Not everybody’s comfortable with cold calling prospects, but those who are can generate additional revenue for your business — as long as they’re cold calling the right way.
Cold calling isn’t dead; it’s just evolving.
Do you need to brush up on your cold calling technique to improve your success rate? Here are some tips:
Are You Doing any Research?
One of the best ways to lose a sale is by not doing your homework ahead of time. Before cold calling a prospect, do your research. What can you find out about the person you’re about to call?
For example, does this potential buyer have a LinkedIn account? If so, scan it for anything you can use to give yourself the slightest advantage. Maybe you and the person on the other end of the line have connections in common.
Take some time to learn more about the company you’re cold calling. Does the company have a blog on its website? If so, scroll through it to learn more about the buyer’s business. You can find out a lot about a company and what it does if its blog is frequently updated. The information you need to personalize your calls may be readily accessible; you just need to do the preparatory work.
Once you’ve acquired the knowledge that you need to connect with the buyer on another level, outline your plan of attack.
Further reading How to Turn Your MSP Prospects into Clients
Script or No Script?
Not everybody agrees with the strategy of using scripts when cold calling prospects. Some experts believe scripts make salespeople sound robotic on the phone — a valid point — but it’s usually good practice to have something to guide the conversation when cold calling a prospect.
You should have, at the very least, a template to follow when making your calls, as this helps you stay on point. Without a template, you or your salesperson may lose sight of the purpose of the call — turning cold calls into warm leads.
While the template you use should essentially be the framework for your cold calls, build upon it by adding the information that you gather when researching prospects. Customize your templates whenever you can; that’s how you can avoid sounding robotic. The person on the other end of the line wants to feel a connection with you. If there isn’t one, you’re more than likely not going to close.
Using a template can also help you hit your call targets each month.
Give Yourself a Goal for Each Month
Do you feel like you’re not making enough cold calls each day? If this is the case, then you’re probably not.
To keep yourself on track, set a monthly goal for yourself. Don’t set your goal too high in the beginning, start with a number you’re comfortable with, a number you can hit. The point of setting yourself a monthly goal is to hold yourself accountable. Commit to making a set number of cold calls each month to motivate yourself to pick up the phone and start dialing.
The more calls you make, the better you’ll become at making cold calls.
Practice Makes Perfect
Pick up the phone and make calls. That’s the only way you’re going to get better at cold calling. When you first begin cold calling, it can be pretty intimidating, but the more you do it, the more comfortable you will become when it comes to talking to people who aren’t expecting to hear from you.
After a while, you get used to it — the rejection. (Read this article to learn how to manage sales rejections) You get into a rhythm, and after a while, you won’t mind cold calling. It becomes just another part of your job.
Don’t be afraid to jump on the phone, pitch as often as possible to hone your craft.
Cold calling gets easier with practice. Doing research, following a template, and setting goals for yourself can all help improve your cold calling success rate.
Read our guide for tips on:
- Prospect research
- Discovery call
- Main parts of a sales pitch
- Creating a sales deck (a structure example is included)
