Call or email… That's the question. 🤔
Dear Sales…
You know it: prospecting strategy is an art in itself that you must master to acquire new leads. 💪 Sales prospecting includes several techniques, each with its own advantages and disadvantages.
Calls and emails are two different prospecting techniques, which must be targeted. Here, we will talk about Cold Email and Cold Calling.
Cold Calling, Cold Emailing: same battle!
Here, the purpose is to personalize the campaign as much as possible in order to target the lead with the most accurate and up-to-date information.
So... Call or Email? This is the question we will answer today.
Are you ready? Let's gooo 😎
📞 What is Cold Calling?
Cold Calling is a sales prospecting technique that consists of calling the prospect directly on his phone. In this case, your prospect does not expect to receive your call and has not requested it. This way, you address your prospect in person and communicate with him or her in person. 💁🏼♀️
👉🏼 With cold calling: you prioritize the quality of the lead, over the quantity of leads.
Cold Calling: how does it work?
Cold Calling is a call to a prospect who does not know you, hence the name "cold". 🥶
In B2B, the goal of cold calling is to convert your target to your product or service. This technique allows you to make direct human contact with your potential lead.
🚨 Important: you must absolutely contact your prospect directly on their business phone number. This way, you are in compliance with the GDPR. In addition, you avoid going through several intermediaries and you directly get in touch with your target.
The return on investment is quite low here, because you spend a lot of time for one and only one prospect. For an effective cold calling, you must (of course) respect several golden rules and tips:
- The first step is to target your prospect according to specific criteria. Lead segmentation is MAN-DA-TO-RY. 🔍
- Next, you should find out as much as possible about the person you are dealing with. Remember: he or she does not know you but YOU know him.
- Work on your speech...But not too much. Don't try to sell your solution at all costs, and don't try to convince your target. Your prospect can quickly feel overwhelmed by a flood of arguments. Think about working on a speech that goes along with your lead and personalize it. In short: don't cling to a prewritten speech.
- Your prospect is at the heart of your cold calling strategy. Don't talk about yourself too much! ❌
- Don't hesitate to start your cold calling with a question like, "How is your business doing right now?" or "What are your current challenges?"
- Conclude your cold call with a meeting proposal with your prospect. Be careful, you are only at the beginning of the sales process: don't suggest a long and boring meeting to your prospect, 20 minutes can be more than enough. 😉
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Why you should call a prospect?
Despite many beliefs, cold calling brings several advantages. 🌟
This sales prospecting technique that was thought to be obsolete is in fact quite qualitative in many aspects:
- You get a direct and verbal answer. If your prospect answers your call, you will know right away if he is interested or not.
- The relationship with your prospect is humanized. You create a personal link with him, which creates more trust and reliability.
- You flatter your target. Receiving a direct call takes time, and your lead knows it. By giving him time just for him, you value him.
- A low financial investment. No need to spend hundreds or thousands to launch a cold call campaign! You just need to get the right information about your prospect.
Cold call is not dead! 🔥
Cold Calling, the issues
Cold Calling also includes some negatives that you should keep in mind:
- Fatigue. Receiving a huge number of oral rejections can be pretty demotivating for your sales team. It is up to you to know how to get up and not give up
- Return on investment on time spent. You call one prospect at a time, which is very time consuming. To boost your ROI, work on targeting your leads with great precision.
- Knowing how to sell orally. This is a technique in its own right. Not everyone is cut out to make direct contact with a prospect. Leave your shyness behind. 💪
- Be in good conditions. The cold call requires to be in a quiet place, and with a good connection. Cold calling requires some preparation beforehand.
- The regulation. As you may know, the GDPR regulates the management of personal data, including phone numbers. Therefore, cold calling is absolutely prohibited in B2C (you need opt-in). Moreover, always contact your prospect on his business phone number and not his personal number.
💌 What is cold emailing?
Cold Emailing is an email prospecting technique. Just like Cold Calling, Cold Emailing is said to be "Cold" because it is practiced with a new prospect.
This prospect does not know you, it is in fact the first point of contact you have with him in the sales process.
👉🏼 With cold emailing: you reach several prospects in a single mailing.
Cold Emailing: when personalization meets automation
Cold emailing consists of contacting a prospect cold. He does not know you and probably does not know your product or service.
🚨 Always make sure you stay compliant with the GDPR. Email prospecting and cold emailing are allowed in B2B. Definitely insert an unsubscribe link in your cold email. On the other hand, the opt-in (consent) of your prospect is mandatory in B2C.
To succeed in a cold emailing campaign, several steps are necessary:
- Target your leads. Find those who really need you. 🫵
- Automated but authentic. Your cold email campaign must seem "handmade". So limit your sequence to a maximum of 100 sends to remain authentic. The more discreet the automation, the better!
- Gather information. You need to know who you're talking to. Without that, your campaign can't work and you won't reach your leads.
- Prepare your sequence. You must plan a series of cold emails following your leads. Often, one single cold email is not enough. You must prepare several whole sequences according to the behavior of your leads after your first sending.
- Follow up on your leads. Because a rejection from your prospect does not mean that everything is over! 💔
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Why you should send cold emails?
Cold email is a sales prospecting technique that is widely used in B2B. And here's why:
- Automation. With automation tools, you can reach multiple prospects in a single cold email sequence. You multiply your chances of getting new leads 🤩 !
- Return on investment. The more potential leads you reach, the higher your chance of receiving positive responses. Magic, isn't it? 🪄
- Scalability. A cold email is flexible and adapts perfectly to your target like Cinderella's slipper. Unlike cold calling, you can follow up with your prospect despite a lack of response or even a refusal. Email is much less intrusive. However, be careful not to exceed 100 shots per day in order to remain credible in your strategy.
Cold Email: saving time requires a lot of work beforehand!
Automation, time savings, ROI: it sounds like a dream. ✨
But a successful cold email campaign involves a few issues to keep in mind:
- An ever more precise personalization. The more personalized a cold email is, the more it will appeal to your target. Don't forget: your prospect doesn't know you. But you must show him that you know who he is. 😉
- Requires the preparation of an entire sequence. Cold email requires that you work on the form AND the content of your campaign. It is a real outbound sales strategy where nothing should be left to chance.
- Technique. Cold emailing requires some knowledge in email writing, especially concerning the subject of your email. Regarding the subject of the cold email, knowledge in copywriting is also necessary. Don't forget: a good opening rate is at least 70%.
Call or Email: Time to take your pick! 👀
Now that you have a concrete overview of these two sales prospecting techniques, it's time to make your choice. 😉
But…Do you REALLY have to make a choice between call or email? 🤷🏼♀️
These two techniques are in fact complementary and nothing prevents you from implementing both internally, and preferring one to the other depending on the profile of your lead.
For example, you can make your choice following the generation of your leads:
👉🏼 Older generations tend to be more used to calls. In this case, prefer a cold call. This type of lead is much more used to direct phone calls than to digital interactions. Did you know that 57% of C-levels and VPs prefer to be called by phone? 🙃
👉🏼 The younger generations are used to virtual exchanges. For them, prefer cold email and engagement via entertaining content. Millenials are using emails and messages much more to communicate.
As you have seen: Cold Email and Cold Call are two very different techniques. However, their purpose remains the same: convert your prospects into clients 🌟.
It is up to you to adapt these prospecting techniques according to the challenges surrounding your product or service. Or according to the profile of your lead. In prospecting, flexibility and scalability are the key to success! 🔑
If you want to go further:
- 7 steps to send the perfect Cold Email!
- How to generate a steady stream of highly qualified leads
- GDPR: Can we send B2B prospecting emails?
