Making a first impression with your potential clients is vital to getting ahead.
When you make that cold contact, you want to ensure that they'll want to buy from you. A part of this is using the right method to reach out to your contacts. Which is better, cold calls or sales emails?
Is Emailing or Calling Better?
Cold calling and cold emailing both have their advantages when it comes to contacting potential clients. How do you work out which one is right for you?
Cold calling: The biggest benefit of cold calling is that it's much easier to get in direct contact with the prospect. You want them to get a good first impression of you, and you can control that impression when you're speaking directly to them. You'll also be able to deal with roadblocks right away, making each contact more valuable.
The drawback is that a cold call is more invasive. There are many people out there who dislike getting calls and may even screen calls to avoid sales. You'll also find they're more expensive to use as a sales tactic.
Sales emails: When it comes to cost efficiency, an email can't be beaten. “You can send a sales email to hundreds of potential leads all at once,” says Elaine Johnson, a marketing writer from Write My Research Proposal and Dissertation Writing Service. “You can send a huge amount of emails in the time it takes to make one call.” You can track emails easily too, so you can keep tabs on them and see what approaches are working.
The drawback here is that an email is much easier to ignore overall. The client could get lots of emails every day, and just simply delete them from their inbox, unread. They can even be blocked, so they won't even see them.
Use Statistics to Help Make a Decision
How do you decide which method to use in your sales pitches?
There are lots of tactics you can use, such as picking the right time of day to make a contact and understanding your objective in this connection. What you can also do is look at the stats that are available to you, and use this in your decision-making.
Cold Calling Stats:
- The best times to make cold calls are Wednesday and Thursday just before lunch, at 11 am – 12 pm, or between 4 pm – 5 pm.
- It can take up to 6 call attempts to convert a lead, and increasing call attempts can increase your chances by up to 70%.
- 48% of reps don't make any follow-up attempt after a cold call.
Sales Emailing Stats:
- The typical cold email response rate is just 1%.
- Personalized emails sent during the late morning and late afternoon have better click-through rates.
- Discussing ROI in a cold email can reduce responses by up to 15%.
Cold Outreach Tools Available to You
As you can see, there are positives and negatives to both cold sales options. You'll need to pick the one that works best for your business. Whatever you decide on, there are lots of different tools out there that you can put to good use, and get the most out of these contacts.
Outreach.io: This tool gives you a platform where you can manage all your contacts together. It makes it easy to send personalized emails, and conduct outbound calls. It also allows teams to share data, to increase your output.
Icebreaker by UpContent: “This is an excellent tool for cold callers” says Adam Phillips, a journalist at Origin Writings and Brit Student. “It finds third-party content to help you make stronger connections with the potential leads you're calling.”
Hubspot Email Tracking Software: This is a free tool that you can use with your regular inbox. It lets you know if a lead has opened your email, and whether they've clicked through. Having that info shows you what's working in your emails, and what isn't.
Now you have some insight into what works in your cold contacts, and what won't. Picking the right method is important, but also you'll want to ensure you're making contact at the right time and using the right content.
