Cold calling seems like something people only did before we had the internet. Today, cold calling may seem a bit archaic in a world where marketing is mostly done digitally. But the reality is that cold calling isn’t dead. In fact, it’s still a widely used marketing method that can present big results for growing businesses.
In this blog, we’ll cover the following topics:
Why Cold Calling Still Works for Sales Development
When done properly, the cold calling success rate is 1–2% and it takes an average of 8 calls to reach a prospect. While that may not seem like much, for the industries that use cold calling, that 1–2% success rate can make a massive difference in their bottom line, especially when we’re talking about significant projects with a high return rate.
Here are some other cold calling statistics that show how effective it can be:
- Most B2B buyers want to be contacted by phone. This includes C-level executives, directors, and managers.
- 82% of buyers accept a meeting after a cold call.
- Organizations that believe cold calling is dead experienced 42% less growth than organizations that used cold calling.
- 42% of customers are more likely to make a purchase if the sales rep calls them back at the time they agreed.
These are just some of the statistics that show how cold calling still works. In fact, even though digital marketing online is effective and important, cold calling offers some benefits you won’t find with digital marketing.
For example, cold calling allows sales representatives to pitch targeted prospects over the phone in a live conversation that demonstrates the value provided by the business. With cold calling, sales reps can have meaningful, one-on-one conversations with decision-makers in real-time. There’s something about a live conversation that makes sales calls more meaningful and increases the chances of getting the sale.
Another reason cold calling works is that sales reps can overcome common objections in real-time and reach prospects where they are in the buying journey. For instance, a sales rep can focus on educating a prospect if they’re still in the research phase, or they can help a prospect choose the right product if they’re ready to buy.
Benefits of Cold Calling Lead Generation
It’s easier to take advantage of unique ideal customer profiles when implementing cold calling. For example, an organization can start with a list of targeted prospects, which will increase the chances of getting a sale. Combined with a solid lead qualification strategy, this is an excellent way to generate qualified leads.
Cold calling lead generation empowers sales professionals to:
- Learn more about prospects – When cold calling prospects, your sales development representatives (SDRs) will be able to learn more about what your potential buyers are interested in. There’s always something new to learn about your market, and the conversations between prospects and sales reps can give you some great insight.
- Develop stronger buyer personas – When you learn more about your prospects and figure out the qualities of those who are more likely to buy, you can develop stronger buyer personas. This will allow you to better target your market throughout all marketing channels, not just over the phone.
- Create more effective marketing materials – Once you have some insight from the conversations between your sales reps and potential buyers, you can use what they’ve learned to create better sales and marketing materials. You can also use this information to train new sales reps and come up with a stronger strategy for reaching your leads.
When it comes to reaching businesses, cold calling makes it possible to start building relationships with qualified prospects. For instance, the businesses you reach out to might not be ready to buy when you call, but they could be in the future, which makes lead nurturing such an important component to having an effective cold calling strategy
Ways to Make Cold Calling More Effective
Now that you know cold calling is still an effective marketing practice, you might be wondering how you can make cold calling more effective. If you want to make successful cold calls, it’s vital that you:
Streamline Your Sales Process With a CRM
It’s important to make sure your leads move through your sales funnel methodically so you know exactly where they are at all times. Many businesses use a customer relationship management (CRM) tool to aid in this process. With a good CRM, you can see everything about your prospects, including:
- Where they came from
- Which web forms they’ve filled out
- How they’re tagged in your email marketing system
- Which emails they’ve opened
- What links they’ve clicked
- When they’ve had conversations with cold callers
- Whether or not they’ve made a purchase
Another solid feature in a good CRM is lead scoring capabilities. Your sales reps can assign leads a score based on their readiness to buy, which will help with being effective in future conversations, helping guide them toward the end of the sales funnel.
Of course, these are just some of the things you can track about your prospects in your CRM. You can track as many details as you want once they’re in your system. Best of all, your sales reps can track future callbacks and have a prospect’s information at their fingertips for the call.
Take Advantage of Email Marketing
Cold calling is most effective when paired with email marketing. The reason for this is simple—once you contact someone through a cold call, getting their email address will allow you to continue marketing to them. On the other hand, you can also collect phone numbers from email leads and call them to market your business.
It’s always best to use multiple forms of marketing, and email marketing is an excellent addition to your marketing strategy because it increases the likelihood of getting in contact with a decision-maker and securing a sales appointment.
Use LinkedIn Prospecting
In addition to email marketing, many businesses are starting to use LinkedIn to find prospects for their business. The way this works is you identify your ideal clients on LinkedIn and work on generating authentic relationships with them. While this may take a little bit of work and isn’t an instant solution, it can be an effective sales technique when you target the right people over a long period of time.
LinkedIn sales prospecting is easy; it’s building relationships that takes hard work. However, you can’t build relationships until you gather your prospects. One of the best techniques for gathering prospects on LinkedIn includes searching through your competitors’ networks. You might find it easier to sell to prospects who already understand and need the type of products or services you sell. In this case, your sales reps will need to come up with some compelling arguments for switching to your business.
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Key Takeaways
If you’ve been wondering if cold calling is still effective, the answer is yes. Cold calling has gotten a bad rap because people don’t generally pick up the phone if it’s a number they’re not familiar with. However, when you take a strategic approach to cold calling, it can actually be quite effective for your business growth efforts.
If you’ve been hesitant to try cold calling because you’ve been told it’s ineffective, it’s time to revisit that belief. Cold calling has a decent success rate between 1-2%. To put that into perspective, email marketing has an average click through rate (CTR) of less than 1% in many industries, and this is still considered successful. Some industries with higher CTRs struggle to get beyond 1.5%, meaning cold calling can be as effective as email marketing—it just requires a different approach.
At Abstrakt Marketing Group, we can help you get targeted leads and our expert sales reps can use cold calling to get you the sales you’re after. Cold calling is a proven marketing method, but it does require expertise in sales and you have to start with the right list.
When you’re ready to have a cold calling lead generation strategy that yields results, contact the high-performing SDRs at Abstrakt!
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