Cold Calling is Not Dead! Here is Why
Tags: Entrepreneurship, Cold Calling, Marketing, Startup, Business

Photo by Pavan Trikutam on Unsplash

Hello everyone! First let me introduce myself, The name is Steve H. Hunt. I’m the webmaster over at LetsTeachBusiness, A website geared towards younger entrepreneur's and individuals working towards launching their first startup but are lacking in the knowledge needed. I’ve always had a passion helping people and for writing about business and marketing(after all they do go hand in hand).

Enough about me, let’s get on to why I believe Cold Calling is still an important aspect to marketing!

From the first time it was documented by John Patterson in 1873, cold calling has enabled many sales reps to gain prospects who later converted to sales. However, with the changing consumer behavior, its effectiveness is not only declining, but it is also becoming highly punitive to cold call top executives. According to Hubspot, an average executive receives 3000 marketing touches daily through T.V, radio, social media, calling, emails, or LinkedIn messaging, making their world quite noisy. Cold calling is an addition to the noise and an interruption of their schedule, explaining the 99% rejection rate (1% acceptance rate) in cold calling. With such a high rejection rate, what is the point of cold calling? Shouldn’t you be focusing on more effective sales strategies?

Cold calling is not dead!

Sales is a game of numbers; as long as there is a window of opportunity to get a prospect, that method is worth a trial.

Let’s do a little math!

If the success rate of cold calling is 1%, you need to make 100 calls to get one client. If you need a portfolio of 10 additional clients every month, you need to make 1000 calls per month to hit your target. If you make 40 calls daily, it will take you 25 days to get to the 1000 calls. Remember, in most companies, there are 26 working days in a month. Thus you can finish your target and have a day to reflect on your month. An average cold call lasts between 2 to 3 minutes (the longer the duration, the higher the conversion rate). Thus, in an hour, you can make between 15 to 20 cold calls; hence you can cover your target of 40 calls daily within two hours. Isn’t that worth a trial? Definitely yes!

Here is how you can improve your odds of converting a prospect

Make the call last long

Your aim during a cold call is not to sell your product; the main aim is to move the conversation to the next level, which can be a meeting, coffee, conference call, or product demonstration. Thus, it would help if you strived to make the call last longer. In a survey conducted by hub spot, out of 10,000 cold calls surveyed, the successful ones lasted 7 minutes and above. Calls with a 30seconds to one-minute duration were not successful.

So how can you make a stranger listen to you for 7 minutes?

Start by having some background information about the client. Prospecting before cold calling is a great way to make sure you target the right clients and are presenting the right solutions. This way, you are giving the right value proposition to the right prospect.

Who is a prospect?

The following qualities define prospect:

1. Need for a product or demand for a product. An individual’s demand is determined by factors like income level, lifestyle, education level, and other demographic factors. As a marketer, identify a prospect with a problem or need and present your product or service as a solution.

2. The ability to buy is another quality of a prospect. Do you know why certain products are only advertised in a golf club? Because the target clientele is high-income individuals who mostly network in such events. If an individual loves a Lamborghini but cannot afford it, then the Lamborghini marketing team may not pay much attention to such a prospect.

3. Authority to buy is a quality of a prospect. The decision-makers in an organization are senior executives, managers, directors, and owners. Don’t waste time cold calling an intern.

4. Prospects should have eligibility to buy. Remember, your operations are constrained by the rule of law in your country of operation. Don’t promote anarchy by dealing with unscrupulous business people to grow your portfolio.

5. Accessibility is another determinant of a prospect. Someone living in a county with minimum internet coverage or phone signal might not be a good prospect.

After identifying a good prospect:

1. Start your call in an energetic, warm, and friendly way.

2. Remember, the party on the other side is a human being and would appreciate a human touch from you.

3. Start with a warm greeting, like you would greet a friend or family member.

Some good opening lines during a cold call include:

Thank you for picking my call.

Can you spare a few seconds?

I was calling to seek your opinion on XYZ, can you help me?

My main reason for calling you today is…

I was checking your website and noticed that you sell inventory management software. Can you tell me a little more about the software?

Congratulations on launching your new product. Do you have a video marketing strategy in place?

I love your insights on the future of content marketing. Can you tell me about your content marketing strategy?

I was inspired by your recent article on LinkedIn about the future of artificial intelligence. Do you feel it can be applied in the telemedicine field?

All these opening lines put you in a great position to slowly transition the conversation to a sales pitch without making the client feel like they are cold-called. For instance, if the client responds that they don’t have a video marketing strategy, this allows you to pitch your video marketing skills. Since the client knows that you already know their pain point, this puts you in a great position to offer a solution.

Avoid generic opening lines like how have you been? The prospect can tell this is a cold call from the first few sentences and decide to disconnect. Further, opening lines like “is this a good time?” Or “sorry to bother you” will make the prospect know that you are cold calling them. The best opening lines don’t seem like an interruption but rather a call to change their business.

Should you use a cold calling script?

Imagine picking a call on a busy Monday, and the caller says something like, “My name is ABC from XYZ company. I was calling to inform you about our amazing product which can help you achieve your revenue growth.” Would you continue listening to such a person? Most executives will find a kind way of saying they’re interested within the shortest time possible, and this explains why unsuccessful cold calls last for 30 seconds or less.

Imagine if the same call is customized a little to sound like, “My name is XYZ from ABC company; I see that you are currently working on an amazing outbound marketing strategy. Have you included video marketing in the strategy?” The executive would be more interested and willing to continue the conversation since this can help them improve their marketing strategy. Remember, we mentioned that a cold call aims to keep the recipient on the phone as long as possible, and this script is great at achieving that objective.

Cold calling scripts are offensive but highly punitive, which explains why in some states, cold calling is illegal. However, having a cold calling script can outline what to cover during the cold call. For instance, instead of designing a cold calling script, write an outline of the important details you should cover during the call, like your name, company, product, and value proposition.

An example of a more effective cold calling script is:

Start by introducing yourself and the company.

Give the prospect a few seconds to reflect on your name or company or ask a question.

Thank the prospect for picking your call.

Complement the prospect on something new in their company like a new product launch, website, a new marketing strategy, an article posted on LinkedIn, or a blog post on their website.

Give the prospect a few minutes to respond to the compliment, like explaining the product or marketing strategy more.

Transition the conversation to a sales pitch, using the pain points obtained from the client as they respond to the compliment.

Close the cold call by inviting the client to coffee or requesting a meeting in their office to offer a demonstration of your product. The closing should never be about selling but rather seeking to get another opportunity to interact with the prospect on a different platform.

When is the best time to cold call?

Cold calling time is the third strategy to improve your odds of converting a prospect to a client. Remember the first two are:

1. Keep the prospect as long as possible on the call.

2. Never use a cold calling script.

So when is the best time to cold call prospects?

Wednesdays and Thursdays are known to be the two best days to cold call prospects. Mondays are bad since most people are coming back from a long weekend and are struggling to catch up on work. Also, most executives hold meetings with their teams on Monday to discuss the targets and strategies of the week. Thus, if you call on Monday, you will likely get an auto-response message like “I’m in a meeting, I will call you back.” Also, some executives have Monday blues on Mondays, and it takes them a day before they can get back to work mode.

Friday is a bad day to cold call since some executives begin their weekend on Fridays.

Further, in most companies, events like relationship visits, marketing, out-of-town training sessions, team building, and other outdoor events are conducted on Friday. Pitching to an executive holding a training session might prove to be a challenge, thus sticking to Wednesdays and Thursdays. Remember our target of 1000 cold calls per month in the above illustration? If you have to make the calls twice a week, you will have to make at least 125 daily. If it takes you two hours to make 40 calls, then to make the 125 calls, you need at least 6 hours which is attainable. If you start at 8 am, you can be done by lunch hour. Remember to take small breaks during your calls, like a 5 minutes break after every 20 calls.

Calling time is also critical in the success of cold calling. Calling before 8am is an interruption. Start your first call at 9am. By 9, most people have arrived at the office, held their morning meetings, take breakfast (if they take breakfast in the office), and are ready to start the day. Research indicates that the optimum time for cold calling is between 11am and 3pm (in your local time). However, since you cannot make all your calls during those few hours, you can call your best prospects during this window.

So, is cold calling dead? The answer is a NO! However, depending on how you make the call, cold calling can build or kill your business. Getting the right prospect, keeping the prospect on the phone for long, avoiding a cold calling script, and calling at the best time are the best ways to improve your acceptance rate while cold calling.

Hey if you made it this far then thanks for reading my first post on Medium, if you enjoyed it you can read more at my blog right here.