Success rates of companies from various sectors prove this: Cold calling is an important approach to acquiring new customers, especially in the B2B segment.
For many companies, cold calling is an essential tool for generating new customers. This applies across all industries for companies in the IT sector, mechanical and plant engineering, chemicals, electronics, measurement and control technology, travel management, energy management and for many companies in the service sector. This means that pure cold calling can achieve success rates of between 4% and 20%, measured by the number of qualified initial appointments as an indicator of success.
It’s all about setting the right goals!
The right target definition is crucial for the success of cold calling: Which specific products / services and customers within the scope of the corporate strategy should be addressed with which sales success? Which target groups are to be reached? Should cold calling be linked to other marketing and sales activities? And in what way? What resources are available? Should an in-house team be set up or is outsourcing (e.g. through an open call center) more sensible? What exactly should be achieved through cold calling?
Accordingly, the following targets are realistic:
Telephone contacts can be used to identify the right contacts, addresses, wishes and needs of potential customers, who are then followed up with follow-up measures. In addition, the purchasing potential of individual companies / customers can be determined. Targeted conversations can already generate qualified initial appointments that subsequently lead to the purchase of services / products. Repeated telephone contact can generate long-term orders.
Indicators for assessing success
It is also clear that cold calling does not always lead to business success after just one or a few phone calls. The number of calls until an order is placed should therefore not be the only performance criterion. It is therefore important to formulate goals that also relate to quality, not just quantity. In this way, training aspects for acquisition staff, for example, can be considered and implemented much more effectively. For example, the quality of the conversation, presentation of USP’s, dealing with questions and objections or closing confidence.
Good discussions with the right addressees are decisive factors for sustainable acquisition success. More meaningful indicators are therefore the number of newly identified contacts, decision-makers and addresses, the number of meetings with decision-makers in which the needs and requirements of potential customers were discussed, and the number of personal appointments that were subsequently generated on site or via the web as a result of the acquisition campaign.
Target groups and contact persons
Through intensive research using business media networks such as XING or LinkedIn, it is often possible to carefully analyze target groups and contacts in advance in order to make more targeted, significantly more effective phone calls. A B2B customer can rightly expect a well-prepared conversation partner instead of the attitude “Oops, I’m here now, what can I do for you?” A qualified address base provided by professional external service providers can also often increase success in identifying and approaching the right potential leads.
Cold calling as an integrated approach
If cold calling is combined with classic and innovative marketing and sales methods such as website visitor analysis tools, social selling and inbound marketing, the success rate can be increased. Website analysis tools provide information about customer behavior and needs. These can be addressed in targeted telephone calls.
Business media tools such as Twitter, LinkedIn Navigator and XING ProBusiness allow acquirers to carry out social selling activities by providing information from business networks as a serious reason for initial telephone contact. Anyone who joins a network expects active contacting and networking per se. This is the core value of these platforms and tools.
Here you are visible and also present as a potential customer with your needs and wishes. Inbound marketing uses social media (e.g. websites/blogs) to create content that specifically addresses the previously identified interest and needs. This also generates specific occasions for initial telephone contact.
The acquisition team
Several factors are decisive for the sustainable success of acquisition teams:
The inner, positive attitude of employees towards themselves, their identification with their role and the associated expectations of the conversation influence the course of the conversation: patience, composure and positive personal beliefs can be practiced through mental training. This also includes dealing positively with rejection. The acquisition employee should not see themselves as a supplicant, but as a solution provider: with their products/services, they provide potential business partners with a contribution to solving their needs and represent their interests. Good, individual preparation for the customer, their topics, questions and needs provide opportunities for a good start to the conversation and good conversation management.
To do this, it is helpful to draw up an individual discussion guide – a so-called script – beforehand. This should outline possible conversation starters, i.e. starting points that will attract the attention and interest of the conversation partner. Key questions to elicit customer needs are an essential part of this script. These include open-ended what, how, when, etc. questions. These include open-ended what, how, when, etc. questions to give the customer enough space to express themselves. A variety of different questions are suitable for eliciting opinions, values, priorities, strategic future issues and assessments.
Good preparation of a script includes the pre-formulation of objections: As a rule, they accumulate and reflect different customer interests. These can also be identified by asking specific questions and then answering them. A core element when explaining product and service offers isthe benefit argumentation : It must be possible to formulate the relevant product benefits from the customer’s point of view briefly, concisely and precisely. If this is not successful during the first phone call – and this often happens – it is important to provide new information during future, so-called follow-up calls, which generate further added value for the potential customer.
The precise argumentation of benefits is a matter of practice. The famous elevator pitch creates the necessary practice situation: a 30-60 second pitch in a (fake) elevator must be long enough to formulate targeted messages and arouse interest. Professional cold calling also includes dealing with rejection: this should not be taken personally. It is important to find out the reasons for the rejection, as these can be helpful for the company: If necessary, product offers or services can be adapted and improved.
It’s not just the way the conversation is conducted with content and product messages, but the voice (melody, volume, tempo, intonation) and (!) body language, i.e. the right posture and facial expressions in the workplace, that create the right atmosphere for a successful conversation.
A key success factor for cold calling is also the timing : at what time should customers best be contacted? Which customers are most willing to talk on which day of the week and at what time? If the acquisition employee also performs other sales tasks, it is helpful for them to schedule fixed blocks of time for cold calling through weekly and monthly planning so that they get into the right routine, but still have variety in the organization of their other activities and can benefit from the different areas of work.
The follow-up and documentation of acquisition meetings, e.g. with the help of suitable CRM tools, are essential for further customer support in sales and marketing. The following applies to all of the above criteria: Intensive and sustainable training and workplace coaching – either by professional trainers/coaches and mutual feedback from colleagues, mentors and superiors – are extremely helpful.
There are also a few organizational things that determine the success of telephone canvassing: The design of the workplace with the right equipment, for example a headset, a tidy desk, the provision of the right documents and a comfortable place to sit should not be underestimated.
Regulations under the EU GDPR
The current EU General Data Protection Regulation has been in force since May 28, 2018 and provides important framework conditions for the collection and processing of personal data, including the handling of data in the context of cold calling.
This applies to the data of all natural persons within the EU: data collection requires the consent of the persons concerned. Legally compliant consent, for example in the form of an online form with so-called double opt-in functions, is a good option here. The customer confirms their registration by ticking a prepared box and then again by clicking on a link sent to them. According to the new regulation, data storage is subject to the obligation to minimize data. Instead of data retention, only data that is relevant at the time of collection may be stored. However, data processing to initiate business relationships, e.g. to process requests for quotations, is permitted. In the B2B segment, however, making contact by telephone does not require the express consent of the addressee. The presumed interest of the called party in the service or product offer is sufficient.
by Dorit Wudtke, trainer at Lorenz-Seminare