Best 15 Cold Calling Tips and Tricks of 2021

When your sales team makes a cold call, do they know what to say or are they left scrambling to fill those first 10 seconds? It's your job as the sales manager to create a strong and effective cold calling strategy for your sales team. Read on for 15 cold calling techniques that work across industry and vertical.

Top 15 Cold Calling Techniques for 2021

1.Make a Great First Impression

If you fumble the first impression, you’ll never get a second chance for those first 10 seconds. Practice a succinct opening statement that explains who you are and how you can help.

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2.Personalize Your Pitch

Outbound cold calling is about building a relationship. Start off strong by showing your prospect that you’ve done your homework and already know a little about who they are and how you can help. The last thing you want to do is pick up the phone and say "Hi, Larry" when it's not Larry on the other end because you've dialed Sally instead.

3.Use an Email Outreach Tool

With the help of email outreach software, you can send out a cold email before you make that first cold call, and then also have an email set to go after those calls.

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4.Look on the Bright Side

First, remember that the RAIN Group found that 69% of buyers have accepted cold calls from new companies in the last year. So, people are indeed picking up the phone and cold calling isn't dead. However, even with great cold calling tactics, you’ll only succeed around 2% of the time, but stay positive and be ready to have that phone call 100% of the time.

5.Keep Track of Success

Ideally, you’ll have sales dialing software that tracks your sales team's calling data for you. This allows you to look at each call that's made and see when calls are performing the best and worst by sales representative. 

6.Try Different Times

You cannot assume that every potential customer answers calls at the same day and time. If you keep trying the same prospect every Tuesday between 2 pm and 4 pm, that could just be a bad time for them. Try them in the morning or on a different day. You can also use predictive data intelligence like Adaptilytics, which helps your team determine the best time to call a prospect.

7.Stay Confident

Successful cold calling takes a specific type of personality. You cannot be embarrassed and shy, nor can you be overly confident and arrogant. Your best bet is to stay warm, professional, conversational, and get right to the point.

8.Use Open-Ended Questions

Don’t just take no for an answer. Avoid yes/no questions and stick to questions that are open-ended and lead to a conversation.

9.Take Notes

If you use a CRM like Salesforce that is integrated with your sales dialer software, you’ll be able to take detailed notes instantly as you’re on the phone. This puts the info you need to close the deal at your fingertips at all times.

10.Focus on the Relationship

Cold calls rarely convert right away. Instead, your goal should be to start a relationship and move it forward. Have one concrete goal for each call, such as setting up a demo or scheduling a second conversation.

11.Practice is Everything

A great script is critical, but you can’t actually sound scripted. Practice on your own and keep making calls.

12.Listen

This is the simplest and easiest tip of all. When you’re talking to somebody, stop talking and listen. Have a real conversation and make them feel valued.

13.Leave the Right Voicemails

Most calls go to voicemail, so your voicemail must be effective. Keep them short, sweet, and personalized. 

14.Use HUMAN Powered Software

We've all heard of power dialers, but those are typically robo-dialers or auto-dialers, which are not TCPA compliant. Instead, consider agent-assisted dialing, which here at Koncert means human dialing agents. This removes the hassle of forcing your sales team to manually look-up and punch in each phone number. Instead, you’ll spend your time actually talking while they make the dials.

15.Talk Up the Benefits

Benefits are what businesses actually care about. Start by talking about what you can actually do for the potential customer while focusing on pain points and how you solve them. Do not talk about specific features. Save that for the demo. 

Reach out to us here at Koncert today to learn how you can help your sales team successfully cold call with our multi-channel sales engagement suite of Koncert Cadence, Agent-Assisted Dialer, and Remote Coach. Simply click here or give us a call at 800-955-5040.