With social media, Google, and YouTube becoming key ways to get in front of people, it’s easy to believe that online ads are the best way to bring new customers into your sales funnel or present your sales pitch. However, despite all the technology floating around, the human connection remains the number one way to make a sale.
Cold calling remains a viable sales tool in 2021, but your process must be different than it was 30 years ago. Now, you have to use 21st-century technology along with your old-school sales tool.
Cold Calling in 2021
There’s a reason that door-to-door salesmen were so successful in the 1950s and 1960s. It’s the same reason that infomercials are successful today. In both cases, the salesperson showed the customer how the product worked.
When it comes to cold calling in 2021, you must be ready before picking up the phone. You want to create a video that shows how your product works. Think of it as an infomercial delivered straight into the inbox of a potential customer. You want to show the client what your product does and how it’s going to help.
Put into words and images how the client will achieve success with your product. Then make the call.
What’s the purpose of the video sales pitch?
Whether the video sales pitch lands you a new client or not, you’ve achieved something simply by making the connection.
You have now warmed the client up. If the client gives you their email address, then you know there’s a spark of interest. Now you’ve turned a cold call into a lukewarm sales opportunity. You can nurture that lukewarm prospect into a client over the next few months.
The video sales pitch also shows your prospective client that your product works. They can see it for themselves.
What happens after the video sales pitch?
At the end of the video, offer to set up a call to talk about how you can help this potential client.
Until this point, you do not mention a price. You don’t want to scare the potential client away; you want to get them back on the phone.
During this second call, you put on the sales push. The second call is where you outline the cost but offset it quickly with the product’s benefits. Point out how quickly your product will help the client see a return on investment.
When it comes to cold calls, is one product better than another?
This sales pitch format works better for some products than others. The best products to sell on cold calls are high-value ones.
That means they either come at a hefty price, or they offer recurring value in the form of a subscription.
The reason for this is two-fold.
Larger Return
First, it saves you time. Think of it this way. Between 1% and 3% of cold calls yield a sale. Is it worth it to cold call 100 people over a $50 product? Even if you make three sales, you’ve spent an entire day on the phone for $150.
What if you performed the same 100 calls with a $5,000 product? Now, just a 1% return is a massive win for the day.
Ability to Outsource
The other reason high-value products are better suited for cold calling is that now you can outsource the work to a highly skilled sales representative without putting up a lot of money upfront.
If the product is of high enough value, you can hire a sales rep or team of sales reps that work solely on commission. You don’t pay them unless they make a sale.
More people are willing to hustle for free if you offer them a 10% commission on a $20,000 product.
Proof of Concept
The final step in the sales pitch comes after your initial large sale.
Imagine a web designer selling a $20,000 web design package that includes the creation and maintenance of the company’s website and SEO development for six months. That six-month period is the proof of concept. Hopefully, by the end of the six months, traffic to the site has increased, and so has business.
That’s when the web designer would pitch the subscription. For $2,000 a month, the designer will take care of upkeep on the website and ensure that the site continues to build on its current organic traffic.
If all goes well, you now have a steady $2,000 a month of income for a small amount of work per month.
The Down Sell Option
For some companies, signing on and not having to worry about website upkeep is a no-brainer. Others may think the price is too steep.
You have already proved your abilities, don’t let that work go to waste. Instead, have a down sell option. For $1,000, we’ll do a quarterly check-in to make sure that everything on the website is working correctly and complete any updates you might need.
Now you’re not losing the customer that you worked so hard to cultivate.
Conclusion
The true art of inside sales is figuring out how to keep someone in the fold once they get there. Many people stop when they’ve made the initial sale and assume that the client will keep coming back. But, if you want to create real growth in your business, you need to give customers a reason to keep coming back.
Good service is a great start, but a subscription is a way to keep clients actively involved with your business. Find something that offers your clients value that can be repeated monthly, quarterly, or annually and your business will see fantastic growth over time. For some great ideas for how to lead with value check out this previous post.
Story by Erika Towne