Cold Calling vs. Outbound Calling

There is a significant difference between cold calling and outbound calling. In this article, you’ll learn effective strategies for cold calling and outbound calling to attract new customers to your business.

Cold Calling vs. Outbound Calling

Are you wondering about the difference between cold calling and outbound calling? While the two are similar and have some overlap, there are a few key differences. Today, we will review the two types of calling and provide tips for optimizing them within your call center.

What Is an Outbound Call?

In the customer service world, this is when a consumer or business receives an incoming call from a company or brand. Outbound calls are made for many reasons: to pitch a service or product, for fundraising purposes, to make or remind customers of bookings, to follow up on a previous conversation or even to ask for post-purchase feedback. Not all outbound calls are categorized as cold calls; however, all cold calls are a form of outbound calling.

What Is a Cold Call?

A cold call refers to an “unsolicited” phone call made by a business to a potential customer. This includes referrals given to you by another brand or customer. The term applies to any potential consumer who has yet to explicitly express interest in or reach out in any way to your brand. Cold calling can lead to new partnerships, bigger sales and more diverse business—but they need to be done correctly. Otherwise, they can be viewed as a nuisance.

What Is an Outbound Caller,  and What Do They Do?

An outbound caller, or an outbound agent, is a type of customer service representative. Typically, they work from a call center. Unlike inbound agents, they don’t take any phone calls—they only make them. An outbound caller will perform any outgoing phone communication. This might include services like appointment reminders, delivery of test results, lead response management, resolution callbacks and feedback surveys. Outbound calling agents can also help businesses make cold sales calls and pitches when necessary.

How to Cold Call Businesses

Are you looking for B2B cold call sales techniques? We have several effective cold call strategies in our repertoire—it’s about creating a personal touch. By trying these strategies, you might be able to raise your success rates of cold calling.

• Do Your Research

  It comes down to respect. Think of it from a personal angle. Let’s imagine you are hoping to meet somebody on a dating app. What would you be more likely to respond to—a copy-paste note that calls you by the wrong name, or a personalized message about your shared interests? Most people would find the latter much more appealing—and may find the former a bit rude. The same principle applies to cold calling. When a business receives a cold call or pitch from somebody who didn’t research their brand, it’s often not well received. After all, why invest time (and money) into working with a company that can’t be bothered to do the same?

• Prepare a Script (With Multiple Options)

  With a script, you’ll never slip. Cold calls can go in various directions. Your champion will be a script with several answering options for different conversations. Not only will a detailed script give your outbound callers better tools to handle every situation, but they are also the perfect way to create a cohesive brand experience across all your channels.

• Listen and Respond

  Yes, you have a script, but it’s important to stay in the moment and respond naturally. If your cold calls sound like one giant monologue, and your scripted responses are robotic and not always relevant to the questions asked, your pitch isn’t going to be successful. Be sure to listen to what the person on the other end of the phone is saying, and find a response that shows you heard them. This is a conversation, not just a sales pitch.

• Put Yourself in Their Shoes

  Let’s say you run a seafood supply company and want to expand your distribution rates by cold calling waterfront restaurants. That’s a great plan! Now, let’s say that your sales team calls every restaurant on your list around noon. Unfortunately, that’s when those restaurants are filling up for lunchtime. They’ll be much too busy to hear your pitch and consider investing in your company, regardless of how freshly caught your fish might be. A small mistake like this could easily cost your company new business. That’s why we always remind businesses to put themselves in a company’s shoes before cold calling them. Consider their needs and what type of pitch could resonate with them—it will make an enormous difference.

• Let a B2B Pro Take the Reins

  Not sure how to cold call businesses? Stop worrying and let an expert take care of it. It’s time to consider outsourcing a call center service. A BPO call center like TeleDirect will relieve stress over outbound calls. After all, at TeleDirect, we’ve recruited an incredible team of live outbound agents who specialize in outbound B2B interactions, callbacks and reminder messaging, cold call sales techniques and fundraising. We work as an extension of your business; you can expect our agents to work with your unique business needs, branding, verbiage and even customized scripts. This allows your outbound B2B calls to go exactly as they would if you were making them yourself—without all the extra work on your end.

If you’re ready to let TeleDirect help improve your outbound caller game, call (800) 776-1081 today