Cold calling is one of the most aggravating tasks that many — if not all — salespeople will face at some point in their careers. It has a low conversion rate, and anyone who conducts it is certain to receive rejection after rejection before seeing any results.
Still, with an estimated 69 percent of customers accepting cold calls from new sources, the strategy is effective enough to remain a core activity in the wheelhouses of some sales organizations.
It’s a difficult process with a lot of room for error. Here, we’ll go over some of the most typical cold-calling blunders that salespeople make, as well as how to avoid them. Let’s get started. Below are the mistakes to avoid in 2022:
- Experiencing Pessimism
Cold calling may be a nightmare for anyone who has done it on a regular basis, as almost everyone will tell you. According to Gartner, 48% of salespeople fear making cold calls.
Cold calling has a conversion rate of roughly 2%, according to LinkedIn, and it takes an average of 18 or more dials for a sales rep to contact a single tech prospect. It’s a long and winding road, full of rejection, frustration, and personal assaults.
Even the most ready, eager, and motivated salesperson can feel winded by that, but allowing the rougher aspects of the process to get to you is one of the biggest mistakes you can make while cold calling.
How to Fix It: Acknowledge that rejection is a part of life.
Recognize that cold calls are inherently challenging and sometimes unsuccessful. Your low conversion rate has nothing to do with you as a person. Rejection is an unavoidable part of the sales process, especially when cold phoning.
Start thinking of rejection as just another part of the work that you’ll have to get used to. Keep your legs moving and get rid of any incorrect decisions as soon as possible. You’re bound to persuade a prospect at some point, so keep going until you do.
2.Ignoring sales enablement materials such as call scripts and pre-call checklists
Cold calls that are successful are almost always directed by some form of structure and direction. Call scripts and pre-call checklists can help establish the tone for fruitful interactions, and while they shouldn’t be followed rigorously, it can be difficult to make cold calls without them.
Cold call sales enablement resources assist you stick to your sales organization’s messaging standards, provide reference points for the main conversational aspects you need to cover, and help you straighten out a call if your prospect goes off the tracks.
How to Fix It: Refer to these materials on a regular basis, but don’t go overboard.
As I indicated at the outset of this section, sales enablement tools like call scripts aren’t meant to be followed rigidly, with no opportunity for improvisation or finesse — but they shouldn’t be completely ignored either.
Examine the sales enablement materials available from your sales organization. Recognize the major points they cover. You should be aware of the topics you should be discussing. Have a general notion of what an ideal call looks like, and utilize that information to plan your interactions wisely.
You don’t want to come across as if you’re reading to your prospect, but you also don’t want to be scrambling to figure out what to say on a cold call. Strike a balance between the two: use your sales enablement materials but don’t rely on them exclusively.
3. Inadequate Preparation
You should never go into a cold call entirely unprepared. Prospects don’t want to be treated like a number on a spreadsheet. Their firms face unique challenges that necessitate equally unique solutions. If you want your discussions to be fruitful, you need to know who’s on the other end of the line.
That may seem like a tall order, given that you may be making hundreds of calls every week, but you can’t consider your prospects as a monolith if you want to get the most out of your conversations.
You can be interacting with businesses from a variety of industries and verticals. Make sure you understand the special requirements and interests that come with such characteristics.
How to fix it: set aside time for call preparation
Top sellers devote an average of six hours per week to prospect research. You don’t have to set out large chunks of time in your calendar to go over every page of a company’s website before contacting them.
However, you should take the time to build a strong image of the issues that similar firms encounter in general, as well as some background information about the company.
Being Excessively Loose
There’s a fine line between charming and unprofessional. Prospects don’t want to speak with someone who comes across as stiff, robotic, or indifferent — but it doesn’t mean they’ll listen to someone who sounds like they’re kicking their feet up at their desk, solving a Rubix cube as if the conversation isn’t important to them.
Every cold call reflects on your firm in some manner, and most potential consumers won’t do business with a company that doesn’t take itself seriously. As a result, most prospects are turned off by overly familiar terminology delivered in a casual, jaded tone.
Opening a conversation with, “What up, dude?” and using too much slang throughout a call impairs your ability to portray legitimacy and create trust — therefore you need to know when to stop being so relaxed.
How to Fix It: Recognize the difference between being pleasant and being excessively friendly.
Every cold call should have a personal touch to it. It should be free-flowing and unobtrusive, yet all of this must be underpinned by professionalism. Strike a balance between informal and knowledgeable.
Starting with “”Hello, Jim!” is a good place to start, followed by “Jimbo, my man!” How’s it going, bro? “isn’t it? A cold call gives you the chance to establish oneself as a reliable, consulting resource for a potential customer. Prospects will be too skeptical to take you seriously if you speak to them as if you’ve known them since middle school.
Cold calling is as irritating as it is eventually beneficial — and there’s plenty of room for snags and mishaps along the way. When it comes down to it, maintaining composure, patience, and tenacity are the keys to avoiding those blunders.
Keep your cool, accept that you’re in for a bumpy trip, and keep going until you succeed. If you can stay on top of all of that, you’ll be well on your way to avoiding the usual cold calling mistakes that even the most experienced salespeople make.
