Cold Calling: Stories and Tips from SDRs
Sales Development Representatives, also known as SDRs, have the responsibility to grow new business by contacting potential prospects.
Some of the most common ways SDRs contact potential prospects are through emails, LinkedIn and, of course, cold calling. But what is cold calling?
For those unfamiliar with SDR cold calling, it’s when a sales representative makes unsolicited calls to someone in order to sell them a product or service. And even if you’re not familiar with this tactic, you can imagine calling a stranger out of the blue doesn’t make for an easy sell. We’re here to cover some of our top cold calling techniques and cold calling best practices for top success.
A New SDR Cold Calling Strategy
Cold calling is still a common sales strategy and can help sales teams bring in more revenue. Here at Covideo, we believe human connection and personality should never be compromised. Supplementing video messaging with cold calling will add more value to your prospecting strategy.
Video messaging, also known as cold calling videos, has the ability to put a face to the name and humanize the sales process. Unlike a phone call, video messages show the recipient that a real person is reaching out to them. Not just some unfamiliar voice coming out of their phone.
And since only 18% of buyers trust salespeople, SDRs should do everything they can to build trust within their business relationships. Take a look at how Coach D. uses video email in his sales strategy.
Cold Calls That Went Wrong
Of course, video messaging isn’t the cure to bad cold calls. Even our own SDRs have off days. Read some of our SDRs worst cold calling examples and how they learned from those experiences.
Chris, one of our SDRs at Covideo says, “Some days I get hung up on for 8 hours, other days I book 6 meetings and all my appointments show up.” He describes how on an off day when, “[he] stutters or messes up the pitch…[he] just ends up hanging up the phone [himself]”. LOL.
The takeaway: Don’t let the off days take away from the good days. Rejection is hard to handle in any situation. If a call doesn’t go the way you wanted then see it as a learning opportunity. Tell a coworker about a bad cold call, so you can laugh about it and move on.
Another one of our SDRs, McKenzie, describes how a potential prospect, “yelled at [her] for about 15 minutes on the phone…[she] just continued to answer his questions in a professional and polite manner. At the end of the call he apologized for being so rude.”
The takeaway: Kindness always prevails. In life and in cold calling, you never know what someone is going though. Remain professional even if the person on the other line is, well, out of line.
Use Your Resources!
Developing business relationships takes effort and persistence. Another SDR, Malorie, points out how sending a video message, “warms up the call. So, while you might have not spoken to someone, you can establish some familiarity with a video email.” If you’re wondering how to make cold calling easier, this is definitely a great tactic. This way, when you call a prospect chances are they’ve already watched your video and can put a face to name.
Familiarity is a huge advantage in sales because a prospect is more likely to work with someone they trust. Talking on the phone is one way a sales professional can form a personal connection, but phone calls aren’t the most memorable experience. Remember, a prospect could receive multiple sales calls a day, try breaking through the noise with video email. Adding a face to the name will make it easier to understand who’s on the other end of the call.
Add Video to Your Prospecting Methods
With video messaging you will establish credibility and trust before you start a conversation. Although this won’t prevent future bad cold calls, you can rest assure that it will help you deliver a more positive and humanizing sales experience.
If you want to learn more about personalized video messaging and how to pair it with your current sdr cold calling strategy, chat with a Covideo expert and they’ll show you the ropes.
