This week we had the whole team in for a kick-off meeting and one of the break out sessions for the sales team was on cold call planning. As one of our key offerings is part-time sales, the opportunity to discuss and find ways of improving cold calling results is always of interest to us.  For our cold calling initiatives, the main output of this work is booking discovery calls.  We find that a combination of emails and phone calls leads to the most discovery calls. Since the whole team makes cold calls on a regular basis we thought we would compare notes and work through some ideas on increasing our success rate as a whole.  I have summarized the highlights for you below.   

Call timing

Our focus is calling decision makers at B2B organizations. Fairly consistently we found that the best windows were:

• Mornings  between 8:30 and 11.
• Afternoons between 3 and 5:30.
• Friday afternoons.

These times would reflect local time of the target. We also try not to call over lunch hour or the first day back from vacation.  This also includes the day after a long weekend. The target can be busy making up for the time off.

Send an email first

Our sales cadence plans start with an email and then calls based on the type out outreach plan we are using. Sending a templated email or a mass email to a cohort is fairly easy and time effective.  We like to refer to the email in our  initial call.

Preparing for the call 

We have some key steps the VA Partners team does to get ready for cold calls, these include:

• Have the CRM open with notes on the contact and company.
• Have your call script and objection handling plans available. For some of us this means printing them out and for others it is on their screen.
• Practice the name of the person you are calling. If they have a tricky name we spell it out phonetically and add it to the notes.

Intro

There is a focus to slow down and talk clearly when we make our intro. We state who we are and who we are calling from. Typically we reference an email we have previously sent or ask a question. If you have been referred to them by another of their team members, drop their name into the introduction.

Building in breaks and asking questions

We like to build in breaks through-out our cold call script.  The breaks often come after questions.  It is not a good idea to talk for some time without building in breaks. The goal is to get the target to talk and start to get them engaged.  We could be asking about a problem we think they are having as an example.  This could be a common industry problem that comes up or something more specific that perhaps you have some insight on.

Value prop

The main body of the email should be the key benefits or problems of the contact you are calling. Keep it short and impactful.

Building trust

The target is not expecting your cold call and in many cases will not be familiar with your company.  You can build trust to move to a next step by mentioning other related companies or subject matter expertise.

Handling objections

There will often be objections you need to overcome to keep the cold call moving forward. We like to document them and how to handle them.  This helps ensure we are ready and have the best answer. If you have new objections you can add them to the list and work on how to best handle them.

Closing for next steps

The goal of most B2B cold calls is not to sell them on your solution, but to get them to a discovery call. That is what you should be moving towards.  We like to have our calendars open so we can book the contact for a time while still on the call. There may be other next steps before a call like sending over some information or following up with another call at a different time. 

Updating your CRM

After the call is over, record it in the CRM. If it is a no answer, bad number, or left a voicemail, record it. For a connected call add the details from the call so you can use it for the follow-up or prep for a discovery call.  If you don’t connect, schedule the next task.  If the next step is an email then send or schedule it while you are in the contact. This will save you time and increase your efficiency.

If you would like to talk about cold call planning please reach out to me.