Why is cold calling difficult? Is cold calling dead? How do you get your message across during calls with prospects? Kevin Dorsey, VP of Inside Sales at PatientPop Inc., breaks down the secrets and strategies of overcoming this task!

 

by Kevin Dorsey
(VP of Inside Sales, PatientPop Inc.)

 

Is Cold Calling Dead?
– No. But it is dying.
– Why? Anything left unattended, unfed, and
  unnurtured will die.
– All prospecting channels are dying – they’re
  getting harder and harder to do, which
  means we need to focus on them more.
– Just because it’s more difficult now doesn’t
  mean it doesn’t work.
– People caused cold calling to die because
  they gave up on it too early. 

 

Why Cold Calling is Hard
– Fear.
– Poor training. Many companies don’t give
  good, proper training on how to cold call.
– Different buyers. Information is more
  accessible now. Younger buyers also
  prefer messages over phone calls and video
  snippets over hour-long demos.
– Noise. More emails and LinkedIn messages.
  Barely anyone calls.
– Misaligned Messaging.
– Timing and Luck. You need to get the
  timing right to have your cold call answered.
– High Volume for Low* Results. One result
  is better than zero. Two is better than one,
  and three is better than two. There are
  results. 

The Future Belongs to SMART Callers
– Because cold calling is hard, many people
  won’t do it.
– Which leaves a massive opportunity for
  those people who are willing and are able to.


We salespeople are here to do the hard part of the job.
– SalesLoft study: multi-channel approach is
  91% more effective than a single-channel
  approach.

 

The better you are at something, the less you have to do it.
If you don’t like cold calling, get better at it so you can do it less. 

 

Key Cold Calling Metrics
– Connect Rate. For every 100 dials, how
  many times do you connect?
– Conversion Rate. For every 10 connects,
  how many can you get to agree to a meeting?
  *Connect Rate & Conversion Rate will tell
  you how many calls you need to make to get
  a meeting. If your connect rate is 5%, you’ll
  need to make 100 calls to get a meeting.
  In sales, we do enough of something to
  suck, but not enough of it to get results.
  If you make 84, 88, 96 calls when your
  conversion rate is 5%, then you did enough
  cold calling for it to suck, but not enough to
  get results.
– Activity Total. Before you write off whether
  it’s working or not, are you doing enough to
  see the results you’re looking for?

Metrics tell you where you need to focus. 

“Sales is just a numbers game.”
– Yes. But skills are what drive the numbers.  

 

Cold Calling Best Practices
There are certain things that have been proven to work better.
– Tonality. How you sound in the call.
– Preparedness and Relevance. Are you
  prepared to make that call and do you have
  relevant information to share?
– Permission-based and Questions.
– Frequency. Building awareness to your
  prospect. The frequency of seeing your name
  and number increases the chances of your
  call getting answered.
– Timing and Consistency. Be intentional with
  your timing and switch it up to find those
  gaps.
– Messaging trumps everything. If you get your