5 Steps to Cold Calling Success – My Friend AIDCA

When I first started doing Lead Generation calls I was confronted with the term, AIDCA. I was like is that the British RSPCA or something. My new boss frowned, looked down her nose over a pair of small specs and advised me that those 5 letters would help make me a lot of money.

So, what is AIDCA I hear you ask? In a nutshell or any shell for that matter, it is a basic sales principle. It is used in the business of lead generation/cold calling, it under pins what we do on each and every call.

AIDCA in its simplest form:

A – Attention: It’s simple you have to get their attention, sort of like a peacock with all those feathers, I hate birds but I always look at those feathers. So, lead with your USP, who you work with and what you do. Make the prospect stand up and listen.

I – Interest: Your prospect should answer the question “is it relevant to me”. Don’t stress if you loose them here as it is helping you qualify your leads. I suppose it’s like dating, I have gained there attention through my rugged good looks. Now I will aim to maintain their interest through my boyish charms.

D – Desire: For legal reasons I won’t go with a date analogy for this one. Here you are trying to get the person to desire/want what you are offering. What I like to do here is take what they have said during the discussion about their needs and link it to our offering.

C – Conviction: This is where I would unveil my USP in greater depth. Almost like a finishing move from Street Fighter. You have to convince your prospect that what you’re offering is worthwhile enough to take the next step and get on the dance floor.

A – Action: In my opinion this is the easiest part of the process and yet the most neglected. You have done all the hard work. You have earned the right to ask the prospect to meet, to provide a quote or ask what ever your end game is. The prospect will expect you to plan the next course of action as you have been leading the whole conversation to this point. Don’t hang up and wonder "what if".

If you implement the AIDCA process every call you make, it will mos def (most definitely) improve your strike rate and make you look real good in front of the boss, maybe not so much on that date though.

I later found out the acronym for the British RSPCA is the British RSPCA.

Please leave any of your tips, ideas or comments below.