Cold calling has been a cornerstone of B2B sales for decades. Though there is an ongoing debate about whether cold calls are effective and relevant in today’s digital-first landscape, almost every single B2B company continues to leverage cold calling as a critical outreach strategy. That is the value cold calling holds.
In this article, we will explore the key tips and actionable strategies to help you enhance the effectiveness of your sales calls and drive meaningful engagement with your prospects.
What is cold calling?
Cold calling is a strategic sales practice used by B2B companies to engage with qualified leads (potential customer) who may be unfamiliar with the business or have had no prior interaction with the organization but hold the potential to become buyer.
As part of broader prospecting efforts, cold calling is a critical top of the sales funnel activity. The goal of cold calling scripts is to develop a business relationship with the leads and guide them further down the sales funnel.
9 key B2B cold calling tips:
On average, a cold call lasts for about 83 seconds, giving you barely over a minute to establish a connection. With such limited time, every second of a cold call counts to build rapport and make a good first impression.
To maximize this brief window of opportunity, the following tips can help you engage more efficiently and build better cold calling scripts. Use these to elevate your sales pitch and close more deals.
1. Do your business homework
Before initiating cold calls, it is crucial to have a comprehensive understanding of your product or service. As a sales rep, you will have to be the best advocate for your business. Learn the unique selling points of your product or solution and be acquainted with the knowledge of its features and pricing to articulate any common objections from the prospects.
Be aware of the product roadmap and the different use cases of the business model. Also, do a deep competitor analysis and find ways to position yourselves better than them.
2. Know the prospect
While it is impossible to research every prospect in detail, identify prospects who may be of higher value to your company and understand them well before commencing your cold calling process.
LinkedIn is always an invaluable tool to gather information about your prospects. And to gain deeper insights about the personalities of the prospects, use Zintlr chrome extension, a personality intelligence tool.
Zintlr chrome extension for LinkedIn will equip you with personality insights on any of your prospects through their LinkedIn profiles. Learn their preferred tone, interests, and professional priorities. This allows you to tailor your pitch to match the prospect’s communication style and preferences.
3. Sell a benefit
During the cold outreach, sales reps often get caught up in closing the sale than addressing the issues of the prospects. This makes prospects lose interest and leads to disengagement in your pitch.
Decision-makers always prioritize the pain points that are being addressed over the fancy features of your product.
Sell the benefit of the purchase than the luxury of the purchase.
4. Listen more than you speak
If your prospect begins talking during a sales call, do not interrupt. Pause your pitch immediately and shift your focus to listening. Listening is not just a courtesy; the biggest benefit of listening is that your prospect will give you the exact pain point that you’ll need to convert them into a paying customer.
Never take listening for granted. Listening can determine the difference between a lost lead and a new client!
5. Document every call
Document every sales call as soon as you hang up. Even if you see no potential in a call, document it. Here’s what documenting calls can give:
- Insights for future collaboration: When you document calls, you’ll be able to revisit your conversation and identify the spots that worked and the ones that did not. This will help you improve your pitch for future interactions.
- Knowledge database: Every call that you document is data added to a growing repository of customer data. This will help you build better sales strategies, locate the market needs and inform product teams, and be informed of the customer trends.
- Team collaboration: Documenting calls help you align your sales reps on what your prospects think and require. Aligning your sales teams will result in smoother customer experience and improved sales tactics.
These are the benefits of documenting sales calls.
6. Prepare a checklist
A cold call can be autonomous. The conversation can lead to a different topic with the prospect’s thoughts. But make sure that you deliver whatever you had intended to say to the prospect.
Create a checklist of things that you had planned to tell your prospects and before you end your call, check if you have delivered your message completely.
7. Establish credibility early
Your prospects may have a sense of doubt and a lack of trust before getting to know your business. Building trust is crucial to overcome this barrier.
To gain their trust,
- Case studies: Share case studies that showcase measurable outcomes that have created tangible values for similar clients
- Client testimonials: These add social proof and reliability. Highlight testimonials from top-tier clients and clients who are relevant to your prospects.
- Industry expertise: Emphasize your organization’s industry expertise through insights and articles. Position yourselves to be a better advisor than just a vendor.
8. Ask open-ended questions:
Mostly your potential customers will be expecting your sales experts to ask close-ended questions that can be answered with a word. Never in your sales pitch ask questions that can be answered with a simple ‘yes’ or ‘no.’
Eliminate close-ended questions from your script and add open-ended questions to your cold call scripts.
Open-ended questions are the ones that will demand an elaborate answer from your cold call prospects.
9. Keep Going
“Business opportunities are like buses; there’s always another one coming”
Richard Branson
Don’t stay in one place. If you sense that the prospect is not interested in your business and the need for your product or service is low, move on to the next prospect.
Also remember that the primary intent of a cold call can be sales, but even if the prospect does not need your product, when the need arises, the first one that strikes their mind must be yours.
82% of B2B decision makers think sales reps are unprepared. We hope these cold calling strategies and tips will help you prepare before your next sales call, putting you in what the other 18% decision makers think!
Be prepared.
