If you want to expand your business, these cold calling tips can help boost your sales and improve your lead generation process. According to HubSpot, 61% of marketers rank lead generation as their number one challenge. Cold calls are an integral part of lead generation for most businesses. These cold calling tips will help you improve your lead-generation process.

Whether you are doing your own sales calls or training staff, these tips will help you fine-tune your cold calling process and get better results. If you need more assistance and want to outsource your cold calls and lead generation tasks, our expert team of lead generation specialists is here to help. We offer virtual assistant services that can help streamline your business with highly skilled, affordable skilled workers.

Top Cold Calling Tips

1. Do Your Research. Keep a detailed sales database so you can find out and record information about your target customers. Who makes the decisions, when is the best time to call, and how do they currently handle the aspect of their business that you can help with? Find out as much as you can about your target customers and you’ll be able to more effectively communicate with them.

2. Prepare Your Script. Create a detailed call script, and make a copy of the template so you can personalize it for each potential customer. Of course, it’s fine to go off script and add in small talk, etc, but if you need the script, it’s best to have all the details at hand. Include interactive elements in your script also such as questions and prepare answers to address common questions.

3. Practice Your Tone. You may feel silly, but it will be helpful to practice your script with the tone you want to use. Speak with a confident, clear tone that is friendly and conversational and you’ll get the best results. It may take some practice before you can run through your script and feel comfortable, so practice as many times as you need. Your tone will help you close the sales and get more support from your customers.

4. Focus on Helping not Selling. Think of your product or service as a solution to help your clients and focus on this. Instead of forcing a sales pitch, look at your customers’ needs and how you can help them. You’ll be amazed at how much difference this makes in your ability to connect with your clients. Consider their point-of-view and you will gain traction.

5. Plan Your Call Time. These cold calling tips would not be complete without mentioning your call time. When you make cold calls, timing can make all the difference as you want to catch your client at a convenient time for them and when they are most receptive to your call. In general, morning is not the best time to call but around lunchtime or in the afternoon tends to be a better time for most people to take calls. As far as days go, Wednesday and Thursday are usually the best days to make cold calls, as people are not still catching up from the weekend (like Monday or Tuesday) or preparing for the weekend (Friday).

6. Have a Dialogue with your potential customer. Instead of thinking of your call as a monologue, make it a dialogue. Don’t be afraid to make small talk, listen to your potential client, and interact with them. It’s ok to go off script and have a natural conversation based on a common interest, the weather, or any commonality that connects you with your client.

7. Take Feedback. When making cold calls, it can be intimidating and hard not to get nervous and just ramble on with your script. But take a deep breath and engage with your potential client, asking questions and listening to feedback. Include some questions in your script to remind you to ask questions, and don’t be afraid to go off script if your client has additional questions or feedback.

8. Don’t Take It Personally when you hear a no. All successful cold callers have learned to take rejection as part of the job. If someone is not interested, then that frees you up to focus on people who are interested in your services or product.

9. Leave a Voicemail when necessary. If someone does not answer, don’t be afraid to leave a voicemail. Prepare a voicemail script ahead of time so you are prepared to leave a message. Include your contact details and the purpose of your call.

10. Follow Up. Successful cold calling takes consistency and follow-up. After your initial call, follow up with a call or email with more information on your product or services. Some options to consider for your follow-up call include making any special or custom offers based on your initial contact and what you know about your customer. A can’t-miss offer is often just what you need to seal the deal.

11. Automate Your Sales with a power dialer or predictive dialing system. Predictive dialers can make calls on several phone lines at the same time and the dialer alerts your calling reps when a call is picked up. This saves time by allowing support staff to avoid wasting time on dial tones and disconnected calls. You can also record or automatically transcribe your calls so you have access to important customer feedback and data.

12. Outsource Cold Calling if you want to efficiently delegate and save time and staff costs. Our outsourcing services include sales and lead generation specialists who can make cold calls and offer services to help in all areas of your lead generation process. We also offer live answering services to help keep your business customer service and sales support top-notch 24/7.

Whether you need sales support help with customer service reps or lead generation specialists, Bolt Business Solutions offers excellent virtual professionals who can help with all areas of your sales process. Save time and money and contact us today to get started with our virtual assistant services.