We Love Cold Calling!

Developing Highly Qualified Leads

by | Mar 2, 2017 | Advice, Lead Generation

There are leads, qualified leads and highly qualified leads. Most people don’t differentiate between qualified leads and highly qualified leads but it makes a big difference in sales outcome. When your lead generation efforts involve sharing a lot of information about yourself and your offering, either by phone or online, and little or no information about the prospect is shared, then it’s considered a qualified lead. Companies often put a lot of value on this level of leads but the conversion rate can be less than desired.

 

The reason that this type of lead is not highly qualified is because the prospect hasn’t had the opportunity to share anything about themselves. A highly qualified lead is generated when the prospect has the opportunity to have a conversation with you, you have the opportunity to ask probing questions, and you learn about their business and issues. This conversation allows you and the prospect to determine whether there is a good fit between you.

 

Creating qualified leads is one thing, but creating and identifying highly-qualified leads is a procedure that involves several steps working together to move the prospect through the qualifying process. Generating highly qualified leads begins with making a good impression and engaging in a conversation. It involves well thought out, planned and practiced scripting. The goal is to get your prospects talking about themselves and finding out if you are a good fit for one another.

 

There are several techniques that are used to facilitate the conversation with your prospect. It involves finding common ground to get the conversation started. It includes sharing information about you and what you have to offer. But most importantly it means listening to what the prospect has to say.

 

Qualified leads will have a lower conversion rate and more effort will be required to convert each lead to a sale. With highly qualified leads a better conversion rate is guaranteed. That’s because highly qualified leads are “sales ready”. Highly qualified leads streamline the sales process and make your sales team more efficient. They are sure to keep your pipeline full and your sales on target.

Internalizing Cold Calling Scripts

by | May 25, 2016 | Advice, Cold Calling Tips, Sales Prospecting, Sales Training

Cold calling is an opportunity to probe, build rapport and set the foundation for a long-term relationship. This involves improvising, asking probing questions and reacting to what the prospect is saying. That said, you still need to start with a script. While you don’t want to read it, you do want to use your script to prepare for the call.

 

A well written script will:

  • Remind you of what preparation needs to take place before the call begins
  • Break down the call into steps so you know exactly where you are in the process at any time
  • Provide ways to encourage conversation and get the prospect talking
  • Help you avoid leaving out any questions or areas of information that you need to cover
  • Give ways for probing the prospect to get to their pain points and other critical information and keep the process moving forward
  • Provide reminders for critical pauses in the conversation
  • Provide different call to action scenarios to maximize the outcome of the call

 

When cold calling, you absolutely want to be sure that you have a natural sounding conversation with your prospects. The only way to do this is by internalizing the script. Internalizing means incorporating within oneself as conscious or subconscious, the steps, questions and cues that you need to cover. This can be accomplished by knowing the script inside and out and making it part of you. The way to do this is by practicing.

 

What you don’t want to do is read a list of questions. Approaching the call in this way lacks the impression of genuine interest in what the prospect has to say, and your prospect will quickly lose interest in continuing the process. Reading the script will result in hang-ups, getting less information than you need, or the prospect will blow you off, either in a nice way or not.

 

Customize your scripts to address your particular circumstances and goals, and to address the information known about the prospect. This process of customizing and internalizing scripts is proven to be an effective approach in fulfilling your ultimate goal: setting sales appointments.

Cold Calling Is More Than A Handshake

by | Jan 27, 2016 | Advice, Cold Calling Tips, Sales Prospecting, Sales Training

In networking, a handshake is used to introduce yourself. It conveys a willingness to engage with someone that we don’t know or don’t know well. In the course of networking, we’ve all shaken a countless number of hands. Sometimes it leads to business relationships, but more often than not, it doesn’t.

 

 

Cold calling is like a handshake in that it is a way to introduce yourself to a potential business partner. Like networking, cold calling is the beginning of the sales process. However, the difference is that cold calling is more effective at turning introductions into business.

 

Unlike networking, cold calling, when done correctly, is directed to very specific prospects, with a very targeted message. Cold calling is comprised of a series of specific deliberate questions that engages a conversation about the prospect’s pain. Well-developed cold calling uncovers issues and challenges that can be used to formulate a more productive sales call.

 

Cold calling is a no-pressure conversation. It nurtures the relationship, which a lot of hand shaking can’t do. It is a means of digging deeper so you can learn more about the prospect and they learn more about you. The cold calling process is more productive in bringing in the highly qualified leads that you need.

 

For most people cold calling is the most avoided part of the sales process. Most would rather have root canal than undertake cold calling, but a well executed cold calling process is more productive than hours of networking and shaking hands.