Did you know the vast majority of customer interactions occur via phone calls?
In fact, 92% of all customer exchanges still happen over the phone. Even with the blanket presence of email, social networks and video conferencing, most customer touchpoints still occur through sales calls. What’s more, that doesn’t seem to be changing anytime soon. So, what does that mean for you as a coach?
It means it’s essential to familiarize yourself with the over-the-phone sales pitch – especially if you’re selling high-ticket offers.
You should know the various types of sales calls, what is the difference between a hot call and a cold call, how to follow up with a new prospect or an existing customer, as well as more that we cover in this article. Sales are the bloodline of any business. So, your success will be dependent on understanding the different sales call types and how to convert leads into clients effectively.
Keep reading to understand the most effective sales call types.
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What is a Sales Call?
In its simplest sense, a traditional sales call is a persuasion conversation. In other words, a sales call involves a sales representative encouraging a prospective customer to purchase a product or service over the phone or Zoom. A successful sales call allows the prospect to learn more about your product, service, or business.
Sales calling establishes rapport with potential customers and gently leads them through the buyer’s journey. The former is the most critical part as it enables you to determine their pain points, struggles, frustrations, and how to help solve those challenges.
The Importance of Sales Calls for Your Business
There are many advantages to making those difficult but necessary traditional sales calls. While it may be challenging at times, the reward is more than worth the effort. Here are a few reasons why sales calls are essential for your coaching business or entrepreneurial startup.
1. Know, like, and trust
Spending money is an emotional process. As such, you want to ensure your prospective clients feel safe in doing business with you. They need to know your credibility, that you will deliver results, and that you can help them solve their problems. In short, you need to establish the “know, like, and trust” factor with prospects. And one of the most effective methods for accomplishing this is through a sales pipeline.
2. Product awareness
No one will know about your products or services if you don’t announce it. And that’s where sales calls can be very beneficial. Sales calls help you generate awareness about your offer. That doesn’t necessarily mean prospects will be knocking at your door begging for your services just because you made a few calls. However, it produces the necessary awareness so that prospects will think of and contact you when the time is right.
3. Competitive edge
Your goal with sales calls isn’t just to make the sale. It’s more advantageous to connect with prospects, create rapport, as well as listen to their struggles and pain points. Customer satisfaction depends on your understanding of the prospect.
Moreover, effective sales calls allow you to create goodwill, which makes it more likely you’ll be the one prospects want to hire when they’re ready. As a result, you’ll gain the edge over your competitors who couldn’t be bothered to take the time to reach out in this manner.
4. Business growth
Committing to a sales call outreach regime can be incredibly helpful for the growth of your business. It can lay the foundation for trust, translating into a promising sales partnership. As a result, sales calls are an excellent method for business growth, whether you’re a coach, speaker or entrepreneur.
5. Build relationships
You must prioritize relationships as a business owner. High-quality, mutually beneficial relationships are the foundation of any successful business and sales strategy. And cold calling can be an effective method for finding and connecting with qualified leads. To ensure customer satisfaction, your main objective with sales calls should be establishing trust.
6 Types of Sales Calls to Land New Clients
Now that you understand the necessity of sales calls, we can explore the various types of sales calls. There are different kinds of cold and warm calls – each with its own objectives and utility. By becoming familiar with them, you can create the conditions for success in your business.
Here are 6 types of sales calls that can help you land new clients as a coach, speaker, or entrepreneur:
1. Cold calls
The cold call is the most intimidating of all the different sales call types.
This outreach strategy consists of contacting prospects you have no previous connection to with the intent of getting them interested in your product or service. Many coaches and even sales teams are unnerved by these initial calls. However, cold calling is essential for reaching new customers, so don’t let the brazen nature of this type of sales call deter you.
Some of the benefits to successful cold calls include:
- Gain insights into your target market
- Effective strategy to reach decision-makers
- Cost-effective method for lead conversion
- Prospecting and sales process development
- Improving your communication skills
- Increase your bottom line
- More deals and more sales
Making cold calls is a numbers game – success will come from volume. So, to see your cold outreach efforts pay off, you’ll need to develop grit and persistence. If you make enough calls, you’re bound to find someone who needs what you have to offer eventually.
Additionally, with cold calls being the most intimidating form of outreach, it’s important to prepare yourself. Here are a few ideas that may be helpful:
- Embrace rejection: You will hear many no’s with this approach, no matter how good your objection handling. And that’s okay. In fact, it’s to be expected. So, you have to embrace rejection in this process. And the best way to do that? See each “no” as getting you one step closer to a “yes.” And remember, there are always more deals.
- Lead with value: Think of each call as a service call where you’re always leading with value. People have problems, and your products, services, and coaching, can be the solution they’re looking for. So, always come with the perspective of trying to give. You do that by listening, being empathic, and genuinely taking the time to understand your prospects before offering a pitch.
2. Warm calls
The warm call consists of contacting leads who already know, like, and trust you.
Or, at the very least, they have expressed some interest in your product or service. As a result, these types of sales calls are usually the most streamlined. However, that doesn’t mean you should immediately pounce on them with an offer when you get them on the phone.
Think of it like dating…
Even if a prospective lover is interested, you wouldn’t ask for their hand in marriage on the first date. That would be inappropriate and out of sequence. Instead, you would court them: Ask questions, be inquisitive, and simply take the time to find out who they are and what they’re about.
Then, you determine if they’re a good fit for you.
This same concept applies to the warm calls in your sales cycle. You must qualify warm leads to see how to serve them with your product or service.
Warm calls are the easiest. However, even this scheduled call still requires some prep work if you want things to go your way. Here are some simple ideas to keep in mind to facilitate a positive outcome for warm calls.
- Listen attentively: Sales effectiveness comes down to simply paying attention. Even warm leads still require the presence of a sympathetic ear – it helps to establish the trust needed to influence that final buying decision.
- Be authentic: It can be tempting to hide behind a script. But prospects will always respond better to your authenticity than they will to your perfectly crafted sales script.
3. Discovery calls
Once a potential customer enters your high-ticket sales funnel and shows interest in your services, you can move on to the discovery call. This sales call type is simply a conversation to learn more about your prospects and further establish customer relationships. It’s an opportunity for you to dig deeper, uncover their struggles and frustrations, and determine how your services can help.
This is where your coaching skills of good questioning and active listening will serve you. Think of this step as a free coaching call. It helps you to learn more about your prospect’s needs and issues. Here are a few discovery call questions that may be useful:
- Why are you considering coaching?
- What are the challenges you’re currently experiencing?
- What goals do you have that you feel a coaching relationship can help you to achieve?
- Why do you think you’re currently struggling with these goals?
- What have you tried in the past that hasn’t worked for you?
- What is your budget regarding the solution to your problem?
A good rule of thumb with your discovery call questions is to keep them open-ended. Moreover, they should be “qualifying” questions as well. You should ask questions that reveal as much information as possible about their struggles, fears, goals and aspirations.
This data will give you more confidence in determining whether a working relationship between the two of you is a good fit.
4. Follow-up calls
The follow-up call is absolutely critical. It simply means following up prospects with whom you’ve had prior contact. It’s often forgotten among sales representatives. But here’s the deal… You leave money on the table when you fail to use follow-up calls consistently with your prospects.
Recent stats prove the necessity of the follow-up call:
- Up to 5 follow-ups are required for 80% of sales calls
- 60% of people say “no” at least 4 times before saying “yes”
- You can increase your response rate by up to 9x by following up within 5 minutes of an incoming lead
- Only 3% of your market is prepared to buy at any given time
- 75% of purchasers want and expect at least 2 to 4 calls (don’t give up prematurely)
These stats and other similar figures validate the follow-up process. You need to do follow-up calls with your new prospects as well as existing customers. This may feel intimidating as a coach. However, the data doesn’t lie.
And the numbers reveal how essential it is to keep on top of those touchpoints to ensure the success of your business.
5. Prospecting calls
Prospecting calls involve some thorough research.
Why? Because you’re looking for a decision-maker in the company. For example, if you’re selling a coaching package to corporate executives, you’ll need to do some research to pinpoint the person who can make that final buying decision. This will take time, but the rewards will justify the effort when done properly.
Moreover, a prospecting call should not be confused with a cold call.
While there are similarities between the two (being that both sales call types involve cold outreach), there are also distinct differences that separate them. Prospecting calls involve a careful, more precise action plan for finding the right person to pitch your services to – it’s more of a “sniper approach” as it requires time and diligence to find the right contact.
Conversely, cold calls are more of a broad-stroke “shotgun approach,” where you’re starting as many sales conversations as possible to find a lead already in the buying mode.
6. Sales appointment calls
The sales appointment call is essential.
It’s at this part of the sales process where you finalize everything and hash out the details. The sales appointment call is the connecting link that bridges the gap between a warm lead and a new client. For this reason, it’s important you show up prepared for this call.
At this stage, the prospect is clear about you and your service, likes the value proposition, and is ready to buy.
However, the sale is not guaranteed quite yet…
Why? Because objections, concerns, and questions can still arise with these potential clients. And if handled improperly, it could spell the end of that prospective business relationship. So be ready to handle any last-minute resistance on your sales appointment calls.
There are a couple of steps you can take to create the conditions for a favorable sales appointment call. Consider the following:
- Prepare yourself: Doing some preliminary work to ensure success with your sales appointment calls is beneficial. This can include last-minute research into their business, frustrations, and pain points to refresh your memory of your prospective client’s most pressing problems.
- Be ready for objections: Although prospects are ready to buy at this point, objections are still common. So, it’s important to know how to overcome them. While it’s difficult to know what a prospect may object to, consider a few of the most common ones to prepare yourself: Send me more information, I should consult with my partner some more, and it’s too expensive.
Regardless of where you are in your entrepreneurial journey, understanding the various types of sales calls is critical. It puts you in the driver’s seat of your business. Moreover, you’ll develop the confidence required to put your services out there and easily drum up new leads anytime.
And as a coach, speaker, business owner, or sales professional, that skill set will serve you better than almost anything else.
Next Step: Get Sales Appointments With a Virtual Summit
At Entrepreneurs HQ, we are an expert team of speakers, coaches, CEOs, and business owners helping entrepreneurs thrive. As such, we’ve simplified the process of growing your business and booking different types of sales calls. That’s because today’s entrepreneurial climate calls for you to create connections, not just sales. Your customers don’t want to do business with a cold corporation. Instead, they want authenticity and originality from brands they know and trust.
And one of the best ways to generate that personal connection is through online events. So, if you’re ready to create connections, sell your high-ticket offers, and skyrocket your business, then download our proven 6-step checklist for a successful virtual summit.