How to Make effective Lead Calls

Lead calling is also called warm calling and is part of Lead Management. With this type of call, the potential customer has previously interacted with a company in one or more of the following ways:

• Accepted an offer received via a company email
• Called the company concerning a product
• Followed a company social media page
• Liked or commented on a company social media post
• Became a customer of the company

It’s important to note that lead calling has no value if a company hasn’t generated interest or demand for its products or services. Demand generation marketing should be the focus before any lead calling strategy is introduced.

A cold call is a sales call that a potential customer (see all 8 steps on how to win a customer) will receive totally out of the blue. They will have never interacted with the company or a sales representative of the company before. Leads for cold calling come from various sources, such as lists from a lead provider. Cold call leads can also be generated with the help of AI.

Lead calls, on the other hand, are initiated after some kind of interaction between the company and potential customers. Typically, leads calls have a higher success rate than cold calls.

There are many advantages to using lead calls as part of a company’s sales and marketing strategy. For example:

Consistency:

Lead calls are more relatable and expected by the customer which means they consistently reach more prospects and create more customers. With a lead call, the sales person can directly address the customer and establish a relationship straight away.

Targeting:

The opportunity for a lead call is initiated from a prospective customer’s interaction with the company. The audience is much narrower and already predisposed to consider purchasing from the company. The result is often higher sales.

More acceptable:

Because lead calls are so personal, they are far more acceptable for potential customers. A lead call provides the opportunity for a company to relate to a customer and build a relationship before discussing a purchase. Cold calls, on the other hand, are random which makes establishing a relationship very challenging.

If your sales team wants to improve their lead calls, they should consider the following steps.

Google call extensions allow anyone who sees a company’s ad to easily tap and dial the company contact phone number. The phone number might be listed next to the ad or a clickable button can be added to the ad that customers can use if their device permits it.

It’s also an option that is simple to assess its effectiveness thanks to conversion tracking that can be set up in a Google Ads account.

Emails are one of the most enduring and oldest digital marketing channels. New ways of engaging with customers have come and gone, but emails still have one of the highest ROI potentials.

Email marketing also receives a large percentage of its engagement via smartphones. This makes emails a very natural channel for companies wanting to be more effective with their lead calls.

The best days for making prospecting calls seem to be Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays. There also seem to be golden hours which are early morning, from 8-9 am, and late afternoon, from 4-5 pm. As many as 70% of prospects say the earlier they hear from a sales rep the better.

There are some other benefits to be enjoyed by scheduling ads. It saves time because you can set publishing dates for all your ads at the same time. By restricting your ads to specific time slots you’re more efficient at reaching your audience.

A great way to create leads is via this 8 Step Lead Generation Framework for LinkedIn Paid Ads.

Virtual numbers is a telephone number that isn’t bound to a physical location.

When it comes to marketing, virtual numbers can be very useful because they provide the ability to track where the most successful leads are coming from.

It’s possible to have more than one virtual number and you can allocate one for each offline campaign. That way you have the mechanism to identify which campaign prompted the call.

Once you have a lead caller’s attention, you must keep that attention. Some of the better ways to do it are by:

• Asking them whether they have any interests and what they are.
• Questioning them about their interests in the company products or the company itself.
• Responding in a moderate way by sharing information about yourself that connects you with the caller Ultimately, there are two things you need to keep the caller focused on: your company and the products you sell. Encouraging them to stay on topic will help them stay focused on the product and hopefully more towards making a sale.

It wasn’t very long ago when most people would have a handful of telephone numbers they could quickly recall. For the average person, these would be the phone numbers of close family members and friends. It might also include the phone numbers of a few local businesses.

Those days are long past, and most people store phone numbers on their tablets and smartphones, so there’s no need to remember them.

Even so, there is value to be had in creating and using an easy-to-remember contact number. It could be a number that represents your brand identity.

It’s important to take your time when creating a new phone number, but here are a couple of errors to avoid:

• Don’t misspell words or phrases as these will make it harder for customers to remember your number.
• Avoid using informal language as this could alienate your audience because they are unfamiliar with the words or idioms.
• Don’t use words that have nothing to do with your business. Your phone number should be a reflection of your business.

Lead calls are an effective way of generating sales, as long as they are carefully researched and backed by good intent. The person you’re having a conversation with has to feel engaged and that the call is personal. Marketing and sales methods are changing rapidly, but old-fashioned phone calls still have a part to play in the success of your business.

There are 6 ways to improve your lead calls:

• 1. Use Google call extensions
• 2. Drive phone calls from mobile emails
• 3. Run your ads around peak call hours
• 4. Use a virtual number in offline advertisement campaigns
• 5. Maintain the caller’s attention
• 6. Get an easy-to-remember contact number