Cold Calling: The 30-Second-Plus Conversation Goal

Introduction

Power dialers have become a basic requirement for B2B Sales in medium-to-large companies now. If your business knows its customers, knows its Total Addressable Market, and knows its value proposition, investing in a quality AI dialer with cadence software is going to pay for itself, and pretty quickly. True, many B2B companies are still at the beginning of their discovery of the many advantages of a dialer with top feature sets, like caller ID management, a variety of reporting options, and remote coaching capabilities. However, the technology is burgeoning and it’s only a matter of time before the competitive advantages of using the right dialer tools for different sales workflows are widely understood.

So, now that Dialers are a recognized fact in business: how to utilize them in the most effective ways? When a sales rep realistically looks forward to dozens of prospect conversations a week – instead of just a few – how best to measure success?

 With AI dialers, cold calls become much more do-able. And, cold calls are the bread and butter of many a B2B business, including industries like Saas, technology, and services. Dialers facilitate cold calls. How to turn those calls warm?

Consider how to bring a cold call to longer than 30 seconds.

Because, realistically, the goal of a B2B cold call is almost never an actual sale. It’s to determine if a sale can happen.

The 30-Second-Plus Conversation 

Metrics reported within your ☎️Dialer should tell the sales leader not only the number of calls that individual reps made and that were subsequently picked up, but the length of those calls. Any call that is under 30 seconds can be dismissed (for purposes of this topic). Those super-short calls could be because the wrong person answered the phone, someone was waiting for a different call and picked up, or any number of reasons. Factor those calls in as just part of working with a power dialer.

The good news is, the rep didn’t spend 5-10 minutes per call getting notes together and then manually dialing one cold lead after another, making those non-productive calls. No time wasted: after a quick thank you to the person who answered, move on to the next dials in the dialer queue.

However, in cold calls longer than 30 seconds, the sales rep has likely learned something important. Discovered a crucial fact that could eventually lead to a sale (or qualified the lead). Made a personal connection with someone who will now go to your website to learn more about your company. Received a referral to another person who is better positioned at your target company to hear about your solution.

Keep in mind, the initial 30-second-plus cold call might be just the beginning of the process to get to a longer, more in-depth discovery call. For instance, with a referral, the sales rep can make another cold call – to the new person – verify that this contact is the right one – and start a conversation that could build a relationship.

Warming Up The Prospect

The biggest challenge in “warming up” a new cold-called prospect is that they don’t know you. Their company may have opted in to hear from you, but the individual doesn’t trust you, yet. In many B2B situations, they might not have heard of your company, or don’t know that your company’s products include something that can solve one or more of their business pain points.

After an introduction, let the prospect know that their concerns are your concerns, and you’d like to hear more. In a discovery call, you’re not “selling” them on your product. You’re learning about them and their needs.

Do this with a series of communications following that initial call. Use a Cadence software, included in Koncert dialer products, to ensure that responses to their stated issues are made in a timely manner and with consideration of their needs.

Everyone likes to learn something, even from what they consider a sales call directed to them. Can you respond to a prospect’s initial concerns by sending them a short video recapping what they told you and suggesting a solution that might really help? Can you provide information about a topic that leads back, even indirectly, to your service? Provide value, show that you understand their issues, become a trusted connection.

Belive In Your Solution

B2B AI Sales Dialers will help a rep make many, many cold calls. But even with a lot of practice, cold calling is still difficult. It requires an emotional investment. Sales reps need the belief that what they are providing is, truly, going to help their prospects in their jobs in some way.

The more auto-dialing is employed, the more cold calls will be answered. That’s just math. Traditional, manual sales cold-calling can average around 30 numbers dialed in a day. Using a B2B dialer that can make 125 calls or more in an hour means that inevitably more pickups will happen.

This can be a double-edged sword. There will be more practice for the sales rep. It also means there will be more potential repetition of an introduction. There will be more quick rejections: “not interested” “we already have something for that” “we don’t have budget” – many mindless rejections will come the sales rep’s way. Often initial calls will get a rejection before the rep can even introduce themself. This is not personal. But it can wear a sales rep down.

Maintaining emotional equilibrium is crucial in this process. Sales reps can stop and take a quick walk to clear their head, remind themselves that what they have to offer is worth it, and practice different openings so they don’t sound or feel stale. One sales rep I know told me she does jumping jacks before every dialing session starts. “It just gets my blood pumping,” she says.

Of course, the best motivator is to believe in what you’re selling.

Use Call Recording To Improve 

A key to improvement in cold calling and creating those 30-second-plus calls is to listen to recordings. AI Auto dialer software makes it easy to record every answered call and keep it in your CRM for reference.  

Of course, sales leadership will listen to call recordings and coach accordingly. But there’s no reason for sales reps to wait for their boss to say, “let’s go over how you did.” Check the calls out yourself. Do you sound bored? Anxious? Surprised that someone answered? Or, happy to connect, curious to learn about that person, optimistic about your solution being helpful for them? Are you ready to discover something new? 

Analytics are great and reporting metrics on calls are hugely important for improving sales teams’ performance. Still, no computer analysis will be able to measure the nuances of an actual human-to-human phone call. Recordings are a great way to learn and improve tone. Listen not only to what was said, but how you said it, and how the prospect took it in.

Concentrate on Positive Results 

Use positive calls as momentum. Again, using an AI power dialing software means more calls, more practice, more ease with your message. So, as the sales rep’s comfort with cold calling increases, the likelihood of more 30-second-plus calls increases, and every one of them that results in a follow up activity – a meeting set, a discovery call that helps to qualify the prospect as a great contact, a new insight into the target company and its needs – is a driver for the next call, and the next.

Use Remote Coaching and Whisper Mode  

A primary part of a sales leader’s job should be coaching. Dialers such as Koncert’s platform provide Whisper Mode – the ability for sales coaching to happen in real time, without the prospect even being aware it’s happening. A sales rep can be in a dialing session at a home office, the sales leader listening in and advising from a different location, to a phone call with prospects anywhere. Following the call, they can further discuss. This coaching ability is, alone, a strong reason to use a dialing platform.

Cold Calling Success with Koncert AI Dialers

Cold Calling is not only not going away, its use is expanding. The fact is, cold calling works, and the power of AI auto dialing for B2B business prospecting has been made clear in the marketplace. Check out Koncert’s suite of dialers, all of which come with Cadence included.

Koncert’s robust sales engagement tools help make B2B sales goals. Ask for a demo or a free trial for your organization today.