Years ago, the way used by the prospecting managers of the companies was the phone call, a completely effective way to contact the person of interest and be able to talk to offer the products or services of the represented company.
Today there are many ways to prospect, such as email sequences, advertising, indirect contact such as blog posts, downloadable content, Etc.; media that attract users, but you are making indirect contact with them, videos, and more. The reality is that cold calling is still one of the most effective techniques for prospecting; in this lecture, let's talk about the techniques and some mistakes made when cold calling.
Differences between telephone selling and cold calling
Although they may initially appear to be the same, they have different characteristics due to their purpose:
Factors that can influence when making a cold call:
Generally, "cold" calls are seen as something that implies difficulty and fear, so that it can become very unpleasant and tedious for many of us. For this, it works to study sales processes, learn good techniques, or follow specific steps so that we can improve the results.
Mistake 1: Not being prepared.
Pre-call preparation is critical; you must make sure you are ready emotionally and physically and have relevant information about your prospects.
You can ask yourself these questions before making a call:
Having relevant information about each prospect makes all the difference in establishing a conversation, for example:
For a salesperson, there is nothing worse than making a call in a noisy place, losing the signal in the middle of a conversation, and not being able to take accurate notes of what your prospect is interested in, and that will leave you with questions ahead. The call becomes annoying and frustrating, and we completely lose focus.
Mistake 2: Not having a clear objective.
Why are you calling this prospect?
Many salespeople start a call without being clear about their primary objective. They dedicate themselves only to fulfilling many daily calls that, in the end, are not effective.
Without a clear objective, the focus is lost and time.
Some people take every call as an attempt to close and what they do is scare the prospect away. Before initiating any telephone sales, you must define why you are making the call and what you want to achieve by establishing contact.
These steps can be:
The idea is to be clear about why we are making the call, so we can focus on fulfilling it.
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Mistake 3: Being discouraged
Starting with a good attitude is paramount in telephone sales. You must believe and stop thinking that you will not get it or that there is no interest. You must think of "achievement" because even if you don't realize it, your voice, words, and tone reflect confidence, which the customer values very much.
Mistake 4: Not reserving time for calls
Every day set aside a few minutes to make your calls. Cold calling is not something you do once a month, and you have to work on it and warm them up as much as possible without overdoing it. This process requires constant work, so set aside some time each day to schedule your sales calls or make calls to prospects.
You can identify them, for example:
The important thing is to know how many you want to contact during the month and establish a metric to help you reach your goal.
Mistake 5: Not using CRM
An omnichannel platform is essential for prospecting management because you will be able to note your customer's interests. Whether there are sales possibilities or the number of times they have been called, how long they have remained as a lead, and how long it took them to become customers. CRMs are used to track customers and collect all the necessary data. Knowing this beforehand will allow you to realistically assess your sales possibilities and prevent you from wasting time on leads that are not reaching to buy or do not meet the characteristics your business needs.
Mistake 6: Leaving your leads unqualified
It is not a good idea to call without knowing who, what weight they have in the company, and what are the sales possibilities. You have to use a suitable method and understand what you are dealing with if they meet the characteristics you need for them to be a client. Otherwise, all you will achieve will be to waste your time and the possibilities of other sales in which you are not investing time.
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Knowing these mistakes that many salespeople make, you can focus on steps that can help you improve cold prospecting, such as the following tips:
When initiating the call, please formally introduce yourself: The receiver must specify who is calling.
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I hope this blog will help you identify improvement points in your prospecting management. Remember that the more you know your ideal client, the better you can filter your prospects and thus have better-targeted communication with them.