Inject a little fun into prospecting at your next sales meeting with the new sensation — “Cold Call Bingo.”

Cold Call Bingo can be played two ways, either:

1. As an icebreaker at the beginning of sales meetings (using tapes or recordings of model prospecting calls), or
2. As part of a contest when salespeople are making cold calls on the sales floor.

Here’s how it works:

• Meet with salespeople and brainstorm 40-50 of the most common words or phrases they hear during cold calls (e.g., budget, busy, can’t talk, price, schedule, freeze, purchase, etc.)
• Use those words to create a series of Bingo cards with one of those terms in each box (Click here to customize your own Bingo cards). Be sure there are different terms in different boxes on every card, so no two cards are alike.
• In the center square on every card, enter the phrase “Appointment!” or “Sale!” (depending on whether you have inside or outside salespeople). In other words, write the word in that square that best describes the goal of each cold call. This way it’s much easier for salespeople to win if they actually schedule an appointment/close a sale. It’s also much more difficult if they don’t.
• Have salespeople keep a card at their desks. Make sure they’re taping their calls throughout the game. Whenever a prospect says one of the key terms during a cold call, salespeople can check off that box on their Bingo card. Whenever salespeople close a sale or schedule an appointment, they can check off any box they like.
• The first salesperson to connect the dots in a straight line or cover the entire card (depending on what type of Bingo rules you’re playing by) wins the game.
• Be sure to tie some type of fun incentive or bonus to the game so salespeople are motivated to keep moving from one call to the next, in an effort to win the game.
• Finally, before the game is called, the salesperson needs to present the tape with the actual cold calls, so you can verify they’ve actually won. From a management perspective, this is also a great way to ensure salespeople stick to your script and selling process. It also helps you build a tremendous collection of model calls for training purposes.

Note: Be sure to remind salespeople it needs to be the prospect (and not them) saying each phrase or term. No short cuts.

Do you think a game like this would work at your company? Give it a try and let us know how it works. Give us your feedback in the Comments Box below.

Tags: bingo, close, cold call, cold call bingo, game, incentive, motivated, prospecting, sales meeting