Cold Calling Tip No. 141– Don’t Knock The Competition

London, UK

A little while ago, I decided to change gas and electricity suppliers. My new provider will be of the “dual fuel” variety. All the paperwork has been processed and I’m now waiting for my first bill which will be coming in due course. Soon after, I was called by the existing electricity supplier. Their representative, a man with a silver- tongue tried to pressure me into changing my mind. I wasn’t having any of it of course. Realising his “nice cop” approach wasn’t working, he started to verbally attack my new supplier by making various accusations at which point I cut the conversation short by making some excuse and put the phone down.
There’s nothing worse than a bad loser – it sucks! With the right approach and tone I may well have changed my mind and stuck with my original supplier but not after “Hopeful Harry” and his vituperative comments.
When you make cold calls or customer service calls and you’re faced with “we’ve just brought a new one from IBM” or “my CEO wants to stay with UPS” don’t make the mistake of having a “pop” at the supplier or their products or services. Two main reasons:

1. It’s just plain rude and …
2. All you be doing is questioning the customers integrity and their buying process.

Instead, try and establish the reasoning behind the purchase. Although few customers are forthcoming on the phone, you still may get an insight into what’s important to them.

Tags: Cold Calling Tips