Cold Calling Tips – From 50 Sales Experts

Making cold calls is tough:

• The leads are hostile.
• You have to call 100s of relevant leads just to find a few relevant prospects.
• People can be abusive or worse.
• They can hang up to your face.
• You have to continue to push through despite one rejection after another.

What if you can?

• Prepare in advance.
• Know which prospects are relevant.
• Understand their pain point & address their concern.
• Deliver value and create the possibility of a sale on every single call.

Interested? Read on to understand exactly how you can achieve this!

Before we start, let’s figure out why you need 50 tips for cold calling. Isn’t cold calling supposed to be intuitive? You just have to pick up the phone and dial it. Right?

Absolutely NO!

No matter how long you’ve been doing cold calling, every time you pick up the phone and dial a number you have to find the right way to turn cold leads into prospects and prospects into potential clients.

And that is not an easy task.

List of 50 best cold calling tips from the top experts in the industry.

1. Ask these questions to yourself.

• Why are you calling this person?
• What do you want to accomplish?
• How will you accomplish it?

Once you have a clear plan, and goal for the call, executing it on the call becomes easy.

Write down what your goals are with a particular prospect before starting a call with him!

2. Write a sales script.

• How will you start your conversation?
• What are the key points you are going to talk about?
• What are the questions you want to ask?
• How will you solve their problem?
• Ask for a follow-up call/meeting.

Writing a sales script will help you in many ways. A script is made on how you will lead the conversation with your prospect. It will help you build an outline, but there is no need to cram that script. 

Talk naturally and do not try to become a robot. Basically, a sales script will allow you to focus on what is important and help you to focus more on listening to the prospect rather than thinking about what you should say next.

3. Find the best time to make a call.

• Weekdays
• Afternoon

Together they make a deadly combination!
A study shows that making a call in the afternoon between 3 pm-5 pm is the best time when you can connect with your prospect.

It is the time when your prospects are likely to listen to you. Unless you have their full attention on the call, it’s impossible to find or fix their problems.

Therefore, find out the best time and start pitching to your prospects.

4. Understanding the structure of a call.

• Introduction
• Right questions
• Pitching
• Objections
• CTA

These are the main 5 steps you need to cover while making a cold call. 

Start with an impressive introduction. A good start will help you lead the conversation with confidence.

Next, figure out the problem that they are trying to solve… You can’t give them a solution without understanding the problem they are trying to solve.

Next, showcase your skills and experience to establish your ability to solve those problems (without bragging).

Next, actively see out and address the objections and concerns that they have. Because only after all their doubts have been answered, they will be comfortable in moving forward and taking action.

Finally, ask them to take the next step without any hesitation…

5. Use trigger points to get your foot in the door.

If you want to get clients before your competitors try to steal them, you have to watch out for a few things and get a chance to win the big deals:

• Timing: Reach out when your prospect’s company has just won a large contract and they need YOUR help in executing it.

• Joint ventures and referral partnerships: If you provide a product or service that complements your prospects’ offerings, pitch a referral partnership and get a chance to win all their customers with almost no additional effort.

• After rounds of funding: When a prospect company receives funding that opens unique opportunities for creating a sale. Look at what additional places would they want to scale, optimize or spend on. Can your product/service help them solve those additional problems? If the answer is yes then you have a unique opportunity to grab a sale before your competitors get a whiff of the opportunity.

6. Do not be afraid to try new things and consistently improve.

Most salespeople are afraid to try and make a cold call in the fear of rejection. 

Below here are some strategies you can use and make cold calls-

• Practice communication.
• Be clear with your points.
• Seek solutions instead of problems.
• Define the exact ways of helping them.
• Ask what they are seeking as a solution.
• Be prepared to fail.
• Try again with other prospects.

Covering all these points will help you even when you are afraid to make cold calls. 

Remember, not taking any risk is the biggest risk ever.

7. Research, Research, and Research

Researching is one of the crucial steps before calling. The more you research about your prospect, the more it will benefit you to close the deal in the future.

Do your research with the following steps:- 

• Track down all the key points about their company, and their business.
• Note down all their recent activities.
• Find out a common area where you can relate with them.

Talking about all the things you discovered about them while on a call will create an interest in their mind and they will easily agree to listen to your proposal. 

You can do your research on:

• Company site.
• Linkedin
• Other social media sites.
• Career page
• Mutual board member.

This will help you build a personal connection with them and later turn your prospects into potential clients.

8. Prepare a good opening line.

As it is said, the first impression is the last impression. It is the only first 10 seconds that can make a difference, whether you will get a client or get a rejection. 

The opening line must be different from others so that you get a chance to show that you are worthy of talking. 

Let us consider an example, you can start your conversation by giving a compliment on their recent accomplishment. Show you are enthusiastic about it and then start your main conversation.

You can say this:

• I am really impressed with…
• I really appreciate your efforts in…
• Congratulations…

And more of like these statements. Create an energy spark in your prospects on a call.

9. Build a strong rapport with your prospect.

All you need is to build a rapport first with your respective prospect. Share all the business problems that you have successfully solved and tell them how the clients appreciate you.

Share your testimonials as proof to your prospect so that they can give you a chance to showcase your services. 

Become a great storyteller and help them visualize how you will benefit their business or work with your products or services.

Actions speak louder than words, hence prove them accordingly.

10. Listen carefully.

Good communication skills are not only based on how well you speak but also consider how closely you listen. Communication is a two-way process. 

Try to listen more to your prospect’s problem and give them an appropriate solution, rather than focusing only on speaking.

Talking to them would be a better approach rather than talking to them. Let them speak and give them the attention they need. 

It would reflect a positive impact on your prospects and also increases the chances that they will become your clients in the future.

11. Practice before calling.

Even the seasoned salesman may fumble while making a cold call. Therefore, it is quite important that you should practice well before making cold calls. 

Strategies to help you conversate better on calls:

• Record all the calls you make.
• Listen to each recording before making another call.
• Find out what mistakes you made in the earlier call.
• Practice those points to improve yourself.

These are the simple steps you can take while getting better at every cold call. Practice it on a daily basis and you will start to see the difference.

12. Do not multitask during cold calls.

Doing something alone while making a cold call can put you in a situation of losing sales. 

You must ensure that you are paying full attention while making a cold call.

This will help you:

• Note down important questions.
• Keep a track record of your pitch.
• Takes a shorter time to close sales.

Hence, you must take care to never multitask, but if you are distracted by some other work, you can take scheduled clear breaks which will help you regain the focus you need to maintain on a cold call.

13. Show them the value of your product.

While you are eager to close a sale, do not forget that the prospect buys for value and not price.

And if you don’t show them the value of your product then irrespective of the price they won’t buy from you.

To convince the prospect, you have to make sure he understands the value he is getting from getting the value, it will not only help you close it, but also build a strong relationship with your prospect who may turn into a potential client.

Give them the appropriate solutions your service will deliver and later pitch for the price.

14. Send an introductory email.

Making a direct cold call may benefit in some cases, but not in all. Take advantage of sending an email first. 

Warm up your prospect with an email consisting of:

• Your introduction.
• Your business proposal.
• Ask them to schedule a call.

This way your prospect will know the clear agenda of why you want to make a call. It will be easier for you to pitch your products or services.

Make the call when the email has been opened by your prospect and later send an email for thank you.

It will create a good impression on your prospects.

15. Be a human first and a seller next.

Despite knowing that your main purpose behind the cold call is to sell something, try to build a connection first. It would be beneficial to both.

Use words like “us”, and “we”, instead of “I”, and “me”. Using these words or phrases means you are taking care of both parties not being selfish.

There is no second chance in cold calling, therefore, try to show some empathy to your prospect to build your image. This simple approach will help you to close more sales than ever.

16. Ask open-ended questions.

If you are asking close-ended questions to which a prospect would reply “yes” or “no” will create boredom and also lose interest in the call. 

While asking some open-ended questions, it will create an immediate interest in your prospect. More than that, it will help you know their current business approach, and their future plans, and you can relate with them about how your product or service will incorporate and prove to be beneficial to their business growth.

Asking open-ended questions will help your prospect understand that you are a genuine person who wants to solve their problem and not just looking for sales to make.

17. Use the power of three.

While you might not get much time to convince your prospect to buy your product or service, you should use the power of three.

It means that you are highlighting only 3 points that would reflect the whole agenda behind why they should buy or close deals with you.

Divide the whole prospect’s attention into three parts, help them know the clear insights of these 3 points and later ask them for the follow-up process.

18. Calculate the number of calls you need to hit in a day.

You just cannot randomly make cold calls in a day, you need to set a proper schedule of how many cold calls you will be hitting in a day to complete your goals. 

Set out a target for a number of calls, and make sure to hit your goal in between those calls. you can make an excel sheet in which you are filling out the information of prospects and then you can start making calls and decide how many calls you need to make in a day or in a month.

19. Make use of three voice techniques.

The words are powerful while speaking, but not more than the tone of your voice. A study shows that 93% of the success of cold calling is the tone of voice you are using. 

If you are using the right tone, it will show the lead that you are respecting him in some way or another and it will help you to gain their trust.

From the very beginning, you have to turn a sceptical lead into a trusting customer.

Use the powerful 3 hacks to close more often:

• Volume
• Pacing
• Body language

20. How to respond “send me information via Email”?

Most of the time, a prospect would say, please send me the information via email and I will get back to you later. 

Now here comes a problem you might face because when you send information via email, there is a high chance that the prospect will never return and respond to your proposal. 

But you need to make it a success, therefore try these hacks to close it on a call at the same time:

• Answer with a yes and ask them for an email.
• Ask a general question to engage your prospect. 
• While they get interested, ask more follow-up questions.
• Take the next step and write in the email to connect with you.

These simple steps will help them build trust in you and it increases the chances of getting back to you.

21. The 30/50/50 rule.

A good salesperson is never satisfied with a number and is always on the hunt for more sales success.

Therefore, you need to define proper metrics that will help you to close more deals. For this, there is a 30/50/50 rule you should follow:

• Reaching rate: This is the rate of the amount you should reach to decision-makers. It should be 30% or above.
• Qualifying rate: This should be the rate for your qualified leads to turn them into clients. It should be 50% or above.
• Conversion rate: This rate describes the next step for the leads. It should not be less than 50% to secure a safer side.

Using this rule, you can easily define a metric in numbers to clarify your requirement.

22. Leave pre-recorded voice messages.

While you have to make dozens of cold calls in a day and get exhausted with the same process every time. A simple hack can save you from this.

Use pre-recorded voice messages to save your time, make sure you are using a CRM ( customer relationship management), it will help you when needed. 

Record a perfect message prior and then every time you hear the beep, send this voice message, instead of waiting, you can get back to make another cold call and close another sale.

This is an effective proven method to save yourself from the pain of hitting the same message every time.

23. Two common sales objections and how to handle them?

Often you will face objections while trying to sell your product or service.

The two most common questions you face are:

• Your product/service is too expensive.
• Your product/service does not possess the needed requirements.

Now, this creates a huge problem for you, but you must learn how to handle these questions.

Objection 1: This is too expensive.

When your prospect says these words to you means that you have not conversated with them properly. You need to make sure that your prospect better understands the use of a particular product, its benefit, how to use it, and what kind of bonuses they will be getting along with it.

Another thing is, that people generally relate to the term that if something is cheaper, then most probably it will cause problems in the future. Thus, the problem is not in the price, all you need is to make them understand the exact advantages of buying your product.

Objection 2: This product does not fulfil my requirements.

To answer this question in the best possible manner, put yourself in the customer’s shoes. Then try to understand what their requirements are and if it has all the services they are asking for. 

Ask them the right questions and try to give them all the possible services, and bonuses in a product to fulfil their needs. Help them understand the better use of your products and they will surely agree to close the deal.

24. Improve your sales calls with 3 easy steps.

It becomes difficult to converse when you let your prospect speak, or in the other way, your prospect might be talking about objections, one after the other, he might be refusing to answer your questions or is delaying the process.

And also, if you are not great at leading conversations as a salesperson, these 3 steps would be helpful to you.

Follow these steps to help yourself:

• Start your conversation with a clear goal in your mind.
• Ask your prospects about queries and listen carefully.
• Use friendly strength.

All of these simple and easy-to-apply steps will help you get on the results.

25. Do not try to discover on a cold call.

The simple fact is you cannot close a deal on a first call, and you should not be doing this anyway. 

Do not try to fit in too much and start pitching right there in the first ever call you to make to a prospect. 

The agenda to make a cold call is to schedule the next call with your prospect. 

The next call is your place where you need to pitch for your services and products and turn your leads into potential customers.

26. How to capture your prospect’s attention?

It would not be fair if only you speak and they hear. It can create a distance between you two. 

Once you have finished keeping your point, ask them to speak and clarify whatever they want to and you just hold back listening to all the objections, doubts, and challenges. 

If you take this approach, it would create a positive impact and then start clearing their points one by one.

Also, ask them when to follow up with your proposal. Schedule a date and time with them so that you do not miss out on a hot lead.

27. Accept the rejections.

Not every cold call will turn into a success call, hence you need to accept the rejections as well. Rather than taking rejection to heart, use your time to find out the wrong things because of which you have to face rejections. 

Write down all the points from a particular call, analyse yourself and make some needed improvements for the next call.

Moreover, retaining a previous customer would be a better approach for them while you are failing at making cold calls. 

Offer some good deals to your present client and let the sales growth in your business.

28. Personalise your cold call. 

Here is an important thing to note, if you write a script for your cold call, it won’t be suitable for all the calls you made. Because every call and every prospect will be different, you have to make a personal connection with them.

You have to research prospects every time you are making a call. 

Therefore, the script can only be used as an outline or structure, but how you solve their problems would be different every time.

Avoid copy-pasting from the same script every time.

29. Use the best friend formula

While you may get tempted over so many calls, and even after making them agree to a next call, you might not get a call or message from them 

There could be a lack of communication or trust while on the call. 

But here is a best friend formula, which will help you build trust in your prospect.

It is a 3 step formula:

• Relate: Show that you understand their problem, empathize with them and ensure them that your service will become a solution for them.

• Bridge the gap: maybe there is a lack of information. Try to bridge the gap by offering all the information again.

• Ask them again: You might not get assurance from them, therefore it would be better if you ask them again and confirm the next step.

These easy steps will help you get another client and grow your sales number.

30.  Use social proof.

Your prospects would love to see some of your testimonials, and your project results as social proof. 

It plays a crucial role as it will help the other person know that you are an expert and have helped other clients in their projects. 

You can show these as social proof:

• Testimonial 
• Reviews
• Case studies
• Social media shares

Try telling a sales success story, build their trust, and land with another client.

31. Keep a specific goal in mind.

Having one specific goal would lead to success. You must ensure that while on a call, you have a specific goal in your mind.

Do not distract from it while you are listening to the objections of the prospect. 

A goal in your mind will help you :

• Achieve success
• Early close of sale.
• Build confidence.
• More time to make other cold calls.

Therefore, talk only about the specific points to your prospect and earn a deal.

32. Make your list.

Making it like 50 cold calls in a day will not help you achieve your goal. You must define the number of prospects you want to call.

Call only the ideal prospects and make every call count. Narrow down your list instead of calling everyone under the sun. 

Make a list of your target audience from where you think you will get a response. 

You may use an excel sheet where you can reflect all the data about your existing customers and the ones you want to approach next.

For reaching out to your ideal prospects, use these methods:

• Email signatures, install the Gmail plugin.
• Social media networks.
• Linkedin cold calling sales tips
• Company websites.

This will help you save time and also get your desired results.

33. Leverage technology.

It is one of the most important yet helpful cold calling techniques that you can make use the leverage technology.

There are many sales tools and mobile applications that will help you in sales professionally. 

CRM is one of those technologies you can use. 

It has many advantages beyond storing contacts in it. You need to get updated with the CRM services, to surpass your customers. 

It also has so many in-built features that there is no need to use different apps, and most companies are preferring it now as a good choice.

It will help you in:

• Make instant calls with just a click.
• Saving your time by automatically logging in inbound and outbound calls. 
• Easy to use and works faster. 
• Recording calls and also taking notes.

34. Sales dialer.

So many salespersons are tired of making calls and leaving voice notes, waiting for responses from prospects, which might never happen. 

But there is a powerful tool which you can make use of and make your life easy.

Sales dialer.

What is a sales dialer?

It is an electronic device that simplifies the need to manually call every prospect. 

Most companies are preferring it now as it provides a good service and saves a lot of time. 

There are 3 main types of sales dialer:

• Preview dialers.
• Progressive or power dialers.
• Predictive and automated dialers.

It is not the same as robocalling services which is another tool in marketing automation used for making calls.

35. The bait and switch trick.

It is a sales tactic that attracts customers to buy an inexpensive trick but then prods them to buy the expensive one.

It helps to overcome two of the most common challenges a salesperson may face:

• Getting the attention of the prospect.
• Make them engage in a fruitful conversation.

How to deploy ethical bait and switch techniques?

• Throw a bait first.
• Once you are successful in getting their attention, let them enjoy it for a while.
• Transition to your pitch by offering another service. Ask them to listen for their own benefit. 
• Try to make them understand the better use of your services and convince them.

It all requires a great effort to use this technique, but once you crack it this can easily become your go-to tactic.

36. Use positioning statements.

A well-crafted positioning statement is all you need to make cold calls. As you do not have much time to give a detailed explanation about your product or service. 

Give them a brief description of your services and tell them the advantages of buying it from you. 

Give a short conclusion on how you will help them and solve their problems. Keep it to the point but also significant.

37. Follow up after a call.

Not every time you will get success in the cold calls. It is just that you have to make a follow-up plan to make it a deal.

For this, you constantly need to make them remind you about your proposal and also add bonuses through which they can get attracted easily. 

Send them emails, and text messages and suggest some solutions they are looking for.

If your prospect says they cannot take it right now or do not reply to your emails, try to make another call with them.

Explain the benefits of using your services/products and last wait for a positive response. 

End the call by saying ”thank you for your time”.

38. Conduct call reviews.

It is important that you keep track of your calls and their reviews to help you in future cold calling.

You should make a list of:

• The number of calls you made.
• How many of them did you receive a positive response from?
• How many of them did you not get any response?
• How many deals are closed?
• What is the review rate of your calls?
• What are the key areas you need to make improvements in?
• What is the approach you will be using next time?

All these are important factors in making a review list and helping you grow your sales.

39.  Get past the gatekeeper.

You need a plan to pass your gatekeeper if you are talking to him about your pitch. It would be of no use.

Use some valid tricks to help you get past the gatekeeper:

• Do not sell to them: remember that gatekeeper is not a decision maker, hence it would be useless to pitch about your services.

• Try sounding like a senior: Be confident, and speak slowly and concisely, if you are able to do this, it will help them know that you are an expert in your role and helps to proceed the things further.

• Give them the right impressions: Use the first name of your prospect and help them know that you know your prospect personally and let you talk to them directly.

40.  Qualifying prospects.

You need to consistently qualify your prospects in certain terms to find out whether a particular prospect is a good fit or bad fit for your sales.

Why do you need to qualify?

• It will save a lot of your time rather than wasting it on prospects who are not really serious about making deals.
• It can help you to hit the target you have set to close x number of sales.

How you can qualify a prospect:

• Budget: Is the prospect able to spend on your product/service?
• Need: Does the prospect really need to buy your product/service?
• Time: will he be able to buy quickly?
• Authorization: Is he the right person to make a decision?

41. How to pitch right?

Once you have started a conversation and got clear about all the points. It is now time to make a pitch about your services. 

There are 3 things you must take care of while pitching:

• Clear: The pitch should be a clear point to your prospect. Make it to the point and clarify every point in detail.
• Concise: You do not need to tell everything about your business. All you need is to concise it in a manner that the prospect is understood and easily say yes to you. 
• Easy to remember:  Make a flow in your conversation including pointers. Explain everything in easy language and help them get through the process of how you will be helping them.

These 3 points will help you to sort everything out in a quick phase.

Here are some good examples to follow:

• We help companies like yours to help them in lead generation in B2B sales and grow your business.
• We provide correct and accurate key details to you so that you can save your time in prospecting. 

42. How to do closing?

After you have told them about your services and also pitched for them, it is time now that you should close the call. 

But there are some quick methods you can use to close it. You can easily ask them to run some live searches. 

It would help them know that you are actually capable of solving their problems. 

Also, you should ask them for a follow-up call or email so that you can reach out to them with your resources the next time.

Ask them some questions before closing:

• Could you please send me more information?
• What is your working email id?
• What would you like me to include in the email?

These questions will help you in gaining more clarity and easy to work with.

43. The 5-point plan for handling objections.

There are mainly 5 steps you can cover while you are facing some objections from the prospect.

• Listen: Try listening to their problems and show that you are keenly interested in them.
• Ask: Ask them the right questions needed to clarify at the moment.
• Solve: tell them the approach you would choose to solve their problem.
• Confirm: You must re-confirm to them that you are going to work for them and help to solve their problems.
• Move on: After you have done your work and solved their problems, move on to the next part.

44. Analyze.

To get done better with your cold-calling sales strategies, you continuously need to analyze and adapt yourself and your work metrics accordingly. 

Everyone’s perspective would be different and hence you need to adapt them combined with your own perspective to get the desired results. 

Keep checking your data records, improvements, and information, and upgrade yourself.

45. Keep calling.

Cold calling is a number game. You need to make so many calls in a day to close a prospect and turn it into potential clients. 

Therefore, just keep calling and use all the strategies to get success and become a cold calling expert.

46. Keep friendly strength.

There would be many types of prospects you would connect with on a daily basis. You just need to remind yourself that you need to keep calm and handle every prospect’s objection differently, quite in a way they want you to do. 

47. How to handle tight-lipped prospects?

There is an average of 3 steps while prospecting:

• Your prospect communicates about their challenges.
• You communicate to provide them with solutions.
• Mutually you decide whether or not to move forward.

But then, there are some prospects who do not reveal any information.

When you encounter a tight-lipped prospect, confront the issue and say something like:

• May I know what the real issue is?
• Have you faced any negative situations in the past?
• Give them a specific solution and try to build their trust in you.

It would reflect respect towards themselves and you can easily succeed at convincing them to speak.

48. How to handle a hang-up situation?

Of course, nobody wants to face a situation like their call being hung up for whatever reason. But you cannot ruin your day with a single bad call.

The reasons could be any of these:

• They are busy.
• They are afraid.
• They are clumsy.

Try to find out the reason why he hung up on your call and make improvements for your next call.

49. Set funnel metrics and benchmarks.

You clearly need to set metrics and benchmarks for your cold calling.

It should be like this:

• Improve the reach rate by 15% or higher.
• Qualify more leads with up to 50%.
• Close more deals with at least 30%.

You can design it according to your needs but there must be enough numbers to get success at cold calling.

50. Make a blueprint.

Beyond the just line-to-line script, a blueprint will help you cover the roadmap easily.

It will help you achieve a high level of goals such as reaching out to, making a pitch to closing a deal. 

It is one of the most important and easy strategies to convert prospects into clients.

Conclusion:

Just reading about the 50 cold calling tips won’t do any good. But if you put them into practice any 5 tips are potent enough to completely change your approach to cold calling and the results you get from it. So go and try them out with the best CRM for cold calling.

And if you face any difficulties then let us know in the comments and we will update the article accordingly to make it more helpful!

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