Cold Calling: The Ultimate Sales Training For Financial Analysts, Part 1

Do any of you financial analysts out there hate cold-calling? Learn to master it. It is your ultimate training in marketing. Imagine what it can do for your career when you can sell your products to strangers over the phone?

As a financial analyst, you’re always marketing something. Before you can even step foot in the field, you’ll have to successfully market yourself in job interviews. Whether you’re in equity research, institutional sales or investment banking, you’re always marketing ideas.

Cold-calling is only dreadful when you don’t have a game plan. I still vividly recall my first summer internship at a major brokerage. My sales trainer gave me a name list and a tiny brochure of the company. (This was before internet.) That was all. No training. No script. It was a nightmare experience and I was as clueless at the end of the internship as at the start.

Before you even pick up the phone, there is a number of preparations to do.

Know your products, your company and your competition. Ideally, you must believe in the product you’re selling, i.e. a product that you yourself would buy. But in the case of an internship program, this may or may not be the case.

Research the products and pricing of close competitors so you know how your company’s products compare. Understand how the products’ strengths play out against its weaknesses so you can effectively handle objections.

Remember that the first impression you can make to your prospect over the phone is through your voice. When you believe in the products you’re selling, you will exude confidence in your voice.

Cold Calling: The Ultimate Sales Training, Part 1 Prepare an irresistible script. The best “script” is a conversation, not a sales pitch. A listener is more open to a friendly conversation than to a sales pitch. If the company gives you a script, use it as a reference. If you read it verbatim, I guarantee that everyone will hang up on you.

An effective script consists of four parts:

• Use familiar greetings

I find I have better chances of reaching my prospect if I sound like I’m familiar with the prospect. “Hello. Is Mr. Smith there? This is Chris Johnson calling from XYZ Company” is usually a giveaway this is a sales call.

I prefer to say, “Hi. Is John there? This is Chris.”

Sometimes, I might even go for “Hi, John. This is Chris.”

If it isn’t John, I’ll just say, “Excuse me. Is John in? This is Chris.”

The familiarity would throw most people off-guard and they would tend to carry on a conversation with you while trying to figure out who you are. Most people would not want to admit they don’t recognize their friend’s voice.

• Establish credibility

If you have any sort of referral, use it. It can even be the person you just spoke to before the call was transferred to your prospect. It may go like this, “I was speaking to Susan in Marketing. She said I should talk to you about …” If there is information about the prospect, do a quick research before the call. Never mind the “how are you?” greetings. Just be brief and to the point.

• Create curiosity

You must be able to tell your prospect in two-three brief sentences the benefits of your products. Mention some real results to capture their attention. You’ll know your sound bite works well if your prospect says, “tell me more.”

For example, “Last year, the ABC fund of my company helped over 1,000 investors like you to grow their investments by 25%. This was fantastic compared to only 5% interest on savings and 10% return from the stock market.”

An effective sound bite is client focused, and it emphasizes product benefits, not features. This is the essence of successful marketing. Rather than trying to sell the prospect something, focus on the value you can produce for your client. Is it in the best interest of your client to purchase your products or are you just trying to close a sale to meet a quota?

This concept applies whether you’re in a job interview or trying to market an idea as a financial analyst. That’s why it is important that you believe in your products (or yourself or your ideas, whichever one applies).

• Close confidently

If the prospect indicates interest to find out more, then immediately follow through with an invitation to the next step – either continue with your presentation over the phone or make an appointment to meet.

For example, “We should meet. Only 10% of the mutual funds was able to achieve this kind of performance last year. While I can’t promise you the same results this year, I assure you that it’s worth your time. Is Thursday morning a good time to meet with you?”

If the prospect isn’t interested, then just thank him for his time and move on to your next prospect.

Handling objections. Practice your script with other interns or co-workers. Even by reading the script aloud to yourself, you’ll be able to spot places where objections may arise. First, try to rephrase the script to remove any possible objections. Next, prepare answers for the objections. Being well-prepared is another confidence booster.

Cold-calling needn’t make your work miserable. Masterful cold-calling requires preparation, lots of practices and social skills. It is not only a valuable asset for a financial analyst but also an indispensable marketing skill that can accelerate your journey towards your goals.

Coming up in my next article, I’ll discuss more cold-calling tips and how to launch a voice mail campaign when your prospect doesn’t answer the phone.

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