Any salesperson who wants to create more qualified leads and close more deals has to know how to cold call and follow up. However, many find it challenging to develop an effective cold-calling follow-up strategy. Which eventually wastes their time, money, and opportunities.
Cold calling is not a one-time event. It requires consistent and strategic follow-up to build trust, rapport, and value with your prospects. According to a study by Brevet, 80% of sales require five follow-up calls after the initial contact, but 44% of salespeople give up after just one follow-up.
So, how can you master the art of cold-calling follow-up and increase your chances of closing more deals? This article will share 10 cold-calling follow-up strategies you should apply to your sales process. These strategies will help you overcome common obstacles, engage your prospects, and move them along the sales funnel.
10 Cold Calling Follow-Up Strategy You Should Apply
Follow-up is one of the most important aspects of cold calling. The follow-up process involves staying in touch with the prospect after the initial call until they are ready to buy or reject your offer. Follow-ups can make or break your cold-calling success. They can increase your chances of converting the prospect or losing them forever.
Not all follow-up methods are equally effective. You must apply the best practices and strategies to stand out from the crowd, engage your prospects, and move them along the sales funnel. Let’s look at the ten effective cold-calling follow-up strategies you should apply to boost your sales results.
1. Research the Prospect After the Initial Call
The first step to a successful cold-calling follow-up is to do your homework. After making the initial call, you should research your prospect and learn as much as possible about their needs, challenges, goals, and preferences.
You can use various sources of information, such as their website, social media profiles, industry reports, news articles, and online reviews. It will help you tailor your follow-up messages and offers to their situation and pain points. It will also show your prospects that you care about them and that you are not just another salesperson trying to push your product.
2. Define What You Will Achieve From Your Call
Before you pick up the phone and call your prospect again, you should have a clear goal for what you want to achieve from your call. Do you want to qualify prospects as leads, schedule a demo, overcome an objection, or close the deal?
A clear goal will help you prepare your script, structure your conversation, and measure your success. It will also help you avoid wasting time and energy on calls that do not move the prospect forward in the sales cycle.
3. Personalization
Personalizing your communication is one of the most crucial cold-calling follow-up strategies. 59% of consumers say personalized engagement based on past interactions is essential in winning their business.
Personalization means using your prospect’s name, company name, industry, location, and other relevant details in your messages. It also means referring to your previous conversations with them and reminding them of the value proposition and benefits you discussed. Personalization will help you stand out from the crowd, build rapport, and increase your response rate.
4. Don’t Use the Word ‘Follow Up’
When following up with your cold prospects, you should avoid using the word “follow up” in your conversations or messages. It is because the word “follow up” indicates that you are just checking in or reminding them of something they already know. It does not convey any value or urgency. Also, it can make your prospect feel annoyed or pressured.
You should use words that imply value, curiosity, or action, such as “update,” “offer,” “question,” “idea,” or “opportunity.” For example, instead of saying, “I’m following up on our last conversation,” you can say, “I have an update on the solution we discussed,” or “I have a question for you regarding your goals.”
Now, let’s look at an example of a cold-calling follow-up script without the word ‘follow up’ in it:
“Hello [Prospect’s Name],
This is [Your Name] from [Your Company]. I hope this call finds you well. I’m contacting you regarding our previous conversation about [Prospect’s Pain Point]. I’ve thought more about your situation and have some insights that could benefit [Prospect’s Company].
I wanted to share an idea that has helped similar businesses in [Prospect’s Industry] achieve [Specific Benefit]. It’s not just about our product/service but more about how it can fit into your current workflow and provide [Value Proposition].
I’d love to discuss this further and see if there’s a potential fit for us to work together. Would [Proposed Time] be a good time for us to have a more in-depth conversation?”
5. Try To Solve Their Pain Point
Prospects won’t respond to your cold calling follow-up if they do not see how your product or service can solve their problem or improve their situation. So, you should address their pain and show them how your solution can help them achieve their desired outcome.
You can do this by using stories, testimonials, case studies, or statistics that demonstrate the results and benefits that your solution can provide. You can also use questions, challenges, or objections your prospect may have and show them how your solution can overcome them.
For example, you can say, “I know that you are struggling with low conversion rates on your website. How would you feel if you could increase them by 50% in the next 30 days?” or “I understand that you are concerned about the cost of our solution. What if I told you you could save 20% on your monthly expenses by switching to our solution?”
You can increase your conversion rate and improve cold calling skills by solving your prospect’s pain point through cold calling follow-up.
6. Right Time To Call
The timing of your calls is a key factor that affects your cold-calling follow-up success. You should try to call your prospects when they are most likely to answer the phone and be receptive to your message. It depends on various factors, such as their industry, role, location, and schedule.
Avoid calling on Mondays and Fridays, as these are usually the busiest and least productive days of the week. The best time of day to cold call is between 10 am and 11 am or 4 pm and 5 pm. These are the best times to reach decision-makers. You should also consider your prospect’s time zone and avoid calling them too early or too late in the day.
7. Be Prepared For Objection Handling
One of the biggest challenges you will face in your cold-calling follow-up is dealing with objections from your prospects. Objections are natural and inevitable and can signify interest or curiosity. However, they can also be a deal-breaker if you are unprepared to handle them.
Therefore, you should anticipate the most common objections that your prospects may have, such as price, budget, authority, need, or timing, and prepare your responses in advance. If you prepare yourself to handle objections, you can easily overcome cold-calling anxiety and be motivated in every cold-calling follow-up.
Objections can sometimes lead to rejection. But if you are prepared for it before the follow-up cold call, you can find cold calling motivation after rejection and be ready for the next cold calling follow-up.
8. Never Ask The Prospect To Call Back You
One of the worst mistakes you can make in your cold-call follow-up is asking your prospect to call you back. By doing this, you are putting the responsibility and power on them and giving them an easy way to avoid or delay the conversation.
You should always take the initiative and control the next steps. During the initial cold call, ask for their permission and availability and suggest a specific date and time for your next call. You should also confirm the follow-up appointment by sending a calendar invite, a reminder email, or a text message. It will increase the likelihood of your prospect appearing for your next call.
9. Call to Action
Another important follow-up strategy is ending your cold call with a clear and compelling call to action. A call to action is a statement that tells your prospects what you want them to do next and why they should do it. It must be time-bound, relevant, measurable, achievable, and specific.
For example, you can say, “Are you ready to book a free demo of our solution and see how it can help you increase your sales by 25% in the next 90 days?” or “Can I send you a proposal with the best offer for your needs and follow up with you next Tuesday at 10 am?” A call to action will help you move your prospect closer to the sale.
10. Analyzing Follow-Up Success
The last step to a successful cold calling follow-up is to analyze your results and improve your performance. You should track and measure your key metrics, such as the number of calls you make, the number of contacts you reach, the number of appointments you book, the number of sales you close, and the revenue you generate.
Moreover, you should collect feedback from your prospects and customers and identify what worked well and what did not. Use this data and feedback to optimize your cold calling follow-up strategy and test different approaches, messages, and offers. By doing this, you will get more comfortable with cold calling. Also, you’ll be able to increase your efficiency, effectiveness, and profitability.
Verdict
Cold calling follow-up is a crucial skill for any salesperson who wants to succeed in today’s competitive and dynamic market. Applying these ten cold-calling follow-up strategies in your campaign can help you overcome common challenges, engage your prospects, and close more deals.
Follow-up is one of the vital sales strategies for cold calling. You should always test and improve your strategies according to your industry, product, and target audience. Also, use tools and software to automate, track, and optimize your cold calling follow-up process.
