When you are running a business, your journey will be peppered by a number of activities and combination of resources and tasks that will bring in the customers, who in turn will bring in the revenue.

Reaching out to people - both known and unknown - is a given when you are trying to drive engagement for your business.

While social media and email marketing are some of the ways in which you can reach out, there are still traditional methods like cold calling that are utilized by most businesses even today, in order to reach out to people and make them customers.

Yet, not many are comfortable making those calls, and there are still many people who are not very comfortable with receiving such calls. In fact, if you do not get it right, you can go straight to the spam list for multiple phone companies.

Cold calling tips can be used to tackle a very impactful area that would also require a lot of tact and strategy. When we indulge in cold calling, we are essentially reaching out to customers who may or may not have ever heard of us before.

This is a very tricky scenario for a number of reasons, and it also warrants the use of cold calling tips due to the following reasons:

• You are reaching out to people who may not may not be immediately interested in your services;
• You are anticipating that they would be available for a call, whereas that may or may not be the case at that moment;
• You may be asked where you got their contact information;
• You may look like you are trying to directly make some sort of a sales pitch which may not go down very comfortably;
• Many people are not comfortable being contacted randomly on their phones unless it genuinely interests them or shows them some genuine benefit.

Now that we know the problems that one may face in cold calling, it is time to understand just how cold calling works before we get deeper into the cold calling tips that will help you build a relationship rather than just strike names off a list of prospects and potential customers.

Cold calling is a way of generating business by reaching out to prospects who may not may not have heard of you before that call.

It is away to call and make your potential customers aware of your services and to strike a relationship with them so that you can earn their business in the future.

You can immediately see the risk of being written off as a company that is unethical in terms of getting data and making use of it to randomly call people.

But with these cold calling tips, you can actually make an impression and skip the risk of being labelled as a spam company with spam tactics.

Here are seven of the best cold calling tips that you should be making use of:

1. Communication Skills

This is one of the foremost cold calling tips. Before you get an employee or a team member to start making these calls, always find the right person for the job.

This person should be intent on communication rather than merely convincing the person on the other end of the line.

The way the person speaks should be genuine rather than merely rehearsed and there should be warmth yet a certain authority in the person’s manner to get a person to follow through to a certain course or call for action.

2. Complete Information

This is one of the most important cold calling tips that you would have to follow. Make sure that your team members and calling experts have all the information about your business as well as its offerings.

There is nothing worse than the so called expert fumbling on the other side, to make the prospective customer lose patience and abandon the call without even a moment’s notice.

Also make sure that you give the person a list of FAQs of frequently asked questions so that there are no doubts and the person can answer any question thrown at them.

3. Research

This is an important function that one must adhere to before cold calling.

As one of the big cold calling tips, it is always important to have a full file or folder of research on the people or the person you are cold calling so that you do not sound like you are out of your depth.

For example, if you are calling a potential customer about buying your car insurance, ensure that the person actually has a car.

4. Personalize The Call

One of the most important cold calling tips is to ensure that you begin on a human note. You are not a robot, so do not call and directly jump into your sales pitch.

Start by asking questions about the prospect - people usually like to share about themselves and this would show you how to pitch your product or service to them.

5. Voicemail

Now, if you are not able to get through to the person, as per cold calling tips, you should always leave a voicemail for the prospect so that he or she knows that you took the time out to let them know who you are and how you can help them. This would make you seem more professional too.

6. Write A Script, But Play It By The Ear

This is important to note. One of the best cold calling tips is that you write a script before hand, but do not make it a monologue where the other person gets bored of listening. Always involve the other person with questions and start a conversation.

And then tweak your script as you go along so that you deliver all the right notes.

7. Deal Better With Rejections And Objections

Apologize if someone objects to your call and assure them that you will not be calling them in the future, in case they were uncomfortable by the same.

Also, thank a person for their time even if they have rejected your pitch and call.