The telephone is an excellent business tool. If your communication skills are powerful, you can use a phone for advertising your products and services, while creating positive publicity for your business.
But do you know what most salespeople and business owners find terrifying most about telemarketing? Calling up total strangers to talk about your services or trying to get them to buy your product or set up a meeting.
Trust me, it’s very awkward, and it takes a high level of communication and persuasion to get the desired results through telemarketing.
Most people think that cold calling is no longer necessary due to the various digital marketing channels available. But that’s a wrong assumption. “Cold calling isn’t dead”, it’s still in vogue.
Some of the most successful brands in the world still rely on cold calling strategy to drive revenues. Companies like Uber, Fortune 500, Twitter, etc. have proactive sales representatives who constantly dial numbers every day to drive sales.
However, it’s a bit expensive to sustain cold calling. It takes time and resources to set up a team of cold calling personnel.
Even though cold calling activities could help to increase revenue and makes your business perform better, you need a strategy. Without proven strategies, you can’t get the desired results from cold calling activities.
For a start, cold calling requires more time and patience because it could be very frustrating. But it’s effective.
According to a report by DiscoverOrg, 60% of over 1000 polled senior executives from the IT industry reported that they took an appointment or attended an event after receiving a cold call. So, cold calling is still effective and could achieve the desired result when done the right way.
What is Cold Calling?
Cold calling is the earliest stage of the selling process. It refers to the unsolicited phone calls to prospective customers in an attempt to sell goods, service, and even set up a meeting.
The essence of cold calling is to capture your prospective customers’ attention without any formal appointment in commercial premises.
Like I mentioned earlier, it’s sometimes frustrating and hard. Some potential customers may be unnecessarily formal, and it’s your job to warm them up.
If you are cold calling for the first time, here are some tips to help improve your closing rate.
Cold Calling Tips to Close Your Sales Like a Pro
Here are some cold calling tips that will help to improve your closing rate;
Make it All About the Prospect
Normally, when you call a prospect for the first time, it’s advisable to focus your attention and questions on the prospect.
As a rule, never talk about who you are, what you do, your companies, or any other companies. Always have it in mind that it’s all about the prospect, not you. And when you use a client-centred selling approach, you tend to warm up the client easily.
Always Plan all Your Questions in Advance
You must always be prepared when handling cold calling activities. Don’t forget that the more information you have, the higher your chances of closing your prospects.
If you have a pool of questions prepared to ask, it will be easier for you to navigate through this stage. Ensure that your questions are arranged in a logical sequence, starting from the most general to the most specific ones.
Avoid Following Written Scripts
A common mistake most salespeople make during cold calling is that they focus too much on scripts. Following written scripts could ruin your chances of closing a sale during cold calls.
Most times, it’s a bit difficult to get a positive response from your prospect when you asked the first question. But if you do, ask him several other questions about his business, market, and possibly his budget.
Here are a few examples of questions that are likely to get a response;
- What would change if you could make everything perfect for your business?
- If you could magically eliminate your biggest challenge in business, what would it be?
- I would like to schedule a meeting with you in person to discuss your business needs. Is 12noon Friday perfect for you?
That’s how to get the perfect response from a cold call. Always remember that the best way to get the right response from a cold call is by making it about the prospects.
Don’t Overwhelm Prospects With Too Much Information During First Meeting
When calling a prospect for the first time, try to keep it simple. Don’t overwhelm them with too much information about your product or services.
But if the prospect is interested and wants to know more about your service, you can start dishing out valuable information about your service.
Most times, when you start your cold call with too much information about your company, the prospect tends to resist you and possibly end the call.
Don’t Sell on Your First Cold Call
Your first cold call is intended to warm up your prospect not to sell. So, never attempt to sell, instead spend more time gathering information.
Most times, it’s advisable to interview your prospects by asking them questions, take notes of their needs, and tell them you will be back. If possible, set up a meeting. This process is more effective when you are trying to market an expensive product or services.
Try to Keep Your Prospects Relaxed
It’s essential always to keep your prospect relaxed when calling them for the first time. The more relaxed they are, the more they will open up to you and increase your chances of making sales in the long run.
Ordinarily, cold calling is a daunting task for most people. Trust me; it scares away even the most fearless marketers. But you can’t help but include it as part of your marketing strategy because it’s part of the game.
If you think you don’t have the attention, experience, skills, and patience to handle cold calling, you should outsource it to a professional telemarketing company; it makes things a lot easier for you.
5 Reasons You Should Outsource Your Cold Calling Services
Here are 5 reasons why you should outsource your cold calling services;
#1. It Enables You To Engage Your Sales Team in Other Marketing Activities
Like I mentioned earlier, cold calling is time-consuming and requires patience. According to research, cold calling sales process takes 6 to 6.5 hours a day, doing about 13 dials an hour, and over 100 a day, and 2000+ in one month. Crazy right?
Does your sales department have the time to handle it? Of course, the answer is No. So, outsourcing your cold calling activities to a professional telemarketing company gives your sales team the time to handle other marketing activities.
#2. It Saves Cost
It’s relatively cheaper to outsource your cold calling activities than organizing an in-house team to handle them. It takes experience, skills, and resources to call up a stranger telling him about your services or advertising your products.
It’s expensive to hire a team and train them to handle your cold calling activities. Moreover, it may take a while before new employees master the art of cold calling.
However, when you outsource this function, it saves you time, money, and you are sure of getting efficient sales experience.
#3. Outsourcing Cold Calling Makes Your Service Reliable
Typically, every cold call has a goal which is to motivate a prospect to take a particular action, most times to set up a meeting. It may be challenging to achieve this goal if you are a small business owner with little or no experience in cold calling activities.
But if you outsource your cold calling activities to professionals, experienced cold calling experts will help you handle the process and give your prospects the impression that your products are reliable.
#4. Gained Finish Statistics
Most business owners who handle their cold calling activities themselves often face a series of challenges. They may not have the time to supervise their calling team, the tools to record every call, etc.
But when the process is outsourced, you don’t need to disturb yourself with supervision or recording data. What you will expect from your outsourcing company is finished statistics and progress results.
#5. Scalable and Flexible
Cold calling providers often give you information that will help you to understand your prospect better. The information enables you to measure your clients’ satisfaction and give you clues to improve customers’ experience.
Most times, professional cold callers are scalable and flexible. Outsourcing your cold calling activities to them could help to increase your lead conversion rate.
