving, buying a new house, and the kicker was, when presented with this opportunity, in order to have the book released on the desired date, I had only 8 weeks to write this!
They say the universe doesn't send you more than you can handle at once. Balancing all of this while running a business, taking care of my wife, enjoying the time with my 4 year old daughter and still maintaining a life throughout this process gave me further insight into how easy it is to justify putting aside an activity like prospecting and what other people may be going through as well. After all, there's always "something else" that needs to get done. When I started laying out the content of this book in more detail, it became more evident that cold calling is something that every professional does, whether they realize it on a conscious level or not. That's when I started recognizing the opportunity to make a contribution, not only to salespeople, business owners, consultants and coaches but to anyone who is looking for an easier way to attract more business without the struggle.
If you think about the term "cold calling," we often form that picture in our minds of a person sitting at their desk with a phone book in one hand and the phone in the other hand, or we have the picture of someone in a neighborhood or business district going door to door and business to business, or standing around trade shows or in a hotel lobby, trying to track down potential, unsuspecting prospects, hoping that someone, somewhere would want to purchase his or her product or service.
This may sound a bit strange especially since the phrase, "cold calling" is woven into the title of this book, but I'm going to suggest that you never have to cold call again.
Before we get into the definition of cold calling…why were you interested in writing an "Idiot's Guide"?
When I'm asked about the subject matter of this new book and I tell them it's an "Idiot's Guide," some people have an interesting reaction to it…
Like they're not an idiot? (Laugh)
Exactly! (Laugh) When I had the pleasure of having two great thought leaders in their respective space - Ken Blanchard and Brian Tracy - write an endorsement for the book, they encapsulated it the best. It's not that anyone is an idiot, but when it comes to tackling an area or subject matter that we may not be comfortable with or knowledgeable about, especially when it comes to attracting new business and are faced with a certain level of rejection that we have tendency to internalize, we may often feel a bit intimidated by it; that we don't know where to begin or exactly what to do and don't have a lot of time to master the subject matter on our own. So we need that guidance or even some hand-holding to walk us step-by-step through that negative thinking, through our fear, or through our reluctance, that might initially be uncomfortable, even intimidating, up until that point where you have a system in place and you can do it on your own. Now, you can take what was initially perceived as a difficult topic and more easily follow a process that can be embraced. This is similar to the premise of coaching.
Ken Blanchard says, "Nobody really is an idiot, let alone a complete idiot, but if you feel like one when it comes to attracting new business, this is the book for you. A helpful, encouraging guide." The part that was interesting to me - looking at the negative thinking, the fear, the reluctance behind the whole idea of cold calling and the things that get in the way.
By combining the coaching element and the core selling competencies that any professional needs to know in order to bring in new business, I've taken this often confusing and painful process of attracting new business through prospecting and make it lighter and more enjoyable, all from a very positive place. I hold the reader's hand throughout this process, so they can remove any negative thinking, fear, anxiety or reluctance associated with prospecting, self-promotion or generating new business, and design their very own prospecting and follow-up system that's aligned with their values, strengths, objectives, and their natural talents, rather than simply telling them what they "have to" do.
This book as a comprehensive guide; a roadmap to learning how to develop your own painless prospecting system, attract more qualified prospects in less time and ultimately convert them into happy clients that you enjoy working with. What I have found, Kim, is that most cold calling or prospecting efforts are doomed right from the start. People lose sales or lose clients not due to a lack of effort, but it's because they lack a prospecting system that they're comfortable with and one that generates consistent results. It's that system that will take someone from point A to point B with the least amount of risk or error.
That includes mapping out everything from your initial contact with each prospect, the communication vehicle you'll use, whether it's phone, fax, snail mail or email, to what you say, how you are going to follow up, how you are going to leave a compelling voice message that gets more return calls and how to keep your name in front of them up until the point where they are, in fact, ready to become a client.
And it's not enough to have the idea, to have the goal or intention
that something's going to happen; you really have to put it into action.
So when you talk about the system, that's what it means to me - something
to take your goal or idea and actually implement it for a result.
I'm a huge advocate of the principles of attraction, but let's get real for a second. You can't sit in your office and do nothing but declare what you want to the universe and then wait for the phone to ring.
The only way to build your business or your practice is to see enough people as frequently as possible with the intention to present your product or service to them and determine if there's a fit. Once this is accomplished, the objective is to have them become one of your valued clients. The only way to achieve this is to prospect and most important, do so consistently.
When prospecting consistently, not only do you now have access to potential clients that you wouldn't have access to otherwise, but you now get to be at choice around who you truly want to work with, rather than feeling that you "have to" work with every prospect who shows up at your door. Besides, the easiest way to develop a practice that you don't like or isn't any fun is to work with clients you don't enjoy working with.
I couldn't agree more. Andrea Shea-Hudson, who many people know
from CoachVille, makes this great joke that if you work at home and you're
a coach, you can't lay on your couch watching MTV and eating bon-bons
and expect your next client to stroll by the living room and hire you.
Attraction by itself is not enough; it's attraction in action that makes
the difference. There has to be some action associated with attraction.
It's like the whole concept of hope. Hope is passive; not that hope is
wrong, but hope in action is much more transformational than just hoping
alone.
Most definitely!
How can this book and the system that you identify help the coaching
community?
Every day, there seems to be more resources and programs available on how to build your practice and become a financially successful coach. I've heard some recent statistics about how most coaches aren't making the income they want to make. Almost every day, I speak with incredibly talented coaches who are struggling to build their practice. The interesting thing is, it's not about their coaching skills; it's about their selling skills. And developing their selling skills all begins by upgrading their thinking around selling so that they don't consider selling to be a dirty word. It's ironic; there are so many parallels between high integrity selling and coaching, yet many people don't see the connection because of the old model of selling that we've been exposed to.
It's the fear that you'll become like the used-car salesman, right?
Exactly! Let's work off the presupposition that you have the right skill set to coach effectively and be the catalyst to client success. You even have a marketing process in place. So, you're a great coach and you have a marketing strategy to get your name out there, but then what? Now that your name is out there, how are you going to get in front of more of the right prospects and convert them into clients, even if that prospect happens to be a referral? That's where this book comes in. There are some great coaches out there who would love to have a healthier practice, but the missing link that's getting in their way is their aversion to selling or self-promotion and not having a system they trust that generates the results they really want.
Prospecting is not only about picking up the phone and making a 'warm call;' it's about developing your own system that you're comfortable with to attract new prospects. That also includes how to develop your core compelling reasons that would motivate someone to even speak with you and hear more about the value of coaching, how to network effortlessly, how to develop the right partnerships, how to follow up, how to ask for referrals and develop a referral agreement with your clients, how to maximize your circle of influence, and how to get more calls returned. It's not only about changing how you think about selling or self-promotion, but developing a comprehensive system to make what was once considered to be a painful process, painless, more enjoyable and aligned with your values, goals and strengths.
Even though the title of the book is "The Complete Idiot's Guide to Cold Calling," cold calling is only one strategy or component of a comprehensive prospecting system. It's one of several methods to generate new prospects that will lead to more clients.
To take it one step further, we're doing people a disservice by not prospecting more. There are potential clients out there who are running the risk of making the wrong purchasing decision, in this case, hiring the wrong coach for them, just because they didn't know about you. When I work with coaches, I ask them, "Do you know what the best kept secret is in your profession?" If they don't know yet, I then remind them by stating; "It's YOU!" This starts the process of upgrading their mindset about the value they can deliver to each prospect they speak with and the service they can provide them.
I think that's so true and many of the coaches who I've talked with, their biggest thing is stepping up and speaking with conviction and asking to be a partner in the coaching relationship or closing the sale. There seems to be a phenomenon out there that because coaching is a helping profession, people have a conflict making money off of it.
You got it! Now, if your goal is to provide coaching without any monetary compensation, that's perfectly fine. However, if you're looking to build a financially successful career as a coach, then it may be time to re-evaluate your philosophy.
How does having a system really jump-start someone?
When I mentor coaches, we not only work on developing the right mindset, but we also work on developing the right skills that will translate into taking measurable steps that support their core intentions. It's doing things with a conscious intention. Sometimes we have to do the things that we may not exactly want to do, but have to do, to get to the place where we really want to be. For example, I may want to be in great physical shape, but that doesn't mean I want to go to the gym four times a week, when my couch can look so much more inviting. That might be the "have to" I need to engage in which will bring me to the place of what I want, which is to be in great shape. Isn't this what we often tell our clients? That, during their quest to achieve more of what they want in their life or in their career, some of the things they experience may be a bit uncomfortable as they grow into who they want to be most, or as they achieve what is most important to them. For coaches, doing what is uncomfortable for us as it relates to building a practice is just another way to model what is possible for our clients to achieve.
But are there really any "have to's" in life?
Yes, and I think those "have to's" are often our test to determine how badly we want to achieve our goals and whether they are, in fact, the right goals for us rather than a "should." After all, if we only do the things we "want to" do, and never engage in the activities that we "have to" do, it becomes a great diversionary tactic that enables us to avoid those activities that we may be uncomfortable doing!
The paradox is, change is the only constant. To grow and evolve, we must change and stretch beyond our comfort zone. We all like to do the things that produce a degree of certainty in the results, even when they may not serve us best. At the same time, we want better results but resist anything new, so we recoil back into what is safe and comfortable.
Consider this. If you are comfortable with the activities you engage in, then you are simply doing what you've already been doing, which will produce the same results as before. However, if you are willing to do the things that make you uncomfortable; a new activity, strategy, or developing a new skill; then you will create unprecedented, breakthrough results.
The lesson? If it's uncomfortable, it's probably the right thing to do and the quickest path to greater success. That's why one of the mantras of this book is, "Get comfortable with being uncomfortable."
You may be familiar with the definition of insanity: "Doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result." Consider my definition of futility: "Knowing the definition of insanity, and still not doing anything about it."
Besides, if the coach can get through this, something they might find uncomfortable, imagine how much more effective they will be when working through an issue like this with a client.
With a topic like cold calling, it's something people naturally
resist; they naturally want to resist cold calling. They anticipate and
assume it's going to be ugly. It sounds like what you're advocating for
is creating a whole system that can increase your effectiveness and actually
reduce the amount of time, or the need for cold calling at all. You're
really advocating building a relationship here, aren't you?
100 percent, and not only building a relationship but being at choice around the relationships you truly want to develop.
To take it a step further, when people ask me, "Should I cold call?" I tell them "No, you never have to cold call again." It has to do more with the perception of what cold calling really is.
I often hear people use the word "prospecting" and the phrase "cold calling" synonymously. Lets draw a distinction between the two.
As I mentioned before, when we hear the term "cold calling," we formulate this picture in our minds of someone sitting at their desk with the phone book in one hand and a phone in the other. Based on this perception, cold calling would be defined as the act of calling on someone or approaching someone with the intention of converting him or her into a prospect and who: does not know you, you do not know, is not expecting your call, you have never called on before, you know very little, if anything about this person and as such, may or may not be a fit with what you're offering.
Conversely, prospecting is defined as any activity or conversation that you engage in to position yourself in front of a viable prospect with the intention to inquire, assess, discover, and educate so that you can then determine whether there's a fit and a relationship worth pursuing. This would then lead to presenting your product or service in order to earn their business.
The word, "prospecting" is synonymous with "searching, mining, and seeking." So if you've ever looked for a job, if you've ever purchased a home, if you've ever gone shopping at the mall or searched for your ideal soul mate or relationship, then you, in fact, have prospected. For example, if we were to break down the prospecting process that you use when shopping for holiday gifts, it may look something like this. First, you identified what you wanted; you were clear about your objective. Then, you uncovered where you could find what you were looking for. Next, you found the people or the resources you needed to make an educated buying decision. Chances are, you then asked some questions to determine if what you found was, in fact, a good fit for you. Finally, if all of your criteria were satisfied, you made the decision to buy. The only part that's different from this example and prospecting for new clients is this; at the end of the process, it would be your prospect or that potential client that would be making the buying decision, rather than you. Other than that, the entire process is the same.
Now, you may be wondering, "Keith, if you aren't cold calling, then what exactly will you be doing to attract more clients?" The answer is; by developing a prospecting system that makes your cold calls warm. As I mentioned earlier, some of the prospecting activities you engage in may not involve a telephone.
I've identified a minimum of 19 different ways to prospect, including delivering workshops, finding new opportunities at tradeshows, through internal corporate advocates as well as the Internet. Since there are so many different ways to prospect, you have the opportunity to craft a prospecting system that best reflects your strengths and what you enjoy most. After all, I'm not suggesting that you're always going to love to prospect but it's a necessary revenue generating activity that must be made non-negotiable if you want to build a thriving practice.
Those professionals who actually enjoy cold calling and prospecting do so because they are, in fact, warm calling; they are making warm calls. They have created a process that they can follow and actually have fun doing it! They derive pleasure from the prospecting process because they have developed the right attitude, approach, and prospecting system that generates consistent, long lasting results and makes every cold call warm. Mostly, they understand the critical importance of prospecting as it relates to their entire selling process or business model.
Unfortunately, less than 10 percent of all selling and non selling professionals I speak with have truly embraced this way of thinking and are acting on it.
It sounds like it's a shift in the expectation.
That's exactly what it is! There are only two ways you can generate extraordinary, breakthrough results; you are either changing what you are doing or you are changing how you think. To become someone who's a master at developing a profitable, sustainable, rewarding, and enjoyable practice, both your actions and your mindset must be upgraded, developed and refined.
There's a direct relationship between how we think and what we manifest in our lives. If this is the case, then the crucial element that's been missing in traditional sales training and business development programs is how to best manage your mindset.
Take this philosophy and apply it to building a rewarding practice. After all, there are many activities that a coach can engage in to build a practice. However, how much time is spent on making sure that your mindset is being managed to the point where you are able and ready to engage in the activities and, most important, yield the results you want? So, it's not only about the "how to," but it's also about the "how you think," and the relationship between the two. As coaches, we know that for clients to generate greater results, they need to upgrade both their thinking and their doing. Besides, if success in coaching or in developing a successful practice was only dependent on what we did, then every coach who follows the same systematic process should all be performing at the exact same level, and from what I see, this is not the case.
Just look at the top coaches out there - and in the spirit of this conversation, I'm referring to the ones who are making a great living at coaching. They think differently; in essence, they are wired differently. So success in coaching, or more so, building a profitable practice has to do more with who you are, how you think and the way you come across and not simply what you do. That's why it's critical to develop a healthy prospecting mindset.
In my experience, many coaches are resistant to the things that
we're talking about - self-promotion, networking, prospecting, closing
the sale, that type of thing. How does your book help them overcome these
types of fears and the reluctance that they have?
While I've devoted an entire chapter that focuses on eliminating the fear
or reluctance to selling or self-promotion, here's the greatest barrier
that I see. While many people would say that the selling process, or in
this case, the coaching process, is about the client, they wind up making
it about themselves. Just look at some of the limiting beliefs that contribute
to their reluctance to selling or prospecting; think of all the fears
or reluctance coaches experience when it comes to - as we define - selling.
If you ask a coach what their aversion is to networking, prospecting or
self-promotion, you'll hear things like "I don't want to say the
wrong thing" or "I don't want to look bad."
Or, "I don't want to be pushy."
Yes, or "I don't want to be a nuisance" or "I want to honor who I am and my integrity, I don't want to impose, I don't want to be rejected or hear, 'No,' or I don't want to blow it." Isn't it interesting that every single one of those statements begin with the word "I"? Making the process about us is the #1 roadblock to successful prospecting and the #1 cause of reluctance. If you're focused on anything else other than the prospect, the value that you can deliver, and whether or not there's a fit, it becomes about the coach having an agenda and their need to establish credibility, prove the value of coaching or even fix the prospect.
And I think the point here is that the coach needs to deal with
their own agenda, but not when they're in front of, or interacting with,
the client.
Agreed!
It makes me think of the statistic that the average person spends about 60 hours researching their new car purchase. You know, that just blows people's minds when you think 60 hours, and yet if you look at some of the important things in their lives that they don't put equal energy and effort into, like marketing, for instance, it really puts it into perspective.
It does!
It's a no-brainer to think about, "Okay, I have to research this car. I have to go to all these dealerships, and go online and read the reviews…" That's just part of the process, right? Like you say, it's the every day prospecting process. But there's a disconnect when people apply it to growing their coaching process.
And what you just articulated is an example of a process. If I could say it in a different way, take that example and apply it to uncovering the areas where you can search or mine for the right prospects for your practice. I think ultimately this aversion is rooted in the fact that we're afraid of failing. We're so concerned about making sure we do it the "right way," putting that emphasis on us, we're therefore shifting the process and becoming more concerned about ourselves. What I find that makes a huge difference for coaches is that, instead of making this process about them and how much they might be able to gain, make it about the prospect, how much value you can deliver and what's in it for them. Shift the focus away from you and onto them. Once you shift that focus and energy to making it about the other person, it immediately relieves you of that fear or unnecessary pressure to look good or perform.
Right, and then you can be fully present to the prospect or the
client.
Exactly!
And that's what it's about in coaching, anyway.
Yes. It begins by asking yourself the right questions. After all, if you are making the process about you and are concerned about your performance, then how are you ever going to capture someone's interest when all of your energy, concentration and attention is being directed on to you rather than focused on the prospect?
Instead of thinking, "What do I need to do to earn their business?" or "What's in it for me?" or "I could really use another client; what do I need to do to come across the right way?" Ask yourself, "What value can I deliver?" or "How best can I support this person?" or "What difference can I make for them today?"
Once you change your focus, attracting new clients then becomes the natural byproduct of your selfless efforts and good intentions, which supports the belief that coaching is, at its core, altruistic.
That's really the crux of it, isn't it? People see a disconnect - again,
it's an assumption that it has to be something that's totally unnatural
and different from who they are, and like you said, they're already doing
it.
And to build on this, if you ask someone what the intention or end result
of prospecting is or an initial conversation with a potential client,
you might hear things like, "To educate them on the process of coaching
and what coaching is," or "To convert them into a client."
In truth, this is the very mindset that often creates the barrier to what we want to happen most. Rather than focusing all of your energy on getting them to hire you, what if the initial intention of what I call an "Enrollment Conversation" had more to do with determining whether or not there's a good match between you and the prospect that's even worth perusing.
Instead of feeling that the intention of prospecting is to get a sale, provide a demonstration, submit a proposal, or schedule an appointment, the initial intention of prospecting is to determine if there's a fit worth pursuing.
While this may sound a bit strange, earning the business of a prospect is not your initial goal. Instead, your primary objective is to determine whether you and your prospect are a good fit.
Think about how this change in your attitude and mindset would change your approach as well as your experience.
While your traditional approach may be to produce a measurable result, now your primary objective is to discover whether you and your prospect are a good match and if this relationship is worth moving to the next stage. If you feel that you constantly have to push the sales process forward, you're not taking into consideration that the prospect may simply not be ready, let alone may not be a good fit for you or for what you are offering. Pushing the process forward before a prospect is ready only creates pressure for the both of you, fostering an unhealthy relationship from the start. Therefore, instead of asking yourself, "How can I sell this person?" change this question to, "Do I even want this prospect as a client?"
The second question shifts your power back to you. Now, you're the one making the choice about pursuing the relationship rather than surrendering all of the decision making power to the prospect regarding whether or not they will buy from you, let alone listen to you.
Notice how this shift in your mindset will also change your approach. Instead of feeling as if you have to convince someone that they should hire you by regurgitating information all over them, now you're going to want to learn and gather as much information as you can about this particular prospect.
How do you determine if there's a fit worth pursuing? Typically, you would conduct a process of inquiry or an investigation. Woven into the fabric of any investigation are questions. Instead of the prospect interviewing or qualifying you, this brings new meaning to the phrase, "Qualify your prospects." Now, you are also the one doing the qualifying.
Lets face it. You and I both know that the ultimate objective of your prospecting efforts is to build your practice. However, to achieve this goal, it's just not where you are going to focus your energy and thoughts.
Realize that when you prospect, one of your objectives is to open up your prospect's thinking to the possibility of working with you in order to maximize their potential, provide them with a better solution oriented process so they can generate greater results or to eliminate a recurring problem.
As such, if you are looking to change the perception or mindset of your prospects, whose mindset do you think needs to be changed first? Yours, of course.
We talk about detaching from the outcome and not coming to a coaching call with an agenda. This philosophy reigns true during an initial conversation with a potential client. The fact is, the interviewing process goes both ways. I see so many coaches trying to convince someone why they should hire them. They wind up explaining coaching rather than being a coach and doing what they do best.
You also mentioned to me that you've got a new project you're
working on called The Art of Enrollment.
Yes! Over the years, I've asked the coaches that I mentor, "Think about how many people you may have spoken with over the last six months about coaching and how many conversations you may have had about becoming someone's coach." I then ask, "How many of these people actually became a client?" When I hear conversion ratios like 1out of 6 and higher, I know there's an opportunity to upgrade their approach so their conversion ratios become, conservatively speaking, 1 out of 3.
There's a paradox when it comes to promoting coaching - the very thing we're attempting to avoid is exactly what we wind up doing or creating. Let me explain. Many coaches are reluctant to sell or promote themselves because they don't want to sound like a high-pressure salesperson. So the assumption is made that if you're in sales and you need to convert a prospect into a client, you'll need to deliver a pitch to a prospect. Yes, based on this assumption, you certainly don't want to sound like this type of salesperson. But what if there's another way to look at this?
In other words, what if the same philosophy and approach that a coach uses during a coaching call with a client can be applied during an initial meeting with a potential prospect or during a social event or networking event? That is, simply ask the right questions that create new and greater possibilities. That's where I see the biggest disconnect. Ironically, when a coach speaks to a new potential client, they wind up doing what they want to avoid the most and this is, they pitch the person on the value of coaching.
Many coaches often spend too much time trying to describe what coaching is, or they talk about coaching, instead of actually coaching, hoping that people will be so intrigued that they'll hire them on the spot. The fact is, you can't sell coaching. I've certainly learned that the hard way.
Yes, coaching is a vehicle or a process; people don't buy a process
- they buy the solution.
Either someone is willing and ready to make substantial changes in their life or career, or they're not. To bring about new possibilities, you need to ask questions. In other words, instead of selling coaching, you enroll a client in what can be possible for them. That's why the title is The Art of Enrollment. This process enables you to shift away from that fear of selling or being hung up on self-promotion and become truly authentic and who you love to be, which is a great coach. Add value to people first without focusing on whether or not they'll become your client. This way, people will see the value you offer and begin to show up in your practice.
That's where the art of enrollment comes into play. You can have a good conversation with a prospect, and at the end of the conversation, you can ask them if they want you to be their coach. However, if you have a masterful enrollment conversation, they will ask you to be their coach.
If you think about it - you don't really attract clients, you attract prospects. Before they become a client, they're a prospect; a potential client. The most effective way to convert them into a client is by conducting a masterful enrollment conversation with them. This process creates an awareness about something that they haven't been able to see on their own, and that awareness then creates choice. There's no choice without awareness. The art of enrollment empowers them to see that new possibility and the choices they have instead of, "Here's your problem, and let me show you how I can fix it for you."
Again, the book is The Complete Idiot's Guide to Cold Calling; Keith, I want to thank you. A lot of good stuff!
It's my pleasure. Thank you for the opportunity to contribute!