7 COLD CALLING TECHNIQUES TO WIN OVER THE CUSTOMER

The cold calling process is excruciatingly complex and people find it exceedingly frustrating. If you hate cold calling, you are not alone as many sales executives, telemarketers and marketers share mutual feelings about it.

Nowadays, there are plenty of ways to get connected with a prospective client. Emails, social media, instant chats, etc., are all at your disposal to help you get in touch with a client. However, an old-fashioned phone call still retains its original charm. In this blog, we will discuss several tips and techniques to make the challenging process of cold calling a little easier, a little simpler and definitely more productive.

List of Cold Calling Tips and Techniques:

• Focus your questions on your client, not yourself;
• Lay out all of your questions before making the call;
• Follow only the best cold-calling scripts;
• Try not to overwhelm your prospect during the first meeting;
• Avoid selling your product on your first call;
• Keep your client calm and avoid overwhelming them in any way;
• Find out what will interest your client to buy from you.

Centre Your Questions on Your Client Instead of Yourself

During your first call with a prospective client, turn all your attention and your questions to that person. At first, try not to mention yourself or your company or any other companies for that matter. Client-focused selling is considered professional selling, so you must remember not to make it about yourself and do your best to appear client-centred. But also keep a balance and don’t overdo it.

Your job is to be a professional salesperson or marketer to your client when discussing their wants or needs.

Plan Your Questions Ahead of Making the Call

A salesperson needs to be informed, or at least appear informed to the buyer. The more information you can gather and memorize regarding the product you are selling, the quicker you will be able to close a sale.

Hence, you are required to script down all your questions in advance. The questioning part is vital. Your questions need to be carefully put together, sequentially organized and geared towards your customers' needs and preferences.

Follow Cold Calling Scripts

Once you are through the questioning process and have successfully managed to receive a positive response from the client, you can continue the routine by gathering more details from your client - details like your client’s business, budget, goals, and so on. Chances are that you might not get all the information at once. But sometimes, clients are interested in the benefits offered to them, and they willingly provide all of this information.

A few questions that you can ask to get answers from your prospect are mentioned below:

• “If there is a possibility to magically prevent any problems from your business plan, what would they be?”
• Or “If you had a choice to create a booming strategy for your business, what would you choose?”
• Or “I would like to set up a meeting with you in person, to help your business and fulfil your requirements with our product/service. How does Monday at 4 PM sound?”

On the other hand, you should stick to your client’s needs because cold calling is all about focusing on your prospect’s needs as an individual or business. But to maintain that rhythm, you must follow a cold calling script.

It is important to stay connected to your client’s interests and avoid digressing from the topic. A sales script is the best option to help you with your overall calling process. However, most sales scripts are limited and inconsistent – often lacking in coherence and a compelling tone. Therefore, you need Sales Beat cold call script to get an appointment - an automated cold calling software that generates and saves your script.

Even the best cold calling scripts are not as advanced as Sales Beat as it allows you to access your saved scripts during the call. Follow the script and make a fortune!

Try to Put Your Prospect at Ease during the First Call

It is crucial to be tactful during a cold call with a client for the first time. Be focused and be direct. Remember that cold calling can sometimes be off-putting to a prospect, so use everything in your arsenal to ease yourself and your client into that first contact.

Again, it is in your best interest to carry a script and pre-prepared questions so that you are in control. If you find your client interested in further information about the product, you can always send them more details by email in the form of product literature and e-brochures.

Checking out your prospect’s LinkedIn to understand their career history, or loading their emails into Facebook to create a custom audience can prove to be a great idea. Then, just a few days before you plan to call them, you may run a rather personalized ad and reach out to all of these prospective buyers. Since they might have seen your ad already, they will be more at ease during your first call.

Avoid Selling Product on Your First Call

Your first call should not be about selling the product. Clients usually feel disengaged and out of place if you attempt to sell your product or anything else instead of focusing on the client's needs.

Your focus should be centred on gathering information from the client. Try to get familiar with client’s needs or their business requirements. Unless you have an inexpensive product that requires not much thought, your primary goal should be interviewing your prospect only.

Maintain your tone, make sure you sound appealing, friendly, and non-threatening.

Keep Your Client Relaxed

Remember if you manage to avoid overwhelming your prospect, chances are that your client will open up to you. It allows you to conveniently make the sale in the long run.

If you want to learn more dynamic techniques for cold calling, go ahead and read this blog on the “100 Calls Technique”. It will help you be more sound and personable throughout your sales calls.

Find out Your Client’s Interest

A good salesperson is one who is able to find out the interests and preferences of her clients. There is a key trigger for every customer that will intrigue buying desire and result in the customer purchasing your product.

While the primary job of any salesperson is to get the customer to buy your service or product and that is the ultimate desired outcome, one should be mindful of the various fears or doubts that hold back the customer from availing your product or service.

In order to successfully overcome customer’s reluctance, always assure the prospect that you are a problem solver and a partner. Your target in a cold call is to remove those obstacles and ask probing questions to know more about the client’s needs and problems.

In conclusion, I would like to mention that you should be direct and honest with your potential prospects. Ask everything related and necessary to your meet your client’s requirements and forge a relationship. Keep well informed about all new updates on your products and developments in the industry, and appear professional yet courteous and helpful.