But First, Phone Calls
By Davis Tull, Director of Sales Development
It’s time to reconsider how you approach prospecting. BlueWhale Research believes effective prospecting starts with making phone calls and making them first. This eliminates the most common email objection of “take me off your list” and allows you to have an open dialogue with your prospect. With the right steps, cold calls lead to better conversations and position your sales team for success.
Here are three steps to successful prospecting over the phone:
Step 1. Break the ice with “Did I catch you at a bad time?”
This shows you respect the prospect’s time and disarms them right off the bat.
Step 2. Ask for the meeting right away.
Start the call by putting your end goal in the prospect’s mind and leverage your way into appointments with “low-hanging fruit” who are already interested.
Step 3. Find a way to navigate back to the value proposition.
Use scripts designed to navigate back to the value proposition and utilize objections to ask for a meeting. There are only three true objections your sales team will encounter on cold calls with the right prospect:
1. “I’m not interested.”
Answer: “Can I ask how you are currently doing XYZ?”
2. “Just send me an email with the information.”
Answer: “I will certainly do that. While I have you, do you have 30 seconds for me to go over the high level with you on the phone?”
3. “I don’t have the budget for this.”
Answer: “We work with companies of all sizes and I’m confident we could find something that makes sense. If budget is your only concern, we should definitely have a conversation.”
If they are not the right person, ask, “who handles XYZ at your company?” Ask for a referral and reference the original conversation to get the new prospect’s attention.
Overcome objections using “apples to apples” objection handling. Most objections can be managed with, “I understand. Just to make sure we are comparing apples to apples…” then expressing your value proposition.
The goal of prospecting is to sell a meeting, not a product! With these steps, you can turn cold calls into valuable conversations that create qualified opportunities.