In this week’s livestream, we discussed how to improve your cold call connect rate and get prospects on the phone.
TLDR
- Getting prospects on the phone is the biggest challenge for a salesperson.
- Start by understanding the prospect and why they are difficult to reach by phone.
- Prospects are extremely busy and get a lot of calls, emails, and voicemails.
- There are things you can control and change to improve your cold call connect rate.
- Use a prospecting cadence, which is a series of calls, emails, and voicemail messages.
- Use organizational movement to find new contacts when a prospect does not answer the phone.
Cold Call Connect Rate is the Biggest Challenge
If you have spent any time cold calling, you will know that it can feel extremely difficult to get connected with prospects. They seem to never answer the phone, don’t reply to emails, and never return calls from voicemail messages. You could have the best product, the best price, and the best pitch, but all of those will not do you any good if you cannot get connected with target prospects.
These are valid challenges, and they may be getting worse with every passing year. But there are some real things you can do to improve your ability to get prospects on the phone and get connected, and that is what we discuss in the attached video.
Understand the Prospect
To improve your cold call connect rate and ability to get prospects on the phone, start by understanding the prospect and gaining clarity on why they are difficult to reach.
- They are extremely busy
- They get a lot of cold calls
- They get a lot of cold emails
- Away from their desk a lot of the time
- Full voicemail boxes
One thing about this list is that we do not have control over any of these items. There is nothing we can do to decrease the number of calls and emails they get from other salespeople. But there are some things you do have control over, and that is what you need to focus on to improve your ability to get prospects on the phone.
Control What You Can Control
There are many things you can control and change.
Who you contact
- Titles (roles, departments)
- Contact sources/databases/lists
- Direct dials, mobile numbers, email addresses
How you reach out
- Phone system (phone number, dialer)
- Email system (deliverability)
- Contact methods (pbone, email, social media)
When you reach out
- Timing
- Frequency
- Volume
What you say
- Messaging (sales pitch)
- Sales script
- Email messages
With each of these items, you have tremendous control, and small changes and adjustments you can make in these areas will help you get on the phone with more prospects. We have organized these changes and tips into four different areas:
- Finding Contacts
- Prospecting Cadence
- Organization Movement
- Concentrated Prospecting
Finding Contacts
A big part of getting prospects on the phone is who you are calling and how you are trying to reach them. Here are four resources I have used for finding contacts to reach out to.
- Seamless.ai
- Zoominfo
- Appollo.io
I am not endorsing any of those, and I do not have any affiliate relationships. I am just sharing them as available options, and each has its pros and cons. But whatever system or resource you use, getting business inbox email addresses, direct dials, and mobile numbers can greatly increase your connect rate.
Prospecting Cadence
When it comes to cold outreach, you have multiple ways to reach out to prospects. Each of these outreach options is similar to the golf clubs you would play a round of golf with.
Each golf club is unique in terms of distance and level of accuracy. Typically, the further the club hits the ball, the less accurate it is.
This is similar to your cold outreach options: some of your sales tools deliver your message very far, but they are not as accurate. Cold email is like a golf club that hits the ball a long way, but it isn’t accurate in delivering your message.
The phone is like the putter in that it is extremely accurate, as it allows you to communicate directly with the prospect. But the phone does not hit the ball very far, as it is very time-consuming, and you can only talk with one person at a time.
Just as you play a round of golf with many clubs to connect with prospects, it is critical to use multiple methods to reach out to them. And the way we put those contact attempts together into a structured schedule is our prospecting cadence.
In the attached video, we show how to organize your cold emails, cold calls, voicemail messages, and voicemail follow-up emails into a structured prospecting cadence to improve your cold call connect rate and get prospects on the phone.
Organization Movement
Regardless of how good a salesperson you are and the number of times you reach out, you are going to have prospects who never answer or respond. When you run into a dead end, you can implement organizational movement, which is moving around the organization to find another way in.
You can move vertically within the department to go above or below the prospect you are trying to reach. You can also move laterally to other departments.
By increasing the number of contacts you pursue, you will improve your cold-call connect rate and your ability to get into accounts.
Concentrated Prospecting
One small change you can make to improve your cold call connect rate is to work a smaller list so that you have a more focused and concentrated effort in terms of call and email attempts for each prospect.
