Sales Focused Cold Calling: Why Every Marketer Should Do This.

As part of an ongoing and deliberate effort to scale our company (we clocked in 81% growth last year), something we're trying at a tactical level is dedicated outbound call days: days were the entire team are on the phone in search of quality conversations with prospects cold and warm. The goals here are many:

1. Build relationships with customers
2. Call old closed-lost leads to reignite
3. Cold call brand new contacts to establish a relationship and set a demo/meeting.

These days, we've decided, should be high-intensity, laser focused period of pure outbound calling over the phone or video call with a metric of x number of quality conversations (not # calls which can be a exercise in vanity and totally unproductive).

Everything else should take a back seat for these periods: email, social, other apps etc.

Now, what I've just described, and which is commonplace in many companies (not claiming we've hit on some brand new sales tactic) falls under the remit of the Sales team or a branch working for the sales team like telemarketing. After all, so the thinking goes, it's the Sales team that are working the opportunities against which they are measured; it isn’t something the marketing team need to get involved in.

But this shouldn't just be a sales thing. In fact, I'd argue that this is as just important to the marketing team as anyone.Before I argue my case and tell you why, let me set the scene.

Why I Started Cold Calling

My first involvement on the calls days was to contribute to the team from a busyness perspective: we wanted as many people as possible to be on the phone really to generate a buzz. We figured that  with everyone calling, generated more buzz which fed into the high intensity atmosphere on the day and the objective of getting those high quality conversations.m

From a marketing standpoint. I too had people I needed to have conversationswith: journalists, industry analysts, partners and stand builders. I too had these relationships too build, stories to 'sell', people to influence.

But as I prepared for the day, and the more I thought about it, I started to see a real case for putting my sales hat on and cold calling prospects. My reasons were thus:

• I could start to test assumptions about industry sectors. Sure, in theory, industry X absolutely needed our product but had anyone from marketing really spoken to anyone in that industry.
• I could test how certain messages were received. We're currently developing some positioning statements around new products - this was my opportunity to road-test them.- It would also allow me to make a tonne of elevator pitches as a I left messages, voicemails and answer the 'will she know what its regarding' type questions. I could try out loads and see what stuck.
• I could generate leads and uncover opportunities for the company. Hey, if the company does well, I do well. Plus, I've heard it goes down well with the sales team if you're bringing BANT proofed sales opps/meetings their way.
• I could help fill the diaries for an upcoming tradeshow. The show represents a major investment for the company and we like to go there with a diary that’s 70-80% full.
• I could walk a mile in the shoes of the sales team. Again, thinking about the company holistically, I see no down side to this.

The Preparation.

So it was decided, after catching up with analysts and journalists, I would start making outbound cold calls. This is what I did to prepare:

• Wrote a script detailing variations on my opening pitch, messages I would use, what to say during voicemails.
• Pulled together data from LinkedIn, Yell and Internet searches to come up with 40 potential companies to call: some I had the contact with, some I didn't.
• Wrote a general, multi-purpose email I could send out after each call. We have standard templates built into the CRM but because I was in test-mode, I needed these to be a little different.
• Cleared my calendar in 2 x 150 min blocks
• On the day, made a point of turning off anything that could be a distraction: email, social media (unless I needed Linked in for investigative purposes), any marketing analytics software

The Results

After making about 40 calls and, speaking to 9 prospects, this is what I found.

Being able to hear things like 'that's exactly the problem we're trying to solve' really validated the approach we were taking.

Speaking to a customer is worth its weight in gold. I was able to get some real-world feedback on my positioning statements. Being able to hear things like 'that's exactly the problem we're trying to solve' validated the approach we were taking.

On the other hand, I had some assumptions about customers that were destroyed. For example, on one particular product I assumed that end-users would like a version that could be customised for them. Fast forward to 2 conversations were I heard 'our customers do not like the idea of customisation, it's a big no-no for them.

Hearing a customer talk about a product class is like a fountain for content generation

Hearing a customer talk about a product class is like a fountain for content generation: you only have to write down what they're saying and you have in your possession titles for blog posts, webinar content, potential e-books, and subject lines.

Leaving a message should be cherished. Of course, if you're a sales guy reading this, you have permission to call me names. But for a marketer, it's priceless - you're there, with your metaphorical scalpel, scraping and scraping away at the dirt as you try to unearth some treasure. The metric for success here is a call back. If someone rings you back, you know you've hit gold and your message has resonated or, maybe, they just saw a number and were nosy. That’s always a possibility.

Unearthing opportunities feels fantastic. I managed to arrange 3 introductory meetings for the team.  What you have communicated has resonated with a real-life, living and breathing user and goes someway to solving a problem they're facing. Of course, there's the small matter of buying groups, sales cycles, actual intent, competitors, but, hey, there's something there and from a marketing perspective, that's a big gain for me.

In summary

Overall, the day was a real success with some great learnings. I've had some assumptions totally blown out of the water and also landed some great leads for the company. I have ideas-a-plenty for content and see the company more holistically. I've now decided to do this on a regular (weekly) basis and will continue to make sales cold calls. But first, I need to sort out my commission structure.