Tips to make your cold call a success, lets learn how to benefit from cold calls. Most sales reps dread making the cold call. But then who doesn’t? Especially, when you know you’re interrupting someone to get something out of them; perhaps information, a meeting or a new sale.
However, according to a section of experts, picking up the phone is one of the best prospecting tools and one of the best ways to meet with customers.
So here we have got tips (framed by the best front line sales managers) to help you make the perfect call every time.
Many sales reps make cold calls without enough preparation to turn a short conversation into something meaningful. Needless to say this approach is WRONG.
Work with marketing teams to discover the prospects who may be the best fit for your product. Use customer relationship management solutions to get insights into title of the company, background, company hierarchy and industry overviews. Make sure that you have a complete picture of the prospect such as day-to-day job functionality, mentality and the biggest business pains they have.
Note: Working out these things before you call will put you into much better footing to develop a relationship.
Learn which times of day or evening result in the most meaningful conversations. Accordingly, focus efforts when your prospects are AVAILABLE.
Introduce Yourself and Your Company
Greet prospects by name. Give your full name, company name, and job title. Include a benefit statement such as, “Hello Mr. /Ms…We’re a…company helping customers achieve cost reduction in operation.”
Clearly state why you’re calling in the beginning of the call; if the reason is to schedule a personal visit, say so.
Use buy-in statements in the interaction. Use company names of a similar industry with the same challenges (as your prospect) to develop credibility and interest.
For instance, “I’m sure that like our customer, XYZ, you too would be interested in improving upon this area of your business.”
Most often the goal of cold calling is to close on an in-depth meeting. However, it’s unrealistic to think that this will happen with every call you make. To increase the success probability of the call, the best thing is to have a referral.
When you have been referred, your call to that referral gives you credibility which you can’t get in any other way. In fact when you connect with someone based upon a referral, the possibility that they will accept to meet is high.
Rather than if strongly emphasize when you are going to meet. Avoid confusion through open-ended questions by specifically asking for a time. Sum up the appointment details via email for reference purpose.
Send reminders via email and voicemail 2-3 business days prior to the meeting.
Think about anything you ever cared about getting better at. Probably you kept measuring your performance and kept improving on it. It’s no different when it comes to prospecting. With continuous measurement and tracking of performance, you can adjust and improve.
Questions to ask:
