One of the best ways to improve b2b cold calling is to focus on the simple goal of getting the meeting. This can be easy to forget because our ultimate goal is to sell the product. And if we end up on the phone with a prospect, it can be easy to get excited and start selling.
But if you try to control yourself and almost ignore that urge to try to sell the product and focus more on just getting the prospect to agree to the next step in your sales process, which for many will be scheduling an appointment or meeting, you can immediately improve your results.
Here are some reasons why this is an important thing to incorporate:
B2B cold calls will not be long enough to sell your product.
When you are b2b cold calling, you have between 2 and 5 minutes to work with on each call. This simply is not enough time to fully sell your product or service in most cases.
(Please note that this point and overall strategy might not apply to or be a good fit if you have a “one-call close” type of product.)
Your call may go beyond 5 minutes, which is OK, but when this is the case, you have progressed beyond the cold call and into the meeting stage. In this case, what you have done is create an “instant meeting” which happens simultaneously as the cold call.
But it is beneficial to be aware of where you are in terms of early sales process stages when B2B cold calling, knowing how much time you have to work within each stage, and using that always to stay focused on closing the prospect for moving on to the next stage.
Knowing that your cold call is 2 to 5 minutes and that the next stage is the meeting or appointment tells you two key things. First, you do not have enough time to sell. And second, the critical thing to focus on is getting the prospect to agree to move forward to the meeting stage.
The cold call is not enough time to build enough interest to close the deal.
If you only have 2 to 5 minutes to work with when B2B cold calling, you will likely not have enough time to make the prospect interested enough to get them to purchase your product. This is not saying anything negative against the product or our sales approach, it is more that it can take a little time to build enough interest to close the deal and it can be helpful to be aware that this might be too ambitious of a goal for a brief cold call.
If you can accept that, then you can focus on a lower goal of getting them meeting and building just enough interest to get the prospect to agree to that, which is something that is much more achievable and realistic during b2b cold calling.
