Cold calling is one of the most polarizing lead gen strategies out there. Some deem it as a very effective way to drive revenue while some consider it dead. In reality, cold email is not dead at all. But, there are some right ways to do it.

What Is Cold Calling?

Cold calling is the strategy of contacting prospects who haven’t had any prior interaction with the salesperson. It's a form of telemarketing that is very common and is also one of the oldest lead generation strategies. Salespeople boost their success rate by targeting the right prospects.

Why Is Cold Calling Important?

• The reason why cold calling is so important is that it's a time and cost-efficient method of targeted, person-to-person lead generation.
• Cold calling allows you to have control over your business growth and not be dependent upon inbound generation methods.
• It is a fantastic telemarketing method to hustle for new business opportunities when you can identify and define who your prospects are. This can be done through a targeted database of potential users.

Is Cold Calling Dead?

No, it is certainly not dead. Only the strategies have changed. It's still one of the top, if not the top, ways to connect with your prospects successfully. You can warm up your database by various outbound methods, but at the end of the day, you need to have someone pick up the phone to call the prospects that aren’t calling you.

Cold Calling In Sales

Cold calling in sales is when a salesperson reaches out to prospects who were never contacted before in order to turn them into a customer. It's a technique sales reps have been following for ages.

How To Do Cold Calling In Sales

• Have a conversation mapped out before the cold calling.
• Write a personalized script that you can easily follow.
• Find the right calling schedule.
• Call your prospect and follow your script like an actor with the right expressions.
• Use the correct voice tone.
• Don't be afraid of rejection, embrace and learn from it.
• Don't multitask during sales.
• Never talk price before value.
• Your first intention is to help customers, not initiate sales.
• Get some sort of information before hanging up.
• End with a call to action.

Have Your Conversation Planned Out Beforehand

This is a very important foundation step of cold calling. Beyond just following the line-by-line script that you prepared, this blueprint will help you keep track of your goals and set you on the right path. This is basically a way of clearly structuring your calls like when to do what.

Write A Personalized Script

• Start with a basic and simple script that is personalized.
• Then tweak it over time as you learn more about cold calls.
• Find a product to focus on.
• Show your customers the benefits they can get from your products.
• Form a list of pain points.
• Ask your customers about the pain points. Then explain to them how your product can help alleviate it.

Find The Right Calling Schedule

• Don't call prospects from 9:00 am to 5:00 pm without any particular schedule.
• Keep track of when prospects are more likely to answer the call. An effective way is to observe the activity records of the prospects who purchased after a cold call to know the day and time it happened.
• Call during lunchtimes or at the end of the day when people are less likely to be busy.

TIP: According to InsideSales, Wednesdays and Thursdays are the best days to have a conversation on your first dial.

Don't Follow Your Scripts Like A Robot

• First, you have to memorize the intro and value proposition.
• Adapt to the conversation written in your script.
• Then ask your prospects some open-ended questions. Like,

What challenges do you face with your business today and what would you like to improve about it?

These questions will help you understand your prospects’ most pressing priority. Then you can act accordingly.

• Come up with clear answers to common objections beforehand and present them in a professional way. You probably won't be good at this on the fly.
• Lastly, practice more and more. You can ask your assistant to be the buyer and close your eyes to pretend that you're on a call with him. Tell your assistant to slowly increase the level of resistance. This tip alone can make a huge development.

Effective Voice Techniques For Cold Calling

• Speak a little louder than average when on a cold call. This will make you sound authoritative, in control, and confident. But, don’t be loud as it can make you sound like you're overcompensating. Moreover, if you speak quietly, most people interpret that as a lack of confidence and makes you sound generally unsuccessful.
• Have the appropriate pace and cadence. Don't speed through your pitch nor speak too slow as both of these can be difficult to understand.
• The right body language is one of the most important factors in cold calling. Now, if your receiver can't even see you, what's the point of having the right body language? That is because body language isn't just for your prospect. The energy that you feel when you stand straight with your shoulders back and your chest out makes all the difference in your voice.

How To Embrace Rejection

• Ask your assistant or colleague to shut you down in a conversation as harshly as possible. So, every time you get rejected, you can console yourself that it wasn't as bad as that rejection.
• If someone says no and is nice about it, ask them the reason.
• You can watch or read testimonials from clients that love working with you or your company if you can't shake off the feeling of rejection.
• Constantly remind yourself that you're helping people.

Why Is Multitasking Harmful During A Cold Call?

• When you get distracted during a cold call either because you got an email or the prospect is talking for a long time, it disturbs the flow of your conversation.
• If you're distracted when in a cold call, you cannot fully understand the words your prospect is saying, you just hear it.
• When you're not entirely engaged in the conversation, you're putting yourself in a suboptimal state.

Never Talk Price Before Value

• Don't talk about the price of your service until you've established value. That is because your price might be too low for the gigantic budget of the company that you're offering it to. This doesn't make you look like a serious vendor.
• Once you tell your prospects the price of your service, you give up all your power as you know nothing about them. Before talking about the price, gather enough relevant insight about your prospects. Then you can show them the benefits they can get from your service and make them think of it as an investment rather than a purchase.
• The pricing of your commodities can position you on the market. So, if you want to position yourself as a premium solution, stating the price at the start of your conversation is a big fail.

Your Intention Is To Help Customers, Not Initiate Sales

• Talk to your prospects about the problems they are facing and then come up with solutions. Once your prospect thinks that you're useful to them, they'd want to know more from you. Then, you can pitch your product.
• You also have to create enough curiosity to the point where your prospects are hungry to learn more. That's when they'll want to schedule an appointment with you.
• Stick with only one feature, pain point, or benefit that would be relevant to your prospect instead of a long-winded speech. That would drive them to learn more.

Get Some Sort Of Information Before Hanging Up

• Do not end cold calls with your prospects without getting any relevant information, as that can give insight about them. So, you can come better prepared the next time you call them.
• According to Jeff Hoffman, a salesman should have a closing in mind for every interaction they initiate.
• You could ask for five minutes more of your prospects’ time.
• You could also ask for their business at the end of the call.

End With A Call To Action

The success rate of your cold calls will be a lot higher if you end them with a high note. Induce your prospects to make the purchase or give them something to contact you for at the end of the conversation.

Effective cold calling tips and script samples can actually improve your performance to a whole different level. Here are some general cold email scripts to help you get started. You can tweak them according to your situation.

Foolproof Cold Email Script Templates That Generate Responses

Sales Cold Call

The goal here is to let the prospects do the talking. Ask them open-ended questions to know more about them so you can figure out how your services cater to their benefits. Make it as personalized as you can. If possible, congratulate them on an award they recently achieved, or a milestone they passed. This would make them understand that you did your research and they would appreciate it.

Sales Cold Call Script Template

You: Hello, is this “prospect’s name”? Prospect: Yes. You: Have I caught you in the middle of anything? [If the answer is no] Great. This is “your name” calling from “your company name”. You must be very busy, so I’ll be brief. I believe you are a “prospect’s occupation” and I know for a fact that you're pretty good at this. Congratulations on winning the _____. So, we specialize in working with ______. With your permission, may I ask you a few questions? [If yes]. What are the problems you face every day in this sector? Prospect: The prospect talks about his/her pain points. You: Would you like to improve anything? If yes, then what? Prospect: Talks about what he/she wants to improve in their sector. You: How do these challenges affect your business? Prospect: Prospect talks a little about it. You: From my understanding, what you are saying is, (summarize the prospect's problems, aims, challenges, etc.) Is that accurate? Is it okay to say that if there were a way to eliminate (one of your prospect’s major problems), you would be down for discussing it in detail? [If yes] Then let’s schedule a meeting to find out if there’s a fit. I’ll be answering all your questions regarding your problems and share with you several options that especially cater to your challenges. Which day are you free and what works for you, morning or night?
Prospect: Prospect tells you when to schedule the meeting. You: Fantastic. Looking forward to meeting you on _____. Thank you so much for your time. Have a great day!

Real Estate Cold Call Template

As homeowners talk to multiple real estate agents every day, the chances of getting rejected are relatively high. Still, the FSBO prospect is a perfect lead for cold calling because you already know that they’re willing to sell now. You just need to convince them to select you as their agent. So, we’ve prepared a script along with some rejection responses to make you understand how to deal with it.

Real Estate Cold Call Script Template

You: Hello, this is _____ from ______ brokerage. Do you have a quick minute? Prospect: Yes. You: Fantastic. If I’m not wrong, you have a house for sale in my coverage area. Are you currently cooperating with any real estate agents? Prospect: No. You: So, I was wondering how much you're asking for the house? Prospect: $300,900. You: If I knew a buyer who could be willing to purchase the house, would that be helpful to you?
Prospect: Yes. You: Awesome. So, should we schedule a time so that I could come by, look at the house and talk more in detail to see if I can find someone fit for it? I could also share some tips that we do to help FSBOs like you. Prospect: Well, you know, I wasn't really looking for a real estate agent. But if you find somebody, send them by. You: Sure, that's fine. But may I ask you why you don't want to hire a real estate agent? Prospect: I just wanted to save money. Even if the commission is 5/6%, it would be a lot for me.
You: I understand. Did you know 90% of the FSBOs I speak with say the exact same thing? If I say, we could arrange you with a deal of the same price or even higher by using our services, would you be okay with that? Prospect: Listen, we're just trying to break even. I've been transferred to Colorado and need to be there by next month. You: So, that gives you 24 days. If you can’t sell the house by then, what's your backup plan?
Prospect: Well, we'll just have to move. The house will be empty. You: That'd be a bummer. But, let me propose something to you. If I could sell the house, do it within 24 days, and have you break even, would you be down for it? Prospect: Yeah, sure. You: Let's meet then. I’ll see you at 5 in the afternoon. Prospect: That's cool. You can come over. You: Okay! See you then.

Cold Call To Get Appointments

The goal is to get right to the point. This proves the prospect that you respect their time and intelligence.

Cold Calling Script Template To Get Appointments

Hey there. This is _____. A friend of mine, ____, referred me to get in touch with you. He/she told me that you have a ____ vacant position. I am currently a “your occupation”. Did “referral” have a chance to talk to you?

Alright. Just out of curiosity, how do you know him/her?

I saw that your company has been producing a lot of content lately. Do you mind telling me about the challenges you face in this sector?

Thanks a lot. Perhaps we can set an appointment to see how I can help you with those challenges. When are you free?

Awesome. See you then.

Some Final Words

This was everything you could have possibly needed to know about cold calling. Now, all you gotta do is to have the resilience to get up every time you're rejected. Always remember that you're doing this to help people. So, what are you waiting for? Get started on your cold calling journey today!