Let’s imagine a story, where you are the lead character. Sitting in a car in NYC waiting for the traffic light to change from red to green. Suddenly your phone rings and someone pushes you to buy products for your non-existent baby. Those kinds of unnecessary sales pushes hurt your brand’s image and throw you to below the loss margin.
Is Cold Calling Actually Harmful to Your Brand?
Yes, if it’s done poorly but if done properly then it’s rather good for your brand. “78% of buyers or decision makers face negative experience from cold calling” said by Alexander Eser. Those kinds of bad impressions made this misconception that cold is dead and it hurts brands bla bla. You need to know that Zipdo said that “85% of sales professionals say cold calls are a necessary part of prospecting.”
When Cold Calling Hurts Your Brand?
Cold calling becomes night mare when you as a caller sounds like a scammer, gets ignored, robotic reading, reveals confidential information etc.
See some key action that hurts your brand:
- Feels intrusive or spam-like
- Ignores modern buyer behavior
- Reps sound scripted or unprepared
- Persistence becomes pressure
- Privacy and compliance are ignored
When you sound pushy, deliver unresearched information, you seem desperate with prospects and provide outdated tactics then it hurts your brand and reduces your cold calling success rate dramatically.
When Cold Calling Does Not Hurt Your Brand?
If you call a prospect with prior research of the prospect profiles, company data, their pain points and provide respect to their time and keeping the conversation precise and value driven which solves their problem and they feel helped or create a feelings that you might be helpful then its does not hurt your bran, instead it increase you companies brand image and brings conversion.
See some key action that does not hurt your brand:
- Calls are research-driven and relevant
- Cold calls support multi-channel outreach
- Focus is on conversation, not conversion
- Reps lead with empathy and insight
Most importantly, if you can’t convince the prospect, don’t insist that they listen to you, rather end the conversation with a good ending line showing respect. This approach helps you prevent hurting your brand for cold calling.
Here are some recommended ending lines:
- No worries at all, I appreciate your honesty. Thanks for taking a moment today.
- I will not push this further. Thanks for your time.
- That makes sense. I am glad I could at least introduce myself.
According to the peak end rule of psychological heuristic people judge their experience at the peak of the moment and the end of the interaction. So hope you got the point and understand the importance of closing lines properly however your experience was.
The Hidden Long-Term Cost of Brand-Damaging Cold Calls
Let’s change the character, imagine you are a prospect and someone is an agent. They picked up the phone and dialed you without knowing your proper name, designation, authority, your business industry, niche, pain points, needs etc. and asking you to buy their product which is barely relevant to your business.
How would you feel about the caller and the company the agent is calling from? The answer is simple, you would never want to engage with them. Lets see some impacts on your brands that can be hammered by a cold caller if not done properly.
- Permanent reputation loss
- Spam stigma
- Lost of trustworthiness
- Increase CAC
- Loss of referrals
- Pipeline pollution
Once you lose your brand image, the process will become difficult to regain it. So be careful of hiring a quality cold calling service or inhouse agents.
How to Cold Call Without Hurting Your Brand With 6 Strategies?
Executing a successful cold calling cold calling campaign requires several skill sets on a cold calling agent. Lets see how you can prepare yourself as an agent or can help prepare one to make cold calls without hurting your brand.
1. Adopt a Brand-First Prospecting Mindset
Before making a call, you should prepare how you want to represent yourself as a brand ambassador of your company. You need to think like you own the company and will not do such a thing that takes your brand down.
2. Lead With Value, Not a Pitch
Don’t rush on pitching the sales on your first call. Cold call is about creating brand image, building relationships and then making sales. So talk about something that adds value to the prospect.
3. Personalize at Scale Using Smart Technology
Don’t just depend on tradition researching because it takes a lot of time. Use CRM and advanced tools like LinkedIn Sales Navigator etc. This approach will reduce your research time and help you convince the prospect of providing valid, updated and relevant information.
4. Respect Timing, Boundaries, and Approval
If the prospect shows too much business and does not approve of you continuing then you have got your boundaries, don’t cross it. If you do so the prospect will never want to see you again. You should understand the prospect and say a closing line showing respect for their time.
5. Train Sales Teams for Empathy and Active Listening
Train your sales team to empathize while talking about the prospects’ pain points and listen carefully. If you miss anything and the prospect repeats it then it may annoy them and in some cases they get mad. As a result it will impact your brand image.
6. Use Referrals and Warm Introductions Whenever Possible
If the prospect seems satisfied then if you can ask for referrals in a natural way but don’t unnecessarily ask everything. Your warm introduction and smooth closing created a better impression.
It’s important to execute them properly, because execution is more important than just learning strategies.
Conclusion: Cold Calling Can Build or Break Your Brand
As a cold caller keep yourself updated with the latest trends and new strategies that improve your skills of cold calling. As a cold caller you need to keep your brand image safe and try to improve and prevent the damages. Hope, above strategies and discussions will help you bring more conversions in cold calling.
