Sharing The Pane

I learned about this neat fob-off when searching on cold call tactics. An East Midlands glazer that claims never to cold call show this press clipping via a lady called Lottie from Fulham:

My father, an extremely courteous gentleman of 80, on answering the telephone to be asked if he would be interested in double-glazing, always replies “yes”.

An excited inquiry into how many windows his house has elicits the response:

“Hang on, I’ll go and count.”

This never fails.

Well, it certainly beats hearing that they’re too busy, already covered, have no money or need you to mail something first.

But of course, it’s the whole approach that’s wrong in the first place.

For eternity salespeople have been drilled into a cold call routine rushing out as soon as possible what their company does with so much excitement that their head could almost explode.

How come there’s so little attention paid to talking about why you do what you do, and even less to frame the vital first contact from the perspective of the prospect?

If your cold-call ‘script’ features any form of words resembling “would you be interested in..?” then it’s time for a total makeover.