Dial This! Cold Calling Still Works
Fire up the phones! Think cold calling is an outmoded practice that doesn't work anymore? Think again. If you're selling B2B and you're not dialing your prospects directly, new revenue streams are more likely to flow straight to your competitors.
Why Should You Use Cold Calls?
You've heard the clichés: "Cold calling is dead." "It's a waste of time." "We're just annoying our prospects." Purveyors of these trite phrases consistently point to these stats as "evidence" of the demise of phone-based prospecting: Only 2% of cold calls result in a meeting, and only 1% lead to a closed deal.
These may seem like low success rates. However, organizations that believed cold calling is no longer effective experienced 42% less growth than those who did, and 69% of modern buyers accepted cold calls during the past year.
When done right, cold calling is an enabler of new business relationships and a vital component of effective omnichannel B2B sales.
How Can You Dial in Your Phone Outreach?
It takes more than a quality script and a lead list to start new sales conversations over the phone. Follow these five tips, and you'll be well on your way to cold calling success:
1. Hire the right callers.
Sales teams typically loathe cold calling. Closers should close deals, not be responsible for opening them all. If possible, don't force them to do top-of-funnel prospecting. Let them pick up on conversations that have been started already.
Whether you're hiring a caller internally or outsourcing your calling function to a team of experts like CIENCE, don't settle for second best. Take the time to hire people who not only represent your brand well but also understand the pain points and goals of your prospects.
2. Practice likely scenarios.
Before you start dialing, practice as many scenarios as possible with your calling team. Role-play different personas and standard objections so that they can feel prepared to lead conversations with probing, thoughtful questions. Be sure they're ready to talk about what differentiates the value of your solution from others on the market.
Remember: Prospects are highly perceptive of emotional states. They don't want to be interrupted by someone who sounds like they're in a bad mood. Be positive! Your potential future customers will pick up on it and be more likely to want to sustain engagement.
3. Say their names.
When you connect with prospects and they hear you say their names, there is a psychological impact that cold emails can't deliver. Both the anterior and posterior regions of the brain are activated by stimulation within the temporal cortex, middle occipital gyrus, and frontal cortex. There's no better way to "get in their heads" than by connecting human-to-human.
4. Be brief but professionally persistent.
Persistence pays when cold calling. The more you call, the higher conversion rates will be. The sixth cold call in your sequence often reaches 93% of converted leads, and 80% of sales require five, or more, follow-up calls.
In B2B sales, most think the C-suite is off-limits ("We'll never reach them"). Keep trying. An estimated 57% of C-suite members prefer a phone call, in comparison with 51% of directors and 47% of managers. And although 48% of sales reps don’t make follow-up attempts, 60% of prospects will say "no" four times before saying "yes."
5. Use accurate contact data.
The Great Resignation isn't over! Did you know that 20% of workers are still planning to quit their jobs in 2022? That's one in five employees whose contact data will no longer be current in fewer than six months. Simply put, contact data is decaying at an accelerating rate. Accurate, real-world-verified data is more valuable than ever.
Recommended by LinkedIn
To increase your supply of up-to-date, enriched contact data for your ideal customers, consider a platform like GO Data, which enables you to build custom audiences from over 300 million fresh, accurate records.
Combined with GO Show, you can be on the phone with potential customers mere minutes after visiting your website. With the employment landscape still in flux (and who knows when it'll end), it's imperative to align your phone outreach strategy with your data strategy.
Before You Go
Check out our favorite content this week to get your sales and marketing juices flowing.
Blog of the Week
Are your callers nervous, jittery, or downright intimidated by cold calling? They can conquer their anxiety with the right prep, a quality script, and some deep breaths.
Podcast of the Week
In this episode of Enterprise Sales Development podcast, we speak with Josh Braun, founder of Josh Braun Sales Training and the co-founder and CEO of Sales DNA. Using mock call role-playing, he talks about how to build familiarity quickly and effectively in the first ten seconds of a cold call.
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