Why Is Cold Calling Still a Good Thing in B2B?

Generally, cold calling is frowned upon. Don’t you hate being interrupted by a phone call asking you to take part in a survey set up by a business you’ve never heard about on something you’ve never really thought about? All salespeople have broken into a cold sweat just looking at their phones before picking them up to call up a long list of strangers.

Today I’d like to introduce you to a few reasons you should shift your thinking to realize just how useful and beneficial cold calling could be to your company.

Cold calling 101

Cold calling refers to the degree of warmth in the relationship with the contact point. The more you’re actually acquainted with the person you’re calling, the higher the degree (so it’s warm). So calling someone you don’t know at all is cold calling.

A Few Benefits for B2B

Even if it relies on preexisting communication and negotiation skills, a successful solicitation all boils down to PREPARATION.

Before you get in touch with a telemarketing company or start calling leads yourself, you need to start by finding as much information as possible. I cannot stress this enough: it is absolutely essential. Afterwards, you need to create an exhaustive interview guide to ensure that the contact with the prospect runs as smoothly as possible.

Moreover, quality is better than quantity when it comes to calls. It might seem obvious, but lots of businesses don’t think about it that way, and usually you can tell from their success rate..!

Collect Information

The advantage B2B telemarketing has over B2C telemarketing is that even if the first try is unsuccessful, you still get to gather information about how leads perceive your message and the need you’re trying to address. Cold calling allows you to test market hypotheses, build lists of contacts, gather information about businesses, identify the decision-makers, gather information about the market, etc.

Even if the first call fails, you’ll have gathered enough information to build the next round of solicitation. You can use the data gathered to find a new angle! The earlier mistakes are made, the earlier you can rebound, tweak your message and in the end meet your goals.

Taking Care of Your Prospects

Before rushing into a cold calling campaign, make sure you set up a good lead nurturing system.That means having content that will allow you to turn potential customers into actual buyers. Before soliciting them, prepare all the content you’ll provide them as the relationship develops and make sure you have the right tools (CRM, methodology).

Plan time for your prospects, and why not gifts you could give away… In short, TAKE GOOD CARE OF THEM !

Debunking a Few Myths

Cold calling feels like an aggression for prospects!

Cold calling often gets confused with high-pressure sales pitches, which are themselves synonymous with aggression. If you have a high-quality product or service, it will benefit other businesses. You can provide your prospects with actual solutions. So why not assist them in discovering these wonderful solutions? Telemarketing is one way of doing so, one client at a time.

What a bad way of starting a business relationship!

Any business relationship starts with a contact. If someone is looking for your products or services, who cares how that relationship started? All you need to do is make sure you impress on your first meeting and shine in all other forms of communication.

The success rate is low

Using a more quantitative approach, the success rate (or transformation rate) for businesses is extremely low: we’re talking the 0.5% to 2% range tops in most cases. In B2B, being referred by a third party increases the likelihood that you will do business together. However, don’t forget that it’s also very hard to reach specific targets in fairs, networking activities or on social media. Just see telemarketing as one more tool in your toolkit.