Easy tips to (keep) cold calling!
1. Don't ever dial manually. Using your fingers to dial over thousands of calls increases time, fatigue and call reluctance. All of this of course compounds over the thousands of calls you will make in business, think about how much this will cost you in terms of opportunity cost and sales.
You don't have to use an autodialler. But at the very least you should be using a free softphone such as: CounterPath Corporation | X-Lite.
2. If you are a one man band, you don't need a CRM for prospecting. Now I say prospecting, meaning while you are making the calls. Again this relates to lowering the barrier to entry of making calls. I have used an excel spreadsheet for years AND a crm only for recording my sales and contacts. CRMs are a pain in the ass IMO for cold callers. Think of all that waste time and inefficiency updating the status, contact names, blah.
3. Call for 25 minutes and take a 5 minute break. This is called the Pomodoro technique. Call for 2-4 hours a day and split your calling blocks using this tool. You simply can't call efficiently non-stop in my opinion for hours and hours. You need to rest and re-focus. After 4 of these 'Pomodoros' make sure to reward yourself with a longer (10-15) minute break to fully recharge, walk around, go outside and stretch.
4. Make use of the WHOIS Search, Domain Name, Website, and IP Tools - Who.is tool for getting contact names. 7/10 the name listed is the business owner. Having a name on the call is better than no name at all. This is the most efficient way of getting the decision maker name by far, much easier than searching someone's poorly-designed Yahoo website for a contact name.
5. Get a COMFORTABLE usb headset. Invest at least $80-$120 on a good one which will last you for years. Your ears will get sore trying to cut corners. Again this comes back to reducing fatigue, I listen to music softly in the background as well while I am working too to keep focused.
6. Use an autoresponder to send emails. Not only does this build a prospect and cold list, you can use the spinable fields in the AR to send out customized emails faster with automatic follow ups.
7. Before targeting a new vertical or segment for your prospecting campaign, harvest your prospect list for emails and send a cold introductory email asking one SIMPLE question regarding your product or service. Your email copy should only consist of 4-7 lines max.
Sending it to a list of 1000 addresses will net at least 70 responses, follow up on those leads first. There will of course be a mix of hot, warm and cold responses.
What's important is that when the gatekeeper asks 'What is it regarding?' You can inform her you have sent an email and have been in contact before.
The cold email bumps up the lead quality by a single notch, from icy cold to a simple introduction.
You don't have to use an autodialler. But at the very least you should be using a free softphone such as: CounterPath Corporation | X-Lite.
2. If you are a one man band, you don't need a CRM for prospecting. Now I say prospecting, meaning while you are making the calls. Again this relates to lowering the barrier to entry of making calls. I have used an excel spreadsheet for years AND a crm only for recording my sales and contacts. CRMs are a pain in the ass IMO for cold callers. Think of all that waste time and inefficiency updating the status, contact names, blah.
3. Call for 25 minutes and take a 5 minute break. This is called the Pomodoro technique. Call for 2-4 hours a day and split your calling blocks using this tool. You simply can't call efficiently non-stop in my opinion for hours and hours. You need to rest and re-focus. After 4 of these 'Pomodoros' make sure to reward yourself with a longer (10-15) minute break to fully recharge, walk around, go outside and stretch.
4. Make use of the WHOIS Search, Domain Name, Website, and IP Tools - Who.is tool for getting contact names. 7/10 the name listed is the business owner. Having a name on the call is better than no name at all. This is the most efficient way of getting the decision maker name by far, much easier than searching someone's poorly-designed Yahoo website for a contact name.
5. Get a COMFORTABLE usb headset. Invest at least $80-$120 on a good one which will last you for years. Your ears will get sore trying to cut corners. Again this comes back to reducing fatigue, I listen to music softly in the background as well while I am working too to keep focused.
6. Use an autoresponder to send emails. Not only does this build a prospect and cold list, you can use the spinable fields in the AR to send out customized emails faster with automatic follow ups.
7. Before targeting a new vertical or segment for your prospecting campaign, harvest your prospect list for emails and send a cold introductory email asking one SIMPLE question regarding your product or service. Your email copy should only consist of 4-7 lines max.
Sending it to a list of 1000 addresses will net at least 70 responses, follow up on those leads first. There will of course be a mix of hot, warm and cold responses.
What's important is that when the gatekeeper asks 'What is it regarding?' You can inform her you have sent an email and have been in contact before.
The cold email bumps up the lead quality by a single notch, from icy cold to a simple introduction.