Or isn’t it?
You’ll hear it often: Cold calling is dead! Everything is done through social media nowadays. LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, you name it. And it’s mostly the people who sell their customers on the social media adventure that are sharing this specific message.
But we know the truth: Cold calling isn’t dead at all. It’s just one of the parts of an effective sales cycle or buying journey. Effective cold calling – how is that done successfully? In this article, we’ll share the steps to be extremely effective at cold calling.
Step 01: Determine your target market
Cold calling starts with the targeting of a specific group of companies and people, which is dependent on your business. Are you part of an IT company for digital transformation, supplying construction companies? That would make your target market different from that of an organization selling medical equipment. Are you a company producing office supplies? That would make your possible target group larger.
Firstly, look at the types of organizations that would make your ideal customer. Then, determine the job title your contact should have. How do you do that? Look at the problem you solve and determine who in your targeted organization would be responsible for that. Is it the CEO or Managing Director? Or rather the Head of Procurement, or an HR Partner? Be very specific, as it will help you utilize your time effectively and become successful.
Step 02: Write a catchy cold calling pitch
Once you know who to call, it would make sense to have something useful to talk about with your contact. In short: What problem do you solve? What is your added value to him or her? How are you different from your competitors? What are the trends you are anticipating on?
It’s very powerful if you can verbalize that in a few short sentences. Write down that pitch and practice it with colleagues. Is it really as powerful as you think it is? Cold calling still works!
Step 03: Cold calling!
That’s when the cold calling starts. It can be quite easy, with the right preparation. But before you start dialing and find yourself talking to your first target contact, make sure to figure out what your Goal for the call is. What do we mean by this? Well, not every phone call is the same, because not every business is the same.
Are you calling to introduce yourself? Then you’ll have a different conversation compared to a call with a qualifying objective. Obviously, in B2B calls are often made to generate appointments. Defining your Goal is what helps you become effective in cold calling.
TIP: Immediately clarify the Goal of your phone call.
So you will know what you’re dealing with, and more importantly, your contact will immediately know what he or she is dealing with. This increases the effectiveness, and thus results, of your cold calling. Nobody likes vagueness – so clarify as quickly as you can.
Step 04: Dealing with objections
Be aware that, unfortunately, not everyone will instantly say yes to your request for a meeting or provide the answers to your qualifying questions. In short: There will always be objections.
How you deal with those objections is an important factor in the effectiveness of your results. If someone responds with “We are really satisfied with our current supplier” – what is your reaction? Do you reply “OK” or do you say something different? How can you still provide value after a remark like that? You should know that there are standard responses to those remarks, that will allow you to still make progress with that prospect.
Which leads up to…
Step 05: MartijnSchaap.com training of course!
Of course, you want your people to act quickly, to generate new business. Which is why it makes sense not to keep reinventing the wheel again and again. Use the services of professionals who have been effective and successful with cold calling.
Get in touch, leave a message, and together, we’ll work to make your people successful cold callers!
Step 06: Effective cold calling as an integral part of your sales cycle
Once you’ve figured out who your target group is, what your pitch sounds like, and what objections you’ll run in to, you are ready for the next step. Which is to become disciplined in cold calling and make it an effective and important part of the sales cycle.
Additionally, it is a great tool to continually improve with, further increasing your effectiveness. Of course, we advise you to use social media too, since that has its own advantages.
If you’re capable to use multiple channels to get in touch with your target group, and add value to the contacts in your target group, then new business will be a piece of cake.
Are you a sales manager or CCO, and are you 100% sure that your team can do better with cold calling? Get in touch with martijnschaap.com.
Together, we’ll take a look at the short-term gains, and the long-terms gains, it will provide you when your teammates get better at cold calling.
Follow the YouTube channel of our CEO Martijn Schaap if you’re interested in learning more about setting goals, achieving success, and being an entrepreneur.
Written by Stephan Annema, partner at martijnschaap.com.
