Coming to the topic, Warm calling refers to a sales call, visit or email that is preceded by some sort of contact with the potential customer or prospect, such as a direct mail campaign, an introduction at a business event or a referral. It implies you’re calling a prospect with whom you’ve had some earlier contact.
Warm calling has the capability to keep your pipeline full even if you don’t have enough inbound leads. The only condition is you must be able to use warm calling in the most effective and efficient manner. We’ll now discuss how to do that –
The best prospects are the ones that look like your best customers. They’ll have similar pain, which means they’ll be easier to sell to and have higher retention rates. Study your buyer personas and learn to recognize your ideal buyer quickly. Review your customer base and identify key similarities between your most successful clients so you have a finely honed sense of what to look for.
For the same concentrate on understanding your business’ bread and butter — the type of customer that buys again and again.
Preparation is essential in warm calling – after all, you can’t deliver value if you don’t know what your prospect cares about. I use LinkedIn to read a bit about the company and collect specific information.
At a minimum, you should know how many years the company’s been in business, the number of employees, their location, and their value proposition. This may sound obvious, but knowing these basics is important. It helps you determine the type of problems this business is likely to face and tailor your introduction.
Similarly, if you want to sign a deal or do business with a company, it is very important that you should be aware of the key decision makers and influencers os that particular company. Always do sufficient research to find out if you know any of their senior executives or if you are connected to people from that company by chance.
Telemarketing nowadays doesn’t mean a long converse to get the product sold or promoted at the very first call. It has now evolved a lot and thus resulting in fruitful strategy to generate good results. Even though you may find that your product is a great fit, a long call is still an interruption. Use your best judgment if the conversation is flowing well, but be respectful of your prospect’s time.
Remember that your first call is just an opening, and need not be a closing call to sign off the deal. So don’t worry about cramming in as much information as possible, you can research it later if the need arises.
Voice mail can allow the messages to be easily updated, It can reduce the need for an administrative / receptionist / secretarial support, It can serve as an important medium for business communication.
There’s a good chance your prospect won’t pick up. When that happens, you might be tempted to immediately end the call and move on to the next one. Don’t do that. Voicemails can be a valuable touchpoint even if they don’t prompt a call-back.
Much of today’s business communication takes place over email instead of the phone. Follow-up emails are by far the most important type of email you can send because they’re the most effective.
Following up with an email enhances your visibility. If you actually spoke to the buyer, they’re probably going to open your message now that your name is familiar to them. If they didn’t answer but listened to your voicemail, they’ll recognize your name as well. And if they didn’t do either, at least you’ll increase the odds of connecting with them by trying another channel.
If a prospect is not answering your call, try reaching him at least 4 – 5 times a day on different timings. Trying them at different points in the day helps you catch them when they’re most receptive.
Tip: Try reaching prospects early in the morning because that’s when they’re at the desk and not that busy. If you call earlier, you’re more likely to catch them at their desks. About 25% of the time, the executive picks up.
It is vitally important to track and evaluate the responses of the prospects and leads in order to nurture them in the future. Have a CRM that will help you make warm calls more effective and better organized. With CRM you can qualify and assign leads, make online calls directly from the data, send emails as well as record calls for not missing any details.
The myth that Cold calling and Warm calling doesn’t work and is completely dead is absolute nonsense. Whether it be a solicited phone call or an unsolicited phone call – both are still effective, provided it is strongly backed by good intent, proper research of the person whom the call has been made and a fair conversation with the minimum time to engage a prospect over the phone call.
Similarly always take time to carefully research good fit prospects before offering them a specific, targeted value, and reap the benefits of warm calling.
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Reach us at info@ams-in.com or visit us at www.ams-in.com to know more.
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