October 21, 2021

The top B2B cold calling best practices

B2B cold calling is hard. With just a 1% conversion rate, it’s one of the most tedious outreach strategies. Let’s learn how to get the most out of it here!

Vlad Orlov

Brand Partnerships

Reading time: 4 minutes

The Wolf Of Wall Street.

I’m sure most of us have seen it. And I would bet that most of us have at least fantasized about landing those several-dozen-thousand-dollar cold call deals.

And, even though the movie does romanticize the cold calling tactic just a little bit, it remains one of the most commonly used sales techniques even today.

Today, we will be looking at some of the best practices for getting the most out of your B2B cold calling strategies.

Who knows, maybe the next call will land you that sweet eight thousand dollar deal?

But before we do that, we need to address the elephant in the room.

The problem with cold calling

Cold calling is still an important part of outbound sales, though extremely difficult.

Statistically, only 1-2% of cold calls are actually going to yield a result.

That means that 98% of the time, you will be rejected. Sometimes, in an abrupt and rude way, never even giving you a chance to start going through your script or talking about what you’re offering.

The reason for this is very simple — people really hate when somebody calls and interrupts their day to blatantly try and sell them something. Also, it is viewed as a huge intrusion of privacy by most. After all, how did you even get their number?

It doesn’t help that the FTC came up with a program called “Do Not Call”. In essence, it allows people to opt-out of all cold calls for five whole years — essentially ruling out cold calling.

But, you can still use it for your B2B needs — and if you manage to get on the phone with somebody important, you might just land the sale, as long as your pitch is cohesive and your product actually helps them with their pain points.

If you want your cold calling strategy to bring in results, you need to be really patient and be ready to overcome common objections.

With that said, let’s move on to how you can achieve that success.

Top B2B cold calling best practices

Be careful with your script

Besides being an intrusion of privacy, the majority (whether you’re the caller or the receiver) hates cold calls because they’re all the same.

And of course, if you have hundreds of numbers to call every day, it is pretty much impossible to do it without resorting to some sort of template or script.

But, if you read it word for word, all that you will accomplish is a dropped conversation or a coarse “Never call me again!”.

Instead, use your script as a guideline for how the call should play out rather than simply reading it off a sheet of paper each time. Talk to your prospect like you would talk to anybody else on the phone.

If they have any questions, answer them sincerely and fully, never brush them off to continue with your script. People don’t like salesmen, but they like other people that are sincere, helpful, and just a little bit funny.

Help — Don’t sell

At some point, you will be asked a very simple but important question: “Why are you calling me?”.

A lot of rookie sales development reps (SDRs) can get quite anxious at that moment. After all, you can’t straight up say that you need to try and sell them something.

A common answer to that question is “Because I would like to tell you about {product or service}…”.

At that point, one of two things is going to happen:

They drop your call because they recognize the old cold sales technique;
They ask you another question: “Why should I care?”.

And that is the most important question that you need to answer even before it is asked. How exactly does your product or service help the person? Which problems and pain points does it solve?

These are the questions that you need to start addressing as soon as you’re done introducing yourself.

For example, if you’re trying to sell a business phone system, a good idea would be to first ask the prospect about their current phone system in their company, or how they communicate with their customers.

This will both show that you’ve taken the time to research their business and help establish two-way communication.

After that, you can present your tool as a solution for their problems.

Always try to close

Naturally, the end goal of every single one of your cold calls should be a close.

But a close doesn’t necessarily have to be a sale or a scheduled demo of your tool.

There are many little ‘closes’ that you can strive for — it can be something as mundane as just getting a couple more minutes of your prospect’s time, inviting them to attend an informational webinar that you’re hosting, scheduling a follow-up call, or getting the phone number of a more relevant decision-maker.

Don’t write your prospects off if they don’t answer. Leave a voicemail (you can use a pre-recorded one to save time), send an email, pick a time to call again — all the little things can and will contribute towards your ultimate goal.

Don't get discouraged

Only about one in every one hundred cold calls will be successful.

It is common for SDRs to feel anxious before cold calling out of the fear of rejection.

This fear is something you need to learn to overcome as rejection is a huge part of cold calling. Learn from every single call, note every question that you struggled to answer, and familiarize yourself with countering sales objections.

Conclusion

And there you have it! Here’s our list of best practices for B2B cold calling so you can make the most out of it.

Remember, cold calling doesn’t always have to be challenging. While it’s not always a bed of roses, following these tips can certainly help you learn the ropes of cold calling and gain more confidence!

If you’re looking for a tool to help you automate your cold calling efforts, why not give Novocall a try?

Its outbound autodialer helps you dial all your prospects’ numbers so you have more time to prepare for the call.

Get started with a 7-day free trial today!

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Vlad Orlov

Managing brand partnerships at Respona, Vlad is a passionate writer and link builder. Having started writing articles at the age of 13, their once past-time hobby developed into a central piece of their professional life.

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