Cold Calling Tips
These cold calling tips and tricks are designed to give some guidance as part of a salespersons sales prospecting efforts. Despite what youread, cold calling when used correctly still has its part to play in the sales process. If as a salesperson, you feel overwhelmed by cold calls, you’re not alone. So hopefully these cold calling tips and tricks can help you improve your results.
This is a question you are probably asking yourself. The answer is Yes, cold calling does work, but only if part of a wider strategy to engage prospects.
Proactive sales calls can still be an effective tactic to target new
customers and create opportunities for your sales pipeline. Remember
that picking up the phone to engage a prospect isn’t as simple as having
an opening pitch and a script, you need a structure and a strategy.
Stop and ask yourself – Why would a prospect listen to me? What am I
offering that would trigger them to engage with me further? So, at the
core of our cold calling tips and tricks is that to be truly successful
you will need research and preparation, a focus on who and why you are
contacting them, a plan on how your cold calling fits into your other
sales touch points (email, social selling etc) and a goal for what you
want to achieve from every prospecting call.
selling touches and introductory email can drive up prospect engagement
by over 30%. connect rate.
Cold calling tip 1. Use an Ideal Customer Profile Template to Understand Your Prospect.
Use the Ideal Customer Profile to get a picture of why they buy what
you are selling. What are their challenges, pain points, what is their
industry trends, what type of company do they work at?
As mentioned earlier, cold calling only works if part of a wider
strategy, a scatter gun approach just will not work. What information
or data can you share to get them to listen. Without researching the
prospect against a profile, you are putting your sales pitch above any
investment in the person on the other end of phone. Research and
preparation are key before you start cold calling, so you can focus in
on the prospects who will be responsive to your value proposition.
Cold calling tip 2. Preparing to cold call.
Planning and preparing to make those cold calls will determine your
level of success. List out all the sales assets and sales touch points,
you have created prior to picking up the phone. Then write up your
value proposition that you will open up with as part of your cold
calling script. To get prospects to listen during the crucial first few
minutes, you need to be able to communicate your value proposition
message clearly and confidently. Ideally a prospect should not be 100%
cold before you call them, what other sales touch points have you
completed to increase your chances of a meaningful conversation.
Cold Calling Tips and Tricks: The goal of cold
calling isn’t to rattle off some prepared sales pitch, you are trying to
get them to listen by sharing some useful information and then commit
to a discussion about THEIR challenges.
Cold calling tip 3. Have a Goal and know your outcome for each call.
Another one of our cold calling tips and tricks is to NEVER have the
main objective of your prospecting calls to be “to find out who the
decision maker is”, your research, planning and preparation should have
identified this. A purposeful objective could be to identify their role
in a purchasing decision for the product you are promoting. You are not
there to waste each other’s time, so make sure you are clear about your
goals and what outcome you want before you ever pick up the phone.
As there are now 5 to 6 people involved in any purchasing decision
AKA the buying committee, always have more than one target profile to
engage with in each company. Users and influencers can play a big part
in getting the buying committee to consider your offering.
Cold Calling Tips and Tricks: Connect and engage
with users, gatekeepers and influencers at every company you target. It
is rare today for 1 single person to make a purchasing decision.
Cold calling tip 4. The way you approach people is the way they will respond.
Put yourself in the shoes of the prospect, if you are approaching the
prospect with a nakedly obvious sales pitch, then expect a nakedly
obvious response. Successful cold calling begins and ends with the
prospects best interests at heart. Visualize yourself as a trusted
adviser who will be a useful and valuable resource to the prospect, one
who shares quality information, is credible and an expert. Your priority
is NOT your company or the product or service you sell, instead your
priority is the prospect because if you prioritize the prospects needs,
you are now existing to bring improvement to their roles and working
lives.
This really is the test of why you should be cold calling. If you
truly believe in what you offer and your personal value proposition
reinforces this, then nothing will stop you. The salespeople who
struggle in cold calling are the ones selling products or services they
really do not believe in and this is reflected in their approach.
Cold calling tip 5. Your value proposition must get to the point.
When the prospect answers your call, will your value proposition
stand out from the noise in their work life. Are you 100% clear on the
value of your solution that will appeal to the prospects ears and brain.
What pain points or challenges are you addressing – will it save money,
save time, improve productivity, reduce risk, speed up progress and is
it compelling enough for them to stay on the phone to learn more. You
also should have data, statistics, case studies and industry knowledge
to back your value proposition so you are seen as an expert or adviser.
The reason you are phoning them today is that your research, planning
and preparation have indicated that you have something to share which is
worth their while considering. You are the trusted advisor, not here to
waste time or share irrelevant information – you know why you are
phoning and why the prospect should listen.
Cold Calling Tips and Tricks: Include social listening for trigger events as part of your research and preparation.
Cold calling tip 6. Use trigger events to engage a prospect.
Selling in itself does not cause buying. Many purchases come about as
a result of some trigger event which causes a challenge or pain point
to be addressed. You can tap into these signals also known as trigger
events by engaging in social listening. As part of your sales habit
loop, every day you should be social listening for 15-20 minutes on
Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Google Alerts or News sites to keep tabs on
recent happenings relating to a set of focused prospects, industry or
companies.
Some trigger events that research has shown to kickstart a prospects’ buying journey include:
New C level or senior hires. A new member of a
company’s leadership team will invariable want to prove their value and
make changes, so they are more open to new solutions. I’m not suggesting
you go after this person but rather focus on your target prospect who
could be a hero to the new boss by introducing new vendors.
Winning a large contract or large customer win. Could
this open the door to an opportunity for your offerings. At the very
least, reach out to the prospect to congratulate and see what impact
this will have on their roles or business.
A company expansion. New hires, moving office,
opening a new location or a geographical change is a trigger event that
qualifies as an introduction opportunity.
Regulation or Industry Shift. Use social listening
to keep abreast of any pending regulation changes or any industry trends
that could shift a prospect from his or her status quo position.
Educate yourself on these shifts to present yourself as an expert and
trusted source of information.
Company Acquisitions or Mergers. If you already
supply into a similar company or have a relationship with either party,
this trigger event can be a great opportunity to get engage a prospect.
Cold calling tip 7. – Be Credible. Use social proof to build rapport and influence.
When a prospect asks themselves “why should I listen to this person?”
your value proposition and how you present yourself must be credible. A
super means to gain credibility in the eyes of a prospect is to use
social proof within your value proposition. Social proof is now vital in
most sales prospecting tactics from social selling to introductory
emails because it shows the prospect that your product has helped other
people with similar pain points. The key is to share a relevant success
story or snippet of information of someone you helped who had challenges
similar to the prospects role or industry.
Cold Calling can work for you!!
There is a certain art and level of sales skill to make cold calling successful. Apart from maybe some social selling training and learning more about sales prospecting,
you must make it part of your sales habit loop and like every habit you
must want to it and have reason to do it. It boils down to your drive
to do the research, plan, prepare and then call and call again that
differentiates success from failure in cold calling.
Cold Calling Tips
Does cold calling still work?
Cold calling tips
Proactive sales calls can still be an effective tactic to target new
customers and create opportunities for your sales pipeline. Remember
that picking up the phone to engage a prospect isn’t as simple as having
an opening pitch and a script, you need a structure and a strategy.
Stop and ask yourself – Why would a prospect listen to me? What am I
offering that would trigger them to engage with me further? So, at the
core of our cold calling tips and tricks is that to be truly successful
you will need research and preparation, a focus on who and why you are
contacting them, a plan on how your cold calling fits into your other
sales touch points (email, social selling etc) and a goal for what you
want to achieve from every prospecting call.
Cold Calling Tips and Tricks:
Did you know that phoning prospects in combination with socialselling touches and introductory email can drive up prospect engagement
by over 30%. connect rate.
Cold calling tip 1. Use an Ideal Customer Profile Template to Understand Your Prospect.
Use the Ideal Customer Profile to get a picture of why they buy what
you are selling. What are their challenges, pain points, what is their
industry trends, what type of company do they work at?
As mentioned earlier, cold calling only works if part of a wider
strategy, a scatter gun approach just will not work. What information
or data can you share to get them to listen. Without researching the
prospect against a profile, you are putting your sales pitch above any
investment in the person on the other end of phone. Research and
preparation are key before you start cold calling, so you can focus in
on the prospects who will be responsive to your value proposition.
Cold calling tip 2. Preparing to cold call.
Planning and preparing to make those cold calls will determine your
level of success. List out all the sales assets and sales touch points,
you have created prior to picking up the phone. Then write up your
value proposition that you will open up with as part of your cold
calling script. To get prospects to listen during the crucial first few
minutes, you need to be able to communicate your value proposition
message clearly and confidently. Ideally a prospect should not be 100%
cold before you call them, what other sales touch points have you
completed to increase your chances of a meaningful conversation.
Cold Calling Tips and Tricks: The goal of cold
calling isn’t to rattle off some prepared sales pitch, you are trying to
get them to listen by sharing some useful information and then commit
to a discussion about THEIR challenges.
Cold calling tip 3. Have a Goal and know your outcome for each call.
Another one of our cold calling tips and tricks is to NEVER have the
main objective of your prospecting calls to be “to find out who the
decision maker is”, your research, planning and preparation should have
identified this. A purposeful objective could be to identify their role
in a purchasing decision for the product you are promoting. You are not
there to waste each other’s time, so make sure you are clear about your
goals and what outcome you want before you ever pick up the phone.
As there are now 5 to 6 people involved in any purchasing decision
AKA the buying committee, always have more than one target profile to
engage with in each company. Users and influencers can play a big part
in getting the buying committee to consider your offering.
Cold Calling Tips and Tricks: Connect and engage
with users, gatekeepers and influencers at every company you target. It
is rare today for 1 single person to make a purchasing decision.
Cold calling success
Put yourself in the shoes of the prospect, if you are approaching the
prospect with a nakedly obvious sales pitch, then expect a nakedly
obvious response. Successful cold calling begins and ends with the
prospects best interests at heart. Visualize yourself as a trusted
adviser who will be a useful and valuable resource to the prospect, one
who shares quality information, is credible and an expert. Your priority
is NOT your company or the product or service you sell, instead your
priority is the prospect because if you prioritize the prospects needs,
you are now existing to bring improvement to their roles and working
lives.
This really is the test of why you should be cold calling. If you
truly believe in what you offer and your personal value proposition
reinforces this, then nothing will stop you. The salespeople who
struggle in cold calling are the ones selling products or services they
really do not believe in and this is reflected in their approach.
Cold calling tip 5. Your value proposition must get to the point.
When the prospect answers your call, will your value proposition
stand out from the noise in their work life. Are you 100% clear on the
value of your solution that will appeal to the prospects ears and brain.
What pain points or challenges are you addressing – will it save money,
save time, improve productivity, reduce risk, speed up progress and is
it compelling enough for them to stay on the phone to learn more. You
also should have data, statistics, case studies and industry knowledge
to back your value proposition so you are seen as an expert or adviser.
The reason you are phoning them today is that your research, planning
and preparation have indicated that you have something to share which is
worth their while considering. You are the trusted advisor, not here to
waste time or share irrelevant information – you know why you are
phoning and why the prospect should listen.
Cold Calling Tips and Tricks: Include social listening for trigger events as part of your research and preparation.
Cold calling tip 6. Use trigger events to engage a prospect.
Selling in itself does not cause buying. Many purchases come about as
a result of some trigger event which causes a challenge or pain point
to be addressed. You can tap into these signals also known as trigger
events by engaging in social listening. As part of your sales habit
loop, every day you should be social listening for 15-20 minutes on
Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Google Alerts or News sites to keep tabs on
recent happenings relating to a set of focused prospects, industry or
companies.
Some trigger events that research has shown to kickstart a prospects’ buying journey include:
New C level or senior hires. A new member of a
company’s leadership team will invariable want to prove their value and
make changes, so they are more open to new solutions. I’m not suggesting
you go after this person but rather focus on your target prospect who
could be a hero to the new boss by introducing new vendors.
Winning a large contract or large customer win. Could
this open the door to an opportunity for your offerings. At the very
least, reach out to the prospect to congratulate and see what impact
this will have on their roles or business.
A company expansion. New hires, moving office,
opening a new location or a geographical change is a trigger event that
qualifies as an introduction opportunity.
Regulation or Industry Shift. Use social listening
to keep abreast of any pending regulation changes or any industry trends
that could shift a prospect from his or her status quo position.
Educate yourself on these shifts to present yourself as an expert and
trusted source of information.
Company Acquisitions or Mergers. If you already
supply into a similar company or have a relationship with either party,
this trigger event can be a great opportunity to get engage a prospect.
Cold calling tip 7. – Be Credible. Use social proof to build rapport and influence.
When a prospect asks themselves “why should I listen to this person?”
your value proposition and how you present yourself must be credible. A
super means to gain credibility in the eyes of a prospect is to use
social proof within your value proposition. Social proof is now vital in
most sales prospecting tactics from social selling to introductory
emails because it shows the prospect that your product has helped other
people with similar pain points. The key is to share a relevant success
story or snippet of information of someone you helped who had challenges
similar to the prospects role or industry.
Cold Calling can work for you!!
There is a certain art and level of sales skill to make cold calling successful. Apart from maybe some social selling training and learning more about sales prospecting,
you must make it part of your sales habit loop and like every habit you
must want to it and have reason to do it. It boils down to your drive
to do the research, plan, prepare and then call and call again that
differentiates success from failure in cold calling.
Cold Calling Tips
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