Cold Calling Techniques for Inbound Sales Teams

Cold Calling Techniques?

Why do I need to know about cold calling? 

But I get most of my business from inbound leads, so then why do I need to cold call?

And that’s a fair question, albeit a little short sighted!

You see, cold calling techniques aren’t just for cold callers.

The prospects and buyers today, may well have dropped into your call list via a sophisticated and demand driven nurture series, but they are by no means ‘red hot’ 

And, shocking as it may seem, just because they are in your sales funnel, doesn’t mean that they are not in  6 or your competitors sales funnel too!

So you might think it’s a warm lead, you might think you’re the only game in town…

But that would be wrong.

Cold Calling Techniques | Inbound Lead Handlers Need Outbound Too

The truth is, as an inbound lead handler, at some point, you could find yourself in a position where:

• Incoming leads are slowing down
• Your pipeline is getting empty or falling apart, too thin to sustain what you;re looking for in terms of revenue and bonus
• You’ve seen a niche in the inbound traffic that makes you think an outbound campaign would be fruitful and profitable for your end of month commission 
• You want bigger deals
• You’re working on bigger deals and they require more threading across multiple stakeholders
• Marketing have taken a risk and the campaign failed – you’re in a hole”
• Or, maybe you’ve spotted a firm you’d really love to work with? The fastest way to cut through the noise is to pick up the phone and get chatting.

And, not all incoming leads are easy to connect with, at some point you might need to move that nurtured lead out of their hiding space to work it up into something with potential, chasing down other prospects in their sphere. Perhaps seeing you having to reach out to additional stakeholders, building some collective views and insights as well as canvassing opinions through the ranks…

You WILL definitely benefit from great communications and cold calling skills to do all of that!

BUT Cold Calling is Dead Right?

Noooooo….That’s the message from by people who are either bad at cold calling, scare of cold calling or haven’t a clue what they’re doing!

Ignore them all.

If you think cold calling is dead, then you are definitely doing it wrong! So why would you listen to people who can’t master a skill so tell everyone it’s dead?

Mastering cold calling sales kills, building a sales tool kit full of proven cold calling techniques is the very quickest way to change your sales fortunes.

It’s the best, fastest and most sure fire way to make money, build a life of freedom and options and make a difference to you and your family

It’s still the number one skill you need in sales (and life) if you want to make things happen.

Fast.

Especially if you’re looking for an injection of high quality and qualified sales opportunities into the sales pipeline.

Listen, I’ve audited sales functions, in firms that have questionable futures.

Lack of new business, closely followed by low sales hunting focus, will kill any business….and any sales career!

Don’t let it kills yours.

Nope – Still Not Convinced?

Ok, let me be clear.

• If you’re waiting for your email to ping
• Your tweet to drive business to your sales pipeline
• Your LinkedIn profile to set the world alight.
• Your business page to deliver enough business for your sales pipeline to consistently grow
• Your existing customers to feed you enough business…

Well then, realise that your sales future is completely out of your control and you are in a precarious position.

And so you really need to read this…

Cold Calling Techniques for Inbound Sales Teams

Well, cold calling has changed, but the name hasn’t!

Cold calling, and cold calling techniques have definitely grown up as the sales and marketing spheres have merged, so what does that look like now?

Research is Key!

No one needs to be calling a prospect cold any more….see the difference, calling a prospect with a stone cold pitch is not the way to go!

It’s the route of desperation.

It’s the fastest and easiest way to tell the sales prospect that you’re a lazy sales person…

Cold Calling Technique 1: Research all of your prospects and their firms.

Numbers Don’t Matter. Contacts Do!

5 full blown sales conversations per day with a business, the decision maker, the referrer or the influencer will trump 20 calls with low rank juniors who try to convince you they’re the decision maker.

That’s where your research comes in to play…you won’t be easily fooled or distracted and you’ll not be filling your sales pipeline with pretenders who are paid to keep you off their boss’ call sheet

But what’s even better?

10 full blown sales conversations!

Cold Calling Technique 2: Don’t confuse an increase in call quality with a decrease in call quantity…do both to be really sales smart.

Quality Matters. A lot.

Stop calling firms where you can see no fit.

So, it seems we’re back to research again, BUT, research companies where there is a fit and discard others.

Reflect on some of your best customers, are they in a particular niche, sector, industry, location?

Are there more firms out there in the same sector, with a similar profile, who could possibly use your services?

Cold Calling Technique 3: Always be researching, looking for niches, scanning the industry press, awards pages, news…and try to do it outside of core selling time.

When reviewing your cold calling techniques, you’ll also need to consider the following:

The prospect is expecting to speak with an expert advisor…

Someone who knows their business, is curious, is able to respectfully disrupt the prospects current thinking, potentially solve a quantifiable business problem using a solution with a robust ROI

The prospect is expecting you to listen to him.

Not broadcast.

Ask intelligent questions and assess the common ground and value in continuing the conversation in more depth.

Cold calls have a bad rep…with everyone, so get cute about negotiating gatekeepers or even better, avoiding them all together.

Use your networks to facilitate worthwhile introduction and warm ‘cold’ calls.

Don’t waste time, because unless you can get the gist of your value to this prospect across in 20 seconds then you’ll likely be on very shaky ground.

Creating value fast is critical. Have you got your super fine tuned intro so you’re not the bumbling idiot asking the prospect if they had a great weekend?

Cold Call Techniques – Your Mind Set

Your mid set is critical to your success, so

Welcome the Rejection

Do this because the faster you get to no, the faster you can start to unpack the prospects thinking. Most prospects will say no at least three times before they say yes. And that’s ok, but only as long as you continue after the first no.

Influence and Persuasion

This is no longer about what you say about yourself. It’s about what everyone else is saying about you. Make sure you can name drop, reference and refer to your experience in the industry in a relevant problem solving capacity

Peaks and troughs in your sales performance?

This is a sign that at some point your got comfortable.

This is apy-back time for a lzy few weeks you had last quarter.

A sign you didn’t keep up with the research and cold calling, new business development.

Maybe you got busy.

Perhaps you earned a good bonus.

Maybe you lost your cold calling mojo…depending on your sales cycle, this will hurt you.

If you want solid stable sales performance then keep up with the research, and with the cold calling and the pipeline filling, because there are no short cuts.

Keep away from the negative people in your sales team.

This is you, living the life you want. Listen to the losers, the moaners and see what that does for you sales mojo.

To set your cold calling, new business efforts on fire, come and join us The Sales Improvement Workshop – run as an open course or in your business as a bespoke course.

Cold Calling – 10 Things to Consider

• It’s your 4th emergency service to get you out of a sales hole
• It’d your key to building a sales reputation that will take you wherever you want to go
• Good cold callers are in demand and paid well…inboind call handlers have a lower market value
• Cold calling is a bad name for a brilliant skill set
• Prospects aren’t hostile to cold callers who have done their research and identified a genuine need
• Gatekeeps aren’t there to make you’re life hell, they can help you, you just need to know how to speak with them so you win!
• Your competitors are scared of cold calling – so they won’t do it. If you can do what others aren’t prepared to do then you can have anything you want
• Threading and building consensus around an organisation during any sales process is a game changer – don’t forget to use your cold calling skills to get you and your firm imbedded as part of the solution
• Cold calling means you typically are able to enter the sales race before the prospect starts to talk with any competitors – so, you’re there first, you get to build the relationship first and you get to set the bar so it’s favourable to you and not your competitors!
• Cold calling is smart, it takes guts and it takes brains – and there is nothing better that knowing you can make a deal out of thin air!

Cold calling techniques will take you far…get the cold calling mindset as early as you can in your career if you want yo jet propel your earnings and your reputation.