Now that you know how to build a cold calling script and the important steps of a cold call, here are a few tips to increase your chances of success.
1. Warm-up before the call
Before getting to cold calling your prospect, it’s a good idea to warm them up. First, reach out to your prospects using different channels. For example, send them a cold email or reach out to them on LinkedIn to lay down the groundwork for the upcoming call. Next, generate interest with an introductory email and close the sale with a phone call. Cold calling company for windows and doors replacement This is how you can use a multichannel outreach strategy with a multi-touch approach for better results.
Another key aspect is to take steps to reduce the no-shows. Sometimes prospects genuinely forget about the one-off meetings that happen outside of their day-to-day work even though it’s on their calendar. Sending a reminder makes you look thoughtful and organized. Using a tool like Avoma, you can automatically send email reminders to participants, so they show up on time or request to reschedule. It saves you a lot of time.
cold calling
2. Don’t be generic
Do enough research about the prospect before getting into the call. For instance, you can use something that a prospect shared on social media to show that you are genuinely interested in knowing them and helping them achieve their goals. Don’t let it be just another cold calling attempt for you, and yet another sales call they had for the day.
Have a clear agenda as to what you want to cover as part of your call. In fact, you can even have a suggestive cold calling script in front of you when you jump on a call. This will be your process for the first few calls. As you get the hang of it, though and start to build up your conversational skills, try mixing up a bit.
To keep the meeting interactive and avoid it from being a pitching session about your product, ask questions to better understand the prospect’s needs and encourage them to ask questions whenever possible. Have a template for yourself based on the points you want to cover as part of your call.
3. Ask don’t interrogate
When your prospect feels relaxed (and not as if they are under a magnifying glass), they tend to divulge more information. But, on the other hand, don’t make your prospects feel as if you are a detective and they are strapped to a chair as part of an interrogation.
Secondly, avoid too much pitching. The prospects need to feel that they are part of a conversation and not listening to a sales pitch. Best lead generation company for Air Duct cleaning Ask open-ended questions to get specific relevant information. For instance, if it’s a discovery call, your template needs to help you get the following about your prospect:
Understanding the pain point of your buyer
What’s the business need they are trying to solve with a product like yours?
Who else are they evaluating alongside your product?
Is there a timeline for implementation?
What’s the next course of action after the call, etc.
4. Build rapport to have a two sided conversation
Building rapport is at the heart of building relationships and trust with your prospects. People like to do business with people they like and trust. So, if you, as a sales rep, are merely focused on driving your agenda or hitting your quota, you are possibly missing an opportunity to earn their trust. When you work in an industry where your goal is to help your customers achieve their goals and objectives, your relationship needs to be more than hitting your numbers.
Related read: Building rapport in remote sales
And adding to the previous tip, don’t do all the talking and give them a chance to share their goals, pain points, etc. Research data says that it’s usually the salespeople who talk more than 70% of the time in any sales call. And that is no bueno.
Looking at the data from our online meetings, we at Avoma have found that the recommended sales: customer talk ratio is 40%–60%. And if you are talking for more than 60% of the total time on the call, you are probably not listening enough.
5. Call at the right time
It’s not just who you call and what you say, but it is also important when you are cold calling them. The right time for cold calling varies from industry to industry, so depending on your target market, some testing on your part will be required.
However, data shows that the best time to give your prospects a call is at the end of the working day, around 4pm to 5pm. By that time, people are finishing up their work tasks and would listen to what you have to say. Some sales reps report successful calls around 10am as well.
And in case you’re curious, the worst time to make a cold call is around lunchtime, 1pm to 3pm, since most people would be out of the office for lunch right after the majority of the workload is done. Also, around that time, productivity drops dramatically.
6. Keep improving your objection handling
Objections and rejections are a big part of the B2B cold calling process, and to be honest, it happens all the time. Sometimes a prospect may not be interested in what you have to say. And that’s perfectly fine and not the end of the world.
Always look for a way to transform an objection into an opportunity. But if they’re a hard no, thank them for their time, ask for feedback and politely end the call. Asking your prospects for feedback always helps you understand why the conversation didn’t progress further.
Take time to reflect on your sales calls or meetings. Best lead generation company for home improvement company What you do after the call can be the difference between losing the value of the conversation completely or making it extremely useful. You need to learn from it to improve yourself for future calls.
Listen to the calls of other sales reps on your team and learn from what’s working well for them. Reps have several calls a day, and sometimes you might not have the time to listen to the entire conversation, listen to specific parts of the conversation such as demo, pricing conversation, etc.
7. Learning continuously and have a feedback loop
The only way to get good at cold calling is through practice and experience. You won’t become a skilled cold caller overnight. However, here’s what you can do to improve your cold calling:
Record every call with a prospect - this can help you review important parts of the conversation later on to track your performance and improve.
Keep notes for additional insights - after ending a call while it's still fresh, write down any piece of info that you think it's important.