What is cold calling? Here’s all you need to know about cold calling

Cold calling is not dead. Especially in these times when we are all stuck inside the house, telemarketers and cold callers can use this time as an opportunity to practice and improve their cold calling skills and techniques.

What is a cold call?

Cold calling is a sales technique that refers to the process where salespersons contact individuals who have not previously expressed interest in the offered products or services. These callers have no prior contact with prospective customers. Cold calling is usually done via phone calls or telemarketing, but these can also involve on-person visits by door-to-door salespeople.

What is the difference between cold call and warm call?

As mentioned above, cold calling is the process of contacting any prospect who is not “raising their hand” at the moment. These potential clients weren’t asking to be contacted, weren’t expecting any sales call, and are basically “interrupted” by a cold call.

Warm calls, on the other hand, is calling or visiting a prospect that has expressed some form of interest in the offered products or services. Their details may be received from a lead form that they have filled out on. Warm calls could also mean that the sales call or visit is actually initiated by the prospective client or organization.

How do you cold call successfully?

Cold calls can be quite intimidating, especially for beginner. After all, we can’t really tell in advance how the person on the other line is going to react to a surprise sales call. We can only hope for the best.

In order to cold call successfully, here are some tested-and-proven tips and techniques.

1.  Make researching your prospects a pre-cold call ritual.

2.  Establish respect and legitimacy by stating your full name and company name.

3.  Speak naturally. Follow your scripts like an actor, not like a robot.

4.  Have a strong and compelling opening sentence.

5.  Never multitask. Don’t give in to distractions.

6.  Watch your tone of voice.

7.  Speak in an open-ended manner and give your prospect the time to talk, too.

8.  Record your calls and listen to them later to see areas for improvement.

9.  Leave effective voicemails.

10.   Know when to call.

What is the best time and day to make cold calls?

According to a Lead Response Management Study, Wednesdays and Thursdays are the best days to call in order to contact and qualify leads. Thursday is the best day to contact a lead in order to qualify that lead – it is 19.1% better than the worst day.In another study conducted by CallHippo, the best time to hit up prospective clients is between 4-5pm.

The second-best time interval would be 11 AM – 12 PM.  The difference in the number of conversations between 4-5 PM and no. of conversations between 11-12 AM is 71%. People are observed to lose their efficiency around 1-3PM, the hours when most people take lunch. The study revealed that connecting with prospects during these hours will give you the least response.