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Cold Calling Dead? Try Intelligent Calling

Frank Paterno

December 05, 2014

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We've all heard it before: cold calling is old-fashioned. Cold calling is ineffective. Cold calling is dead. But is it really?

According to B2B sales company RAIN Group, "Cold calling is second only to referrals as the number one lead generation tactic." The answer, then, is clear: cold calling, in and of itself, is certainly not dead in the 21st century. But, there is one caveat, old style cold calling, or calling businesses out of the blue, no longer works.

Thanks to digital technology, randomly calling businesses is no longer an effective means to push leads through your sales funnel. Instead, "intelligent calling," or "warm calling" has replaced outdated cold calls as an effective lead generation tactic.

Intelligent Calling vs. Cold Calling

In the past, cold calling involved calling one business after another until your company successfully made a sale. There was very little context beyond the dialing of random numbers, and this earned cold-calling the nickname "war-dialing" - tearing through phone lists and battling with companies over a series of rejections and dial tones. The calls were centered on garnering leads, rather than understanding the needs of the consumers or building a rapport with the prospect.

Indeed, 42% of sales reps felt they did not have enough information about the prospect prior to making a sales call. Because of this need, cold calling evolved into “intelligent calling.”

"Intelligent calling" means targeting who's interested in your product and then tailoring your messages and calls to what that specific person or business may like or need. The idea is that by strategically building targeted call lists, businesses are more likely to convert cold leads into warm prospects.

Implementing an “Intelligent Calling” Mindset

“Intelligent calling” requires a shift in thought from quantity to quality. Rather than calling thousands of leads from a list, resulting in far more misses than hits, strategic “intelligent calling” targets those who have expressed an interest in your service or are decision-makers for their businesses. Oftentimes, this topical interest in your business is demonstrated through a web page visit, webinar attendance, or email campaign.

This means that “intelligent calling” requires prior knowledge of a prospect’s profile and behavior – qualities that can be assessed numerically via lead scoring. Lead scoring involves enumerating a lead on a scale of 0-10 (cold-hot) based on their likelihood of being converted to a customer. Rather than cold calling cold leads, it’s beneficial for businesses to focus on “warm calling” warm-to-hot leads. This requires an alignment between a business’ sales and marketing departments. Whereas marketing should focus on nurturing leads that aren’t yet sales-ready, sales should funnel “hotter” prospects into the sales pipeline via “intelligent calling.”

Tips for Converting Leads on an Intelligent Call

Although sales teams today may have more information on a client before picking up the telephone, that doesn’t necessarily mean they’ll encounter fewer dial tones, voicemails, or avoided calls. Intelligent calling, just like cold calling, requires skill and practice in order to keep the prospect engaged – and ultimately converted into a customer. Here are four tips for successful intelligent calls in the modern age:

1. Strike a Deal: Have your sales team devise an offer for potential customers. By offering something of value to the prospect (particularly if it’s free for them), you are less likely to hear a dial tone in response. Whether it’s an invitation to your company’s webinar or a free service consultation, offering something immediately relevant to the prospect’s needs will make them more likely to become future clients.

2. Find the Decision-Maker: Do the research ahead of time and find the direct line of the person that makes the company’s business/ sales decisions. It’s unlikely that your cold call, even if intelligent, will make it through secretaries, administrative assistants, and other company representatives.

3. Scripts Aren’t Just for Plays: No matter how well you know your company’s product or service, you can’t just wing a cold call. Having a written script lets you zero in on the points you need to make in a short time frame. According to New York sales trainer Wendy Weiss, “You can decide ahead of time how you want to present yourself, what reaction you want to get, and how to ask for what you want.”

4. Warm Up the Warm Call: Preceding an intelligent call with an email campaign gives your prospect prior knowledge of your name and services before you even pick up the phone. Indicating that you’ll call the customer in the coming few days gives them a heads-up that you’ll follow up with them – and gives you an immediate introduction during the warm call.  

By incorporating “intelligent calling” into your sales strategy, you will increase your company’s ability to generate and convert leads.  Old-fashioned cold calling may, indeed, be dead, but calling prospective leads is certainly not.

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