6 Sales Prospecting Cold Calling Myths Debunked

To paraphrase Mark Twain’s famous (and often misquoted) quote, the report of the death of cold calling in sales prospecting has been grossly exaggerated. Cold calling is always going to have a place in B2B outbound sales. But it has to be the right kind of cold calling. Confused yet? Read on to learn the top myths of cold calling and why they’ve also been grossly exaggerated.

Myth #1: Cold Calling is a Nuisance

Fact: The concept of cold calling is not to badger your sales prospects until they buy something or hang up. That would be one hell of a nuisance. Instead, it’s about starting a lasting relationship through a meaningful conversation and you can only do that if you’ve researched your sales lead ahead of time and understand their pain points instead of just hammering away at why your product is the best.

Myth #2: Cold Calls are for Whoever Picks up the Phone

Fact: Today’s successful B2B sales reps are focused in their cold calling and sales outreach efforts and aren’t out to try to sell to the gatekeeper (aka a front desk receptionist or administrative assistant). Instead, they have pinpointed their target market and have the decision maker in mind that they want to talk to and hopefully a direct phone line for that prospect. If you do reach a gatekeeper, there’s a specific cold calling approach you can take to get to the right person.

Learn the top terms in B2B sales. Read this blog.

Myth #3: Cold Calling Doesn’t Result in Meetings

Fact: According to DiscoverOrg, 78% of decision makers that they polled have taken an appointment or attended an event that came from an email or cold call.

Myth #4: Cold Calls aren’t Answered

Fact: RAIN Group found that 69% of buyers have accepted phone calls from new providers in the last 12 months. Think about that. Two-thirds of buyers answer cold calls.

Myth #5: Cold Calls are Just about Listening

Fact: Yes, sales reps are taught to perform active listening. And you should do that. But in a cold call, you can’t JUST listen. Gong.io found that in successful cold calls, sales reps talked for 55% of the time and listened for 45% of the time. This makes sense because you’re working to educate the prospect about what you have to offer.

Myth #6: Cold Calling is Best Done Manually

Fact: If you're still manually dialing the phone for your B2B sales prospecting calls, you're doing it wrong. You can use sales cadence software and a dialer to dial your targeted list, keep track of calls, and even schedule emails and other forms of communication.

Reach out to us here at ConnectLeader today to see how the right sales acceleration and engagement software can help your sales team increase their daily productivity by up to 800%. Simply click here or give us a call at 800-955-5040.