8 Simple Strategies to Warm Up Your Cold Calling Services

Posted by Neha Gupta on February 13th, 2019

Before plunging headlong into ways for warming up your cold calling services, let’s spend a moment to understand what cold calling or warm calling actually is. Though two sides of the same coin, they are as much different as they can get. In simple words, a warm call refers to calling a prospect from sales point of view with whom you already have had some kind of contact in the past whereas cold calling is contacting individuals or businesses to make a purchase who have never shown any interest in your products or services.

Warm calling may seem like an easy deal (and maybe it is, in many cases) but cold calling potential prospects is an entirely different issue, just the mere thought of it can be hard and frustrating (and probably it is, in most cases). To cope up with the issue, you have two options available, either drop this idea altogether or work around some way to warm up your cold calls, and since abandoning it doesn’t seem like a viable option due to its proven age-old effectiveness, you will have to settle for option 2.

But don’t worry you are not alone in this. I for one, understand this pain well enough due to my years of experience working in this field. And during that period, I have compiled a list of 8 strategies which I believe will greatly help you with the conversion process. Let’s dive in.

1. Preparation is the Key to Success

Preparation is basically getting yourself ready for the day by planning about doing the work in advance. How to prepare? Simple, follow these 3 steps-

a) Always ensure about the good quality of the product or service you are representing.

b) Visualize cold calling as strategic and empowering rather than treating it as indiscriminate or a numbers game.

c) Before calling, work well on your understanding and the wordings of your proposition.

  2. First Impression is the Best Impression

After introduction, be very clear and specific about the purpose of your call as you only have 10 seconds to prove your worth as a telecaller. During this time, keep your opening proposition about the product/service being offered concise and strategic, not detailed and robotic.

  3. Asking Questions is a Sign of Intelligence

Preparing some good facilitative questions beforehand to be asked after the introduction and brief product description is highly recommended as it will not only allow you to understand how your prospects consider and decide on such issues but also help them understand the situation more clearly.

  4. Objectivity is the Mark of an Advisor

When you work in the sales line, or more accurately, for some crappy unethical supplier, it gets much harder to achieve objectivity in your work. But you can include it in your work ethics by practicing the art of being fair and neutral in guiding your prospects towards making an informed decision. If nothing else, it will make you feel good at the end of the day.

A Tip: Never denigrate or criticize your opponents as it will only weaken your case.

  5. Understanding Your Customers’ Point of View

Acting as a biased and self-interested salesperson is the age-old pushy sales approach which is immediately seen for what it is and is never going to work in your favour whereas seeing things from customers’ point of view will not give you vital insights to improve your communication skills but also help build healthy relationships with them. The choice is yours.

  6. Knowledge is Power, Information is Liberating

Educate your prospects by providing useful information and fair feedbacks in response to their queries to help build trust, but if you feel like you don’t possess enough knowledge about the overall product/service or proposition, then it’s better to stay away from it rather than wasting anyone’s time, including your own.

  7. Involving Customers in Decision Making

Start involving the prospects into the discussion and decision-making process if you haven’t already done so, asking their opinions on how they would like to make progress. It’s a great way of securing the lead, along with helping you acquire a great reputation among your clients.

  8. Stay in Touch with Your Clients

Now, we all fully realize the various benefits of staying in touch with customers but the problem arises when you try to put it into practice esp. in sales organizations which are famous for marginalizing cold calling or canvassing teams. One way of doing it is taking clear notes and keeping full records of all the cold calls made by you to keep a watchful eye on situations and act accordingly.

Winding Up:

Warming up your cold calls is a skill that you develop over time. and believe me, “it’s an easy task” said no one ever. But in order to succeed in this field, this is something you must learn to master in order to make that sale. I will not claim that applying these above-mentioned strategies will make you an overnight expert in telecalling but yes, it will definitely improve your communication skills over time.