Cold calling is still an essential tool for generating new customers for many companies today. 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 as well as for companies in the service sector, such as insurance or banking. Success rates from companies in various sectors prove this: Telephone cold calling is an important approach to acquiring new customers, especially in the B2B segment. Depending on the company, measured by the number of qualified initial appointments as an indicator of success, success rates of between 4% and 20% were achieved through cold calling alone.
There are several factors that contribute significantly to the success of cold calling. I would like to explain these factors in more detail below.
1. 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 if so, in what way?
- What resources are available? Should an in-house team be set up or is outsourcing (e.g. by a call center) more sensible?
- What exactly is to be achieved through cold calling?
Accordingly, the following targets are realistic:
- Telephone contacts can be used to find the right contacts, addresses, wishes and needs of potential customers, who are then supported by follow-up measures.
- In addition, the purchasing potential of individual companies / customers can be determined.
- Targeted discussions can already generate qualified initial appointments that subsequently lead to the purchase of services / products.
- Repeated telephone contact can generate long-term orders.
Cold calling rarely leads to immediate business success after just a few phone calls. You should bear in mind that the success rate is not dependent on the number of calls. It is therefore important to formulate realistic goals and define appropriate indicators for the success of suitable measures.
2. the appropriate indicators for assessing success
The number of calls per day rarely determines the success of cold calling. The rule “a lot helps a lot” does not apply; instead, good conversations with the right addressees are factors for acquisition success. Meaningful indicators are therefore:
- The number of new contacts / decision-makers and addresses identified by the calls
- The number of meetings with decision-makers in which the needs and requirements of potential customers were discussed
- The number of personal appointments on site that were generated by the acquisition campaign.
3. the right target groups and contacts
Intensive research using social media often makes it possible to carefully analyze target groups and contacts in advance and make targeted phone calls. A qualified address base provided by professional external service providers increases success in identifying and contacting the right potential leads.
4. cold calling as an integrated approach
If cold calling is combined with classic and innovative methods from marketing and sales, 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. Social media tools such as Twitter, LinkedIn Navigator and Xing Pro Business allow acquirers to carry out social selling activities by using information from social media as a serious reason for initial telephone contact. Inbound marketing uses social media (e.g. websites or blogs) to create content that specifically addresses the previously identified interest and needs. This also generates specific reasons for initial telephone contact.
5. the trained acquisition team
Various factors are decisive for the sustainable success of acquisition teams:
- Employees’ inner, positive attitude towards themselves, their identification with their role and the associated expectations of the conversation influence the course of the conversation. Patience, composure and positive 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, individualized 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 conversation guide – a so-called script – beforehand. This script 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 also an essential part of the script. These primarily 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. The preparation of a script also includes the formulation of objections. As a rule, objections accumulate and reflect the different interests of customers. These interests can be identified and subsequently answered by asking specific questions. Furthermore, a core element in the explanation of product and service offers is the 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 achieved in the first telephone call – and this is often the case – it is important to provide new information in future, so-called follow-up calls, which will 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 length of 30 to 60 seconds must be sufficient 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 at the workplace, that create the right atmosphere for a successful conversation.
- A key success factor for cold calling is its timing. What is the best time to contact customers? 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, for example 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 or 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, such as a headset, a tidy desk, the provision of the right documents and a comfortable seat should not be underestimated.
6 New regulations under the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)
The new EU General Data Protection Regulation comes into force on May 28, 2018 and provides some framework conditions for the collection and processing of personal data, including the handling of data in the context of cold calling. This affects 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, for example to process requests for quotations, is permitted. In contrast, making contact by telephone in the B2B segment 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