Top Cold Calling Tips to Engage Prospects and Boost Sales Success

Build a Stronger Cold Calling Culture with These Cold Calling Tips

You've probably heard it a million times: 'cold calling is dead!' These are the words echoing around B2B sales teams all over the world right now. More and more sales professionals are jumping ship, turning to AI software which churns out thousands of automated emails a day to fulfil their lead generation needs. But their loss is your gain.

We're here to tell you something the best sales reps already know: cold calling isn't dead. In fact, it's more important to accruing warm leads than ever before. Cold calling is changing, sure, but with the right cold calling techniques - and a healthy dose of the right attitude - professional cold calling is looking toward a bright future.

So Leadium sat down with Kevin Hopp, Hopp Consulting Group founder and Hopp on Calls host, to unpack exactly how businesses like yours can create a cold calling strategy fit for the future and a culture that'll eliminate pain points and get your outbound sales moving.
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What are cold calls?

When a sales company identifies potential customers who might be interested in their product or service, the first step to initiating a sales cycle is often to give them a cold call. This is basically an unsolicited sales pitch. The aim of a cold call isn't necessarily to make a sale right there and then, rather to establish rapport, engage the prospect's interest, and to arrange a follow up meeting to discuss further.

The term 'cold calling' often conjures up images of soulless telecommunications halls and irritating phone calls, but that's not the reality today; cold calling has become super-specialized and professional, with sales professionals targeting individuals more carefully, thereby aiming for lower volume and higher success rates.

Why you need a structured methodology for cold calling success

On the surface, cold calling statistics don't look great. Here are a few:

• Success rates for cold calling hover around 4.8%
• A huge 48% of sales reps actually dislike making cold calls
• Around 80% of cold calls go straight to voicemail

If you're seeing these numbers for the first time, you may be thinking: 'what's the point?' Well, it's important to remember that these numbers are averages, and that top performing sales reps can blow these stats out of the water.

Plus, with the right cold calling tips and sales calls know-how, your sales teams can see huge results from sales calls. Cold calling at the right time of day, for instance, can make a sales call 71% more effective. Other factors, like better prospecting and lead verification, better coaching, and better technological skills can all make a difference, too.

That's what led Kevin to create his Calling Culture Program, which aims to give B2B sales organizations a structured methodology packed with cold calling tips to make more successful cold calls day in, day out.
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The Calling Culture Program

With sales organizations everywhere losing faith in the power of cold calling, Kevin decided there was a need to overturn outdated notions of how to make successful cold calls and completely revamp cold calling culture.

His methodology aims to bring cold calling back into your sales strategy and overcome modern cold calling challenges of spam filters, poor dial-to-connect ratios, and expensive equipment with a fool-proof program based on three principles:

1. People training
2. Process training
3. Technology training

This program isn't just about writing a better cold call script; it's about totally restructuring your cold calling culture so you can pick up the phone with confidence and give your sales reps the best chance of success.

Let's take a look.

People training

As we said earlier, almost half of sales reps dislike making cold calls. That's a huge problem for companies. If your reps don't want to make a sale, why should your prospects want to make a purchase?

But properly training your team can change everything, giving them the confidence and motivation to make cold calling work. Sales reps are at the heart of successful cold calling. Your sales team needs to know exactly how to address prospects' pain points, handle sales objections, and perfect their sales pitch with ultimate precision.

When Kevin started out in sales, the office he worked in played low-level white noise to drown out other sales reps. He soon realized this was preventing reps from actually learning from each other and improving their sales technique.

He even suggests hosting a 'call review' once a week. It could go like this:

1. Every SDR shows up with three cold call recordings from the week
2. The whole team listens through them
3. The sales team discusses them
4. The sales manager gives constructive feedback

It's as simple as that. Of course, many sales reps will shudder at the thought of sharing their cold calls in front of the whole team, but it really is one of the best ways of learning new cold calling techniques and refining your cold calling scripts.
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Process training

The vast majority of cold calling relies on very little process; sadly, for many companies, it's simply a case of making as many cold calls as possible and hoping something will stick. This is when you see response rates of 2-3%.

But with the right process, you can avoid ineffective cold outreach.

The first step is great lead generation. This effectively means taking the time to make sure your prospect matches your ICP, will be attentive to your value proposition, and is likely to convert.

There's a lot that goes into effective lead scoring, but it shouldn't be sidestepped. Large, stale databases are an outdated form of identifying high-quality leads; it's far better to hire dedicated teams of researchers to find a verify high-value leads so that when you make that first cold call, your chances of converting are much higher.

Sales teams also need to take follow up calls seriously. Don't believe us? 60% of prospects decline four times before eventually saying yes. And when you consider that 48% of salespeople fail to make a single follow up after an initial cold call, ensuring that your cold callers do really puts you ahead of the competition.

So, process plays a massive role in successful cold calls.

Technology training

When it comes to dialling technology, not all solutions are the same. These days, there are essentially three distinct types of dialling technology for making cold calls:

• Human-assisted diallers
• With these diallers, you pay a call centre agent to make calls, then they live-transfer it to you. This is the most expensive cold call dialling technology.
• AI-parallel diallers
• Increasingly popular, AI-parallel diallers call multiple leads at once - saving lots of time - and then automatically connect to the one who answers first.
• Power dialling
• The cheapest - and therefore most common - dialling option: power dialling basically allows reps to make one call after another with relative ease.

The type of cold calling technology you choose to employ depends on a few factors, most notably the quality of your lead verification. If you're making cold calls to high-quality leads with great conversion potential, or receiving high-intent inbound interest, you can spend less on cold calling tech (because you'll have a higher dial-connect ratio).

If your lead generation is poor, however, you may need to invest in more advanced cold calling technology.
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Use these cold calling tips to elevate your cold call success

Cold calls aren't dead, they're just evolving. Evidence shows that cold calling - with good cold calling scripts and the right cold calling process - can still be an effective and profitable outreach method. All you need is a structured methodology.

Kevin's Calling Culture Program provides just that: a cold calling methodology packed with cold calling tips your entire team can use to reach your potential customers, deliver a better sales pitch, and increase your success rate.

But it's not just a case of new equipment or an updated cold call script. It comes down to three simple steps: people training, process training, and technology training. By incorporating these principles into your cold calling efforts, you'll be able to cut through the noise with sales calls that stand out.

Your SDR teams can reach more potential customers with Kevin's help; head over to his website or find him on LinkedIn for all the latest ideas and the best cold calling tips.

And if you're looking for more verified, high-quality leads, or for expert cold calling you can count on, why not get in touch with Leadium. With our decade of experience and technological know-how, we're perfectly placed to put your product or service on the map.