You’ve probably heard that cold calling is dead. It’s been usurped by social selling, content and outbound email as a way of driving business. No self-respecting sales team would stoop as low as to cold call, right?
Wrong. Cold calling is important! And should be done by sales professionals. Here are eight reasons why.
1. Cold calling is simple
What could be easier than picking up the phone and talking?
To skilled sales development reps, cold calls come naturally. You don’t need to spend hours crafting an email, or days putting together a piece of content. Just pick up the phone and dial.
Once you’re actually through to your potential clients, they can’t ignore you. You’ll very quickly find out if they’re interested or not.
Cold calls are immediate! You can’t say that about an email.
2. It’s the start of a relationship
In an age where so much prospecting is done virtually with intent data, a phone call gives you an opportunity to make a human connection.
Cold calls are an excellent sales strategy. There’s nothing more straightforward than talking with an actual person!
That’s one of the great benefits of a phone call:
You can make a great first impression with your target customers, build rapport and get instant feedback from them.
3. You can put out a consistent message
Cold calling is all about consistency. It allows you to build a clear sales pitch that works every time.
It’s also great for dealing with sales objections. Your potential customers will always have questions about your product; your cold calls are how you build up the confidence to answer them.
Top tip: Develop a winning sales script that promotes your product the way you want it to.
4. Cold calling makes you learn
No other B2B sales or marketing method gives you the opportunity to learn more than cold calling.
When sales prospecting, you can find out the challenges your potential customers are facing. You can find out what other suppliers they’re using and what they think of them. You can find out what they think of your product. You can find out anything you want to know.
The information you gather during cold calling is important for understanding the market. It helps you adapt your product to better serve your prospects’ needs and get a handle on your competition.
With VoIP apps, you can enhance your efforts by tracking calls and analysing data. This way, you have something to look back on to improve your approach and achieve better results with future calls.
What other sales targeting method can do that?
5. You can get the edge over your competitors
When cold calling is done by professional sales representatives, it can be very effective. However, when they don’t have the right sales tools at their disposal, they won’t see success.
Many companies are using inaccurate data to compile their cold calling lists. Their sales reps aren’t trained well enough to get past gatekeepers, to read a script without sounding like a robot, or to ask for the next action. Often, they aren’t using the right sales tools. This means they’re not producing the right sales outcomes.
They could even be going into it aiming for the wrong target, looking to sell when the best course of action is a face-to-face meeting.
Cognism Prospector helps ensure the data on your cold calling list is as accurate as it can be. When you know who you’re talking to, you can hit them with the right messages at the right time.
If you put more thought into where you get your data and how your salespeople go about making personal connections, you will win. You will be one of the rare businesses doing B2B cold calling well!
Top tip: Press ▶️ to watch Cognism’s cold calling script training video!
6. Cold calling is measurable
All cold calling activity is immediately measurable.
Sales tools can tell you exactly how many calls your sales reps are making, as well as how many prospects they’re speaking to. You can measure how many calls are leading to appointments.
It’s also good for training:
You can listen in on sales calls to find out which lines are working and which aren’t. You can use recordings to coach your salespeople for higher cold calling success rates.
Top tip: Learn about the importance of direct dials in improving sales outcomes.
7. It’s cost-effective
Sure, it doesn’t cost much for sales reps to send emails, but they’re not a conversation.
Face-to-face meetings lead to better personal connections, but you need to pay for travel, lunch, and everything else. They also take time. You can’t have 50 meetings in a day, but you can make 50 sales calls (or more!) in a day.
This is why outbound cold calling is such a benefit for sales reps! You can bring in expert call centre solutions to get the best of both worlds. A conversation where you can build rapport, learn and sell for the price of a phone call.
8. You can make your cold calls warmer
Cold calling doesn’t mean phoning up a total stranger. Not anymore.
In fact, there’s no excuse for calling a potential customer without finding out a bit about them first.
LinkedIn makes it simple to find out exactly who you’re talking to. You can find out what exactly they do and where they have worked before. You can search for ways you can help them or make a personal connection.
It’s not stalking. It’s B2B prospecting!
Cognism’s sales agents use LinkedIn messaging templates and personalised emails. These sales techniques warm calls up, so when our reps call potential customers, they already know something about our product.
In this way, cold calls can become hot calls. It’s about building those personal connections!
Top tip: If you’re looking for more cold calling tips, you might enjoy these articles on objection handling and sales discovery.
Cold calling benefits: the last word
Hopefully, this article has convinced you why cold calling is the best strategy for sales professionals.
We’ve got even more great cold calling content for you! Check out Cognism’s SDR Zone - it’s the number one place where sales reps learn their trade.
Click 👇 to access.
