by Cold calling has always been a standard part of the typical sales strategy. But it’s also something that people dread. Which is why, in this article, I’ll be outlining 5 ways you can get new clients without cold calling.
Most of the time, cold calls don’t deliver the results that you hope for. The more you rely on outbound connections for selling, the more your brand reputation suffers, as potential clients may begin to find you annoying and overbearing.
This sales practice can be especially tiresome to introverted entrepreneurs. The good news, however, is that cold calling isn’t the only way to get more clients.
How to get new clients without cold calling
There are tons of other things that you can do to connect with the clients that your business needs. You might even find that switching to some of these modern client generation tactics strengthens the relationships you have with customers.
Here are just five new ways to get started.
Embrace warm calling
Prospects often get annoyed by cold calls because it feels as though companies are targeting them almost at random. There’s no initial relationship between the brand and the consumer that would necessitate a call. The conversation rarely feels relevant to the consumer.
One of the best ways to boost your chances of connecting with customers successfully is to try warm calls instead.
What’s a warm lead?
A warm lead is someone that has already shown interest in your brand. This might be a person who liked your post on social media or shared something from your company. Your warm leads can also include people who sign up for your email newsletter or send a message to your team.
Generate warm leads with lead magnets
One effective method of generating warm leads is to use a lead magnet. These assets are freebies that represent the nature of your brand. For instance, you might give away a free demo of your software or a sample of your cleaning spray.
Some businesses use entirely digital lead magnets, like eBooks that demonstrate their thought leadership, or a printable checklist. Digital lead magnets are often more affordable because companies don’t have to invest in shipping items out to clients.
With your lead magnet, you show your customers what your company stands for while attracting warm leads too.
To access your gift, a customer will enter their email address and name into a form on your website. This makes it easier for you to track down people who might want to buy from your business in the future.
Once you have an initial relationship with a client, you can think about adapting your first outreach experience to their needs. Since your lead has already shown interest in your products, you can refer to that experience in your warm call. This makes the conversation much more natural.
Write well-crafted cold emails
Instead of cold calling your potential customers, you can send them an email instead. A cold email gives you a chance to introduce yourself and your brand without being overbearing. Your lead can read the email at their convenience instead of randomly receiving and answering a phone call when they might be busy.
To write an effective cold email that won’t get deleted instantly, you need to do some research first.
You want to reach out to people or organizations that can truly benefit from your product or service. When reaching out to a company, you can look up their profiles on LinkedIn and find the person in charge of making purchasing decisions within their department.
Don’t forget to personalise it
The magic word here is personalisation. Refer to a post they shared or an achievement they celebrated. Spend some time on crafting a strong subject line that directly addresses the person and their unique situation. Identify their most pressing issues and tell them how you can help them solve it.
Also, don’t forget that an average office worker receives about 121 emails a day. That’s a lot to go through, so try to keep your email short and on point. Don’t overbear your lead with several calls-to-action. Instead of going for a sale, invite them to schedule a call to discuss the matter further.
And don’t forget to follow up a couple of days later. Your email might be buried in a heap of unread emails. A follow up will get your lead’s attention and show you’re not just sending out mass emails in the hope that something will stick.
Sending out cold emails is cheap, and can help you put your business in front of some people who might greatly benefit from your service but wouldn’t get to know about you otherwise.
Engage with customers online
Providing freebies for your audience is an excellent way to make your business stand out and boost your chances of connections with warm leads. However, there are also other ways you can engage with your clients in the digital world.
For instance, creating content tailored to various stages of the buyer journey will help to keep you front-of-mind with leads.
You might start by creating a podcast where people can learn more about your industry and what you do. A video channel on YouTube could help people who want to learn more about your product see how it works.
Learning more about your services or products puts your leads one step closer to purchasing from you because they will know what to expect. The more content you can create to help them solidify their purchasing decision, the easier it will be to convert them to customers further down in their journey.
One of the easiest ways to engage with consumers through content is to use a blog on your website. With keyword research and a few basic SEO strategies, you can find out what your clients are looking for online.
Creating content around the topics your potential customers are interested in and optimizing it for search engines improves your chances of ranking at the top of the search results. The higher you rank, the greater your conversions.
Turn customers into advocates
If you have an amazing product and fantastic customer service to offer, then you’ll eventually begin to generate some happy customers.
Don’t just let your journey with these people end after they make a purchase. At the end of every customer journey, make sure that you have a strategy to maintain relationships with loyal customers.
A referral program for your happy clients can be an excellent way to generate new opportunities in the future. Your referral program should focus on rewarding both the customer that sends new prospects your way and the clients that come to your business.
For instance, you might give your customer and their friends a $5 discount for every referral. Alternatively, you could create a referral program where people generate points for each referral, which they can later put towards paying for goods.
Re-target old leads
Finally, just because a customer didn’t necessarily want to buy your item the first time you interacted with them doesn’t mean that they never want to hand over their cash. If you fail to make a sale with a group of people in your email or contact list, consider adding them to another group to reach out to again in the future.
This segment will be full of people who aren’t right for your original offer but might appreciate future deals and packages. Every time you have a new contract or discount to give your clients, reach out to the people who might have ignored your efforts before.
You might even discover a brand new sales avenue you hadn’t considered before.
Just remember that if anyone ever asks to be removed from your list, you’ll need to respect their wishes, or risk some severe repercussions.
Getting new clients
If you want to get new without cold calling, the key to success is figuring out how to connect with potential clients without ruining your chances of a good brand reputation.
Try using the steps above to increase your chances of sales, and make sure that you keep track of any statistics and marketing reports that you generate along the way. Measuring the results of every sales strategy you run will help you to make the right investments in the future.
