Outbound sales are not just about calling people and harassing them. Being successful in outbound means that you find a need, create a product to satisfy it and market it to your target audience. Creating a valuable brand name takes time, effort and money. It is not as easy as some people think like cold calling or calling random voicemails.
Here are my tips if you’re looking to increase your outbound sales.
Plan Your Call
You can’t wing a sales call – you need to think about what your goal is and how you’re going to achieve it in advance. Before you call a prospect, make sure you know the answers to the following questions:
Why am I calling? Be very specific. Do you want to set up a meeting, get an introduction to someone else at the company, get them to trial your product, or simply add them to your database?
What do they need? It’s not all about you! To be successful with outbound sales, you need to understand what your prospects want and how you can help them. What are their business goals? What problems are they trying to solve? What are their pain points?
What does my product offer that will help them? How does your product address the customer’s needs and solve their problems? If you don’t have anything that helps them, perhaps this isn’t the time to be contacting them.
If everything goes perfectly, what will we accomplish on this call? This is where you need to be realistic especially If you haven’t contacted this person before.
Make a Good First Impression
A lot of sales teams are afraid to pick up the phone and reach out to cold leads, because they fear that people won’t want to talk to them. And yes, it’s true that many people will hang up on you or tell you they’re not interested when you call them.
But if you’ve done your homework (by using LinkedIn Sales Navigator) and have a good reason for contacting this person, then there’s no reason why you shouldn’t be able to make a good first impression. The most important thing is to remember that this is not about pitching your products or services. Instead, it’s about introducing yourself and gaining their trust by being helpful and giving them valuable information. When you do this, most people will be happy to speak with you and schedule a follow-up call.
Get to the Point Quickly
You’re used to being the one who picks up the phone and dials, but you still find it hard to get people to pay attention when they answer. The problem? You’re not speaking in terms of your audience—you’re speaking in terms of your company
Your company doesn’t care what you have to say. Your audience does. They’re the ones who will be affected by your product, service or message. So why are you talking about yourself—or worse, your company—first?
If you want to get to the point quickly, start with a question that leads into whatever information you want to share
Ask Questions and Then Listen
In outbound sales, you ask questions and then listen to their responses. You’re on the hunt for their needs — both stated and unstated.
One of the biggest mistakes that most salespeople make is they don’t know how to ask the right questions. If you can’t find the right questions to ask, you’ll be unable to uncover the prospect’s needs.
So what are some questions you should be asking? Here are a few examples:
What problems are you facing?
How does your problem manifest itself within your business?
What is your ideal outcome from an investment in our product/service?
Who else is involved in making this decision?
Don’t Be Too Pushy
You’ve only got a few seconds to make a good impression before the person on the other end of your phone call hangs up, clicks away or deletes your email. With so little time, you don’t want to waste it by being overly aggressive.
That’s why it’s so important to avoid using pushy sales tactics when you’re trying to sell something. The potential customer might not hang up (or click or delete) immediately, but if you’re too pushy, they’ll reject your offer later in the conversation and possibly never buy from you again.
Here are some ways to avoid being overly pushy with your outbound sales efforts:
Use a positive tone – It’s important to sound as friendly as possible when you first reach out to someone. If you give them a negative vibe, they’ll be less likely to engage with you and more likely to hang up.
Ask questions – don’t give demands. Instead of telling the person what they should do, ask them questions about their current situation. This keeps them engaged and makes them more receptive to your suggestions while also giving you more information about how you can help them.
Give them some background information before asking for money. Instead of jumping right into your pitch and demanding.
Wrapping up
In this article, we discussed the importance of outbound sales. The next step is creating a marketing strategy. With the right marketing strategy, companies can grow exponentially. A good outsourcing service is the best option to contain costs while still optimizing profits.