We know — cold calls can give people cold feet. You have a list of prospects in one hand, a phone in the other, and you're preparing to make a sales pitch to a lineup of strangers. You don't know them, they don't know you, and there's no pre-existing trust or rapport between you yet. So, how can you turn that cold calling list into a successful sale?
When it comes to making new contacts and making sales, prospecting can be one of the hardest parts of the sales process. But no matter how daunting cold calls might seem, they're still one of the most lucrative, successful ways to build a sales base and reach new prospects. How? We're here to help. If you're a sales team member hoping to boost your success rate, here are six tips to perfect the art of cold calling.
1. Get in the Right Mindset
Telemarketing isn't just about making the call — it's about how you deliver it. When you want to be persuasive and convincing over the phone, you need to convince yourself first. Before tackling and telephoning that list of prospects, prepare yourself by doing the following:
- Keeping Your Intentions Pure: It's essential to focus on the real benefit of the prospect when you introduce the call and throughout the conversation. When a potential customer can tell you are genuinely trying to help them, they're more likely to listen than if you come across pushy and impersonal.
- Remembering Your Goals: For every 100 prospects you call, a big percentage is going to say no, but a few will say yes — and it's all part of your process for the day. Instead of being discouraged when you hear another no, realize you're one step closer to your goal of one or two yeses and keep going.
- Being Clear on Your Value: Always keep your company's value at the forefront of your mind and on the tip of your tongue when you're making a call. When you believe in and remember the good your company can do, you're more likely to convince potential customers and come across as genuine.
2. Practice
Nothing good ever happened without practice and preparation — and neither does successful cold calling. The more you read your script out loud or practice your responses for potential questions and objections, the better you'll be prepared when you're actually on the phone with a customer.
3. Stay Short and Be Direct
When you're introducing your company's values to a cold prospect, you have a limited window of time before they decide to hang up or object. It's crucial to get right to the point, right away. Keep your cold calling script concise, clear and direct, so you're not wasting your prospects' time — or your own.
4. Establish a Back-and-Forth
No one wants to wait on one end of the line and listen to a monologue — they want to have a conversation. When you're trying to engage your potential customers, get them interested and keep the conversation going. Nothing is more important than developing a natural rapport and a comfort level. Asking questions, listening to the responses, and building the conversation organically will make your sales calls a lot more successful than reading off a long, dense script.
5. Follow Up
Building business means building a relationship, so it's important to stay in contact with your potential customers. Get into the routine of planning a follow-up schedule on your cold calls. Keep up with follow-up calls and emails to stay on your prospects' radar and start a sales conversation.
6. Find the Right Tools
When you're trying to focus on improving your cold calling skills and increasing your sales, you want to be as efficient as possible — that's why eliminating the mundane details can do wonders for your performance. With dialing agents and service products from EVS7, you can rapidly dial lists and perform multi-line calling with ease. Contact us today to learn more about how we can simplify your cold calling process so you can maximize sales.