Best practices for a successful outbound calls strategy

What Are Outbound Calls?

An outbound call service is a process that involves customer representatives making outbound calls to prospects or clients. Outbound calling is typically used for:

• customer service;
• NGO and charity;
• telemarketing sales;
• cold calling;
• research and surveys;
• business information inquiry;
• customer notifications.  

Therefore, the outbound calling strategy applies to sales, telemarketing, or fundraising. Its primary purpose is to ignite a customer’s interest in a product or service. However, it is also used to upsell, close a sales deal, and achieve other business goals.

Outbound Call Center Best Practices

Define your goals

To create an effective outbound call strategy, you have to outline specific goals that would guide your agents throughout their work.

!Think about the results you expect to accomplish from outbound calls and how to get there!

For example, set a specific goal for a sales number you want to achieve every month or the number of conversions you intend to make each quarter. It will give your reps an idea of their expectations and incentivize them to work towards those specific outcomes. Remain ambitious but realistic when setting those numbers.

Use KPIs

It’s important to measure the effectiveness and progress of your outbound contact strategy to show you whether you’re moving in the right direction. Key performance indicators (KPIs) can help you evaluate your agents’ performance and ability to keep up with your organization’s goals. Here are three main things that should be measured:

• First call close

It shows the number of deals made only with one call concerning agents’ total number of calls. If the percentage is below average, it indicates the weakness of your strategy or your agents’ performance, or both. 

• Average handle time

The call length can show how persuasive and efficient the agent is. Normally, if reps spend too much time on a call and it becomes a pattern, they have poor selling skills or insufficient knowledge of a product or service. 

• Conversion rate

This measurement shows the percentage of calls converted to sales. Your conversion rate will be pretty high if your outbound sales call strategy is effective. If you set store by pre-sale and post-sale journey with your product, you should cooperate with SaaS customer service to assist customers at best.

Provide quality training

Though you are the person who develops the outbound calls script and strategy, your agents will be the ones to put it into practice, so it’s vital to provide quality training for your employees.

1. Create a training strategy to help new hires assimilate a company’s principles and get familiar with your product/service well enough to promote it.
2. Once your reps have a solid knowledge base, focus on training their communication skills.
3. Since the most common purpose of outbound calls is selling, agents have to be good at persuasion and winning customer trust.

Make sure your agents know how to make outbound calls and possess quality skills before letting them start making outbound inquiries. 

Target qualified leads

Make a list of qualified leads and have your reps contact those prospects. You have to do thorough research on your prospective and existing customers and determine whether your services can fulfill their needs.

Additionally, use your CRM to track qualified leads. The CRM data can help you determine the lead’s level of interest in your service and whether it is worth pursuing that prospect or not.

Outbound Call Tips

Cold calling is one of the most direct and brutal parts of sales. People have no idea who you are, what you want from them, and when this all ends. It still works and results if you have the proper methodology and know the following tips.

Use proper tonality

In the first 5 seconds, you have to build rapport and trust with your prospect with proper tonality. It’s not about what you say but how you say it.

• Sound confident and sure of yourself.
• Sound positive
• Sound friendly and open.
• Don’t sound needy.
• Don’t sound like a jerk.
• Don’t sound unsure of yourself.

When people feel your confidence, they are more likely to be receptive to you.

Introduce yourself and ask how they are doing

When your prospects pick up the phone, don’t start overwhelming them with information about your services. Instead, show them your interest in their needs. Start with something like, “Hey Mary. I’m Kate from Y-company. How are you doing?”.

This approach builds credibility and shows your interest. At long last, you did some research and found her name. Besides, you relate more to them after they say something about their day.

Ask for help

The second line is, “I’m a little lost… Do you mind if I take a second to tell you why I’m calling?”. When someone asks for help, other people will respond. Give prospects control over the problem-solving process and lead the conversation toward your offer.

Clearly explain the purpose of your call

Let the person know what to expect from this call.

For example, say, “I am part of human capital management and help hospitals upgrade their HR software. I’m calling you because, on your website, I saw that you’re using no software when recruiting. Can I learn about your business in 5 minutes or less to know if I can help you? If we match, we could work together in some capacity”.

In such a way, you decrease the prospect’s resistance significantly: you explain who you are, what you do, what value you could bring, how long it will last, and what will happen at the end of the conversation. Moreover, you don’t push a person to some idea but ask permission, which relaxes and attracts.

Conclusion

Following this pattern will ensure a consistently positive outcome and progress.

• Outbound calling needs an effective strategy to bring successful results.
• The three key elements of developing such a strategy are making a plan, implementing it during the call, and measuring agents’ performance.
• Make sure your agents receive proper training and acquire the necessary skills and knowledge for making calls on your behalf.
• Call only those prospects who you think would be interested in your services.
• Make customers feel valued and important during your interactions.

If you need professional assistance, book a WOW call to get a qualified 30-minute consultation to make your outbound sales work.