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MAKE YOUR CALLS COUNT
Ask any salesperson worth their salt, and they’ll confirm it – cold calling is one of the toughest parts of the job. It should be so, considering how critical cold calling is to boost sales and build your customer base.
Ask any customer, however, and they’ll think of cold calling as nothing more than an intrusion. So, how do you walk this tightrope where you get hit your quota without annoying your prospects?
Here are 10 tips for you to follow if you are interested in making the most of your cold calling services:
1. Start with a plan.
Despite the name, cold calling is not really about opening the directory and starting dialing with your eyes shut. It needs intensive research on your target audience, key locations and product/service features. Make sure your sales prospecting has provided you with all the leads beforehand. Once you know everything about them, map the number of calls you need to make daily to meet your goals.
2. Don’t work the answers. Work the questions.
For any cold calling service provider, the script is as good as the word of God. However, when you start working on it, try not to force-fit your offering into the answers. Instead, anticipate the type of questions that can come up, and then prepare your answers accordingly.
3. Make the customer the hero. Not your product/service.
This may be quite similar to the previous tip. However, there are subtle differences. This is a mantra your agents that offer cold calling services must follow before they got on a call. They need to be empathetic to the customers’ needs and respond to them. The customer must feel that the call is about them, and not your game-changing product/service. Create strong reasons for the customers to buy into your idea. Don’t shove the idea down their throats.
4. Credit yourself. Don’t discredit the competition.
A brand that respects and doesn’t disprove their competition is the one to be trusted. Already, the medium of the telephone makes it difficult for customers to trust cold calling companies. That’s why it’s all the more important for agents to keep it clean. Sure, you highlight your offerings but never talk down your competitors.
For instance, when you hear from the customer, “I already have a credit card.” Instead of saying, “Our credit card is so much better than the one you have,” perhaps a more compelling answer could be, “Our credit card also lets you shop in international markets.”
5. Make your end-goal a meeting, and not a closed deal.
Cold calling companies usually look at the number of sales they closed, but the bigger goal should always be to get a meeting. Customers who are open to meeting with you are more likely to think of a long-term connection with your brand. They are genuinely interested in what your brand has to offer. Keep these guys hooked.
6. Become a master of languages.
So, it may be difficult for a single agent to know many languages. No reason why you still cannot offer multilingual support. As one of the cold calling service providers, make sure you hire a diverse group of agents with varied language skills so that you can talk to your growing customer base in a more personable way.
7. Invest in a knowledge base.
For cold calling services companies, knowledge should be everything. Customer demographics, competitor analysis, evolving product/service features, best practices should all be documented and readily available for any new agent getting on board.
8. Keep your technology cutting-edge.
Technology can be a make-or-break factor for a cold calling service provider. CRM integration, scripting engines, predictive dialers, and local presence dialing – all help in giving your cold calling services the competitive edge they need.
9. Befriend detailed reports.
Cold calling is all about learning from experience – which is why the outcomes of these experiences need to be available in detailed reports. Create comprehensive reports with performance measures on the result of every cold call your agent has made to derive analytics and insights.
10. Keep in touch, dear.
Every cold call is the initiation of a new relationship. Make sure you nurture it as such. Stay in touch with your prospects to retain their loyalty to your brand.
MAKE THE RIGHT CALL!
It is an investment of time, effort, and knowledge – invaluable resources for any company. To get the maximum ROI on cold calling services, outsource them to the Experts.
At Expert Callers, we train our agents to build strong connections with intruding, be personable, and introduce prospects to your business in a way that triggers a long-term relationship. For cold calling outsourcing, there is no clearer choice than Expert Callers.