Cold Calling is Here to Stay Now and in the Future in B2B Sales

Despite the low sales conversion rates associated with it, B2B cold calling remains a popular practice in sales to this day. Why? Because it is one of the most effective ways of reaching out to new prospects and getting your name out there.

All the same, cold calling has a reputation for being particularly challenging. In a recent study, it was revealed that more than 60% of salespeople believe it to be the worst part of their job.

 

That said, there are steps you can take to improve your cold calling performance.

 

What Are B2B Cold Calls?

A cold call is a term used to refer to unsolicited calls made to potential sales prospects.

In other words, it involves trying to make a sale to people who have yet to reach out to you or your brand before.

 

The opposite of cold calling is warm calling, which is when calls are made to people who have already expressed interest in your goods and services.

B2B (business-to-business) cold calls, in particular, involve sellers calling other businesses to try and sell to them.

 

Generally, cold calls of this type are more successful than B2C (business-to-customer) cold calls.

 

 

Is B2B Cold Calling Effective?

While business-to-business cold calls may not boast particularly high sales conversion rates, they are still useful for generating new prospects and spreading the word about your business.

At any rate, as mentioned above, business-to-business cold calling is certainly more effective than its business-to-customer counterpart.

 

This is because when you make a B2B cold call, you at least know something about your prospect.

When cold calling customers, you have nothing to go off of; but when calling another business, you can find out the name, job title, and main responsibilities of your potential customer.

 

This will make your job far easier.

B2B Cold Calling Tips

To get as much out of business-to-business cold calling as possible, there are a few essential tips you should follow. Below, we consider just five of the most crucial.

There are certainly several interesting challenges in cold calling. B2B models of selling might make the task a little easier, but it still won’t be a walk in the park!

 

However, following the advice set out in this article can help you to make the most out of this prospecting practice.

 

 

Do Your Research

The first piece of advice for B2B cold calling, and arguably the most important on this list, is to do your research.

Find out all you can about your prospect, including the name and contact details of the particular individual you hope to speak to. 

 

By examining the company’s website and social media pages, you can discover:

 

• What the business does.

• What the company’s values are.

• How the business has been performing.

• What products they offer.

 

With this information, you can personalize your call, making it easier for you to get to the heart of your prospect’s pain points.

 

Use a Sales Script

Our next piece of advice for B2B cold calling is to create and use a high-quality sales script.

This will help you stay on track during the call, ensuring that you provide all the necessary information without rambling.

 

Additionally, it will make it easier for you to establish a consistent performance and monitor how you’re doing.

Remember to personalize your script with the information you found out during your research.

 

Additionally, during the call, be sure to sound energetic and enthused, improvising here and there to keep things organic.

This will make you sound far more appealing to the prospect.

 

Be sure to regularly review your scripts to see if there’s anything you can change; this is where consistency really helps!

 

 

Match Their Tone

Another helpful tip is to match your prospect’s tone. This useful piece of advice can be used in all sorts of phone calls, not just B2B cold calls.

Generally, people respond far more positively to you if you match their tone. What does this mean?

 

Well, for example, if your prospect is a lively, energetic sort of person who answers your call with a lot of enthusiasm, try to meet their high level of energy.

Throughout the call, you can gradually bring the tone down to one that suits you better—just don’t quash their initial spurt of enthusiasm!

 

The same is true if the person is quieter and more reserved. They’re unlikely to appreciate you jumping down their throat, so you should adopt a calmer approach.

 

Be Brief

As likely as not, the person on the other end of the phone is extremely busy and doesn’t really have time to stand around chatting all day.

Show that you respect their time by not taking up too much of it.

 

At the beginning of the call, make it clear that you will be as brief as possible—and stick to that!

Begin by asking a few open-ended questions to understand more about your prospect’s pain points, before delivering a short summary of what you can do to resolve them.

 

At the end of the call, be sure to thank whoever you’re speaking to for their time.

 

Use Active Listening

During a B2B cold call, you only have a very short amount of time to make as big an impact as possible.

To achieve that, you first have to understand your prospect and their pain points. To that end, be sure to practice active listening throughout the call.

 

This involves:

• Really listening. Don’t just hear the words, but listen to the true meaning behind them.

• Asking clarifying questions. Open-ended questions can help you find out more about your prospect.

• Summarizing the prospect’s points. This shows that you were listening and allows the prospect to correct any misunderstandings.

 

By following these guidelines, you can have a truly insightful call with your prospect—one that is bound to leave an impression.

 

Follow Our Advice for Success with B2B Cold Calling

While it’s true that business-to-business calling is not without its challenges, you can still make use of this tool with great success.

If you’re to have a hope of doing so, however, then you should approach B2B cold calling as methodically as possible.

 

We hope that the useful advice in this article will help you to excel during cold calling—but keep in mind that our list of tips is by no means an exhaustive one.

With that in mind, we’d advise you to continue your research into the topic.

 

Think about how you could change your approach to cold calling, and always be working to improve yourself and your performance.