According to Investopedia, the solicitation of a potential client who has not previously interacted with a salesperson is known as cold calling. There are two types of calling method, which is cold and warm calling. Cold calling, a type of telemarketing, is one of the oldest and most frequent ways for salespeople to sell themselves. Warm calling, on the other hand, is the solicitation of a customer who had previously expressed interest in the company or product.
Cold calling is a sales strategy in which a salesman approaches people who have never indicated interest in the items or services being provided. Cold calling is most commonly associated with phone or telemarketing solicitation, but it may also include in-person contact, such as with door-to-door salespeople.
Cold-call salespeople that succeed should be persistent and willing to face rejection. They should thoroughly prepare by analysing the demographics of their prospects and the market in order to be effective. As a result, occupations that rely largely on cold calling have a high attrition rate.
- Use Technology to Eliminate Tedious Tasks.
You should never have to go through tiresome, unproductive sales activities again since modern salespeople have so many tools at their disposal.
Here are some suggestions that you can use as a tools to call your prospect:
ConnectAndSell — You utilise their service to avoid cold calling, which you despise (manually dialing, navigating phone trees, waiting on hold, talking to gatekeepers, scheduling follow up). When your prospects respond, you are immediately brought into live chats with them.
DiscoverOrg – You’ve definitely heard of them. They’re basically the gold standard in company and contact data, but they also provide insights into buying triggers that would normally add hours of research to your plate.
Outreach - Outreach's product has evolved over time to match the demands of current sales teams, and its service and support are unrivalled. It may be used for a variety of tasks, including complete sequence management (phone, email, SMS, and social).
Nextiva– A fantastic choice if you need a VoIP phone system that’s easy to set up, and is light-weight and reliable.
- Call at the Right Time
It's up to you to create the most focused list of people to contact so you don't waste time on each call determining whether or not you can help the person who answered.
If you choose wisely who you contact, you'll receive many fewer rejections. Make sure you're only adding companies and people to your prospect list that you think you'll be able to assist.
Common company traits to look for:
- Industry
- Size (revenue, employee count, # of locations)
- Geography
- Related technologies
- Common contact traits to look for:
Role/title
- Tools they use to perform their job
- Who they report to
- Who reports to them
- Get Along With Rejection
From prospecting to closing, inbound and outbound sales, rejection is an unavoidable aspect of the process. Nobody ever closes 100 percent of their leads.
How to get over your fear of rejection:
Actionable Takeaway #1: Create a “funniest rejection” Slack channel where team members can compete to win a prize for the worst thing someone said in place of “No, thank you.”
Actionable Takeaway #2: If someone says no, but is nice about it, ask why not.
Don't try to sell them here; instead, concentrate on learning.
Actionable Takeaway #3: Have a practise call with a coworker and have them shut you down in the most obnoxious manner imaginable. After that, every time you're told no, convince yourself that it wasn't as awful as that rejection.
If you're tired of being told no and can't seem to escape the sensation, read/watch testimonials from clients who enjoy working with you.
- Make this as Training Session not Selling
You realise that cold calling isn't something you can perfect overnight, so make it a mission to learn something from every potential interaction, good or bad. Here's a fast and dirty approach to improving your cold calling skills:
Actionable Takeaway #1: Stick to the script and don't stray from it (yet).
Actionable Takeaway #2: Figure out where you get stopped in the script on a regular basis (people shut you down >50% of the time you s
Actionable Takeaway #3: Rewrite that portion of your script till you don't get rejected anymore.
Actionable Takeaway #4: Repeat this procedure until you're able to get through your full script on more than half of your chats.
Actionable Takeaway #5: Examine the quality of your sales calls. Pay close attention to how prospects respond to your open-ended queries. They talk more when the question is good.
Actionable Takeaway #6: Record your learnings in a journal (physical or digital) so you don’t forget how much good came from early failures.
Actionable Takeaway #7: Share your learnings with your manager and other reps who are struggling.
Setting your expectations correctly and constantly learning as you go will put you years ahead of the average salesperson.
- Have A Human and Emotional Touch When Talking to Your Client
Calling someone on the phone is a show. You must be able to enter a zone in the same way that actors do. The majority of what actors do is based on scripts. However, not every television show or film sounds like a swarm of robots beeping at each other. They're brimming with genuine human feeling! So you can't just read your lines, but you can utilise a script and talk like a genuine person. If you're prepared to put in the effort, you can become an expert at using a script in cold calls.
How to do it correctly?
Step #1: First, memorize your introduction and value proposition. If you know how to explain who you are and why someone should care, you’ll be better able to adapt to the conversation without going totally unscripted.
Step #2: Then, write out open-ended questions that will unlock your conversations. When you ask these, you have to be prepared to listen, not just wait for your turn to talk again.
Step #3: Next, come up with clear answers to common objections. When you’re first learning to cold call, you won’t be great at these on the fly, so, write them out word for word.
Step #4: Finally, practice until you’re blue in the face.
Assume the role of the buyer with someone else. Close your eyes if you're in the same room with them so you can only hear them and not see them. Request that your helper gradually raise their opposition to your script.
This one tip alone will produce amazing effects. Begin with no reservations. Simply follow through the procedure for advancing to the next stage. Then move on to one minor objection for which you have a prepared response. You should eventually practise managing up front objections such as "I'm not interested" and end-of-call objections such as "Just give me an email."
- Ask The Right Questions
On a cold call, you're not going to clinch a sale - not even close. However, you must submit a request. Set explicit next steps so that both you and the prospect are on the same page.
Prospects aren't interested in being pushed through your sales process. You'll have more success if you instead assist them with their purchase.Getting your prospects' agreement on future actions, as well as allowing them to alter and provide feedback early on, may make a significant impact in the deal flow.
Sellers with the greatest deal velocity spent 53 percent more time discussing future actions, according to Gong.io.
In conclusion, cold callers today know that pitching a product is a fool’s game. It’s all about building relationships. Some advisors use the strategy of asking specific questions and offering free advice based on the response.
Maybe the business owner is concerned about the high-fee structure associated with his employees’ retirement plan. The advisor might make suggestions of companies to check out and offer to do some research and get back to them. This soft-sell approach has worked well for some advisors, especially those early in their careers.
Therefore, if you use the right techniques and good ways to nail this, there will be nothing that can stop you. Start thinking of effective ways rather than using the lame ways to get to your prospects. Understand their problems, be in their shoes and provide the solution to them.