Why Make Cold Calls During a Pandemic?

"No one's picking up the phone during COVID-19."

“People aren’t answering numbers they don’t recognize.”

“What kind of idiot makes a cold call during a pandemic?”

Sound familiar? I see these statements every day on LinkedIn and our sales reps hear them every day in conversations with B2B companies. Read on to learn why a pandemic actually IS the right time to make cold calls and create new business opportunities.

Making the Pivot

With Coronavirus, in-person trade shows and events were cancelled, leaving sales teams without the influx of inbound Marketing Qualified Leads (MQLs) that they’re used to receiving from people visiting their booths at such events. Sure, there are virtual trade shows, but the lead potential there isn’t the same as an in-person event in Vegas, Los Angeles, Boston, or the like.

Since quotas were set before the pandemic, and most companies are still sticking to them, those potential customers need to be contacted somehow. This is the time to make your cold calls, send your cold emails, and perform other manners of sales outreach to have those conversations, like our sales team is having on a daily basis, to generate meetings and revenue.

A Little More Conversation

Did you see that bit above about how our sales reps are having conversations with B2B companies every day? How do you think they’re getting those conversations? They’re using multi-channel sales outreach of cold calls, cold emails, LinkedIn, and embedded video in email to get in touch with their potential customers.

Yes, they’re making cold calls and YES, those cold calls are actually being answered by B2B sales leaders. In fact, a survey from the RAIN Group found that 69% of buyers accept cold calls. Once the potential customer answers, it’s up to your sales representative to keep that call going past those first crucial 10 seconds by following cold calling best practices like having a succinct and interesting opening statement and asking open-ended questions that can’t be answered with a simple “yes” or “no” response.

Need More Proof?

Cold calls aren’t just working for our sales reps. They’re also working for our customers, who are making cold call after cold call to make up for the leads they didn’t get from in-person trade shows this year.

And, you know what?

They’re having a large number of sales conversations. How? They’re using our human agent-assisted dialer, Team Dialer, to take care of the busywork of making the dials, and navigating phone trees and receptionists. We refer to it as “We dial and connect. You sell.” That way, our customers only have to focus on the actual conversations, and it’s succeeding — so much so that one customer blew through their budgeted dials for the full year in just a few months during this pandemic, and have re-upped for the same amount for the rest of this year to keep their conversations and revenue going.

Even in these times, our customers are exceeding their sales revenue expectations, all thanks to Team Dialer. Wouldn’t you like to be able to say the same?

Reach out to us here at ConnectLeader today to learn more about our entire suite of sales engagement software, including Team Dialer, our human agent-assisted dialer. Simply click here or give us a call at 800-955-5040.