“Cold calling” as a phrase has always been understood as a steady stream of scripted conversations wherein body of the content remains same and the companies and names are swapped.
At one point or the other a business development employee has to make a sales cold call to solicit the interest of the potential buyers. It reminds all of us of the phone calls we get at just the wrong moment.
The idea to make a cold call is to build awareness about your product, showcase the ethos, and also get an opportunity to secure an exploratory meeting. While making the initial contact, be it via an email or a “cold call”, formality is the standard approach more than often, which is a mistake. In the efforts of ticking off all the information you need to convey, business developers run away from “what makes our industry unique” – creativity!
Anyone these days can safely tell you that they’re inundated with emails and cold calls day after day. A product has to have a clear and a genuine point of difference as most of the companies sound really very similar. You thus need to stand out and probably make your approach different.
But how?
A Few Tips to Stand Out While Making the Cold Calls
Know Who You Are Talking to:
You can always search if the person you’re calling has been quoted online or has recently changed any roles to make the approach personal. Let your prospects know that you’ve done all your research, but haven’t stalked them.
Highlight What They Have to Gain from You
Highlight how establishing a relationship with your agency can help them. How you can help them achieve their brand’s ambitions as said by the trade press. Knowing where the brand stands in the market beforehand gives you an idea to what are the company expectations and what they will be thinking about.
Through the lens of Google these days, you can easily have an understanding of who you are contacting and also the inkling of prospect’s brand challenges within few minutes. It will not only help you create a relevant approach but also have their attention for the right reasons. In the business development is all about building a long-term working relationship with someone. Your cold call can certainly provide the first step into building that relationship. The only thing you have to hope is that they pick up the phone when you dial.
