As consumers, most of us hate receiving a cold call from a sales team. Who has time to talk to some random person about buying something you didn’t even want? Yet the telemarketing calls continue.
Why do they keep calling? The answer is simple. Cold calling works. Telemarketing is a highly effective sales tool, but there are still tricks and tips for how to cold call successfully.
What is Cold Calling?
What is cold calling? Also commonly called telemarketing, cold calling occurs when sales reps connect for a sales conversation, usually via telephone, with potential customers with whom they’ve had no prior contact and who have not requested the information or expressed any prior interest in the product or service being sold. To achieve the best sales call results, teams often rely on cold calling scripts when engaging in telemarketing activities.
Does Cold Calling Work in 2022?
Cold calling has been going on since the invention of the telephone, and it is still an effective sales strategy in 2022. According to professional marketer Charlie Cook, about 2% of cold calls result in a sale, which wouldn’t be great if there wasn’t the potential to make massive amounts of cold calls every day. After all, 82% of buyers say they’ve accepted sales meetings after receiving a cold call.
The Benefits of Cold Calling
Companies use cold calling as a sales strategy for a variety of reasons, and telemarketing provides brands with multiple benefits, including:
- Cold calling provides a human touch to a sales interaction. People respond to other humans, and the interaction in a telephone call can’t be duplicated with creative keystrokes.
- Cold calling allows brands to identify target customers. Cold calling allows sales reps to quickly determine the decision-maker, so they can focus their time on selling to the right person before setting an appointment.
- Cold calling results provide useful and insightful data. Brands can review the results of their cold calling campaigns to gain valuable insight into their prospective clients and to gain an understanding of what parts of their strategies are working.
- Cold calls increase conversions. Cold calls result in sales, period. The more cold calls a sales rep can make each day, the more potential sales appointments they can set, which then can convert into deals. How many cold calls can your sales teams make?
The 12 Best Cold Calling Techniques
Because salespeople dislike making cold calls, how can a sales manager better equip his or her representatives to conduct more productive cold calls? Fortunately, there are several effective cold calling tactics. To increase your conversions, consider the following 12 greatest cold calling tips:
1. Perform preliminary research
Cold calling requires gathering hard facts. You must have some comprehension of the prospect on the phone to properly deliver your sales message. Expect no luck dialing random numbers and conversing with whoever answers the phone. Cold calling should be approached with caution. What qualifies the person on the other end of the line as a target customer?
2. Create a script for cold calling.
Without an efficient cold call script, unsuccessful cold calls lack structure and direction, which may be difficult to achieve. Cold calling scripts for sales pitches may help sales professionals increase conversion rates by ensuring that every aspect of a good cold call is covered in their telemarketing efforts.
3. Pick the best times to call.
When is the greatest moment to contact someone cold? According to research, cold calls are more effective on particular days and at certain times. According to InsideSales.com, cold callers are more likely to book an appointment or close a transaction on Wednesday or Thursday. Meanwhile, research shows that the optimum time to contact a prospect is between 11 a.m. and 12 p.m., or 4 p.m. to 5 p.m. — NOT first thing Monday morning!
4. Practice your opening lines
Within seconds, a prospect will determine whether or not the call is valuable. Therefore the cold calling opening line may make or break the sales presentation. Successful salespeople will prepare and rehearse a range of opening lines before recording which ones work best during cold calls. Although you want to grab your prospect’s attention right away, establishing the call’s objective first improves conversion rates.
5. Make cold calls that last longer.
Cold calls that are too short are seldom effective. In reality, cold calls that result in a sale or an appointment often take twice as long as those that do not, but how many sales professionals write lengthy scripts? Make sure to prepare for the whole framework of the conversation while writing a cold calling script, including a hook, hitting on the prospect’s pain areas, a value offer, and a call to action. Remember to prepare responses to a range of sales objections.
6. Work on your selling skills.
Don’t expect to write an efficient sales script and apply it for successful cold calls right away. After all, from the minute the phone rings, you want to seem confident to entice consumers. Sales, like any other skill, improves with practice. Before making your calls, practice cold calling techniques, including different dialogues depending on prospect responses. Review whether aspects of the selling process were successful after each call and tweak your routine.
7. Use your most effective closing line
Remember that many purchases are completed after the first cold call. As a result, your closing line might be equally as significant as your opening line in terms of your success percentage. Create and rehearse your finest closing line, and make sure it leaves your prospects asking why they didn’t close with you sooner. Your pitch will be remembered by the lead, who will be waiting for your next call.
8. Make a follow-up appointment
Making cold calls requires a follow-up call, an important part of the sales process. After all, only approximately 2% of purchases occur during the first cold call. Without any form of follow-up contact or follow-up appointment, 98 percent of agreements would be missed. Prepare professional, courteous voicemails for prospects, and set aside time to contact them when they are available.
9. Maintain a Professional Attitude
It’s critical to understand your target consumer and talk to them appropriately. Are you cold phoning consumers or business-to-business prospects? Are you chatting with a high-ranking executive? Make sure your cold-calling script and discussion show a high degree of professionalism. While some small chat is acceptable, a competent telemarketer will keep the cold call focused on its original goal.
10. Give your whole name
Although it may seem obvious, effective sales agents who make cold calls provide their complete names and the name of their organization at the start of the call. It establishes a professional tone for the sales call and helps inexperienced salespeople take charge of the conversation right away. Callers who address you by your entire name are treated with respect. The telemarketer has lost control of the discussion if the prospect needs to beg for it.
11. Make a compelling value proposition
The value proposition lies at the center of every cold call. What does the salesperson have to offer the potential customer, and how will it enhance their life or business? While it’s critical to attract prospects’ attention and address their pain points, the call will go unanswered if the caller doesn’t provide the value of interest.
12. Get to Know Your Tone
While a cold calling script is vital, it’s not necessarily what you say but how you say it that counts when it comes to improving sales abilities. Sales professionals that seem bored are unlikely to pique the attention of their prospects. A cold caller that sounds angry, upset, or irritated will not entice prospects to learn more about a product. Make careful to perfect your tone of voice while practicing your cold calling script.
How to Cold Call
The prospect of making a cold call might be nerve-wracking, but the process of cold calling is simple. Just gather your list of sales team prospects – or let your cold calling software do it for you – and start talking!
Unsure how to make cold calls? Just follow these steps and you’ll wonder how you ever made sales without such a pitch:
- Know your prospect – Pre-call research is vital to making the cold call. Be aware of who you are contacting before making a cold call.
- Use a creative opening line – Write multiple opening lines for different types of prospects, and choose one opening line to use before placing the cold call.
- Hit on your prospect’s pain points – Why should the prospect care about what you have to say? Make cold calls matter to your leads by touching on their paint points.
- Offer a value proposition – What do you have to offer your prospective customer? Every successful cold call must include a value proposition that matters to the potential customer.
- Deliver a call to action – Never assume your prospect knows why you’re calling them. In fact, they might be waiting for you to ask! If the reason for the call is a sale, then ask for it. If the call is to set up a follow-up sales appointment, then include that task in your call to action.
- Request a follow-up – Few cold calls result in a sale on the first attempt. In fact, many results in no contact at all. When leaving a voicemail, be sure and request a follow-up meeting. Also, request a follow-up meeting for prospects who don’t have time to talk or who express hesitation about closing a deal.
Cold Calling Vs. Warm Calling
What is the difference between cold calling and warm calling? It boils down to interest. In warm calling, the prospect has already expressed interest in the product or service being sold, either by visiting a website, signing up for a newsletter, or communicating with a sales rep. Cold calling, on the other hand, is made to leads who have not expressed interest and have had no prior connection with the brand. While warm calling can result in more conversions, it takes more effort to obtain the leads than cold calling research.
Is cold calling illegal?
Cold calling and cold calling services are entirely legal in the United States, however, there are restrictions on who can be called and during what times. For example, if a prospect has asked a company to no longer call them – of if they’ve registered for the Do Not Call Registry, those wishes must be obliged. In some other countries, such as the United Kingdom, for example, cold calling is illegal.
Is cold calling dead?
While strategies have changed in recent years, cold calling is alive and well in 2022, and it’s still an effective method of digital marketing. Buyers – and the entire buying process, however, have changed in the 21st century, and they are more informed than in the past, thanks to their access to the World Wide Web. Therefore, it’s become more important for cold callers to do their research and qualify prospective customers as best possible to capture a prospect’s attention.
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