Selling to the C suite has been the most challenging and rewarding strategy altogether. You got to be brief, respectful of their time, and truly consider how to differentiate yourself to cut through the clutter and land the right to ask for something.
Is Cold Calling Dead?
According to the RAIN Group Center for Sales Research, in the past 12 months, 69% of B2B buyers accepted calls from new vendors. It was also shown that the majority of C-level buyers (57%) and around half of all directors (51%) and managers prefer to be reached via phone (47% ). Marc Wayshak, a sales expert and popular author, polled 400 salespeople, and 41.2% stated the phone is the most successful sales tool they have.
Delivering a sales pitch to someone who has never heard of you or your products is a huge challenge and in the case of C-level executives, it’s even more challenging.
Here are 7 steps to making successful cold calls to the C-Suite:
Base your Calling on Research
When making cold calls to executives, enquire around the company to find out who the decision-makers are. Speak directly to their concerns and demonstrate that you understand their company, the industry, social presence, and how you fit into the picture. Before calling senior management, you should be aware of the following:
- Who are their competitors?
- What is their competition?
- What the industry’s top competitors are up to?
- What their industry’s geographical market looks like?
- How they run their business?
- What are their most significant challenges, opportunities, and so on?
While calling, it’s acceptable to ask clarifying questions, but decision-makers want to know what new insights you have to offer and what opportunities you perceive.
Definitely Use a Script
Make a template for some of the most important questions and points you’ll be making. Then, for each person you’re contacting, enter portions that are unique to them. You’ll have a more dynamic, personalized script if you do those two things. As an added plus, you’ll have something to practice reading and get used to before making each call. Don’t call and just read the script. Change the nature of the interaction from buyer-seller to business person-business person by making it personal.
Know When to Call
Knowing the best days of the week and times to call will help you get better results.
Calling at the start of the week is the best option. With a 15.42 percent response rate, Tuesday leads the group, and Monday isn’t far behind at 15.01 percent. For the rest of the week, the numbers gradually fall.
At 10 a.m. in the recipient’s time zone, 15.53% of calls were answered. After that, there’s a 3% decrease to the next best time, 2 p.m., which had a 15.01% response rate. By far the worst times to call are 6 a.m. and 7 a.m. when less than 4% of calls are answered. Every other hour of the day has a probability of being answered between 11 and 15.5% of the time.
Be an Expert
You’re supposed to solve an issue or develop a new competitive advantage as a salesperson. This implies you need to be extremely confident in your answer while also being able to communicate with high-level executives. You must be the go-to expert in your field for C-level executives. They recognize that they aren’t experts in every field, and they recognize that they can’t afford to ignore the aspects of their organization where your company can make a difference. They’ll expect you to be a subject matter expert, filling a knowledge and experience gap on their own.
Be an Active Listener
Failing to listen could lose you crucial opportunities to learn about and resolve your prospect’s specific concerns, in addition to coming across as disrespectful and harming your rapport. Traditional, aggressive sales approaches that tend to steamroll the conversation will irritate executives who are accustomed to being listened to.
Conversations in sales should be dialogues rather than monologues. You should alter and deliver your pitch based on the circumstances of your conversation when presenting it. This strategy will make your meeting more effective and will assist you in developing a trusting relationship with your client.
Optimize Voicemails
According to sales software business InsideSales, a well-crafted voicemail message increased response rates by an average of 4.8%. It has the potential to raise rates by as much as 22%. Your pitch has only 18 to 30 seconds to create an impression. Introduce yourself and provide some background information on your company. Then explain how this will assist your contact, etc.
Use voicemail tools to ensure that each message you leave has the appropriate tone, duration, and information.
- The important thing is to keep it under 30 seconds.
- Make a confident, expressive, and professional impression.
- Never leave a full-fledged sales pitch; instead, pique people’s interest.
- Spark Curiosity – directly convey the value you can deliver and provide just enough information to entice them to call you back for more info.
- Include your phone number, name, and email address to make it easier to contact you.
Failure to Address Objections
Every salesperson is confronted with objections. That is how sales call the function.
You’ve waited far too long if you wait until you’re hearing objections on a sales call to start thinking about what you should say.
If you wait until you’re hearing objections on a sales call to start thinking about what you should say, you’ve waited far too long.
The majority of sales objections fall into one of a few categories. Understanding them will make it easier for you to deal with any disagreement at the moment. You’ll be in a better position to initiate a conversation that leads to a sale after you understand why your prospect is holding out.
Conclusion
Not to forget that the C-suite are humans too. They typically have more experience and skills, which has led to a position of responsibility.
You can attract their attention if you can stand out from the crowd. You can join that team if you can solve challenges and/or generate a competitive advantage.
Try out these tips and let us know how your Cold calling experience turned out to be!!
