A cold call is an unsolicited call on someone in an attempt to sell goods or services. This can be done on the phone or in person and it does not necessarily mean the person has never heard of or shown interest in your product or service. They just have not been asked to be called for it.

It used to be the case that outbound marketers would make cold calls, but now cold calling has made its way into marketing.

Cold Calling Is Not Dead

In fact, cold calling has transformed over the years. With the growth of marketing, we have changed the way cold calling is conducted in our modern age. More than half of all buying decisions of B2B customers occur before speaking to any salesperson. Buyers today conduct broad online research before they contact you or any other provider.

The advantage here is that there is a lot more consumer information available these days than ever before. You can adopt a number of social selling techniques to get names, contacts, job descriptions, digital nuances and much more of potential customers.

Cold calling someone after conducting this kind of proper research is not cold calling at all, it is 'warm calling' as some call it. However, these calls are still technically unsolicited so 'warm' is debatable.

Outbound Cold Calling

Traditional cold calling is all about conversion. They push for immediate sales, are rushed, abrupt and often the person being called has no prior knowledge of the brand or service. This is where cold calling the outbound way differs.

The idea is to add value before pushing for anything. The first contact will always be helpful and provide value and not try to sell you anything. Some research suggests that three-quarters of buyers select the first salesperson that provides some value or insight. This is where the research conducted prior to the call gives outbound cold calling an advantage.

You can research and identify the common issues and challenges being faced by the person you call to immediately start helping them solve those issues. This adds value rather than rushing to extract value (money) from potential customers. A good practice is to deliver content through email, social media or other online platforms before making these calls.

This gives you the advantage of knowing how the prospect is interacting with your content and it gives them a good idea of who they are talking to when you turn up cold calling. Depending on how they interact with your content, you may gain insight on what they are looking for or where they need value for you to provide on your initial contact.

Research, context and outreach is how cold calling the outbound way differentiates itself from traditional cold calling.

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People today have an extreme aversion to products or services being forced upon them. This is why research, context and outreach are important to create a relevant and more meaningful conversation on first contact. 

Cold calling without context will waste your time as well as the prospect's. Modern day outbound cold calling should aim to add more value to your potential customers and improve their perception of your brand.