Structuring your telephone prospecting with the CROC method

CROC Method: What Are We Talking About?

Cold Calling Today

Cold calling is a commercial outreach technique that involves contacting prospects by phone. It's also called "phone prospecting."

This practice can be carried out for several purposes: to find new customers for a product or service, to get responses to a survey, as part of a search for business partners, or to secure a future appointment.

For businesses, cold calling, when well-conducted and producing results, allows contact with a significant client portfolio in just a few hours. It's a very practical way to survey a target customer base and get feedback on a product or service.

However, it's true that phone sales isn't the easiest exercise for a sales professional. You need to be resilient and not let prospect responses throw you off balance.

This is why preparing for a phone interview, just like qualifying the prospects to call, is very important. The sales pitch must be convincing.

The CROC method is a tool to help conduct a successful cold calling session. It allows you to start the phone call with a real structure in mind, which guarantees better chances of success for the salesperson!

The CROC Method: Definition of a Phone Interview Guide

The CROC method is a technique used by sales professionals to structure their pitch during a cold calling session.

CROC (Contact, Reason, Objective, and Conclusion) refers to the 4 points that must be addressed during a sales call:

• Contact: These are the first few minutes of presentation during which the salesperson introduces themselves and asks questions to the prospect to properly understand their needs

• Reason for calling: You need to be direct so the prospect understands the purpose of the exchange

• Objective: After explaining the reason for the call, you can be more specific and discuss the objective

• Conclusion: Before hanging up, the salesperson summarizes the few minutes of exchange that just occurred, specifying what they need to do next—for example, send a more detailed quote to the prospect or schedule an appointment

The method is a guide for salespeople that frames and structures a phone intervention. CROC helps create a real phone call plan.

However, you shouldn't recite each point of the pitch without thinking. You need to have an intelligent approach by using CROC as a guide while maintaining active listening with the prospect.

Pro tip: It can also be interesting to use the method during client or prospect follow-up calls!

When Should You Use the CROC Method in Your Call Plan?

The CROC method is perfectly suited for cold calling campaigns.

Today, with the development of social media prospecting, you can also adapt this technique during written message outreach.

Salespeople conducting cold calling need structure and a clear message that can be reused as many times as necessary with each prospect.

With the CROC method, the sales pitch is ready and the salesperson knows what they should say, but they also have an idea of how the meeting will unfold. They can then anticipate questions or doubts expressed by prospects. Awkward pauses, silences, or hesitation phases will necessarily be less significant.

Thanks to a clear, confident, and convincing pitch, the salesperson is better positioned to succeed in their sale. On the other hand, this also reinforces their credibility with the future client.

The 4 Steps of the CROC Method and Associated Examples for an Effective Pitch

Step 1: C for Contact

The first step when starting a cold call with the CROC method is making contact.

This is the moment to introduce yourself and extend your hand to the contact by asking simple questions to identify them first, then understand their needs second.

During this step, introducing yourself briefly with polite formulas, then asking questions fairly quickly, helps prevent objections from someone who would want to hang up immediately.

The first approach with the CROC method allows you to start a clear relationship with the prospect: they know who is contacting them. Thus, their trust can be more easily gained.

Concretely, how do you start a prospecting call with the CROC method?

Introducing yourself and building confidence with the contact can be done this way:

• ‍"Hello, this is Dominique Durand from Company X. You are Ms. Martin, client director at communication agency Y, correct? Could you spare a few minutes of your time?"

Step 2: R for Reason

Generally, during a sales call, minutes are precious. You shouldn't take too much time from a contact, as this could frustrate them. That's why you need to quickly move to the second step of the CROC method!

This step is the Reason. The salesperson must simply explain the reason for their call with the greatest precision and simplicity.

You need to give the reason for your call within the first few minutes of the exchange. This saves time if the prospect truly isn't interested. Explaining the purpose of a call also allows the salesperson to ensure the prospect is still in a position to be interested in the offer being proposed.

How do you effectively explain the reason for your call?

No need for lengthy speeches—this can be as simple as:

• "I'm calling about your energy contract renewal project."

• "According to my information, you're looking to recruit new technical profiles for your startup's development. Is this still the case?"

Step 3: O for Objective

The third step for conducting a cold call with the CROC method is the Objective.

The salesperson has quickly given the reason for their call; now they need to be more specific and deliver the call's intention to the contact. You need to be transparent and honest and describe the main objectives you want to achieve during the conversation.

Often in prospecting meetings, you're looking to:

• Get an appointment later to present a product or service

• Directly propose a new product/contract/service

• Conduct a questionnaire or survey

• Gather specific information about the company

How do you state an objective during a cold call?

As we've seen previously, you should always favor simple, straight-to-the-point discourse. For example:

• ‍"Our company is currently creating IT recruitment software for large enterprises. We're looking for partners to test the first version of our software for free. Would your company be interested in testing it exclusively?"
• "I'm calling to arrange a meeting with your HR director to present our IT recruitment software service. This could be helpful in your developer recruitment challenges. Would this be suitable for you?"

Step 4: C for Conclusion

Finally, according to the CROC method, a salesperson ends a sales call with a conclusion. At this stage, you need to be able to reformulate what was said during the interview. This serves to prove to the prospect that the salesperson listened and properly identified their needs and potential difficulties.

After reviewing the issues raised during the phone call, the salesperson asks the prospect a question. They clearly ask what they want to do after the meeting. For example: agree to answer a questionnaire or set a date for an in-person meeting.

Finally, the salesperson can thank the potential client and take their leave by closing the call.

Closing a prospecting call with the CROC method:

Reformulate what was said, get a response, then conclude politely—here's the program! Some examples:

• "You've shared your challenges with recruiting senior profiles to develop your business smoothly. Our recruitment software could help you connect with our best profiles. What's the best time to schedule an appointment for a demonstration of our tool?"

• "Thank you for your time, sir. We'll meet on Tuesday, March 10th at 2 PM then. I'll send you a confirmation email with the link to our video tool and all the essential information for our appointment. See you soon, Mr. Durand."