Most people in the sales department are excellent at building relationships with their prospective clients. They are always engaging and interacting with them. A good salesperson will know how to showcase his authentic side and reach out to potential customers. They will know how to market their products subtly and showcase the solution they offer. Nonetheless, there are lead-generating systems that a prospect will have to go through before entering your sales funnel and being converted into sales. Usually, the buyer’s journey will start from cold calling.
What is the Proper Approach to Lead Generation Through Cold Calling?
With cold calling, two strangers talk over the phone, discussing a potential business. All sales personnel will tell you that it is the toughest part of the marketing process. If you don’t have the necessary skills, you won’t bridge a connection, and your prospect will simply find you annoying. You may lose the chance to meet the customers face to face and convert them into paying customers. Here are some of our suggestions when learning how to generate leads through cold calling.
Be Confident and Professional
When you’ve finally reached out to your potential client over the phone, the last thing you want to do is to give them a half-baked greeting. You don’t have to confirm who you are talking to. Remember that if there’s some mix-up, the person at the end of the line will surely inform you. It is also extremely important if this is a B2B lead generation. You are talking to a key decision-maker in the business. They are busy people, and you are taking away their precious time. Are you confident that your service or product can add value to their company? Once they pick up the phone, you need to convey your purpose immediately. It will be the easiest part of generating leads through cold calling. Leave the hello and occasional greeting to your friends. Be confident and professional when talking to them.
Thank Them
We’ve mentioned above that they are busy, and you want to make sure that you thank them for their precious time. While most of these key people will understand that this is simply the nature of your business, you need to realize that their time is relatively limited. They will also be initially resistant to this. Perhaps the best way to loosen this conversation is to express gratitude for giving you their time. It is a perfect way to open the conversation; it also sends a signal to them that you are courteous. After thanking them, call them with their first name to make this cold calling more personal.
Proper Introduction
It could be tempting to ask them the questions immediately and go through your list. This strategy may be effective on some of your prospects, but it is still best to be honest from the start to develop a good relationship. Introduce yourself and inform them about the company where you belong. Keep your introduction broad and do not immediately get into the specific. Once you make the proper greeting, thank them and formally introduce yourself. After that, it is the best time to engage with them with an intelligent conversation related to their business. You may have this fear of being rejected, making cold calling appear more difficult than what it seems to be. By being armed with the proper technique, you will encourage that person to engage in the conversation.
How Should I Improve the Process of Generating Leads through Cold Calling?
Cold calling remains one of the most effective methods in gathering quality leads and improving the company’s conversion rate. However, not many sales and marketing people are doing it the right way. We’ve mentioned the initial way how to generate leads through cold calling. However, that may not be enough. Success in this method is equivalent to the effort that you’ve put into your work. The more comprehensive your plan is, the higher the probability of capturing and converting your leads. We’ve listed some of the effective methods to improve this strategy.
Define the Objectives of Your Cold Calling
Before you even sit down and pick up your phone, you need to have a comprehensive plan. What are you trying to achieve with your cold calling campaign? Perhaps you want to book an in-person meeting or probably want to increase your sales. You may have webinars or podcasts, and you want to invite them over or join a live viewing of your product demo. You need to have a well-defined CTA (call to action). Understand that your CTA will depend upon your prospect and your objectives.
Know that cold calling is just the initial phase of the long, complex, and arduous buyer’s journey. The specific goal of the salesperson is to encourage the prospect to move a step forward to the sales funnel. It is fine to have multiple objectives; you need to see what works best for your company. Once you understand your goal, you will also know when to end a conversation. The process will become much clearer if you follow a particular plan.
Building a List
If you have a generic target list, do not expect it to get you somewhere. You will have to make this call relatable to your prospects. Otherwise, they will immediately hang up their phone. Here are some steps you need to do to build highly targeted leads.
- Create an ICP (Ideal Customer Profile)- This is one of the more important things when generating leads through cold calling. If you are reaching out to the wrong audiences, then your campaign is bound to fail. An accurate ICP will lead to high-valued leads, better efficiency, and a higher conversion rate. Therefore, you have to take your time and ensure that things are going right.
- Scale Things Up- You need to have a tool to streamline the process and build a highly accurate targeted list. Your sales will become more effective with this.
Understanding Your Sales Triggers
Sales trigger, also known as conversion triggers, marketing triggers, or buying triggers, is defined as an event that can create an opportunity to reach out to your prospect. Understand that timing is everything concerning cold calling. Here are some common sales triggers that result in the conversion of leads.
- Change in their job title or role
- Company merge, relocation, or expansion
- Events and conference
- New policy
- Sector announcement
- Company hiring
- New funding
- New executives
Identifying these time-dependent data points can create a difference between lead conversions. Moreover, showing your prospect that you are aware of their situation will make them understand that you did your homework. However, avoid being too precise and elaborate since that is just being creepy.
Know Your Prospects
If you are using cold calling for lead generation, you need to gather the necessary information about the people you plan to call. Don’t just carelessly throw random details to your prospects since this will make them feel that you value them. Here are some of the ways how you can turn your cold leads to warm leads.
- Track Your CRM Tool – CRM (Customer Relationship Management) should always be your first point of consideration. With this tool, you can monitor all your conversations with your leads. You will avoid making the same conversation and waste both of your time.
- Search for Your Prospects on LinkedIn- Most people nowadays will tend to overshare on their social media accounts, making it easier for marketers to gather the information they need. Look for the accounts they follow, the post where they commented. It will help you understand more about their interest. You should also confirm their position in the company to know if they fit your customer profile.
- Search for Articles- There’s a chance that you will find an article written by your prospect. They might mention some key information and interesting facts that you can add to your cold calling. Reading their articles will also help you develop a marketing voice similar to their tone and voice. Mirroring (not parroting) will be important in building that connection.
- Recent Events- If there’s a current event related to your prospect, for instance, an award or job promotion, be sure that you will congratulate them to make the conversation more personal. Success stories will mostly be found online. Mentioning their recent achievements will make this call more endearing.
Creating a Script for your Cold Calling
Generating leads through cold calling requires a well-written script. It will help you keep track of the conversation and pay attention to your company’s selling point. With a script, your call will be more effective. You can include the lines that your prospects will easily notice with this. However, you should not heavily rely on your script since it will sound rehearsed and inauthentic. Avoid reading the script word-for-word. Moreover, forcing your sales team to follow a script will affect their creativity. Here are some tips when creating a powerful script.
- Add the reason for your call, and you should immediately tell it to your prospect.
- You should get to the point at once. Time is precious, and you shouldn’t waste it. Avoid adding any unnecessary things to the script to make things longer. Make sure to find ways to generate demand.
- Tell them how you can help and not what you can do.
- Questions should be open-ended. Let your prospects realize how your service or product can offer them a solution.
- Keep a conversational tone and avoid sounding like a pushy salesperson. You should also use terms that they can easily understand.
- At the end of the call, make sure you get an answer. Remind yourself about your Defined Objectives. Try to move your prospects closer to your goal, even if it is just an inch closer.
Make sure that your script will be flexible. Understand that there is no all-in-one approach to cold calling. Your marketing and salespeople should have enough space for creativity and innovation. Nonetheless, the structure should encourage them to focus on the task at hand.
Calling at the Best Time
You need to determine the best time when your prospects are willing to take your calls. There are times when your clients will find it inconvenient to take the calls. If you think that you are talking to a receptionist, you need to have some plans on how you can get through them and get to the company’s decision makers. Here are some ways to do your cold calling.
- Be Professional- You need to sound like an authoritative figure by staying relaxed and calm. Speak concisely, slowly, and clearly. If you can sound important and experienced, you will find it easy to get past them.
- Avoid Selling to These Gatekeepers- Receptionist, secretaries, and Personal Assistants are known as gatekeepers; they are not the decision-makers, so it is pointless to sell your offerings to them.
- Know Them- You need to give an impression that you know your prospects. When talking to your prospects, refer to them using their first name. If they ask you what this call is all about, you should use the information that you’ve gathered when researching your prospects.
Finally, you should know how to handle objections. Understand that not all of your leads will be ready to be converted. It is natural for your leads to have some questions, and you should be prepared to answer that. If you find that you are always receiving the same questions, it may be time to change your cold calling strategy