For a cold call to be successful, we must consider two key factors:
- The message to convey
- The people who cold call, the SDR’s (Sales Development Representative)
Approaching the buyer persona is the first step in the Outbound Sales methodology. Some companies tend to push their sales reps to contact their potential clients through aggressive and generic messages. Eg: ‘Have you realised you’re not complying with X and may be fined with Y?’. These messages most likely won’t turn into a sale but into rejection instead, as the potential client will feel threatened and will not trust this pitch.
How to create a great pitch?
A good cold call meets the following criteria:
- Well prepared call and personalised message to the client it’s addressed to.
- The SDR has researched information about the lead and during the cold call they ask questions, listen and react to the lead’s answers.
- Insinuating that the SDR has the solution to the lead’s pain.
- Clarifying next steps: Demo or second call.
- The objective of cold calling is not to sell, but to engage the lead and close a meeting where more information can be provided: we want to generate a cadence.
Telesales vs cold calling
Cold calling has wrongly been related to telesales in B2C. This sale is aimed at closing the sale on the fist call, as these are sales with little added value – think of an insurance or faster broadband-. These are sales with a low ticket value and with little regards to who the end customer is. They can be sold to anyone and the potential client will easily understand the product.
Based on this type of sale, many companies have determined that cold calling is not the best methodology to attract new customers. However, cold calling is the most effective and fastest strategy to expand in less mature tech markets. If you sell sophisticated and innovative softwares it may be a challenge to explain the product on a message or email, as most of these are not read and the sales rep won’t know if the explanation was clear enough for the lead.
So why does cold calling work with B2B SaaS sales?
B2B SaaS Sales are not easy, they don’t have a small ticket size, nor are the products sold in one single interaction.
When your SDR cold calls, their objective is not to sell the product, but to prepare the sale for the Account Executive.
How?
The SDR prepares the sale building trust by gaining a deep knowledge of the client’s industry.
Cold calling isn’t easy, cold calling isn’t for everyone. It’s not because a sales rep is aggressive in their approach that they’ll show better results – in fact, it’s best not to be aggressive-. On a cold call, the SDR needs to discover new information and guide the potential client to find a solution to their pain.
If you recruit a good sales rep who is not good at cold calling, you may think the system isn’t working. What we’d suggest in this case is that you look for the right person, someone who owns the necessary skills for cold calling (communication, curiosity…), professional momentum and goals.
Are you hiring talent for your sales team? Get in touch.
Want to read more fresh content about the role of an SDR and sales teams? Check out more articles.