How to ensure you’re making the most effective outbound cold calls

We’re all inundated by cold calls these days. For any business that wants to grow, it’s tough to get your message through - especially when you genuinely have something that would be of interest to a potential prospect.

That's why we wrote this article:

• To share our secrets and experience with you so every outbound cold call results in something meaningful for your business, 
• To uncover what to do when the person you've been wanting to connect to actually picks up the phone, and
• How to grab their attention when they finally get on the line.

Respect your prospect's time:

• Check in with the person you're making contact with, make sure they have time to chat before getting into your spiel. Even better, forget the spiel.
• Win "brownie points" with a question like "I know you might be busy, so is now a good time for a 5 minute 
• Don’t be afraid to be authentic or vulnerable. “I know I’m calling out of the blue.”

Be human:

• They are likely no different from you. Trying to make the most of their time and grow their business, how can your call support or accelerate this.
• Let your character come through, have a laugh, and enjoy the call as this will make it more memorable and natural.

Build massive amounts of rapport:

• Know your prospect well, do your research. It doesn’t take too long to do a quick search on Google or LinkedIn. Do they follow sport, have a family, passionate about cars or My Little Pony? Find something you can relate to them with.
• Tools like DISC and Representational Systems can really help - are they a Dominant personality who likes to cut to the chase and focuses on results or are they a Steady / Stable personality who hates change?
  Are they more auditory, e.g. they use "sound" words a lot or are they more analytical and need lots of detail?
• In the immortal words of Aladdin’s Genie “Beeeeee yourself.” Everyone wants to feel connected and part of something. By being natural, it allows for a deeper connection from the first moment.

Trust based selling:

• From the guidance of Ari Galper, when you approach the sale to build trust instead of haste to sell or a numbers game, you’ll find the conversation is less forced and trust forms quicker.
• Keep your tone metred, don’t be too eager to make the sale.
• Feel free to ask them for their insight “I was wondering if you may be able to help me out with something today?”

People Proofing:

• Discover your mutual relationships through LinkedIn or look for a credible referral. This can help with an introduction, e.g. "Your old work colleague Fred did some work with us recently and mentioned that you might be interested in what we do".
• Where appropriate, relate the conversation to User Cases or the successes of work that you have previous done, e.g. "That sounds similar a customer we worked with a couple of months ago..." then explain the problem, the service they went with and the results they achieved.
• Your greatest credibility pieces often come the other people's insights of your business and their results.
  

  Handle objections like a boss:

• Feel, Felt, Found... “I completely understand you feel that way many people we have worked with felt the same way too. What we found is now that we have provided this solution, they have overcome this issue.”
• Acknowledge, Respond, Close… “I completely understand you feel that way and it's become a big challenge within your business. If I could provide a solution to this issue would that be of interest to you?”
• Going for no is the principle that you set yourself a target of how many 'NO's' you want to receive in a day because the law of averages states that the more 'NO's' you get the closer you are to a 'YES'. 
• Read Never Split The Difference - it's a game changer to getting to a NO quickly.

There’s a lot to take in here, but always go for the things that resonate and feel comfortable with. The more confident you feel with what you’re saying and why you are calling, the easier each call will get.

If you’re interested in seeing how you could leverage your sales, take a look at our Managed Outbounds Sales solution which focuses on trust and rapport building to connect with the right fit prospects for your business.

Lastly, consider an integrated approach. Sales teams need resources to confidently approach new leads and support the sales process. See if our Integrated Marketing to Sales offering may support your business needs.