What is Cold Calling?

An actionable cold calling definition: an unsolicited call made by a salesperson to a person that hasn’t expressed interest in the product or service being offered. Cold calling is an important component of an established sales process – and something that can be mutually beneficial for both salesperson and prospect. Now you’re asking, what is cold calling going to help my prospect with? If it’s done right, you’re offering knowledgeable insight that can drive real change.

What’s a Cold Call Good For?

If you’ve done your research, you already know the industry shifts and changes that are impacting your prospect’s business. You understand the macro environment this person is trying to do business in. You also have good previous use cases and examples of how your product or service has helped similar organizations. With this information and research at the ready, a cold call can be a good opportunity to:

Align with your prospect on their turf
Introduce your product or service within the context of their macro environment
Offer insights into what challenges their peers are facing currently and how they solved them
Leave a good impression of your diligence and understanding of their industry

What’s a Cold Call Not Good For?

Cold calling works, but only if you do it right. There are common traps salespeople can fall into. Keep in mind – you had time to prepare for this conversation, your prospect did not. So don’t waste their time, or yours, focusing on:

Asking them what their problems are
Asking them what’s new in their industry
Being vague and open-ended

Although you don’t want a cold call to be a monologue, you don’t want to rely on the prospect to fuel all of the conversation, either. There’s an important balance to strike by building trust and rapport before asking them probing questions.

What’s a Cold Call Best Practice?

It’s not just about “smiling and dialing.” There is a litany of cold calling best practices that you should add to your sales acumen. With time and experience, you may find approaches or lines that work better than others. One important cold call best practices is how to structure it:

But first, do your research. Before moving into your call prep, make sure you’ve done adequate research. Move from micro to macro in your research. Start with the individual prospect, research their background and expertise. Then move on to the organization and understand their role in the industry and their history. Researching the industry is an essential step often missed. This holistic perspective can build credibility and confidence.

Understand your prospect’s needs. The recipient isn’t expecting this call, and it’s your opening statement that can determine if they’ll stay on the line. Your opening statement builds trust and rapport and should directly align with your prospect’s current situation. You’ll “earn the right” to ask more questions once you’ve established trust.

Focus on changes with the status quo. The point of a cold call is that prospects may or may not be actively looking for a service like yours, so focus more on making the next appointment rather than selling your product. So stick to the concepts you discussed in your opening statements. Get to the source of the problems that their organization or industry may be facing and stick to those as your talking points.

Recommend next steps. You’re familiar with your prospect’s challenges and the disruption in the status quo. But maybe they haven’t started exploring solutions, so scheduling an appointment may not be the best next step. The next step could be to call back later, enroll them in a marketing campaign or another creative offer. What’s a cold call best practice? Seek to make a warm prospect.

What Is Cold Calling Going To Look Like Years From Now?

Buyers are more informed than ever and are relying on sales professionals less. In the modern selling landscape, sales professionals need to adapt. If your cold calling definition is about scripts and services, you’ll soon be out of luck. Be aware of your prospect’s status quo, and work to offer knowledgeable insight that can help build trust and rapport.

Focus on the “why” and the “how” of cold calling in order to safeguard your skills against the changing selling landscape. Focus on the cold calling metrics you can control.

We did the research to construct proven methods that can help transform your sales team. Funnel Clarity studied 100,000 sales prospecting calls to develop a proven formula. Get in touch with our team today to discuss impactful sales prospecting training for your team.