by Nancy Calabrese | May 26, 2020 | Advice, Cold Calling Tips, Pandemic, Sales Prospecting
The Corona Virus (Covid-19) Pandemic has upended all of our lives. It has caused sadness and death around the world and has redefined how we live our daily lives. It has also transformed our workplaces and how we do business.
Here at One of a Kind Sales, we LOVE Cold Calling and make calls all day, every day, for our clients and companies. People have asked me, ‘how has the Covid-19 pandemic changed cold calling’?
Here is what we are seeing and some suggestions on how you can use these insights when YOU are making prospecting calls:
1. First and foremost, we are seeing this worldwide. This is an opportunity to remind each other that we are in fact, all in this together. Reminders like this can alleviate some of the fear we all feel and allow us to have more authentic conversations. Something we do NOT want to lose, once things get back to normal!
2. People seem open to engaging in longer conversations. Use your time with them to learn more!
3. We have found that asking how they are handling the crisis has been a good way to break the ice with many people. They feel like you are interested in them as more than a number.
4. And many companies have changed the way that they route calls within their organization, due to most or all of their workforce working from home.
Most companies have had to do a complete makeover of their IVR systems and voice prompts in order to adapt to the new changes. Some set their phone systems so that the calls are directly forwarded to cell phones or home offices. Others have a gatekeeper performing that role while screening the calls, and some others don’t have the ability to transfer calls at all and can only take a message or be contacted by email only, mainly because the receptionist is also working from home.
These changes can allow us to reach decision-makers, who were previously unreachable.
5. In some sectors, the economy is thriving. Stay positive and focus on the silver linings.
As we have said from the beginning, now is NOT the time to sit back and wait to see what the future brings. We need to keep making those calls and to keep digging!
A huge THANK YOU to my team for sharing their insights and expertise for this post. And now over to you – how has the Covid-19 pandemic changed cold calling for YOU and your team? Please comment below with YOUR insights and thoughts.
Thank you and stay safe!
For more on how the Covid-19 Pandemic has changed Cold Calling please check out:
Keep Dialing
Prospecting Post-Covid
by Nancy Calabrese | Apr 28, 2020 | Advice, Cold Calling Tips, Pandemic, Sales Prospecting
Cold Callers use the phone, all day, every day, to meet prospects, create connections and nurture business relationships. As the coronavirus pandemic changes the way we live, interact and work, it has made us substitute live networking, trade shows and in–person appointments for voice and video calls. And it has, in a sense, made us all ‘Cold Callers’!
A recent statistic from Verizon said it was “now handling an average of 800 million wireless calls a day during the week which is more than DOUBLE the number of calls made on Mother’s Day which is historically one of the busiest call days of the year”! The LENGTH of calls was also up 33% from the average day before the pandemic.
AT&T had similar stats reporting an increase of 35% in number of calls.
Interestingly, internet traffic for these carriers was only up 20 – 25%.
Many people are not used to depending on the phone like this and you may be feeling anxious or uncomfortable having to do business in this way. But now, more than ever, staying connected means staying in business so sitting by and waiting for this to pass is NOT a viable business strategy.
Here are Seven Cold Calling tips that EVERYONE can use as we rely more and more on the phone to do business:
- The phone is your friend – use it to have longer, more meaningful conversations. These deeper conversations will help you connect more authentically with your clients and prospects.
- The pandemic is an icebreaker – this situation is truly unprecedented and everyone, worldwide, is being impacted. Asking how it is changing THEIR lives and routine is an easy way to break the ice and to get people talking.
- The phone is your lifeline – many industries are canceling the conferences and live events that once supplied you with new prospects. Yes, you should be using the phone to stay in touch with the people you know but consider using it as a tool to meet NEW prospects as well.
- Warm up a Cold Call – a quick way to warm up a ‘Cold Call’ to a new prospect is to ask for an introduction. This could be an introductory call from a friend or an email from a colleague or mutual acquaintance. As a bonus, when you are on the call, asking how they know the person who introduced you is an easy conversation starter!
- Have a plan – Cold Callers have SCRIPTS that they use to keep them on track and to ensure they hit the points they want to cover. Before using the phone for a business call, think about the goal of the interaction. Make a list of what you want to cover, notes on how you can help and anything else that is key. Yes, you want to sound natural, but you also want to make sure you are moving your business forward. And no, it is NOT cheating – think of it as PREPARATION.
- Stay safe – Social distancing can be socially isolating. You cannot catch the Covid virus over the phone! Stay safe by using the phone to build business and stay connected.
- These are life skills – any phone skills you learn now, out of necessity will serve you well whenever we do get back to a new normal!
Phone skills are like a muscle – the more you use it, the stronger you get! Check out our blog and follow us on Facebook (link to: https://www.facebook.com/One-Of-A-Kind-Sales-304978633264832) , LinkedIn (link to https://www.linkedin.com/company/one-of-a-kind-sales) and Twitter (link to https://twitter.com/oneofakindsales) for more on how to beef up YOUR phone skills and give us a call at 908.879.2911 to set up one-on-one or team training on how to thrive in this new, phone based, environment!
by Nancy Calabrese | Apr 2, 2020 | Advice, Cold Calling Tips, Pandemic, Sales Prospecting
These are challenging and unprecedented times but as Cold Callers, we can THRIVE! Here is some advice for Cold Calling during the Covid-19 Pandemic.
As more and more people are working from home and depending upon virtual interactions, Cold Callers will have an edge! Cold callers know the importance of HUMAN CONVERSATIONS and create meaningful connections via telephone.
My advice for Cold Calling during the Covid-19 Pandemic is ‘don’t stop prospecting!’ Keep making those calls and take the time to really CONNECT with prospects.
Now is the time to stay focused. Remain calm during conversations and address the elephant in the room. Your phone skills are now more critical than ever! Be sure to EMPATHIZE and ACTIVELY LISTEN to the prospects’ struggles and concerns.
Many people are displaced and may have more time on their hands to talk. They want to speak, especially with a voice that is genuine, confident and calm.
Remember, you can’t get the Coronavirus over the phone! People ARE answering their phones – this is an opportunity to develop relationships and offer something of value!
There are companies out there that NEED your services – by prospecting during the Covid-19 Pandemic, you WILL find them. The phone is your best friend – use it in good health!
For more Advice for Cold Calling during the Covid-19 Pandemic:
Keep Dialing
For more Cold Calling Advice, check out:
Keep Digging!
Are You WASTING Your Time Cold Calling from OUTDATED Data?
Let the Human Touch be YOUR Sales Differentiator
by Nancy Calabrese | Mar 31, 2020 | Appointment setting services, Best Sales Practices, Cold Calling Tips, Sales Prospecting
How many more sales could you close if you had a steady stream of QUALIFIED leads?
Are you so busy servicing existing customers that you just don’t make the calls you need to fill your sales pipeline?
Do you hate cold calling?
Did you know that OUR highly trained, professional cold callers can do your Cold Calling for YOU?
At One of a Kind Sales, our professionally trained inside business development reps make calls and set qualified appointments to keep YOUR sales pipeline full. We can be YOUR Inside Sales Team with callers who are continuously trained and managed to maximize performance and set QUALIFIED appointments for YOU!
What We Do
We are a full-service appointment setting provider – we come in, determine your needs and set up an effective system to set appointments with qualified prospects. Our callers understand the psychology of cold calling and ENGAGE prospects in non-salesy conversations that uncover pain points and opportunities for you. Our time-proven system for monitoring and recycling leads sets us apart and delivers results.
Cold Calling is in our DNA
Doing cold calling for others is actually why I STARTED One of a Kind Sales back in 2011. At that time, I owned a recruiting firm. My team made cold calls all day, every day and was quite comfortable engaging with just about anyone.
One of my customers at the time had nine salespeople who did everything BUT pick up the phone. Because of this lack of cold calling, they had a weak pipeline and were always struggling to meet their sales goals.
They engaged us to build them an INSIDE SALES DEPARTMENT. First, we secured and set them up on a CRM (Customer Relationship Management) tool to facilitate cold calling. Then we developed scripting and defined the process we would follow from initial contact through multiple touches to qualification and conversion. We created and documented procedures to build, maintain and cycle through prospect lists and trained three inside sales reps to follow and implement the new system.
This resulted in over THREE HUNDRED qualified appointments set in the FIRST YEAR! This was huge improvement over their previously weak pipeline and significantly impacted (IMPROVED!) their bottom line.
After completing this project and seeing the need for this type of service, I decided to create One of a Kind Sales. Click here to see a short video about our time-proven process, keep an eye out for our next three Appointment Setting Case Studies and give us a CALL TODAY at 908.879.2911 to see how WE can become YOUR inside sales team!
by Nancy Calabrese | Mar 18, 2020 | Best Sales Practices, Cold Calling Tips, Sales Prospecting
This week’s cold calling advice is short and sweet – Keep Digging!
In 2007 it took 3.68 cold call attempts to reach a prospect. In 2013, it took 8 attempts. Now, it takes an average of 18 calls to actually connect with a buyer!
Your goal as a sales prospector is to contact a key decision maker and set a qualified appointment. But the main task of anyone doing sales prospecting is to ‘dig’. As the political economist Benjamin Friedman said, “Prospecting is finding the man with the problem”.
When you make a call but don’t get through to a decision maker, rather than hanging up, persist! Stay on the call and dig til you find the right person. Ask for names, phone numbers, anything that might help you move forward. See if they can transfer you. Try to build on the info you have to move you closer to your goal!
Keep dialing and if you need help with your messaging, delivery or would like us to do your calling for you, give us a call at 908.879.2911 – we LOVE cold calling!
by Nancy Calabrese | Mar 4, 2020 | Best Sales Practices, Cold Calling Tips, Sales Prospecting
According to a 2019 statistic from a prominent data compilation company, “the average company is losing 12% of its revenue” as a result of poor data, “costing US businesses more than $611 billion each year”. And a 2018 Global Data Management report stated that “US organizations believe that 33% of their customer and prospect data is inaccurate in some way” which, they also noted, was a 5 % INCREASE over the previous year’s findings!
How much time and money are YOU and YOUR Cold Calling team wasting by relying on inaccurate, outdated and/or poor-quality data? In our effort to help YOU get the most out of your Cold Calling dials, here are some tips on how to check the data you have and clean up the data you work with.
Gather your lists
First, gather your data. If your info is in multiple places, try to consolidate it all into a single database. Your choice of CMS (Client Management Software) is important – use one specially designed for sales prospecting. We recommend VanillaSoft for its CMS functionality and ease of use. (Click HERE to learn more about VanillaSoft)
WHERE was that data compiled?
Did you BUY your data? Was it compiled by YOUR people? Was it brought in by a salesperson you know and trust? Be cognizant of the source of your data, using only reliable sources or data which has been ‘cleaned’ by people or services you trust.
Review the data – what is in there?
Generally, we can realistically expect that up to 20% of leads may be inaccurate or obsolete but a Data Quality Index study on B2B data quality found that 40% of leads contained BAD data! If you are unsure of the status of YOUR data, there are services such as Salesgenie and others which will add to, clarify, clean up and de-dupe your data for you.
Data is NOT ‘evergreen’. Assume that data collected over 1 year ago is probably inaccurate. We have our callers check, correct and add to the database on every call so we can trust that it is, and stays, up to date.
The first month of calls made from a new lead list often results in a major clean-up and a serious PURGE of contacts. But that is OK! The callers are also ADDING info, removing old data and identifying the CORRECT people to contact.
Are there HOLES in your data?
As you review your data, HIGHLIGHT what is missing so you and your people can gather this info the next time they reach out to the prospect.
But do not OVER do it! We know that people, when prompted for personal info too early in the sales process, tend to provide INVALID data. Wait until the prospect is ‘warm’ and even then, only request the info you really NEED.
We all seem to think that MORE is BETTER. In this particular case, it probably ISN’T! Stick to getting ACCURATE information. In addition to the basics like first and last name, push for direct dial phone numbers, mobile numbers and critical data such as renewal dates or how long the prospect has been with the current provider.
After implementing these data scrubbing steps your lists may be a bit smaller but they will be more ACCURATE and that will lead to better conversations, more appropriate targeting and MORE QUALIFIED APPOINTMENTS.
If you and your team are not setting enough qualified appointments, give US a call at 908.879.2911 or email me at LEADS@OneofaKindSales.com We LOVE Cold Calling and can set qualified appointments for YOU!
