Does anyone have some ideas about using cold reading as a tool for B2B sales prospection?

Here's the context:

I'm into a new project for my company. I'm prospecting for new customers. This is Business To Business prospection, on pretty big ticket items (50K€), mostly directed to upper management of medium sized industrial companies.

Basically I've got a big list of phone numbers of companies who I phone up to try to sell them our products/services. I'm having a lot of fun doing this I must say.

The phone number is simply the companies public phone number, so first step is to speak a line which gets me from whoever answers (secretary) to someone in upper management (best is the big boss, and if not the financial director, commercial director, production director, ...).

This step is working OK for now, I usually manage (after many tries and recalls) to get into contact with someone worth talking to.

Next step is tougher... I get a few minutes on the phone to explain what we do and to get the director interested so he accepts to meet me.

Until now I've set up a speech which cuts through from something pretty objectable (too expensive, we already have that, don't have time for this, ...) to something pretty much "to good to be true" and un-objectable.... with a graduate process. The idea is that they can often object to my initial proposals, but they basically can't object to the last ones.

However, this isn't working as good as I'd like... I think I need to have something that sounds more specific, my speech is too generic.

So, this lunch time at the café I suddenly though that what I needed was some super B2B phone "cold reading" capacities to be able to be specific about what my prospects' problems are and what he's looking for to fix them, only then can I formulate my offer in a pertinent and specific way (basically make sure that my offer sounds like the answers he expects to his problems).

This sounds pretty much like cold reading to me.

Any thoughts?

Chris2 wrote:

Does anyone have some ideas about using cold reading as a tool for B2B sales prospection?

Here's the context:

I'm into a new project for my company. I'm prospecting for new customers. This is Business To Business prospection, on pretty big ticket items (50K€), mostly directed to upper management of medium sized industrial companies.

Basically I've got a big list of phone numbers of companies who I phone up to try to sell them our products/services. I'm having a lot of fun doing this I must say.

The phone number is simply the companies public phone number, so first step is to speak a line which gets me from whoever answers (secretary) to someone in upper management (best is the big boss, and if not the financial director, commercial director, production director, ...).

This step is working OK for now, I usually manage (after many tries and recalls) to get into contact with someone worth talking to.

Next step is tougher... I get a few minutes on the phone to explain what we do and to get the director interested so he accepts to meet me.

Until now I've set up a speech which cuts through from something pretty objectable (too expensive, we already have that, don't have time for this, ...) to something pretty much "to good to be true" and un-objectable.... with a graduate process. The idea is that they can often object to my initial proposals, but they basically can't object to the last ones.

However, this isn't working as good as I'd like... I think I need to have something that sounds more specific, my speech is too generic.

So, this lunch time at the café I suddenly though that what I needed was some super B2B phone "cold reading" capacities to be able to be specific about what my prospects' problems are and what he's looking for to fix them, only then can I formulate my offer in a pertinent and specific way (basically make sure that my offer sounds like the answers he expects to his problems).

This sounds pretty much like cold reading to me.

Any thoughts?

Chris/Chris

I did inside sales/B 2 B telemarketing for over 15 years in my previous professional life.

your posting tells me that you are tasked with selling the product over the phone rather than obtaining an appointment and then selling to them in person and that this work is new to you

if you are to be successfull with this you will have to get some GOOD telemarketing training. "cold reading" is just a fancy word for calibration. and its best done IN PERSON

you are going to have to get VERY good at several things: obtaining rapport on the phone;creating interest with the decisionmaker;eliciting info about their needs;trial closing in addition to negotiating the objections they give you.

while telemarketing training really isn't something that can be delivered in an Internet forum,if you've had ANY NLP training, you should already know to practice verbal matching/mirroring of their auditory qualities/patterns on the phone. that will help with the rapport

if you persist with this work, you will build up a lot of "requisite variety" in your verbal behavior/communication becuase of the many prospects you will talk to. I have no idea what resources your employer provide you for this job-if they have a lot to offer, you may have the chance to build up quite a skillset BUT if they don't and its basically "sink or swim", then you end up moving on fairly quickly.

Chris2 wrote:

Does anyone have some ideas about using cold reading as a tool for B2B sales prospection?

Here's the context:

I'm into a new project for my company. I'm prospecting for new customers. This is Business To Business prospection, on pretty big ticket items (50K€), mostly directed to upper management of medium sized industrial companies.

Basically I've got a big list of phone numbers of companies who I phone up to try to sell them our products/services. I'm having a lot of fun doing this I must say.

The phone number is simply the companies public phone number, so first step is to speak a line which gets me from whoever answers (secretary) to someone in upper management (best is the big boss, and if not the financial director, commercial director, production director, ...).

This step is working OK for now, I usually manage (after many tries and recalls) to get into contact with someone worth talking to.

Next step is tougher... I get a few minutes on the phone to explain what we do and to get the director interested so he accepts to meet me.

Until now I've set up a speech which cuts through from something pretty objectable (too expensive, we already have that, don't have time for this, ...) to something pretty much "to good to be true" and un-objectable.... with a graduate process. The idea is that they can often object to my initial proposals, but they basically can't object to the last ones.

However, this isn't working as good as I'd like... I think I need to have something that sounds more specific, my speech is too generic.

So, this lunch time at the café I suddenly though that what I needed was some super B2B phone "cold reading" capacities to be able to be specific about what my prospects' problems are and what he's looking for to fix them, only then can I formulate my offer in a pertinent and specific way (basically make sure that my offer sounds like the answers he expects to his problems).

This sounds pretty much like cold reading to me.

Any thoughts?

I'd say forget about 'cold reading' on the telephone, instead ask intelligent questions, the answers to which you can feed into your pitch - intelligently so it doesn't sound like you're basically repeating them but that's effectively what you're doing. I used to go around the houses to get hold of decision makers, along the way I'd casually ask people questions so that I had 'ammunition' when I did get through to the decision maker.

With no idea what you're selling it's a waste of time making too many suggestions. But definitely guessing about your prospects is no substitute for probing and genuinely finding out about them. You can always start out by pacing universal issues, but the closer you pace their precise personal experiences the more impact and influence you'll have.

Chris,

To enable you to be more successful, I might guide you to do some research on turning a SUSPECT to a PROSPECT: That is, doing some initial work on the company BEFORE you call. The several hours research at $x/hour of your time as an investment in achieving a $x,000 contract will be worth it.

Then you can ask some questions that mean something to the person you are calling: Questions that might relate to SOLUTIONS you can offer.

regards,

Chris2 wrote:

Does anyone have some ideas about using cold reading as a tool for B2B sales prospection?

Here's the context:

I'm into a new project for my company. I'm prospecting for new customers. This is Business To Business prospection, on pretty big ticket items (50K€), mostly directed to upper management of medium sized industrial companies.

Basically I've got a big list of phone numbers of companies who I phone up to try to sell them our products/services. I'm having a lot of fun doing this I must say.

The phone number is simply the companies public phone number, so first step is to speak a line which gets me from whoever answers (secretary) to someone in upper management (best is the big boss, and if not the financial director, commercial director, production director, ...).

This step is working OK for now, I usually manage (after many tries and recalls) to get into contact with someone worth talking to.

Next step is tougher... I get a few minutes on the phone to explain what we do and to get the director interested so he accepts to meet me.

Until now I've set up a speech which cuts through from something pretty objectable (too expensive, we already have that, don't have time for this, ...) to something pretty much "to good to be true" and un-objectable.... with a graduate process. The idea is that they can often object to my initial proposals, but they basically can't object to the last ones.

However, this isn't working as good as I'd like... I think I need to have something that sounds more specific, my speech is too generic.

So, this lunch time at the café I suddenly though that what I needed was some super B2B phone "cold reading" capacities to be able to be specific about what my prospects' problems are and what he's looking for to fix them, only then can I formulate my offer in a pertinent and specific way (basically make sure that my offer sounds like the answers he expects to his problems).

This sounds pretty much like cold reading to me.

Any thoughts?

Ian Rowland is the foremost modern expert on cold reading. In addition to being the author of the definitive book on the subject, he also offers a very reasonably priced course on applying cold reading skills to sales situations. Ian is based in the UK. You can easily find his web site by doing a Google search on his name. Best of luck to you.

Aaron Spurling

Thanks to all for the feedback.

your posting tells me that you are tasked with selling the product over the phone rather than obtaining an appointment and then selling to them in person and that this work is new to you

no, in fact, the idea is to get a meeting with the person and continue the sales process then. I’m used to selling our services/products to people whom we know have a need for them. Usually these people have contacted us to tell us what they need, we then go to see them for a more detailed discussion of their needs and our thoughts, then we usually meet them to detail and submit our proposal, then we usually iterate a few times via phone/email before concluding the contract… which then goes through usual purchase procedures (and more often than not, additional negotiations)… as you can see the whole process is pretty long (around 2 months let’s say) and pretty costly (the contracts are typically around 100K€ per year for 2 or 3 years).

So I’m pretty used to the actual sales process, and I have pretty good results. The big news here is that the process starts a big step earlier. My usual process starts with a prospect contacting me to say he’d like to talk about a need/project he has and that we might be able to fulfil for him (of course he also does this with our competitors, so we don’t get them all).

So the big news here is that the process starts with me phoning someone to try to explain to him that he probably needs something from us…

So, when you say “this work is new to you”, I guess you’re right.

"cold reading" is just a fancy word for calibration. and its best done IN PERSON

In fact, I think it depends on what we call “cold reading”. For me cold reading refers to a process with a least two aspects:

1) extrapolating a maximum of information from the available and usually scarce information, in my case: company size, turn over, number of employees, main activity ++ position of the person I’m talking to (I ask the secretary before she passes me on who she’s passing me on to) ++ once I have him on the phone his voice tone/speed/level of speech/nervousity/…

2) making Barnum/Forer like statements which give the impression of being specific while being rather broad and cutting them down depending on the reaction from the prospect in order to make them sound specific (and get hits)

So looking at it this way, I do feel that “business cold reading” can be of use for what I’m doing. Basically, the idea is to give a company manager a “read” of the “problems of his company” (starting with Barnum statements and refining depending on hits/misses) so that I can follow up with the fact that we have some solutions.

“if you've had ANY NLP training”, I’ve never had formal training, but I’m into it since about 10 years now and feel I’m not bad at rapport for example.

“if you persist with this work”, I in fact suggested and pushed this project partly because I think it’s a good thing for the company, I wanted to know if “cold calling” to sell this stuff was possible, and I wanted a real world difficult play field for testing my partly NLP based sales techniques (thus yes, I plan to “build up a lot of requisite variety”). I’m taking very little risk in fact here as this is a small part of my job and the company isn’t relying strongly on the results (and I’ve been very conservative on establishing the objectives… basically I’ve not guaranteed anything). On a side note, I’m an administrator of the company and one of the main shareholders….




“I'd say forget about 'cold reading' on the telephone, instead ask intelligent questions, the answers to which you can feed into your pitch”, the problem is that when I phone up and get through to the company director, his question is clearly “what do you want? What’s your product/offer?” and it’s not easy to follow up with “wait a minute, I have a few questions first”… he won’t answer the questions, he’ll just say “tell me what you do, and I’ll tell you if it matches anything I might need”.

What you suggest is possible in a two-step process : first step is collect information. Second step is use this information to formulate your proposal.

This works. I do this (“SUSPECT to a PROSPECT” approach) on a limited number of prospects (3 to 6 a month), for which I do have specific information (often from magazine articles or conferences I attend, or other people I talk to). For these prospects I gather information first and call them up afterwards with always an identified person to ask for and a specific topic to discuss (and the solutions we have to address it). This is obviously much easier and doesn’t require as much “business cold reading” stuff…

The problem is that this is only possible on a limited number of prospects (the ones for which I happen to have pertinent information). Trying to find this information otherwise (than above cases) would be barely possible or at best very lengthy.

So for a big part of my prospects, I believe that some kind of “business cold reading” approach could add value to my current “funneling speech approach”. In fact both are pretty much similar (I realize this now), the idea is simply to use the well-developed technics of psychic/medium “cold reading” in a my business context (create a load of barnum/forer statements organized in “scripts”, pick up on feedback and adapt, emphasize hits and dismiss misses, …).


Ian Rowland’s book is ordered. I’d read about him already in Derren BROWN’s book where he talks quite interestingly about cold reading, although in a psychic/medium setup rather than business.



Well… for now I’ll continue building some barnum/forer statements and scripts and see how it goes (while continuing the “more serious reliable information based approach” on my few high potential prospects). Maybe I didn’t make this clear in my initial post, but I pushed this prospection project purposefully because I wanted to experiment the “dark side” of it.

Any other input is welcome.

Chris2 wrote:

Ian Rowland’s book is ordered. I’d read about him already in Derren BROWN’s book where he talks quite interestingly about cold reading, although in a psychic/medium setup rather than business.

Ian's book is a great place to start, and I also highly recommend checking out his live seminar on applying cold reading to sales. It's very affordable, and it sounds like it would be exactly what you're looking for. I should forewarn you, however, that Ian has an extremely negative view of NLP, so it might be best not to mention to him that you're interested in it.

Good luck!
Aaron Spurling