Cold Calling — Few Tips

June 14, 2019

Cold calling is one of the proven sales techniques to generate leads. Though
there is discussion around its death, it is not true and it been over
exaggerated. However, things are changed in the last decade, especially
after the SaaS selling has come into existence in the Software industry. Now
there are better ways to conduct this outreach. So here are a few tips that
help you in understanding the parts of cold calling including the objective,
pre-calling, on the call and, call to action.

Objective 

Discover / Qualify the need and determine the product fitment:  

The Objective of cold calling is to discover and or qualify the need and to
determine the product fitment. Probing the prospects about their current
scenarios, pain points, challenges, and priorities could help in
understanding this better. A few calls and emails with the prospect is
needed to achieve the goal.

Pre-Calling 
Know your contact well 

In outbound sales, knowing your contact is the most crucial step. Try and
collect as much information as possible about your target business, the

 
 
 

latest trends in that industry and, about the contacts before jumping on the
call. You should continue to update the data and keep the information
updated, which will help you improve the connects and conversions.

Plan all your questions in advance 

Asking the right questions is very important and, it will help you in better
lead qualification. Focus all your questions on the prospects rather than
yourself. So plan all your question well in advance before the call.

Prepare an Elevator Pitch 

Prepare an elevator pitch about your product offering and practice it

multiple times. The first 40–50 seconds is very important in the cold call,
most of the time all you get is only 1 or 2 minutes to speak with the prospect
and that is the time you have to introduce yourself, your product, and
generate interest. So make sure you are prepared well to communicate clear
and crisp.

Don’t follow any cold calling scripts 

The scripts are just a guideline and would help to define the call structure
and the caller to make calls without stumbling during the initial days of the
outbound calling. An ideal script should have Introduction, an Elevator
pitch of the product, a few lines to gain credibility, a bunch of questions to
discover the need and, a call to action. Try and keep the calls more dynamic
 
 

to get better results. Focus on having a conversation rather than reading a

script.

On the Call 
Don’t attempt to sell on your first cold call 

The first call should be a proper introduction and or a discovery call. The
goal is to explain the product clearly and crisply, make the suspect curious
to know more about your product and, set up the next meeting. Every
month hundreds of companies are reaching out to your target to sell. So
don’t sell in the first call.

Keep your prospect relaxed 

Don’t push them for a meeting or don’t keep talking about your product or
features. Also, don’t bombard them with lots of questions. Rather have a
conversation with the prospect. Explain your product, listen to them,
acknowledge and, share your thoughts. This conversation would keep them
relaxed, and it will improve the quality of the call.

Conversation Ratio of 40 %: 60% 

An outbound caller (BDR) should speak less in the call compared to the
prospect. An ideal call ratio should be somewhere around 40 %: 60%. BDR
should be doing 40% and make the prospect to speak for the rest of the
time. Asking the right questions would help in achieving this. The more the
 
 

prospect speaks, you get to know more information about their business
and challenges. So let them talk more.

Find out what benefit will make the prospect buy from you 

Value-based selling is the best approach to close deals. Values are nothing
but the benefits what the customers would get out of your product. So
spend time and find the benefits that will make your prospect buy from you.
The more you understand their requirements and challenges, the better
your value proposition would be.

Call to Action 
Identify the next steps / Fix appointment 

Each activity in lead generation should have a call to action. The call to
action in the cold calling is to identify the next steps and or fix a meeting to
discuss further. As a sales rep, if you are sure that there is no need or you
see a gap in the product fitment, then you should be willing to let it go and
close the case.

Happy cold calling….