• Posted On Monday, October 29, 2018 by SalesLeads, Inc.

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    Even with the advent of inbound marketing strategies, cold calling remains one of the most popular promotional methods used by contractors. Not to be confused with warm calling, it specifically involves calling prospects with whom you've had no prior contact. And while cold calling can undoubtedly be effective at reaching prospects and converting them into customers, many contractors fail when using this strategy for the following four reasons.

    #1) Calling the Wrong Number

    Unfortunately, it's not uncommon for B2B sales reps to call the wrong number. Even if a prospect has provided you with his or her contact information, that information could be wrong. According to Experian, 94% of companies believe their customer information is outdated or otherwise incorrect.

    As a result, their contractors waste countless hours calling the wrong number. To prevent this from happening to your company, validate prospects' contact information before attempting to cold call them.

    One of the best ways to validate the phone number is with SalesLeads’ Sales & Marketing Intelligence. The service allows you to look up a particular company or person and validate their name, title, address, email address and phone number. Many times, we’ll have their direct dial so you can bypass the company gatekeeper. Our job is to maintain the integrity of our data, and as a result our data is 95% accurate, quality you can come to trust.

    Once that information performs for you, now you can conduct a specific search and find other like companies to call. It’s a great way for contractors to maximize calling efforts in order to keep the field technicians working.

    #2) Only Calling Once

    We've talked about this before on our blog, but it's worth mentioning again that it can take several calls to convince a prospect to make a purchase. If you give up after one call, you may fail to convert the prospect into a customer. A report published by HubSpot suggests that it takes eight calls to convince the average B2B buyer to make a purchase. In some cases, it can take more than eight calls.

    #3) Not Reaching the Decision Maker

    When cold calling prospects, consider whether or not they have the authority to make purchases on behalf of their company. You can spend a half-hour talking to a prospect and nurturing them, but it's not going to yield a sale unless he or she has purchasing authority. This is why it's important to reach the decision maker when cold calling facility prospects. If a prospect can't make purchases, ask him or her to connect you to someone who can.

    #4) Not Leaving Contact Information

    Don't forget to provide facility prospects with your own contact information when cold calling them. Why is this necessary? Well, as previously mentioned, it takes an average of eight calls to convince a facility prospect to make a purchase. By leaving your contact information with prospects, they'll be able to reach out directly to you if they have questions or concerns. It's just one more way that you ease prospects worries while simultaneously encouraging them to buy your product or service.


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