Sales Prospecting: Shifting a Cold Call to a Warm Call
Get a prospect's attention and demonstrate how your product can address their business needs.
You are preparing to contact a prospect for the first time and wondering what it is you should do to equip yourself with accurate information and the thing that will transform a cold call into a warm conversation full of learning. Start with a strategy. How will you open the call? What information will you reference? How much do you know about the prospect and their industry? There are many things to consider during sales prospecting.
The State of Cold Calling
Cold calling is still relevant and effective in today’s market. Calling a prospect over the phone can serve many purposes regardless of if they pick up the call or you leave a voicemail message.
A multichannel approach to contacting a prospect will ultimately lead to the most effective interaction. That means it's better to use the telephone call or message to direct the potential client towards a particular action. Combine that with an email or messages via social media, and you've placed yourself in front of the prospect in multiple ways that can lead to curiosity and a deeper conversation that lends you the opportunity to introduce them to your product.
Owler Helps Sales Professionals Warm Up a Cold Conversation
Relevancy is critical to the prospect’s decision to listen to you over the phone or take further actions such as inquiring about more details or even go on to engage with alternative means of contact. You need the right tool to obtain the vital information that elevates your sales pitch and informs the direction of your conversation. Owler provides sales professionals access to and convenience of customizable business insights via its platform. Decide what information you would like to reference through manual means and combine that with the convenience and efficiency of notifications containing fresh data delivered to your inbox or easily accessible via your personalized feed.
Lead with Learning In the Sales Prospecting Stage
Beginning a call with language that signifies you are both knowledgeable of a prospective client’s industry and their place within it can lead to a continued conversation around a company’s needs. A call that starts with an introduction and description of your product can end abruptly due to individuals' lack of interest and familiarity with it. Knowing your prospect and getting to the root of their issues before even mentioning your product's functions will likely set you apart from competitors. If you face objection during a call, do your best to identify what led the prospect to their decision and try to understand what they are looking for to determine whether or not your product offers an appropriate solution.
Identify Sales Triggers When Prospecting
During a sales prospecting call, be yourself, but be willing to adjust to the client’s communication style. If your client is direct and wants to get to the point of the call immediately, prepare to briefly explain your reason behind calling and the problem your product solves. If they would prefer to spend more time on a call with you to explore questions, then accommodate this option. The right sales triggers will aid you in the direction to take during a conversation. Owler enables you to remain current on the latest information about companies you court along the way, from acquisitions to funding to promotions.
Understand Prospects by Utilizing Existing Customer Information
Think cross-functionally as you improve at sales prospecting. Partnering with your customer success team allows you to gain valuable information on your existing customer base. Want to know what areas your customers are successful in and which triggers align with your sales goals? Talk to your customer success manager to understand how customers use your product, learn about its adoption, and the existing problems the product is used to solve. Another consideration to keep in mind is creating a checklist that helps you maintain guidelines for prospect research. Think about the size of the accounts you want to pursue and decide on your approach before contacting prospects.
Tactics for Efficient Sales Prospecting
Jason Bay of Outbound Squad joined Nick Cegelski of 30 Minutes to President’s Club and Nathan Steele of Owler to cover the art of a productive sales conversation in the webinar titled, From Cold to Warm Calling: How to Break the Ice with News, Insights, and Lead-ins. Please take a look at an excerpt from the video below and view the entire webinar via our YouTube channel.
Cold-calling tactics suggested in the webinar include:
Begin a call with a permission-based opener.
Rely on the research you've collected to get the person's attention on the other end of the phone.
After gaining permission to proceed with the sales call, indicate what issues you suspect the prospect may have based on several past experiences with customers with similar profiles.
Do not assume that any issue is an absolute for every client. Allow the prospect to confirm what their pain points are.
Once you have a good grasp on what the prospect needs, you can introduce yourself and begin covering the functions of your product.
These action points can apply to cross-selling, expansion, and cold calling.
Bay, Cegelski, and Steele agree that information about your product is less important than getting a potential client's attention and understanding their needs. Remember that a prospect has no investment in your product right away and may not even be familiar with it. Their priority lies with their job role and the work they are responsible for completing. It is vital that you recognize how their expressed needs can be met with your product and convey this through calls, emails, or other forms of contact.
Stay Prepared for Your Cold Call
The best way to ready yourself for a conversation with potential clients is to do the necessary research on them and their industry. Strengthen the research you have done by practicing your delivery. It will come across during your call if you are well-educated on what is occurring within their space. This can increase your chance of being heard and allow you to expand on how you can offer a solution to their problems.
Make every phone call count. Learn more about how Owler Pro offers salespeople the capability to keep track of competitors, trends, and new opportunities through research. The team-centric Owler Max offers even more by placing integrations, insights, automated tasks, and triggers at the forefront of your sales process to help you efficiently grow your pipeline. Join the free Owler community today!
