The start of a new year is always hectic. It’s time you and your sales team spend creating a strategy to help you achieve your sales goals for 2021 using cold outreach.
Part of any cold outreach sales and marketing strategy is collecting leads. While your first idea might be to collect email leads or talk to potential clients in-person, it’s easy to forget about phone leads and cold calls.
While cold calls might not be all the rage in the digital age, they’re just as crucial as email leads for various reasons.
1. It’s Easy to Detect Fake Phone Numbers
Using emails as your primary communication channel is hard to track. It’s difficult to know whether someone gave you a fake email or used a temporary email service.
On the other hand, collecting phone leads has a higher conversion rate as you can easily detect and verify numbers, weeding out fake ones using API. Validation API is not the same as batch analyzing, where your lead validation service goes through a database of phone numbers looking for a match.
Instead, validation API is a code embedded into your contact form that checks each number individually to see whether it’s active or not before allowing a potential client to sign their information. Click here to learn more about phone number validation API from RealValidation.
2. They’re More Personal
Most communication channels and advertisements are digital, making phone calls with a real human feel more personal. They create an experience and a connection that static communication methods can’t.
3. Voicemails are More Likely to be Replied to Than Spam
Since most cold outreach emails land in the spam folder, you’re unlikely to get a reply from your target. Your leads are more likely to listen to the sales voicemail you sent, especially if it’s customized with their name.
4. It’s Easier to Make the Sale Via Phone
It’s easier to trust a person talking to you than it is an email that randomly landed in your inbox. A phone call is live, making it harder to fake. Unlike an email, which a scammer could spend hours crafting into perfection.
Besides, emails are static. What you sent is the only pitch they receive. Phone calls, on the other hand, are flexible. Your marketing staff can shift the conversation to where they see fit, gaining the target’s trust and guiding them down a sales path that’s just right for them.
5. Questions can be Answered Faster
Email exchange takes a lot of time. That’s a couple of hours between every question your target client has, which is more than enough for them to lose interest or get contacted by a competitor who answered all of their questions right away. On the phone, a skilled salesperson can answer questions as they arise, condensing what would’ve taken days into 30 minutes or less.
6. Separates Your Company from the Competition
Sending mass emails requires fewer resources and less time. Automating emails is inexpensive, and even if an AI sends it out, it rarely sounds like a bot sent it out. That’s why most companies prefer it over cold calls. But that’s where your business can shine.
Using cold calls sets you apart from the competition. It shows that you care about your clients and put more effort into reaching them and answering all of their questions.
7. Less Tech-Savvy Businesses Prefer Calls
Emails might seem like a no-brainer to you. However, companies that don’t rely on tech in their daily operations can struggle with email as the primary communication channel.
8. Big Clients Have Assistants Who Can Arrange Meetings
Your cold calls are more likely to end up reaching your target’s assistant, who can discuss the details in their place and arrange an in-person or video meeting. On the other hand, emails require a little back and forth motion to set up an appointment — that’s if it didn’t land in their spam folder.
9. It’s Easier to Follow Up
With cold calls, you already know whether the target received the first pitch and their response. That makes it much easier to follow up with a customized response instead of a template email.
10. It Can Sell On-The-fence Clients
On-the-fence clients often require the most back and forth communication. Using cold calls, you can steer the conversation to where it interests them the most, instead of relying on automated email response and templates.
Mastering the Art of Cold Calling
Cold calling requires a unique set of skills. Your team needs to be well-versed in your service and problem-solving strategies, have excellent social skills, and detect subtle cues to predict where the conversation is going. It’s best to start working with what you have and evolve your cold calls sales team with time.