Key Ingredients for Successful B2B Cold Calling Campaigns
If you sell to healthcare, you need to read this.
Companies targeting healthcare markets should consider some form of cold calling to reach new prospects and expand.
Business-to-business cold calling, especially in the healthcare space, is increasingly becoming one of the most effective ways to reach new decision makers. During the COVID-19 pandemic, historical means of lead generation are no longer viable, yet market needs remain high.
Telephone outreach is more than randomly calling names you find on Google. In fact, it’s a comprehensive effort built around technology, processes, training and monitoring, and measurement—all to get the best possible results from systematic telephone and email efforts.
Here’s the short list of what you need to consider before starting your program:
1. The most important ingredient is your calling list.
Many don’t realize that the list contributes 70 percent to the success of your program. You must have a list of entities that are likely to need or want your offering.
There are a range of high-quality list sources, including some that specialize in healthcare. Because of the dynamics of the healthcare market, you should consider selecting calling records based on the type of organization that typically buys your offering, entities’ historical growth, presence/absence of mergers, the types of technology already in place, and of course, specific decision-maker titles.
Here’s an important tip: It doesn’t matter how great your offering is or how much it will help your prospects. If the list you are using doesn’t include companies who need your service, you won’t get results.
Never start a cold calling campaign without seriously planning your calling list.
2. Prospects must be able to understand your product or service over the phone within 10-15 seconds.
If your message is confusing, your prospects will get bored or frustrated and hang up.
Start by creating curiosity and credibility. Speak to the prospect in both economic and personal terms. Then immediately tell the prospect what you want them to do—accept a meeting, agree to a phone call, attend a webinar, etc.
Leave little time between your introduction and the call to action.
If your prospects quickly understand why you are calling them, what you can do for them, and what action you want them to take, you’ll greatly improve your results.
Especially during the pandemic, healthcare prospects have little time for cold calls that don’t add value, so getting right to the point is essential.
3. Make sure the caller has the right tone of voice.
When we talk to C-level executives, we have to be articulate and confident. If we’re talking to the production manager, our callers should take a plain-speaking, no-frills approach.
4. Don’t forget metrics.
We ask our clients to set goals, and then we monitor progress against them. These goals might include the number of calls per hour, the number of dials per appointment, and other metrics that will help our clients and VSA calculate the success of campaigns.
5. One ingredient many cold callers overlook is ‘time.’
Success doesn’t happen overnight. We typically need a week or two to refine the list even further—when calling into healthcare, being referred to the right decision maker requires navigation. We also want to weed out the entities that are not a fit for our clients’ offerings. Then our clients might need a month before they begin seeing solid, repeatable results. It’s the consistent call cadence that yields results. Clients who stop and start or change messages prematurely may never realize success.
Whether we’re calling to build an initial client base or to augment a mature pool of clients, these steps are critical.
Do you need help developing your lead list or calling prospects? Reach out to schedule a call with our team.
