Thursday's Thoughts - Making Cold Calling Easier

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Thursday Thought of the Day - How to Make Cold Calls Easier. So many people absolutely dread the idea of cold calling, and that's unfortunate, because cold calling won't be going anywhere any time soon. Cold calling is how most Sales teams generate new leads to grow their business, but at the same time, cold calling is probably one of the most difficult sales operations to be successful in. Why? Mainly because the high level of rejection, and the inversely high level of positivity it takes to grind out hundreds of calls a month knowing that there's always a solid chance people may get mad when they hear you're not someone they currently know.

"Cold calling has been around as long as telephones have...And it’s all in the spirit of growing a business." - Serenity Gibbons of Forbes

A call center with 2 slackers in the background

Real quick - I'm going to throw this out there for the other side of the cold call, the prospect - If you're getting cold calls, that's part of the price of being successful. BDRs and SDRs don't call you to ruin your life, and honestly, being incredibly shut off and rude vs. taking a minute to point them in the right direction (if you want to be nice) or to let them know why their product isn't a good fit for you/your team/your business at this time is never going to save you time. If anything, they'll just make sure to call you back in 4-6 months, because that's what the industry does!

Now, I'm not saying that if you have a top position and you're getting cold calls, you should answer every single one and give them 30 minutes, because I know some people will read that out of the words I typed. What I'm suggesting is that being open for 2 minutes can get you off more lists than hanging up immediately. Time is the most important commodity for any person in any position worldwide. It's one of the few resources we'll never be able to increase, replenish, or get back. So don't think that I'm suggesting you should waste your time on meaningless and fruitless conversations. I'm more suggesting that knowing cold calling is crucial for most sales organizations will help you get off the call lists more than treating people poorly for inconveniencing you, which is part of their job.

Only 1 slacker in the background this time

Back to the other side of cold calling, the cold callers. Depending on the organizational structure of the sales teams, cold calling could be strictly for SDRs/BDRs, could be for the AMs, or could even be the responsibility of AEs. Some people have their teams so that everybody is responsible for cold calling, but the account type dictates who reaches out to whom. Regardless of how it's set up, here are 3 quick facts about Cold calls that probably won't change anytime soon, and 3 quick facts to go with them:

1. Sales teams will be cold calling. Why? Charlie Cook states that 2% of cold calls are successful, and qualified leads convert 20% of the time. If those numbers aren't 0%, it shows cold calling is successful

2. Cold calls aren't meant to be easy. Why? Hubspot estimates that only 28% of cold calls result in a conversation of any level

3. Though they're not easy, cold calls are often made more difficult than they need to be

Zooming in on #3 right there, there are so many reasons cold calls could be more difficult than they need to be. It could be improper training, a lack of creativity, a bad team dynamic, poor leadership, not having the right personality for it, not being able to stay positive and motivated, a lack of learning, etc. Cold calling (and Sales in general) takes a lot to be successful. What used to be thought of an easy plug-and-play position for people just out of college has transformed to be more of a specialist role for a lot of companies, because they realize their ROI for those plug-and-play people is much lower than the ROI for dedicated SDR specialists.

But wait - Isn't this post supposed to talk about how to make cold calling easier? You just spent a few paragraphs talking about why it's difficult! True, but we're finally to the point that can make cold calling much easier than it is for some people right now. Here are 2 things to consider:

Creativity is King

Probably one of the top reasons that people burn out from positions that require cold calling and why people hate the idea of cold calling is because they're either not allowed to or they're not expressing any type of creativity. I mean, think about it - Why keep trying the same tactics over and over if they're not working? That's Einstein's definition of insanity ("The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results) So then, what can you change up in your strategy that can provide different results? Here are a few:

• The time of day you're calling specific contacts

• The way you're starting your conversations

• Your approach/mentality when going into the call

• Your tone, and the word choice you're using

• The titles/positions you're targeting

Monday dread. Cold callers get it

And those are just a few. There are a TON more out there, because like I said earlier, there's a lot that goes into every cold call. The suggestion here is to track your methods, try new things, and then document how those new tactics/styles are working for you. I had a position where cold calling was a regular activity, and I was originally told that the best time to call people was first thing Monday morning. Not knowing much about Sales, I went along with that, and I had 0 success...or maybe even whatever is under 0. I hated cold calling, I hated picking up the phone, and worse than that, I hated when someone would pick up on the other side, because I was sure they were just going to hang up. Then someone told me about trying a new approach.

At that point, I was willing to try anything to make cold calling more bearable, so I stopped calling people first thing Monday morning, and I called Wednesday morning instead. I got more conversations, and people seemed more open to talking. Well how about that? So then I tried Tuesday morning. Less success there, but still way more than Monday. What about afternoons? I tried Wednesday afternoon, and that was my most successful time yet! After simply trying new days and times for my cold calls, I found probably 10x the success, and I tracked that to make sure I was noticing any type of trends. I shared this with the team, and now about half of us started cold calling Wednesday, and guess what? Everyone was seeing higher success than the Monday morning dread period that was 9am-11am every Monday. I got more conversations from 10:30am-10:45am Wednesday than I ever would've in those 2 hours.

I'm also a huge fan (and I talk to a lot of people who are fans of this too) of making sure you're using your unique personality in your cold calls. I love the creativity that people have used, and if you've done something a little different, please comment on this post to tell people something unique that's worked. When I used to call into Texas, I had success with "I'm basically calling anyone who hates Texas Tech, because I know they're going to know how to run operations," which was especially effective, since a lot of my clients were Baylor and Texas grads, so they loved hearing that! Also, it made me stick out, and they were much more willing to talk to me, or at least treat me like a regular professional.

Map the success!!

Try creative approaches, and map your creative approaches. Keep track of what works and what doesn't, and find out what your unique approach to cold calling is that makes you most successful. Then, make sure you're sharing it with your team, so that other people are embracing their personalities and trying new things as well. You'd be amazed how well this works, and how few the Sales groups are that teach this.

Utilize Referrals

I'll be honest - When I started writing this post, I didn't have this point included, because I thought this was obvious, but then I came across some crazy stats that blew my mind. According to Spotio:

• 73% of executives prefer to work with sales professionals referred by someone they know [Source: IDC]

• 92% of buyers trust referrals from people they know

• The lifetime value of referred customers is on average 16% higher than that of non-referred customers [Source: Wharton School of Business]

• 91% of customers say they’d give referrals. Only 11% of salespeople ask for referrals.

Now, I put that last one on there out of order if you read the post, and I did that for a reason. It's that stat that made me include this in the post. 11%?! Why is that number so low? I told this to 2 people who are currently in Sales positions, and both of them had the same reaction - "Yeah, that's not shocking to me at all". I think part of the problem is that though it's mind-blowing to me, it's not shocking at the same time. I can think back to my time in different sales positions, and when I'm really honest, not only did I not hear that many people around me asking for referrals, but I also didn't ask for referrals on every call. Oops!

Pre-Covid Referral handshake!

The stats are there, and to most, it's probably obvious that you'll get more clients, you'll sell more, and you'll generate more revenue through referrals, but here's the main point of this section - Referrals shouldn't just be for Salespeople. I think that's one of the biggest misconception of Sales organizations. Another big misconception is that only customers who have just bought can be used for Referrals. That couldn't be more wrong! That's probably you're most obvious person to ask for a referral, but referrals should be an organization-wide strategy. In my opinion, and I teach this in the From Sale to Sales Seminar, but referrals should be asked after every positive experience a client (or potential client) has with your company.

Your Account Manager just closed a sale? Ask for a referral. Your BDR just got shut down and told they're not speaking to the right person? Ask for a referral of the right person. Your CSM just had a good product call? Ask for a referral. Your SE just did a killer demo? Ask for a referral. Your marketing team just agreed to feature a new client in a white paper? Ask for a referral.

Referrals should be company-wide. I would even go so far to say that if you have a sound Marketing strategy that puts easily digestible information in the hands of your employees, and if you've built a good company culture where your employees are actively engaged in the mission of the company, you can utilize that to have even IT, HR, and other positions ask for referrals by posting on LinkedIn.

Networking like a pro

Today's selling world has shifted to become much more relational than it used to be, and people are much more willing to start a conversation through a shared connection. Networking has never been more crucial, and will continue to get more important as technology becomes more advanced and more prevalent across the globe. An efficient company will utilize the power of connections and the power of Referrals to increase their revenue, and companies that struggle to get referrals will likely not perform as highly as those that do. If you're struggling to cold call, try being more creative with your approach (and map what works and what doesn't), and make sure you (and your team) are utilizing the power of Referrals. You might be amazed when cold calls all of a sudden don't seem so scary, because your conversations are more relational, and you're free to be yourself on the phone.

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