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Calling a B2B prospect can be intimidating—but it can also be a great way to move relationships forward and ultimately close sales. It's also quick, cheap, and wildly effective if you do it correctly.
Think about it. You get a direct line to your prospect (literally) and a window of opportunity, however brief it might be, where you have their undivided attention. That immediately puts you leagues ahead of SEO, content marketing, and PPC ads, all of which are essentially ways of laying bait and hoping your prospect comes to you.
It’s also cheaper. Remember, it costs more to deploy an ad campaign than it does to dial through call lists.
But most importantly, cold calling has the added advantage of human connection. No other marketing strategy can compete with starting an individual conversation with a prospective client.
Still, there's a science to successful outbound dialing, and many people get the wrong result because they haven’t taken the right steps.
So here you go, 14 time-tested tips on how to make effective B2B cold calls.
Disclaimer: What We Mean When We Say “Cold Calling”
Here at PhoneBurner, we don’t recommend making calls that are truly “cold”, although we might occasionally say “cold calling” in reference to outbound dialing. It’s vital to call prospects who have opted-in or expressed consent to receive your communications in some form.
Not only does this help you avoid regulatory penalties related to spam calling, but it also means the people you focus your efforts on will actually want to hear from you—and you’ll have better odds of closing. You can learn more about this by exploring PhoneBurner’s Responsible Communications™ initiative.
Now, onto our B2B cold—er, we mean outbound—calling tips!
1. Understand the B2B Buyer
Many cold call strategies are geared to the B2C (business to consumer) model. They focus on selling one buyer on a product or service.
B2B sales require a different cold-calling strategy. When approaching most organizations, you'll likely have to get approval from multiple stakeholders. You may need to make it past a gatekeeper, earn a champion, impress the decision maker, and also gain the confidence of their higher-ups to ensure that everyone is on board with purchasing your product.
This requires earning trust and building a relationship. It takes time, and won’t be accomplished in your initial call. This is why your first contact isn’t about shoving your product in the prospect's face. Your product may not even be a focus. The focus is to understand your prospect’s situation, and to spark their curiosity while opening the door for future conversations.
Related: The Beginner’s Guide to Relationship Selling
2. Create Your Focused Prospecting List
It's key that you qualify your prospects and get their opt-in before picking up the phone to call them. This helps you stay compliant while saving you time and frustration.
It starts with knowing your target market and building a good list. The more specific you can get with your lists, by job title, location, industry, company size or other essential attributes, the better. Take it a step further by segmenting call 1, call 2, call 3. Or calling people who have opened your email. Or calling people for whom you left a voicemail.
A good dialing platform will allow you to intelligently search and segment your contacts for targeted dial sessions.
What’s more, PhoneBurner’s LeadStream feature can help you distribute leads automatically. Take a few minutes to set up custom delivery rules and you’ll save tons of time making sure the right leads make it to the right agents.
3. Prioritize Call Answer Rates
The reality of cold calling is that you can’t achieve your goals if contacts aren’t answering the phone.
And yet, many sales professionals have become complacent about having to make 100 calls for a few measly conversations. You shouldn’t.
Our customers average double-digit answer rates, with over ⅓ of our customers exceeding 20% call answer rates. Number reputation plays a big role. So too does your dialer technology. There is a LOT you can do to ensure that more of the contacts you call pick up the phone ready to engage with you. PhoneBurner can help.
Before you worry about call volume, fix your answer rates.
4. Warm Up the Cold Call
You can dial without priming, but it's better to warm up a prospect if you can. A quick LinkedIn message or Twitter response a few days or a week ahead of your “cold” call can improve your chances of accomplishing your mini-goal (which we'll discuss next).
Sending along a short video or video series can also be a super effective tactic to capture interest and lay a strong foundation for an outreach call later.
Because it almost always takes multiple touchpoints to land a sale, anything you can do to warm the lead in advance of your call will improve your odds.
Learn More: 5 Mistakes that Derail Your Cold Email Strategy
5. Create a Multi-Pronged Goal
Cold calls rarely produce immediate sales. This is especially true for B2B cold calls where you have to get approval from multiple stakeholders. Don't create a singular, unrealistic goal and then get disappointed when you don't accomplish that goal.
Instead, create multiple mini-goals that lead your prospect further down the sales funnel. Make the goal of the call the mini-conversion and have a follow-up scheduled to keep the process in motion.
- Goal one may be to ask qualifying questions and send a resource.
- Goal two may be to schedule a demo or appointment.
- Goal three may be to review the package you've created, so a decision can be made.
Create a systematic process that guides your prospect down the funnel toward an informed and enthusiastic conversion.
6. Create an In-Call Checklist
Once you understand the industry that you're targeting (by focusing on their challenges) and create a list of mini-goals, it's time to develop a script.
For extra versatility, you may want to format your script as an in-call checklist. This will give your call structure, direction, and ensure that you hit all of your key points.
An in-call checklist is similar to a script, but here's how it's different: A literal script sounds impersonal (because it is). If you have a script, you may be tempted to read from it, and your prospect will immediately recognize that you're reading from a script.
This won't build trust, which is the one component you need to move the call forward. You can use a full script if it really seems natural, but it really has to be delivered properly.
Learn More: The Complete Guide To Sales Scripts
By contrast, an in-call checklist will act like a skeleton that you build upon. This skeleton, or outline, contains important points you want to hit in the call.
However, you may find it useful to create a standard introduction script that can relax your own performance anxiety at the start of a call.
Back to the in-call checklists, you’ll need to create two: One for gatekeepers and one for decision-makers. You'll likely run into more gatekeepers than decision-makers during your cold calling, so be prepared to give them a reason to forward your call to the decision-maker.
Include the following in a basic checklist:
- A greeting
- The purpose of your call (introduce yourself, follow up, moving from gatekeeper to decision-maker)
- Why your product should matter to them and how it solves a real pain point (lean into what you know about their industry as your starting point)
- Prepared responses to objections and hesitations (make a list of common objections and your persuasive replies)
- A scheduled future contact
7. Give Them a Reason to Hang On
People get antsy when they realize you're cold-calling them. No one wants to be sold to. This is why you should start each cold call getting permission to pitch. This is known as a permission-based opener.
How do you do that?
Be up-front that it’s a cold call.
“Hey [prospect name], it’s [your name] from [your company] here, look… you don’t know me, I know I’m cold calling you out of the blue, but can I have just 15 seconds of your time to tell you why I’m calling and then you can decide whether to end the call?
This request for permission is a pattern interrupt and it can really disarm your prospect and give you an opportunity to hang on.
Alternatively, you can go with a more benefit/pain focused opener, like this: "Hi, [prospect name]. I'm [your name] from ABC company. We help [kind of business you're talking to] to [achieve specific benefit or result/solve primary pain point]. Are you open to a quick discussion to see if it might be a fit for your company?"
It all comes down to adding real value to the prospect, whether it’s via a freebie, or even just framing things from the perspective of their benefit and not your features. When it’s all about them and what they get, it moves you from being an annoying salesperson to more of a consultant.
8. Focus Your Attention on Your Prospect
After introducing yourself and your service, focus on your prospect, especially what they need and how you can help them achieve their goals. Your goal isn't to sell, it's to gather information that you can use to improve your chances of closing a future sale.
Make time to listen.
It's incredible how many salespeople don't actually listen to the prospect's objections and instead rely on their script, which may not fully answer the prospect's concerns. Listen to what your prospects are saying and be sure that they feel validated. The easiest way to do this is by repeating their concern and providing a direct answer.
Related: How to Increase Sales Through Active Listening
9. Practice Your Cold Calls
You can practice by actually calling or you can work with your team to perfect your pitch.
Both work wonders. With the former, you’ll build real world confidence through good old fashioned trial and error. With PhoneBurner’s call coaching tools, your admin can listen in, and even whisper coach you through a call to help you learn as you go.
If you prefer the practice route, role playing is a great option. Your team members can play the role of your prospect pulling on experience from actual calls. They can also provide constructive criticism so that you improve faster than you might fumbling through real-life cold-call mistakes.
Practice makes progress.
10. Be Positive
Cold calling can be a blood sport. It's hard not to bruise your ego a bit in the process, and there’s a good reason most salespeople develop thick skin.
However, maintaining a positive attitude can propel you through a tough cold-call session. Your positive attitude can also impact and appeal to your prospective customer. If they are a recipient of your positivity and enthusiasm, they are more likely to hear you out. Believe it or not, simply smiling as you talk can make a big difference, by impacting your tone. You might say a smile can be heard!
Learn More: How to Stop Negative Thinking and Make More Sales
11. Have a Multi-Touch Sequence
Too many sales people make the mistake of calling once and giving up.
It’s important to not only use a multi-channel approach that can include email, text, and social connections, but to have a multi-call sequence to increase your chances of connecting.
Remember, it can take between 9 to 12 exposures before a prospect has built enough awareness and trust to become a genuine prospect. They also say that only 5% of your audience is ever in-market for your product or service. Timing is everything. A well thought-out sequence can keep a prospect informed and start building trust before they become a bona-fide prospect.
Most salespeople give up too early. Be the one that's persistent.
Add value throughout your touch-points so you’re seen as a resource, not a nuisance.
12. Intelligently Target Prospects
Cold calling is sometimes referred to as a numbers game. The more you call, the better your odds are of getting a new prospect. But that doesn’t mean you should spray-and-pray, randomly calling a varied list of prospects. Segment your audience by role, industry, pain point, or product need. This allows you to “get in the zone” and stay on message and on-point in a way that resonates.
If you only deal with a specific industry, consider targeting other criteria such as company size or how you obtained their contact information (i.e. did you collect their information as part of an inbound strategy or did you find it through research?).
You can save yourself the hassle by using a modern and intuitive power dialer software. While some dialer software results in an off-putting delay that increases hang-ups, PhoneBurner's connections are delay-free.
13. Keep Good Notes
You'll learn from each call you make, even if a call results in a quick “not a fit right now.” In addition to reviewing any existing notes about a prospect before the call, take notes during and after the call so that future calls build on what you already know.
As I always say, “future you” will always appreciate good notes, as they improve results and help you avoid awkward situations.
PhoneBurner has a built-in CRM that helps you track contact history, activity, notes, and other helpful intel to guide your outreach and messaging. Learn more about PhoneBurner's CRM here.
Already have a CRM? PhoneBurner integrates with 100s of top CRMs to help you get more done, in less time.
14. Embrace Rejection
With cold calling comes rejection. It's inevitable. Break through the fear by implementing the above preparation strategies. Also remember not to take it personally.
If they say “no,” don't be afraid to ask if you can follow up in 6 months.
Or, to ask one clarifying question that might open the door to an opportunity. “Totally understand. Before I let you go, can I just ask, “Does your team ever run up against [well known struggle in their industry]?”
Or, to look for an opportunity to leave them with an ounce of value. “No problem. Before I go, my company just put together a report about [relevant industry resource]. Mind if I send you that in an email, and if I can be a resource now or in the future you’ll have a way to reach out?”
Even if you can't move forward with that particular prospect now, you may gain some leverage that will help you on your future calls or outreach.
Power Up Your B2B Phone Sales
No one likes rejection and with cold calling, you're often subjected to a heavy dose. But, like most things in life, you can learn to stack the deck in your favor.
With this handy list of cold calling tips and the right technology at your fingertips, it should be a cinch to improve your success rate with B2B cold calls going forward. Start a free trial of PhoneBurner to see for yourself how our platform can help you call up to 4x as many prospects, nurture your relationships with them, and ultimately close more deals.
