Sales 2.0 – the widely-implemented strategy for nurturing a company’s interaction with clients in the digital age – and cold calling, however, do not need to be mutually-exclusive strategies for lead-generation. Instead, if practiced efficiently alongside other lead generation techniques, cold calling can be an effective means to garner new prospective clients.  Here’s how:

1.      Break with the Past: Previously, all businesses were considered fair targets for cold calling. Generating calling lists were purely about the quantity of numbers, not about the quality of leads. Today, there should be a shift from quantity to quality in generating cold-calling lists, targeting those who have expressed an interest in your company or those who are decision-makers for their businesses. This practice, which is called “intelligent calling,” means that companies that are cold-called have shown a pre-established topical interest in your product or service, either by an email campaign or webpage visit.

2.       Unite Marketing and Sales: Rather than having the sales team work independently on their cold-calling lists, have sales and marketing align. The marketing department should generate and nurture leads until they’re sales-ready; then, at that point, the sales team can enter the prospect into the sales pipeline via cold-calling. This way, sales teams can focus on hotter prospects – not waste time attempting to convince leads who aren’t ready.

3.      Prospect then Blitz: The Harvard Business Review recommends dividing your cold-calling into two distinctive parts: prospecting leads and then blitzing the hottest prospects. Prospecting to find the right person should be done during normal business hours, when administrative assistants are in the office, and call blitzing to get that person on the phone should be done before 8:30 a.m. and after 5:30 p.m.

4.      Cold-Call 2.0: Use code-calling in tandem with other, more modern lead generation techniques. Track prospects’ web page activity, and use page views as an incentive to cold-call them. Someone click on your LinkedIn page or retweet your Twitter post? Cold-call them immediately after. Talking directly to a lead will make your company appear more personal and, in turn, more appealing.

But even if cold-calling is alive and kicking, there is a fine line between persistence and annoyance when calling a company. In order to keep prospects engaged without tarnishing your brand, below are three tips on how entrepreneurs can perfect the cold call:

1.      Target Who You’re Calling: Pestering an employee who is not a decision-maker is a waste of both your and the prospect’s time. Get the direct line of the person that makes the company’s business/ sales decisions.

2.      Write a Script: Without sounding too rehearsed, it’s incredibly beneficial to be prepared before approaching a cold-call. Research the individual prior to calling in order to prepare yourself for the conversation. Avoid asking “yes” or “no” questions that provide an easy “out” of the phone call, such as asking, “Is now a good time?”

3.      Make Yourself Known Beforehand: The goal is to have the client as familiar as possible with your name and product/service offering prior to your call. Consider sending an email campaign or other useful data point with the implication that you’ll be calling soon, so they’ll be expecting you and will already know your products or services.  Plus, it makes for an easier icebreaker on the phone.

4.      Have an Offer: Don’t make the call with a question; make the call with an offer. If you give something of value to the prospect (preferably something free of value), they are more likely to keep you on the line. Maybe it’s an invitation to your company’s webinar, or a free social media consultation. Whatever the incentive, make sure it’s something immediately relevant to the business’ current priorities.

While cold calling may be dead in the traditional sense, don’t fret— with practiced intelligent calling strategies, you can still bring in more leads than ever before.

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Frank Paterno

Frank is vice president of marketing at IntelliConnection and oversees marketing for the Intelliverse family of companies. A creative and analytic marketing and product executive with hands-on and management experience identifying, creating, delivering, and communicating value with technology-based products and services, Frank’s corporate and product marketing experience is enhanced by a strong technical and financial background.