What is the lifeblood of sales teams? There could be many answers to this but lead generation and cold calling come close.
But cold calling is not everybody’s cup of tea. It can give the best of smooth talkers cold feet. However, there are many tried and tested ways for sales teams to become more successful at cold calling and to build a better, bigger sales pipeline.
Here are some ways in which you can improve your cold calling game:
1. Don’t Sell Just Solve
Much of the sales focus and approach in 2019 seems to revolve around a softer strategy that focuses on solutions instead of hard selling.
You need to apply the same mantra to your cold calling script. Your call’s success rests hugely on your ability to learn about the prospects beforehand. How you use this information to provide value and adjust your pitch will make or break the cold call.
2. Don’t undervalue preparation
Sales may be a number game but the quality and quantity debate is always on. To get cold calling success, you need to ensure you are well prepared. This starts with the quality of your leads. Use more targeted leads and dialing software to qualify and contact prospects. Also, encourage recommendations, draft a better cold email outreach and do your homework before dialing. Write the scripts in advance and have someone vet them for you to ensure your plan is foolproof.
3. Be Confident and Convinced
Cold calling means you face a lot of rejection. Your prospects have no obligation to be nice to you. They may not even want to talk to you.
That is fine. It may bring you down but remember that your work is still valuable and important. It results in many happy clients. Calling with a positive mindset makes a world of difference to the call quality.
4. Get Training
Even the best and most seasoned cold callers can learn a trick or two from time to time. There is always room for improvement. If you find that your style has become jaded or you have stopped innovating, then you need to pay attention to what others are doing right.
There is ample cold calling training available for you to grow your book of business and generate more leads. Get trained and experience a change in your approach.
5. Use a blueprint
One of the best ways to control the call is to have your conversation mapped out even before you pick up the phone. This is going beyond the script and improvising where necessary.
Often sales people don’t know how to structure the call correctly. The blueprint helps you map out the structure that brings you close to the desired result. Sure, there can be detours but having a blueprint makes you more prepared.
The blueprint outlines various phases of the call from introduction, asking questions, delivering the pitch to managing objections and offering a CTA.
6. Always Follow Up
Many deals are forgotten because of a poor follow up strategy or a complete lack of it.
It is advisable to use a CRM that automate the process of entering your calls and leads you to a cohesive follow-up plan.
Don’t over follow up, but use the outcome of each call to make judgements about the next steps. The final step being CLOSING of course.
For example, you may decide that if the prospect is uninterested after the fourth call you must take them out of rotation and reach out only after a certain duration.
7. Use Cold Calling Services
One of the advantages of specialist agencies that offer cold calling services is that you don’t have to do everything yourself.
By outsourcing your cold calling requirements to a specialist you can successfully meet your project goals and deadlines and focus on other activities in sales.
Cold calling is seldom the easiest activity on the list, but somebody has to do it and be successful at it. Like many other difficult tasks, cold calling gets better with time as you devise your strategy and get the hang of it.
