Against all odds, it turns out that cold calling isn’t dead. In fact, it’s very much alive and in demand! So, what could we say about that? 🧐
The truth is that if a good cold calling strategy is done right, it can be even more effective than some of the most popular digital strategies.
Cold calling is an important part of an Outbound Marketing strategy.
So, would you believe me if I told you that cold calling is the second most used sales technique today? Crazy, isn’t it?
So, let’s go to the important thing here: how to achieve success with these cold calls? Read carefully, because this strategy isn’t just about hitting a button and delivering a product sales pitch 😉.
Let’s get started with the cold calling definition
Well, just like when we talk about our cold emails, cold calling is simply an outbound calling tactic used to create awareness or interest in a product or service.
But not only that: it can also increase the chances of prospects moving down the sales funnel to the conversion point 😎.
And why are they “cold”? Because you call someone who knows nothing about your company or your product. On the other hand, the hot call occurs when the potential customer makes the first contact! (Something that doesn’t happen with your dates, surely you understand it better like this! 😮💨).
⚠️ It’s important to note here that cold calling is not limited to phone calls. They can also be applied to other aspects of your sales strategies, such as cold email campaigns.
Why your business needs a cold calling strategy ASAP
Cold calling crosses the limits of online interaction and you can have a clear answer to the sale!😎
For example, let’s be clear: it’s hard to know if a person is sincerely interested in your product when you talk to them online. They may give you the answers you want to hear, just so you can end the conversation as quickly as possible.
However, with cold calling, you can get a clear understanding of the customer’s feelings through the tone of their voice and their responses. This way, you can more effectively steer the conversation and know whether the person is a quality lead or not.
⭐ Tip:Cold calls build a good connection and are the basis for a stronger relationship with customers.
By talking to them, you can even get to know the potential customer’s pain points. It’s key to find out the types of questions or concerns they have when buying products or services like yours – it’s very valuable information! 💙
A complete guide for turning leads into customers
Before cold calling
If this is your team’s first time cold calling or if you’re involved in sales team training, you’ll probably know that cold calling is a nerve-racking experience. 🤯.
⭐ Tip: Don’t worry… It’s normal to be afraid, but with a little preparation, you can lessen your sales teammates’ anxiety and help them become more confident on calls, as well as sound more confident and professional. Trust me: your customers will notice, too 😉.
Here’s how your salespeople should prepare for a call:
1. Do some research
Cold calls are like the first interaction with your crush. You should show that you do care by doing a little research (but, remember, not so much that it seems creepy 🙄)
⭐ Tip:Carrying out some brief research on the person you are calling will not only be a great icebreaker and talking point for agents to use during the call, but it’s also a great sales personalization technique!
This is the key information you need to gather before making a cold call, what we could also call: Buyer Persona.
- Name (learning how to pronounce their name is a great advantage ) 😎
- Role/position/title
- Company and industry
- Location
- Related technologies
- Tools they use to do their job
- Some interests
2. Cold Email Template
Cold email templates help you and your sales representatives get your foot in the door before calling. It’s an initial step in the process of nurturing a prospect before you get on the phone with them, and it helps you remember your name and your company later during the actual call.
I’m sure you’re wondering how to get a lead’s email address. We’ll show you in these simple steps, so stay tuned! 🤓
¡Scrab.in is an extremely simple tool for this!
Although you can use Scrab.in in many ways, for B2B customer prospecting you should follow the directions:
Sign up for scrab.in and log in from the Google Chrome extension. You will get a configuration that’s very easy to manage. Here are the steps 😉 :
- Connect to your Linkedin
- Select the profile you are interested in prospecting: For example: marketing director in Spain.
You will need to fill the field in the search box with the profile “marketing director”, then click on “people” and then in “locations” select Spain (or the place of interest you have).
⭐ Tip:Be as specific as possible, always thinking about your buyer persona.
Now, just:
- Select the “second level contacts” option:
- Click on the extension and press the play button inside the “visit profile” tab.
- Try letting it run for a few hours (but bear in mind you must have your computer on and not close the Google Chrome window during your working day)
Now it’s time to relax and go on with your usual work. The bot takes care of the job in an automated way, besides visiting the profiles, it also collects data from them, such as name, surname, company, location, domain, email, etc. Enjoy!! 🥳
Don’t forget the most important thing: Download the CSV file at the end of the tracking! Here you’ll find all your leads 😏.
And here’s what you should include in your cold email:
- A compelling, credible subject line 💙
- A body containing a value proposal
- Don’t forget to finish the body with a good, simple call to action.
- Tone should be natural and authoritative
It also helps to read the template out loud to see if it sounds too much like a sales pitch or too stiff. Don’t forget to check your work and run it through a grammar checker and be sure you personalize it!
A well-written cold email template will help you generate more leads for your sales representatives to close their calls.
Our Email Sender tool creates email marketing automations specific to your campaigns in minutes, and most importantly, it improves your cold email conversion by 67% with our drip campaigns! 😏.
By segmenting your emails based on the buyers you are targeting, you can organize your email lists individually and send offers targeted to each group’s respective preferences in a personalized way.
3. Practice, practice and practice
As the old saying goes: practice makes perfect!😳
Encourage your sales team to practice their cold calling script until it becomes second nature. By doing so, they’ll make the calls sound both original and persuasive, correct bad habits, and reinforce their weaknesses.
Another benefit of practice is that they’ll memorize essential details of the script and, therefore, reduce their dependence on it during the actual call.
⭐ Tip: Remember it can be as simple as practicing cold calling by standing in front of a mirror and repeating the script to yourself.
You can also role-play with your colleagues to prepare for different types of situations 😂 (seriously though).
Cold Calling tips
1. Ideal Customer Profile
Remember, contacting ten quality leads is a more efficient use of time than calling 100 leads who aren’t potentially interested in your brand or product. 😉.
The ideal customer profile tells you, among other things, the type of companies and industries that are most likely to buy and use your product. For example, the ideal customer profile for cloud calling applications are call centers and customer service companies.
⭐ Tip: Contact someone who has buying power (also known as a key decision makers). If you call someone of lower level in a company, your efforts will be useless, as they have no decision making power.
2. Choose the best hour
Have you tried calling an office after 5:00 pm on a Friday? If so, you’ll know that people don’t usually answer the phone – the exact same thing happens when you call during your lunch break!
⭐ Tip:Knowing the best time to call helps your sales teams perform the first action of the cold call: talking to someone on the other end of the line 🙄.
But let me warn you, the ideal time to call can vary and depends on the profile of your ideal customer. The recommendations can serve as a good baseline, but it’s important to take note of the times when the potential customer answers the phone, so that you can use this data in the future and optimize your answer rates.❤️🩹.
In addition, time zones must be taken into account when cold calling outside of your geographic area. For sure, no one wants to be woken up at five o’clock in the morning with a cold call 🙂.
After the Cold Call
Just like cold emails, cold calling doesn’t end after you hang up the phone – don’t forget that you’re building the foundation for a stronger relationship with your prospects and future customers!
Here are the steps sales representatives can take after ending a call to increase the chances of converting leads into customers:
1. Follow-up
After a cold call, send an email to your prospect to reconfirm the details of the conversation and the scheduled time for your next call. Sending a follow-up email will also help prospects remember you!
Make sure your email contains the following:
- Details of the product the lead showed interest in.
- If you can, send a calendar invitation with the details of the upcoming call. This will ensure the prospect makes time and doesn’t forget.
- End the email with a direct question that confirms mutual agreement to move forward in the sales process 💙
- Don’t forget your email signature: name, title, company and contact details! 🙋🏽♂️
2. Learning is key here
Like many things in life, cold calling is a constant learning process 💫.
⭐ Tip: That’s why it’s important to analyze the results of the different campaigns and see what to improve at each one of them.
Recuerda, antes de nada, es importante encontrar los leads para realizar la campaña correctamente enfocada a aquellos clientes que te interesan.
First of all, remember it’s important to find the leads to make the campaign correctly focused on those customers you are interested in.
Register in FindThatLead and start increasing your sales with our tools. Remember that Scrab.in is the one who will help you to get the emails of those important customers 😉.
Remember, as well, that cold email campaigns work just as well, if not better, than cold calling. Email Sender will do all your work… Why don’t you get started now?