How to Successfully Cold Call: Expert Tips

If you want to make a successful cold call, you just need to follow some tips and best practices.

Cold calling is a type of digital marketing that is still effective today. It was first used in 1873 and has transformed since then. One of the unique features of this method is that it lets the client prospect feel a personal connection with you. This is important because it helps them make a decision faster.

You need a blend of sales and networking skills to be good at cold calling. Also, you should have a solid understanding of consumer psychology. This article will explain everything you need to know to be the best in cold calling!

Overview: What is Cold Calling?

Cold calling is a type of sales calling in which you make unsolicited calls to potential clients. In this case, the client prospect has no previous interaction with you. Your job is to act as a salesperson, offering your products or services. It is still one of the effective methods companies use for lead generation.

Characteristics of a cold call:

1. It should be straight to the point with minimum time loss.
2. Ask for the Prospect’s consent to listen to your sales offer.
3. You should provide information that is relevant and understandable.
4. The tone of your conversation should be polite and confident.
5. Your words should be persuasive and appealing so that the Prospect says yes.
6. You should end the call with a plan to follow up for sales conversion.
7. Your offer should display credibility, so talk about your value offering before the price.

Examples of Cold Calls:

1. B2B Sales: In this scenario, you make a cold call to a worker in another company. For example, you can call a company’s IT manager to offer software services.
2. Financial Services: You can make cold calls to business owners to discuss solutions for their taxes or investment planning options.
3. Real Estate: Did you know that over 50% of sales in real estate come from cold calling? In this case, you can call a prospect to schedule appointments to buy/sell properties. You can also grow your customer base with these cold calls.

The First Step: Setting the Stage for Success with Pre-Call

Preparation

A good cold caller first defines the target audience. Proper preparation increases your chances of success. Research your client prospect and create a structured approach.

Proper preparation is crucial for success in any assignment or goal. Similarly, planning is critical for a successful cold call. You should take enough time to research, define your target audience, and create an organized outline.

Defining Your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP)

American author Seth W. Godin said, “Everyone is not your customer.”

It is better to cold call five ideal customers instead of 100 random prospects. Calling non-ideal customers can cause low ROI and poor customer retention. So, how do you solve this problem? An ICP helps you know who to call for this.

An Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) lists potential customers you should treat as VIPs. They are your perfect customer prospects who will benefit the most from your services and can be your strongest advocates within their circle. In short, your ICP will include prospects who will benefit from your solutions, use your services long-term, and refer more customers to your business.

These parameters can help you define your ICP:

• Job Title: Is your Prospect in a C-suite position? Is your Prospect in the position of a manager, a department head, or a specialist? You need to define the role.
• Pain Points: Figure out the exact problems that may frustrate your prospects. Do your solutions address their specific challenges? Your solutions should be timely and stand out uniquely from the competition.
• Psychographics: Every Prospect is personally unique. You must study your Prospect’s social status, interests, values, lifestyle, etc., to build a more meaningful rapport after you make the cold call.
• Purchase history: Do they often make purchases? Are you already using a similar service? You should consider this to assess their financial stability and to handle possible objections.
• Preferred Communication: What hours of the day do they prefer to talk on the phone? Understanding their communication pattern will help you respect their time.

If your ICP is defined considering the above key points, it will be actionable!

Researching Your Prospects

Your Prospect will hang up the call if your proposal sounds too generic. It should be personalized; otherwise, they will not take your words seriously.

Researching your prospects is an obvious step where you should leave no gaps. Here’s what you should do step by step:

• Basic Google search: You can search on Google. You will not find enough information unless your Prospect is a public figure. But, a simple Google search can give you some basic information and can give you further links to your Prospect.
• Research Social Media: Check to study their online profiles on LinkedIn or X/Twitter. You can get a brief history of their experience. This research will help you study their psychographics, i.e., their interests and lifestyle.
• Review Their Company Website. You can gather information regarding the Company’s values, vision, and missions. The Company’s business strategy and interests matter. Reading their blog posts is a good idea.
• Press Releases: Consider their press releases and their competitors’ press releases. It is essential to check their image in the media.
• Read Public Reviews: Websites like Glassdoor can help you get authentic reviews of the Company or business you want to know about. You can find some reviews where ex-employees talk about tools or features of that Company that did not work for them.

Overall, your goal should be to identify their challenges and goals so that you can offer relevant solutions.

Crafting a Compelling Opening

The first impression matters. There are two popular opinions on how to start your cold call. Both can work!

• Permission-based Opening:

This style shows more respect for your Prospect’s time. It usually clarifies that you are a cold caller at the beginning of the call. You can be quick and give them two options: say “Yes, I want to know more,” or simply hang up. It is a time-effective approach because it saves time for both parties.

Example: “Hi John, this is a cold call, but I want to offer you an exclusive deal on [service]. Do you have 30 seconds, please?”

• Formality-based Opening:

This style starts with an honest but polite introduction with an open-ended question. When you ask the Prospect how they are doing, they will likely ask you the same question. This approach makes the Prospect comfortable.

Ricky Carruth, one of the top real estate agents in the U.S., claims that the first 20 seconds of a cold call are the most crucial. Let’s look at an example by him:

Example:

Caller: John? [Prospect’s Name]

Prospect: Yes? [He can ask you anything here, e.g., your identity]

Caller: This is [Your Name] from [Company], how are you doing today?

Prospect: I am okay! [Prospect might ask about the intent of your call]

Caller: Well, look, I won’t take much of your time, but the reason I am calling you today is because [give your pitch here]

Analyzing the Last Example:

Notice the strategy used above. It gives off a natural and friendly vibe! Let’s analyze the technique:

Directly asking the Prospect’s Name by their first Name only (“John?”)  gives them a more personalized address in the call. You don’t have to ask, “Am I speaking with John?” because this would sound too generic.

Next, introduce yourself, as you’ll need to do so sooner or later. It’s best to state your name and where you’re calling from quickly, and then pose a question like:

“How is it going today?”

It will show that you are not calling to talk about yourself only. Make the call about them, too! Ask them how their lives are.

At the end of your 20 seconds, start your pitch by respecting the Prospect’s time and giving them a reason to listen to you. When you start a sentence saying,

“The reason I am …”,

Most people want to know the reason. Clarify that you are a cold caller who is also their well-wisher.

Setting Clear Objectives

The client prospect should be clarified with the objective of the cold call. Without understanding the purpose of the call, the Prospect will show no interest in you. Understand your Prospect’s preference or comfort zone too.

Your objectives should not only be clear, but they should also be SMART:

• Specific: Ambiguous objectives will take you nowhere! You have to define the objectives with clarity.
• Measurable: You should be able to track and assess your milestones. Parameters should be set for your objectives to validate them.
• Actionable: Make sure the objectives are easy to execute. You should be able to develop a roadmap to move forward.
• Realistic: Your clear objectives should be achievable given the circumstances. Making objectives without any analysis is not realistic.
• Timely: Every project has a deadline. Your objectives need to be time-bound to stay accountable.

You can expect effective success if your objectives qualify with these SMART traits.

Importance of Time: Find Out What Time Works Best

Time is an essential factor in business strategy, especially in Sales. Generally speaking, your prospects vary from person to person. It also depends on the industry or type of service, for example, B2B cold calls will not have the exact best times for calling as real estate cold calls.

So, how do you determine the perfect time? Consider these key points:

• Research Your Prospects: You can analyze their information from your CRM. If this is not available, you can also review their online profiles.
• Avoid Mondays or Fridays: While this is not a hard rule, it is recommended that you avoid these two days because your Prospect might be too busy on a Monday or too relaxed on a Friday.
• Test Time Slots: Without experimenting at times, you cannot figure out which patterns work for your prospects. Document your findings.
• Consider Timezones: If your prospects are in different timezone locations, you should not call them too early or too late.

So, by following these tips, you can waste no time and optimize generating leads.

Mistakes to avoid: What Not To Say During a Cold Call! (I added this section)

You should be careful of what you say because you don’t want to lose a prospect. Some lines can trigger the Prospect to hang up. Let’s have a look:

• “We give 100% customer satisfaction.”

You will sound salesy if you say that! Instead, say something realistic that is proven with data.

• “To be honest” or “Trust me.”

You do not need to say that yourself if you are reliable and credible. Your Prospects will know.

• “I am not sure.”

You may not know a particular detail about your service or Company. Instead, offer to send details.

Execution: Making The Cold Call Engaging & Successful

Preparation without execution does not work in cold calling. You have to know how to deliver your pitch on the call. Your tone should be natural and confident. Let’s see how to manage successful engagement with your Prospect during the call:

Delivering Your Value Proposition

Your value proposition has to be unique, making you stand out among your competitors. Focus on answering these three basic questions: 1) What pain points does your service solve? 2) How do you solve their problems within a reasonable budget and time? 3) Why your Prospect might use your service. Mention the benefits of your service in an easy-to-understand manner.

Remember, don’t just narrate all your offerings one by one. Make sure that it relates to your Prospect’s situation or pain points.

Examples:

Result-Driven Approach:

“Our team helps companies like yours to run [relevant business processes], reducing costs by [%] and amplifying efficiency by [%]. [Name of companies] have seen great results using our platform. Would you like to see how it works for you?

Concise Introduction:

“We offering [services] and [similar companies] have benefited from us before, so would you like to know more about it?”

Building Rapport

As a salesperson, your Prospect should feel closely connected to you. Otherwise, your chances of driving sales will be slim. This harmonious relationship is known as rapport.

If you keep these in mind, you can build a solid rapport with them:

• Be Relatable: You can share shared connections or mutual goals. You can spark up the conversation casually by talking about common interests.
• Be Proactive: Make your conversation engaging. Since you made the call, it is your call to lead it. Ask some open-ended questions. Stay curious.
• Respect Time: Nobody likes their time being wasted by strangers. Be polite and ask for their consent to take a minute.
• Be Natural: Talk like a human being, not like a robot! Speak about the weather or any current affairs. You should not only talk about your value proposition.

Here are some practical examples:

Simple and Friendly Approach:

“I saw your recent post about [topic] on LinkedIn, and I found it very insightful. We love what you are doing. So, how has that been going for you?”

Mentioning Media News of the Company:

“I’ve noticed your Company recently won an award, so congrats! Would you like to take your Company to the next level? We work with similar award-winning companies like yours!”

Approaching with Empathy:

“We have been helping companies with [some pain points], and we wanted to check if we can solve anything for you.”

Using References to Location:

“Wow, are you from Buffalo, New York? I love the chicken wings there!”

Handling Objections

It would be naive to assume that all your prospects will accept your proposal. Some, if not many, will decline your offers. So, it is better to be ready and take preventive measures to handle negative feedback. Your Prospect might raise concerns or hesitate at first. You should not sound defensive during the call. Instead, listen actively, acknowledge their problems, and offer tailored solutions.

Examples:

1. Objection: “We are already using a service like yours who are solving our needs.”

Your response: “Oh sorry, I totally understand yeah. But, you know, many of our clients had used similar companies before taking our services. So, if you don’t mind, is there anything you wish your current provider did better? Maybe we can help you with that!”

1. Objection: “I don’t need it. Take my Name off of your list.”

Your response: “Sure, we will remove it right away! We just wanted to check if you need such services in the future, if not now. Otherwise, no worries, I will make sure our team won’t be calling you again.”

1. Objection: *Hesitates* “I am not sure. I don’t know.”

Your response: “Look, there’s no rush! I completely get it. Yeah, it’s a big decision for your Company! But would you mind telling me what’s stopping you now so that maybe I can help clear up any confusion? Or, if you want, I can call you in a couple of days, and you can think about it more. Whatever works for you!”

Remember to respect their right to decline. Some prospects might curse at you but do not break any code of professionalism during the call. Stay calm and collected.

Closing the Call

Last but not least, end your call on a positive note. It is ideal to confirm a sale or book a follow-up appointment. Send a strong agenda via email. If the Prospect declines, politely end the call by thanking them for their time.

• Don’t rush!

You: “Alright, I’m in no hurry, so do you have any more questions? I’m more than happy to answer any!”

• Recap to confirm conversion!

You: “Alright! I’m glad that you feel our services can help you. Would you like me to email you the agenda and schedule an appointment?”

• Politely end the call for prospects who decline!

You: “Well, we just wanted to check in, and we appreciate your time! Have a good day!”  

• Make sure to thank them!

You: “Thank you so much for your valuable time! Enjoy your day ahead!”

Post-Call Follow-Up: Nurturing Positive Relationships

Is emailing to schedule an appointment the last step after your call? No.

A successful cold call does not end after you email them your agenda and appointment schedule. Building a positive relationship takes patience, care, and time. As agreed on the call, the next step for you is to follow up with the Prospect accordingly.

• Email: The first standard step is to email your Prospect. This shows proactiveness and professionalism and keeps the deal documented. In your email, you should allow any questions or concerns from your prospect.
• Resource Sharing: Share relevant resources and information. Thanking them via email and scheduling an appointment is not enough. You must keep them informed to ensure your Prospect knows how the process will work. You can send them case studies or articles or share your portfolio.
• Communication Tone: Your communication tone should not be interrogative or pushy. You have to make the Prospect feel comfortable, which will nurture trust and reliability.
• Punctuality: Nobody likes replies that are too delayed. You should try your best to respond on time.
• Catch up: Personalize the communication with your Prospect. Bring up something from the previous conversation so they feel you value them. Thus, it will build rapport.

Conclusion

Cold calling is more than just an opportunity to showcase your Company’s credibility to your prospects. It requires preparation, patience, and confidence. According to experts, having a higher emotional intelligence helps build long-lasting rapport. So, work on studying consumer psychology. Master your opening for the cold calls. Give references on how you reached them or offer free trials. Lastly, it is essential to learn lessons from rejections because you improve tailoring your approach.

If you can master defining your ideal clients and managing a successful call, you can be a game-changer in your sales funnel. But it takes discipline to perfect a cold call successfully. So, make sure to keep on practicing and testing different methods that work best for you!