Wake Up From Your Cold Calling Coma: Inside Sales Messaging Methods
Have you been struggling to get traction with your prospects lately? When was the last time you changed up your email templates or updated your voicemails? Maybe it’s time to take a look at your messaging strategy.
Inside sales reps can easily find themselves in a cold calling rut, especially since cold calling can become a repetitive job. Therefore, it's easy to find yourself using the same messaging templates for all of your prospects. In order to grab your prospects’ attention, it’s important to try different strategies to perk up your messaging. Here are a couple tips to get you out of your cold calling coma and stir up interest from your prospects!
1. Warm it up!
Cold calling doesn’t have to be cold. Whether you’ve made traction within the company before or not, its still possible to warm up your conversations and messages. Before I begin dialing, I always take time to do background research on each prospect’s company. You may find out that the company you are prospecting is already engaged with your client or may have previously done research on your solutions. I’ll even do a quick LinkedIn search to learn a little about the prospect’s role within the company. Its important to use your resources to gather information because you can use this knowledge to grab your prospect’s attention. Your prospects will appreciate the fact that you took the time to learn about their company’s needs, and you will be more confidence when calling them.
2. Shadow Calls
I believe that shadowing phone calls with other inside sales reps is a wonderful way to pick up new messaging strategies and techniques. You may choose to sit in with another inside sales rep or perhaps one of your managers. Even if you and your fellow inside sales reps are working for different clients, you can still observe strategies that may work in your own messages. The person you are shadowing may be able to give you some insight and provide you with tips and advice. It's also beneficial to have that rep or manager sit with you as you call as well. That way, they can hear your messaging style and provide you with constructive criticism and helpful ideas to inspire new messaging.
3. Be Human
Don’t be a robot! Speaking in a monotone voice can put prospects to sleep before they even get a chance to hear about your company’s offerings. So one of the most useful tips I can provide would be to add personality to your messages and conversations. You can do this by speaking at a steady pace (not too slow or too fast) so that your prospect can understand you and by using an upbeat voice. And if you are planning on borrowing a template from a colleague, make sure to put it in your own words. Prospects will notice if you are reading from a script, so be sure to memorize facts about your solutions and technology so you won’t have to read from a sales card while on a phone call. And, most importantly, remember that prospects are people too! Like I mentioned before, warm up the calls in any way you can. Ask them how their day is and always remain polite. Prospects have busy schedules and hectic lives. By being compassionate about their situations, you will be able to better nurture your prospects and have better quality conversations.
These three tips will help you spruce up your messaging strategies and wake up your prospects!