Sales Calls?
Really?
In the digital age, where people have almost left outbound marketing and are working relentlessly on their inbound marketing strategies, do we really need to discuss this?
There is still hope for B2B cold calling, but then why it doesn’t work?
The problem with the B2B cold calls is that your clients aren’t interested in your services and you are forcing them to subscribe to it anyway so that you can achieve your sales target. If your client is not in need of that product, why should he buy it?
Another reason could be a lack of interest and the wrong timing of calls.
The reason sales calls don’t work these days is because you are not giving proper value to your product & services. If you keep calling your clients asking them to take a look into your services or listen to what you have to offer, they know that all you are doing is trying to make a foul out of them as typically you do not have something better to engage them.
Read More about B2B Engagement Strategy and How You Can Make It Work for You
It is possible that you were up to offer something beneficial to your client, but again, he is not at all interested in your sales calls.
Why?
You know the answer – Nobody likes sales calls.
Whether it is B2C or B2B, over time, this has become a notion in the mind of people that sales calls are nothing but a way to make a fool out of them, consuming their time and hampering them again & again.
Is it really a notion or is it really the truth?
Statistics point that, 90% of sales calls amount to zero output, and only 1% leads to sales. That is how ineffective sales call has become.
Why is that?
Salesperson starts with Hello! How are you?
Well, to be honest, I don’t know you, I don’t recognize your voice, why should I tell you how am I? Even if in a good mood, I don’t think anyone would respond to a random hello how are you, that too on a phone call.
Introduce yourself, the salesperson could have started with Hello, I’m Peter, calling from ABC limited or so. Which he didn’t.
To make matters worse, the salesperson asks if it is an appropriate time to talk?
To talk about what? Are you my girlfriend? Of course not.
Clearly, I was busy with something and you called me out of the blue. Now you might have some interesting proposals for me but again, I don’t know is it really a good time to talk to you, because I do not know your purpose.
The most important thing to establish is clarity of purpose.
Lack of or incompetent data is one of the prominent reason why sales call fails to bring effective results. When 94% of businesses suspect have inaccurate data, how can your sales department work with efficiency?
They lack their most valuable asset – Data.
Inaccurate data is as bad as no data itself. There are a good number of companies that can help you with data append, CRM scrubbing, skip tracing, and provide complete data cleaning solutions.
If you are into sales & marketing, it is very important to have good and revised data of your clients, not to mention if you are planning to get into a new field they can help you in B2B lead generation as well.
How to fix it?
CRM Appending & Cleansing
You must perform CRM cleansing at regular intervals of time, to make sure your data is up to date. It has been observed that companies have a truckload of data stored without any sense or use.
91% of companies having more than 11 employees have started using CRM but data, on the other hand, has deteriorated at 4% per month, with this calculation your database keeps on getting poor with each passing week and ultimately becomes of zero usage by the next six months.
I would suggest you connect with a data mining company offering services like CRM email cleaning, tech append, and data appending to help you resolve the data issues.
Try To Schedule An Appointment.
Start slow & steady on your B2B cold calls, to sound inviting and resourceful you first need to understand which time of the day you should call your clients.
This is a very crucial part, you might have called your client at the wrong time, but still, it can give you a healthy outcome.
The first thing you do after establishing the purpose is to try scheduling an appointment with your client.
Ask for a time when they will be free so that you can schedule a meeting with them. If they are not free to meet you ask for a time when they will be able to speak with you and call them.
Trust me; if you got a date & time, you’re halfway there. The further process can be carried out by your sales team, which I believe are ace in it.
I don’t have to tell you that personal meetings and appointments are far better than a random sales call.
Do Not Be an Open Book
You are not a telemarketer, so don’t try to be one.
The use of the CRM system is what helps you understand your client better. Incorporate post-call automation, which means that once you have an enjoyable conversation with your client, speak about the benefit they will have from your services.
The best part of a sales call is your client is not in front of you, use this as an advantage to leverage your sales pitch on them. Try to have a subtle conversation, introduce yourself but do not let them judge you with it.
If you will open to them like a soda bottle, once the fizz is gone, you’re nothing but carbonated water.
Keep them guessing and keep them asking for more. There should be a hook in your voice, call & sales pitch.
There is a lot of information that goes in with the client, where does he work, what is his job, is really in need of the service. This is called the customer or buyer persona and you have to go through this first.
Do Your Homework First
Do not make calls just for the sake of it. Study about your client, especially in B2B, learn increasingly about your client’s business before dialing their number.
This will make multiple impressions on your client –
1 – He will be delighted that you read about their business, went through their website, know about them, everybody likes being noticed.
2 – It shows that you have come prepared and hence you receive more positive attention rather than reluctant replies.
Value Yourself
You must sound interesting and valuable to your client. You must project your services in such a way that they must sound important and valuable to your client. Adding value to your services and product gives a new identity to it.
If you can’t value your own services, then you can’t expect your clients to do it for you?
Sound confident and ask for your client’s time, do not beg for it. If you do so, you will sound desperate and we don’t want it, do we?
If you ever tried to cross this line with your call, you will land straight in their block list for sure.
Speak About Benefits
When you speak with your client on the call, try to tell him/her about the benefits that they will be harvesting from the investment. I’m not asking you to tell lies, I’m asking you to highlight the good part. This will keep the spark alive in the conversation.
Every sales deal has a catch, the client might cross-question you about the product and you should answer them diligently.
Always keep in mind, to knowing your customer is good but knowing yourself is crucial. There might come a point where the client will ask for specific information and you must be able to answer it. If you will stumble upon such queries it might leave an impression on your client that you are not aware of all the details and it could harm your sales pitch.