Many professionals claim that cold calling is a dying business. However, a great deal of brands and contact centers still rely on this model, for the simple reason that this is their main source of income. Regardless if it's a big corporation or a small business, sales representatives would still rather use their phones to call prospects on a daily basis.
Here’s a problem: cold calling is a tough business. The real reason some contact centers are more successful than others is not just because they have hard-working teams and the best sales agents at their disposal. It's also because they are more strategic, more efficient and have more knowledge about prospects. Here’s everything you should do as a step-by-step guide to successful Cold Calling.
Does the AIDA model still work?
Prospecting used to be all about turning that “no” into a potential “yes”. The issue was that the prospects were still shocked when they received a call. It entailed making outbound calls to a list of contacts that were not clearly responsive; that is, individuals who had not yet shown an interest in purchasing.
In today's world, contact centers must take a different path. Always keep in mind that you only have a few seconds to pique your customers’ attention and persuade him or her to resume the discussion. The famous AIDA formula (Attention, Interest, Desire, Action) is still efficient as a sales tool, but it is no longer necessary.
To determine if a prospect is interested in your bid, they should have prior knowledge of your product or service. Fortunately, in today’s world, social media can offer a wide exposure to your target audience. You'll have a better chance of not being hung up on and getting a phone appointment if you suggest a similar connection with your prospect.
Turning Cold Calls into Smart Calls
In order for your prospecting campaign to be fruitful, you must have a well-thought-out strategy. First and foremost, you must identify your approach and priorities. In general, the purpose of telemarketing is to secure appointments with customers so that you can sell your product or service. This relies on 3 main steps:
1.) Creating a high-quality Contact List Through the Digital Environment
If you want your sales agents to stop losing time by contacting the wrong people or increasing the amount of objections, you'll need to compile a list of contacts ahead of time. You should use any and all technological tools available to learn more about your prospects. Notably, social media, chatbot, e-mails. You need to be where your potential clients want you to be.
Nowadays sales agents have access to an array of resources and information, especially from CRM and social media. This enables them to build a profile of their customers and turn cold calls into smart calls. In other words, contact centers can make smart choices based on accumulated customer knowledge and build a database.
2.) Creating an effective script
If you don't have a precise script, having a list of potential prospects is useless. Your sales agents must be able to introduce themselves and explain the benefits of the advertised product or service to their contacts, depending on their needs or problems.
Prepare a list of discussion points with an emphasis on the main subjects you'll address within your script. Here are some questions to bear in mind:
• What made you decide to contact them?
• What is the aspect that you want to fix for them?
• Are you dedicated to resolving this aspect?
• Do you want to build a stronger relationship with your customers? Or do you just want to sell your product or service?
• And any other relevant questions to your campaign.
The trick is to make your agents read the script as if they are having a genuine and spontaneous conversation. A big turnoff is coming across as a bored and monotonous script reading agent. Of course, this must be avoided at all costs. Thus, it is always necessary to adjust it according to your prospect's responses.
Once you've finished your script, you'll simply have to rely on your agent skill and personality. Each must be able to recognize the barriers, errors, and other factors in order to convert your prospects.
3.) Reports to Measure your Success
This is the most crucial aspect of your campaigns. You absolutely need the right tools that will allow you to easily pull reports and data from your systems. These data and reports will be used to assess your Key Performance Indicators and measure your metrics. It's crucial to know the areas in which you can improve and identify potential opportunities as a result of the calls you've made. As well as building improved strategies for your future campaigns.
Conclusion: Knowledge is power
So in conclusion yes, cold calls in 2021 are always a good idea, but you must take these smart measures to ensure good results and performances for your contact center.
The key component is Customer Knowledge. You must be both careful and strategic if you want to effectively develop your prospect database and learn more about their buying habits, needs, and any relevant information to your campaign.
Edited by
Maurice Nagle
