4. Be a Human, Not a Robot

Building trust is incredibly vital in the cutthroat SDR world. The market is oversaturated with script-reading telemarketers who don’t give enough care and attention that’s needed to maintain a natural and valuable conversation. You wouldn’t call your friends and family reading a script word for word. Why would you treat a prospect any different? Interact with the prospect like you would anyone else. Match the emotional level of the person with whom you’re speaking. For example, if the person answering the phone was very dry and to the point, you’re not going to want to come in acting bubbly. Sales Pro Tip: Some companies take the easy road when it comes to sales development and go with sales tools such as Sales 2.0 or autodialers. We have found those automatic tools take a critical piece out of appointment setting: human interaction. Before choosing these tools, remember there will be a trade off of quality interactions. SDRs are far more effective at securing appointments due to their nurturing and investigation skills. We especially advise against going down this path for products with a higher average selling price.

5. Listen to the Conversation You are Having.

Reading your cold calling scripts verbatim is a poor use of your time. Unless you have superior acting skills, you’ll sound like you are speaking at them, instead of with them. Maintain a natural and fluid conversation that develops a connection with the person on the other side of the call. Another thing to consider is how you handle the conversation. You may have questions you want to ask, to feed to your sales team, but don’t dominate the conversation to get your questions answered. If you aren’t able to get your questions answered but can set up a meeting, your sales team will be able to fill in the gaps further downstream.

6. Understand the Prospect’s Pain Points and Drivers

Different positions at a company have different values. For example, low-level contacts would likely appreciate the technical aspects of your offering whereas someone in C suite or a VP will usually be more concerned with the value to the business and how it will contribute to their bottom-line. Moreover, because their values are different, so will their pain points. Consider it like you were fishing, different fish need different lures to catch. Regularly highlight their relevant pain points throughout the call, remind them why this call is important to them. If a certain pain point isn’t resonating, swap lures and cast again.

7. Outline the Offering as a Solution

It’s not about what features your offering has; it’s about what it solves. You shouldn’t get caught up in the bells and whistles when they’re looking for utility. When explaining your offering to a prospect, frame it as a solution to their problem, a cure for their ails. Understand how your offering deals with various pain points, and show how it can help solve the problem.

8. Let the Prospect Ask Questions

It can be distressing to entertain the prospect’s questions because you may feel like you’re losing control over the conversation. This is fine, remember to be comfortable and listen to the questions they’re asking. If the prospect is asking questions, that’s already a step in the right direction. Think of it this way, letting the prospect speak and ask questions shows some level of interest on behalf of the prospect, helps you understand what they really need, and whether they are a fit for your offering. Learn something from every call.

9. Breathe and Stay on the Phone

Even if you’ve already set an appointment, don’t leave the call. Take the time to work through your remaining discovery questions and verify if the lead is a good or bad fit. If someone can satisfy all your discovery questions, they may be a good lead. If you’re asking questions and they don’t know the answers to those questions, they may be a bad fit.

10. Cross-Pollinate

If your company sells a variety of products, here’s an opportunity to cross-sell other offerings. Depending on the quality of your database, many of the prospects you call will not be the right fit for your solution. But, they may be a fit for your company’s offerings that are handled by other SDRs. If that’s the case, it’s best practice to not pitch them the product, figure out what they’re looking for, and forward it to the relevant SDR. For example, If you’re speaking with the Director of HR about time tracking software, but you learn what he really needs is payroll software. However, you’re not the rep who handles the payroll software. You’ll want to find out what he needs by asking some discovery questions and naturally back out of the call and connect that contact to the relevant rep. You can then send that lead’s information to the right SDR and they can touch them while the prospect is still warm.

Conclusion

If you follow these ten cold calling practices, you can be sure to see higher quality interactions with your prospects and set more appointments with your salespeople. We’ve used the EBClosing framework to drive efficient sales pipeline growth for hundreds of clients. We’ve been able to qualify leads with a high ROI for many companies across a variety of industries. To learn more about sales development, be sure to read our Ultimate Guide to B2B Appointment Setting. If you’re interested in outsourcing your sales development efforts, contact EBQ!