B2B Cold Calling: 5 Mistakes You Should Avoid

 

Do prospects hang up within seconds of answering your call? You might be handling your cold calling strategy all wrong. Here are 5 mistakes to avoid.

"Uh-oh...here's another sales call"

This is a typical human reaction whenever they receive a call from a number or brand they have never dealt with before.

Instinctively buyer resistance kicks in—they don’t know your motives or the tactics you're going to use on them. With the bad rap cold calling has garnered over the years, they are going to be wary of everything you say.

If you're going to gain these prospects' trust, we've listed five pitfalls to avoid. We've also lined up other digital marketing strategies to boost business success.

1. Cold Calling Mistakes to Avoid

Let's look at five top mistakes that make cold calling tougher:

• Going in blind. You have a hundred calls to make every week. Where are you going to find the time to research every one of them? Well, prospects don't want to feel like another number on your list so make your calls productive by having baseline intel about their needs.
• Placing profit over people. Being pushy or aggressive doesn’t help diffuse buyer anxiety or build trust. If the prospect feels pressured to buy, they will probably hang up or refuse to take your calls. Aim to present yourself as a partner interested in helping them achieve goals.
• Being too loose. Being rigid or robotic is terrible but so is a caller who is all casual and unprofessional. Using too much slang or addressing the prospect like you're old friends undermines your legitimacy and ability to elicit trust. Balance friendliness with professionalism.
• Inability to maintain your cool. Unanswered calls, rude prospects, or those who raise too many objections or try to discredit your knowledge can drive you over the edge. It's a rough ride, but one that will pay off if you maintain a level head and stay positive.
• Not following up. Prospects are busy and very few will partner with you right after the first call. Persistence is key and meaningful follow-up may help you stand out from the competition since many salespeople give up if the prospects don't respond fast.

Bonus Tip: Consider hiring a professional SDR service company as they have the expertise to identify, and break down cold calling barriers. Their cold calling services are measurable and you can re-set your expectations should the need arise.

2. Video Marketing

The place of video marketing in the B2B sales cycle is undeniable and its ROI is impressive. 

According to a survey by Wyzowl, 87 percent of the marketers interviewed credited video with increased traffic. 86 percent revealed that video aided lead generation, while a further 81 percent stated that video directly contributed to increased sales.

Here are examples of videos you can create:

• Brand videos. Through brand videos, audiences learn your "why." Why the company came to being, what it solves, your vision, and your key differentiators. Made for the awareness stage these videos help potential buyers resonate with your brand.
• Demo videos. These go into details of how your products/services work, touching on key features and how to derive maximum value from them. Be sure to look up what people want to know and include it in the video.
• Promo videos. They are big on entertainment to attract potential buyers to check out the product/service you're promoting. Focus on rousing emotions and include a CTA to get viewers moving.

3. Focus on Building Brand Authority

There are two main reasons B2B buyers choose one brand over another—referrals from trusted advisors or pre-existing brand relationships.

These pre-existing relationships arise from the interactions they have with a brand that has proven its worth. 

High-quality content is pivotal to driving trust. When you consistently put out content that strives to help audiences and customers achieve their goals, you gain their trust.

Best practices include:

• Answer audience questions. People look for vital information about products/services online. Dig up the questions your target audiences are asking and build on-site content that addresses them. 
• Create relevant studies and reports. Research and studies that unearth new insights about your industry or that of your target market may help showcase your authority. This content may help earn you quality backlinks and even media coverage.
• Align your brand with respectable brands. Partner with respectable companies in your niche to create research, podcasts, or webinars. When audiences associate you with other quality brands their respect for you grows. Plus, you'll be reaching your collaborator's audience maximizing reach.

4. Manage Your Online Reputation

Suppose you've had several negative reviews and comments—wouldn’t it be better to delete them so potential customers don’t turn you down?

After all, you've learned your lessons and have taken steps to correct the mistakes.

Statistics show that up to 95 percent of people are wary of websites with no bad scores. They believe the results are censored or fake. 

A further 67 percent prefer seeing both positive and negative comments. It gives them a rounded view to assist in decision-making.

Now let's look at some ways to manage and boost your reputation online

• Work on your website. Does an old-fashioned website that's hard to navigate and offers low-quality content say, "you can trust me with your needs and money?" Modernize your site, make it mobile-friendly, offer content that highlights your expertise, share information about the company and owners, and provide social proof.
• Pay attention to search engine results. Having negative comments show up on page one of search results can threaten your reputation. You need an SEO strategy that lets you control what people see concerning your business whenever they key in brand-related keywords. It may involve outperforming harmful content with positive feedback to push the former to less visible positions.
• Own your mistakes. Ignoring negative reviews can snowball into a PR disaster and scare away potential customers. Own your mistake by apologizing publicly and rectifying the problem

5. Email Marketing

"Personalize your emails," "make them mobile-friendly," or "be consistent"

You've probably seen this when looking up ways to improve your email marketing strategy. It's good advice, really, and we recommend you incorporate it.

But do you still find audiences ignoring your emails? Your strategy may need a bit of tweaking. The kind that intrigues audiences and gets them to click on the email. 

Here are our top tips:

• Embed videos in your email. Adding video content to your email helps you stand out in crowded emails. Statistics show that embedding video in emails boosts open rates and click-through rates by 19 percent and 65 percent, respectively.
• Incorporate user-generated content (UGC). From images to videos, comments, reviews, and entire blog articles, UGC helps promote authenticity when branded content's credibility is sinking. People trust third-party recommendations and if they like what they read or watch, they are likely to engage you.
• Experiment with emojis. There is a place for emojis even in professional communication. When used appropriately, they can help communicate your brand personality not to mention add a nice touch to your content.
• Work with the professionals. They are well versed in what intrigues consumers and apply this knowledge to get you more opens, click-throughs, and engagement. You choose the pricing option you’re most comfortable with then watch them do their magic.

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