Cold Calling Virtual Assistant

Cold calling is when you reach out to potential customers to encourage them to purchase your products or services, even without prior contact on their end. While some salespeople and even more customers dislike cold calling, it is a very powerful tool, especially for business-to-business (B2B) sales.

The key to effective cold calling is identifying good call prospects and knowing the most appropriate channel for contact. Despite the name, cold calling is not strictly limited to actual phone calls. Apart from phone calls, cold calling can include contacting potential leads using various channels, like email or social media. However, while these latter methods are quicker, they are also less interactive and easier to ignore. The interaction in voice calls can be an important tool for persuasiveness.

Cold calling is a must for any sales strategy, but it’s not something that business owners should do themselves. After all, it can take up quite a bit of time that entrepreneurs can put to better use crafting high-level strategy for the business. This is why having a virtual assistant cold calling for you can be a cost-effective, ideal solution.

A cold calling assistant can handle the implementation and optimization of your organization’s cold sales calls. From looking for qualified leads, to creating and tweaking the cold call script, good cold calling virtual assistants are able to not only increase the number of cold calls made per day, but also ideally increase the conversion of cold calls to appointments. Cold calling VAs are an invaluable help for sales managers, and can free up time for upper management to concentrate on more broad-level tactics.

Cold calling virtual assistants can handle many different aspects of the cold calling process. Here are just a few tasks that your cold calling VA can do for you:

• Identifying and qualifying leads
  Creating call lists doesn’t just entail writing down everyone you can think of. In order to improve conversions and save time on fruitless calls, cold calling VAs must be able to choose only the best and most appropriate people to make contact with. Cold calling VAs don’t just stop there, they can also identify specific pain points of the contact that your business can address. That way, each call is tailored towards success.

• Creating and modifying your cold call script
  One of the worst things you can do in a cold call is being unprepared. When you’re not ready for the call you will miss points and veer off course. This can burn bridges and turn off potential clients. This is why it is important for cold calling VAs to create scripts for their calls. This way, they can ensure that they are saying everything relevant that needs to be expressed, while also limiting the amount of non-sequiturs in the call. Each new call gives a cold caller VA new feedback, and VAs are able to process that feedback and update their scripts to be more effective in future calls.

• Reviewing and improving their calling technique
  One common mistake people do when cold calling is being too stiff and always following the same process and script like a machine. Cold calling VAs can review calls already made and create a list of cold calling tips and best practices that best suit your business. This way, cold callers can remain on point but still be flexible enough to be engaging to customers.

With such a key role in organizations, cold callers must possess various skills to be effective. The following are must-have skills for your cold calling virtual assistant:

• Excellent interpersonal communication skills
  Unlike when reaching out to already interested customers, which is called warm calling, cold callers in sales teams have to be much more sensitive to conversational cues. It is not enough to be “okay” in communication. Since cold callers are coming from essentially nowhere, with no introduction or context at times, they have to be able to engage the potential customer from the moment he or she picks up the phone.

• Ability to think on their feet
  One of the greatest strengths of cold calling is the human-to-human interaction aspect. Whether the cold calling VA is talking to a gatekeeper or a decision maker, it is important for them to adapt to the different turns their conversation may take. This makes their cold calls sound more genuine and relatable, and can vastly improve conversion.

• Persistence and ability to take criticism
  Cold calling is not easy, and cold calling virtual assistants will experience a lot of rejection and criticism from prospective leads. Thus, it is especially important for cold calling VAs to not only remain calm despite numerous rejections, but that they are able to glean usable feedback from rejections and convert it to action and changes in their scripts or techniques.

Looking for qualified cold calling virtual assistants can be time-consuming and frustrating. This is why it’s best to partner with reputable companies like 20four7VA when looking for a cold calling VA for your business. 20four7VA can pool possible candidates for you. Once you are presented with applicants, it is important not only to look at their credentials yourself, but also interview them to look at their fit for your business culture, and the tone you want to set with your clients. Afterward, 20four7VA can help onboard your chosen VA for seamless integration into your work processes.

20four7VA is a very versatile platform that can help you get just the right kind of VA for your business needs. Ready to get started? Schedule your FREE consultation call today!