Why you should try cold calling. How to make cold calls work again

Why many feel opposed to cold calling

Many think that for a modern business, big or small, cold calling is dead. Calling a potential customer they’ve never interacted with before in hopes of getting them interested in their product or service may seem outdated. According to numerous reports, many prefer text communication over phone calls, making cold calling seem neither optimal nor creative.

Be it business owners or regular customers, both hate getting cold calls, and sales representatives hate making them. So why do we still use cold calling as one of our sales tools? Because it can bring numerous benefits to your business when done correctly. In a time full of omnichannel marketing tactics and AI sales tools, it may seem like there is no place for cold calls. Though it may not appear most effective, it is certainly a key technique in any salesperson’s arsenal. 

You no longer talk to people who are not interested

Back in the day, making a few hundred calls would only yield two to five human interactions per day. Energy consuming, and not very effective, the reason - bad leads. A list of numbers just a low percentage of which would respond, and an even smaller percentage of those would be interested in hearing you out. 

Nowadays, the lead-scraping and generation tools have improved to the point where you can create highly specific lists to hand out to your sales representatives. Let’s say you could target marketing directors in companies with under 100 employees or stay-at-home moms whose source of income is their small business on Instagram. With Convolo Dialer  you can form such lists and call them one by one in automatic mode to speed up the process.

 All this brings us to the next point:

Cold calls are not that cold anymore

There is always a chance that the occasional cold call will get you a customer, who already had some interaction with the company. However, now you no longer have to rely on luck to find someone like that. With advanced tracking methods obtaining useful information is easier than ever. You could check when the person visited the website or perhaps which specific pages drew their interest. Maybe, you could even see if they have received an email before and whether they responded to it. 

Nowadays you can research the potential customer before you even start the call. The script is not your only savior, now you can rely on specific pain points to set off the conversation. In the case of B2B try familiarizing the potential client with your or your company's name before the call even begins. You can also use Convolo Dialer lead enrichment option to get more information about your lead before you even call him. Get creative!

Shortcuts that make calling and selling easier than ever

You are human, not a machine which means you can only make a certain amount of calls per day. Due to rapid advances in the tech industry in recent years automation has been taken to a new level, the goal of which is simplifying the process for the sales representative to do their job, without focusing too much on the technical procedures.

There are dialing services and automated cold calling systems like Dialer that optimize the process by minimizing the dead space between calls through auto-dialing or connecting the sales reps only if a real person answers the call.

Another approach, a way to make someone answer the call, is the ability to change your caller ID to match a certain area of your potential customer's phone. It remains to be one of the key tools for cold-calling automation.

The benefits of cold calling

Cold calling is not only an art but an essential sales technique without which your sales conversion rates are likely suffering. Let's have a quick look at the benefits of cold calling.

• You master your craft and work on your self esteem

The key to successfully closed deals is confidence. But how can one build confidence in the process of cold calling? The answer is simple. You have to do the work. With every single rejection so feared by the sales representatives, comes training in resilience and perseverance. It trains the brain to swiftly overcome the fear of receiving a no, which in turn produces a profound confidence boost for the one making the call. 

Moreover, cold calling gives you a chance to master your sales skills and perfect your pitch, giving you the opportunity to alter it in live-case scenarios. Making it longer, shorter? Perhaps more convincing? Or maybe changing the way you introduce yourself? After all, practice makes perfect, and practice in tougher conditions such as cold calling brings benefits unachievable in other environments. 

• You can gain relevant information and make a real human connection

The truth is, that people do not want to talk to pitch machines. You have to build a relationship by incorporating a human element. Make the shift from pressuring or the never-take-no-as-an-answer tactics. Imagine getting your day interrupted by a random call. You would at least want it to be a live human who has taken some interest in finding out minimal information about their potential customer and has taken a moment to figure out the right product for them. If you delay someone's day to get what you need, the least you can do is treat them with respect. Moreover, this way they are more likely to reciprocate. Respect can go a long way. 

In the process of cold-calling, you create new lists that eventually turn into warm leads. After that, the sky's the limit.

• Gives you instant feedback

Cold calling is a marketing strategy that allows you to receive instant feedback from potential clients. The insight gained allows you to optimize services and products to the customers' needs, promoting higher conversion rates in the future. Besides giving you the opportunity to introduce your brand and close sales it also provides you with instant reviews on your services. Perhaps, you reach out to brands and people whose interests do not align with your business. In case you are confused about certain aspects of your business marketing techniques, you can use cold calling to identify the underlying problems. 

All cold-calling conversations will provide valuable insight that can help you narrow down your target audience or the set of sales techniques that work. Cold calling allows you to identify the problem and take specific steps to find the best solution.

Why you should not shy away from using cold calling as one of your sales tools

You may hate cold calling, but you might also love the results it produces. As we have seen, cold calling is certainly not dead, but it may be the time to focus on working smarter, not harder to increase your conversion rates.

As we discussed earlier, the lead-scraping and generating tools have reached the stage where you can develop very targeted lists for your sales reps. Before you call, doing a little research on the prospective customer is easier than ever.

Sales scripts that radiate friendliness, along with a well-prepared pitch, will increase sales. If you know how to use it appropriately for your brand, it can help you promote your products or services. And in the process, you build confidence and create a pitch that works, but does not sound like it was written by a robot.

And finally, all cold-calling interactions will supply useful information that will allow you to pinpoint your target demographic or the set of sales methods that actually work.