Do you feel insecure when you do cold calling? Maybe you have tried to talk with a lot of cold contacts but the results weren’t even close to satisfied?

And now you might be wondering whether cold calling is still worth it… Whether people still have results with that approach? 

The answer is definitely YES! Only the fact that cold calling has stood the test of the time for about 30 years tells enough about it.

And we get it, you don’t like cold calling. And let us tell you a little secret….

Nobody likes it!

In reality, the lack of body language and social cues makes cold calling pain in the neck. And that can lead to disillusion even for the most experienced salespeople.

But it brings results!

That’s why if you’re results-driven instead of hating it you just can use it. But if you apply strategies that sellers in the 90s used, it’s definitely not going to work. After all, this approach was used 30 years ago.

Actually, if you intend to use cold calling tips that brought results 30 years ago better don’t even start! You don’t have any chances!

Things are different NOW!

All people are much busier and you need to be able to get the prospect’s attention quickly.

When it comes to cold calling you need to be in the driver’s seat. You want to control the conversation and know possible objections.

In a nutshell, you need a game plan. Only that way you will be in a position to meet the prospects face to face, which is the goal of cold calling in general.

That’s why we have prepared 5 essential cold calling tips, which will help you improve your win rates.

Top 5 Cold Calling Tips

• Study Your Prospects
• Whether You Should Prepare Script
• Pay Attention to Your Tone
• Call at the Right Time
• Track, Measure & Improve

1)  Study Your Prospects

When you know more about the person on the other side of the phone, it’s going to be easier to get their attention.

Nowadays you have the great opportunity to find out extra information about who you are going to speak with. Social media is easy tool which can be used to find out public details about your potential clients.

You can make your research about each prospect on LinkedIn as well.

And with these available tools, there’s no excuse for doing blind cold calls.

It’s very easy and not time-consuming. It will help you to find essential information, which will be critical for the prospect’s engagement.

At least you will know which industry they are in.

LinkedIn makes this easy.

LinkedIn can help you to find out useful information like:

• How many sales reps the company has
• What are their growth rates
• How many employees they have

This gives you the chance to predict the pain points of the company.

At the very least, you can find out what industry they’re in, their location, and their title.

Especially location can help you with cold calling because on 2^nd or 3^rd call you have the chance to tell them something like:

“Hey, tomorrow afternoon I will be near your area. Do you want to talk about __________(how I can help you to achieve what you want) Let’s arrange a meeting?

You’ll learn things from potential customer’s profiles that you may be able to speak to when you call.

Also, in order to build trust faster, you can use some of the prospects’ words. Your clients will always prefer to hear their own words instead of somebody else words. That’s engagement hack, which will make prospects’ feel like you really understand them and you talk on their language.

An even more intensive strategy would be to use sales intelligence software. It will give you useful information about potential leads.

Sales intelligence is a great way not only to generate new B2C or B2B leads but to target the best ones. That way your list for cold calling will be chosen much more precisely. In turn, that will increase your win rate significantly.

2)  Whether You Should Prepare Script

Sales scripts will make you think about each step of the conversation and will help you to control the conversation.

When you have written the script out word by word, you will bring clearness into your thinking process. Moreover, with every phone call, you will memorize the script better and better. And it will help you to stop thinking so much about what you’re going to say next.

In turn, that allows you to focus on your tone and frees your mind to concentrate on what a prospect is saying.

And when you know the script by heart, you can improvise and make some adjustments where you think it's necessary, but still, stick to the main goal!

Besides, when you don't feel like it using a script can literally save your performance during the day. It’s like a safety net for shitty days that prevent shitty performance. It’s going to help you get back on your feet because it will give you the confidence that you know what you're doing. It's quite liberating when you know what's really going on and you are prepared.

3)  Pay Attention to Your Tone

You could say all the right words (especially if you're using a script) but if your tone of voice doesn’t match, then you’re not going to make the sale.

When you are in person, you have the extra benefit of being able to also communicate in non-verbal ways. Body language and facial expressions can make your task much easier.

But when we talk about cold calls your tone of voice is the only thing you have. In fact, your tone will determine how successful the cold call will be.

It’s so important that the last surveys show that tonality is the key to success in over 90% of the cold calls. With such a stunning statistic, you can’t afford to use the wrong tone of voice.

You can’t afford to sound bored with a monotone voice. Besides, if you are not excited about the product or service you sell why your prospects should be?

You also have to sound confident. To a large extent, using a script will help you with this. (If you don’t remember why - it’s a good idea to read the first cold calling tip one more time.)

Sometimes it can be tough to maintain that enthusiasm every single day. But your tone has to be friendly and assume during all calls like when you're talking to a good friend. Thus you will build trust much easier.

And remember: Even if things aren’t going your way try to keep the same good tone.

4)  Call at the Right Time

That will improve your success rate significantly! People in most countries including the USA, India, UK usually don’t work at the weekends. Mondays are the worldwide beginning of the week. Then usually, people are involved in meetings and they plan the rest of the week. So, you can remove Mondays, Saturdays, and Sundays from your cold calling days. But even worse time is to call your prospects is in the second half of Fridays. Then most people have entered a weekend mood. Probably, they are making plans for the weekend and work won’t be on their minds.

So, the rest options are Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays, which are actually the best choices.

We hope that with our cold calling tips we managed to impact your motivation to sell…

Or maybe sales negotiation and closing deals are just in your DNA and you are considering spending all 3 days in cold calling.

Well, that’s not a bad idea but if you want to be optimally productive then pay attention to the best hours for calling.

At the international level, the working hours are between 7 AM to 7 PM. In the morning people are usually drink coffee and fill their to-do lists. Between 1 PM to 3 PM most people take lunch.

So, the statistics show that the best time to call potential customers is between 4 – 5 PM. And the second-best timespan is between 11 AM – 12 PM.

5)  Track, Measure & Improve

“If you can’t measure it, you can’t improve it.” – Peter Drucker

It doesn't matter whether you chose to take advantage of our suggested cold calling techniques or other sales methods and strategies. You need to see what's working for you. Thus, you will know what actually brings results and you will be able to try something different if the results are not satisfying.

Also, it’s a good idea to record your callings.

That way you can pay attention to details like:

• How you were talking – your tone of voice
• What was your prospect’s response
• Did you follow the script
• Objections
• Things that you missed during the call

Besides, recordings will help you to hear your calls as many times as necessary in a situation where you are not required to respond immediately. Next, you can make adjustments in order to improve your approach for the next calls.

Like any sales strategy, cold calling isn’t a fixed thing. So, if you want constant progress you should optimize strategies constantly. There’s always room for improvement.

Final Words

Cold calling is almost every salesperson’s nightmare, but it's not necessary to be that way. And we believe that awareness about what's going on it will help you to respond in the best way possible. Cold calls are still an important part of a company’s marketing and sales approach.

And the fact that salespeople often struggle with them creates an opportunity for those who put enough time and effort to master the necessary skills.

The above cold calling tips will help you improve these skills.

Keep practicing.

You know the proverb that practice makes perfect. It's 100% true in this instance.

The more people you talk to on the phone, the easier it will be for you. Besides, it won't cost you that much mental energy. At some point, you'll get used to it and it's going to be routine to do cold calling with full confidence.

So, the keys to cold calling success are in your hands! But it's up to you whether you're going to open the door to success or not.

Good luck!