How to Succeed in B2B Cold Calling: 8 Tips for Your Customer Acquisition

1. What is cold calling in the B2B sector?
2. These forms of cold B2B cold calling exist
3. These are the advantages and disadvantages of B2B cold calling
4. What is the legal situation in B2B cold calling?
5. These 8 tips will help you in B2B cold calling
6. These tools support you in cold calling
7. Soon to be a successful salesperson

It is the crowning discipline in sales - cold calling. Perhaps you've heard this term before. But what exactly is a "cold" first contact and how does acquisition work in the B2B sector? You'll learn this in this article. In addition, you'll learn what forms of cold calling there are, what advantages and disadvantages cold calling has, and what the legal situation regarding this sales form looks like. Finally, you'll get some useful tips for your success in B2B business and learn which tools can support your cold calling. But let's start with the basics.

What is cold calling in the B2B sector?

The first contact of a company with potential customers is referred to as cold calling. There has been no previous business relationship between the two parties. This form of customer acquisition exists in both the business-to-customer and business-to-business sectors. It is therefore a form of new customer acquisition, where you try to convince your potential customers of your offer within a short time with the help of an interesting pitch. In contrast to cold calling, there is also the acquisition of "warm" leads. These are customers with whom a (business) relationship has existed before and whom you now want to address with a new exciting offer.

These forms of cold B2B cold calling exist

There are various ways of making first contact with your potential customers, all of which can in principle lead to the target. The form of approach should definitely depend on which communication channels your target group uses. These forms can be used:

• Phone acquisition: The first association of B2B cold calling is usually the telephone contact. Here you call the contact persons of the respective companies and pitch your offer on the phone. Since most people have very little time, you should inform yourself in advance about the requirements of the company and provide your contact persons with the arguments they need for a quick decision.
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• Trade fair acquisition: A visit to a trade fair can be the ideal time to make your offer known to your target group. The relevant specialist audience who visit the fair already have a high willingness to inform themselves about innovations and solutions. This can make it easier for you to establish new contacts.
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• Search engine acquisition: Nowadays there is almost nothing that search engines like Google and Co. can't do. For example, you can use Google Ads for your B2B cold calling. But how does it work? Search engines have now become the first point of contact when it comes to answering questions and finding solutions. This is where your ads come into play. You can control these so that your advertising is only played out to the companies that have a potential interest in your offer. This avoids scattering losses and saves you money! You also increase your visibility and relevance to your customers, making you appear as a potential problem solver to them.
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• Social media acquisition: In the digital age, social media is also becoming increasingly important contact points that you can and should use for your customer acquisition. Business networks like XING or LinkedIn are particularly suitable for contacting your customers. To do this, you can initially send a contact request to the respective contact persons and include them in your business network. Once they have confirmed your request, you can seek the exchange with them and bring your content into conversation at the right time. You can also use mailing services from the respective platforms, which you send to a distributor. The advantage of this is that they are personalised and your contact partners do not see that it is a general approach.
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• Acquisition by letter or e-mail: E-mail is also an important tool for your cold calling. With this form you have more space available for your offer, but you must also get to the point quickly in order to convince your potential customers that it is worthwhile to read on. Contact by letter, on the other hand, seems somewhat "old school", but for this very reason, it can stand out positively from the crowd. For certain target groups, a leaflet that they can pick up is better suited than a PDF attachment to an e-mail.

These are the advantages and disadvantages of B2B cold calling

New customer acquisition can be a major challenge and there are a few things to consider. Why is cold calling still used then?

B2B cold calling gives you the advantage that the first contact with your potential customers is quickly established. You only need the email address or phone number of your contacts to get started. In addition, you do not first have to invest money in advertising campaigns to make your customers aware of your offer, as you can explain the benefits to them directly yourself. Another advantage is that you can use cold calling for each target group, provided you select the channels suitable for it. A disadvantage of this sales form is that cold calling, i.e. contacting without prior consent of your customers, is prohibited for private individuals. So you can only use it in the B2B sector. However, the approach without previous contact can also have a negative impact on contacts in companies. These usually have little time and could be annoyed of your call or a too long email, for which they have not registered. Therefore, cold calling also has a relatively bad reputation compared to other forms of customer approach. However, if you do your job properly, you will surely dispel the prejudices of your customers in no time.

What is the legal situation in B2B cold calling?

Let's look at the legal situation for cold calling in Germany. What is allowed and what is prohibited? As is often the case when it comes to data, the Act against Unfair Competition (§ 7 UWG) and the General Data Protection Regulation (DSGVO) also apply to B2B cold calling. The UWG regulates how and when you may use cold calling in your sales. It stipulates that you may address a potential business contact, if it can be assumed that this person might be interested in your offer – but only by letter or telephone. For all other contact paths you need the consent of your contacts. A presumable interest exists when you can establish a connection to the industry (e.g. when you present agricultural machinery to farmers), there is a time reference or person relation (contacting tax advisors to prepare annual financial statements or software tools for a HR department) or some other relevant occasion.

The GDPR also stipulates that you must not suppress your telephone number during contact and you must tell your conversation partners what data you collect and store. Furthermore, it stipulates that you must obtain an explicit consent if you want to send e-mails to your customers and thus inform them about your content. For this purpose, you are best to use the Double Opt-In method. Therefore, email is generally not suitable for initial contact if you want to stay within a legally permissible framework.

These 8 tips will help you in B2B cold calling

In order to become successful quickly in cold calling, you can keep in mind some tips.

1. Know the advantages of your offer: As a salesperson, you must know the products and services of your company inside out. Always keep in mind the added value they have for your customers and what distinguishes them from the products of your competitors. Maybe you can meet your customers not only with the actual added value, but also with the price. You should know all these facts before you make your calls.
2. Know your target group: Before you pick up the phone, you need to inform yourself exactly about your target group. What do they want, where do you reach them best and who are your contacts? If you deal with the wishes and challenges of your customers, you will give them the right arguments and handle objections specifically. This will take some time at the beginning, but will pay off twice in the acquisition.
3. Set yourself goals and pursue these in a structured way: To make cold calling a routine, you should set yourself goals. Decide how many contacts you want to call per day. Or, you decide how many successful conversations you want to have per day or per week. Also, define immediately when you have reached your goal. Do you want to send out five offers or make appointments? After all, success can look very different.
4. Use Inbound Marketing: Even if you are only allowed to contact your customers via letter or telephone in cold calling, you should not neglect digitalisation. With inbound marketing, you ensure that your target group can find your offer on the internet and that this becomes part of their customer journey. This way, the first "cold" contact may not be quite as cold after all, or your prospects come across your offer time and time again after our conversation, which can make it gain relevance for them.
5. Use your existing network: The chances of a successful cold calling increase if you use your network. You and your customers have a common contact or you visit the same trade fair? Then try to connect with your contacts in this way. A small similarity makes the conversation much more pleasant.
6. Choose the right start of the conversation: The start of the conversation is often half the battle: if this goes well, it will have a positive effect on the rest of the conversation. Therefore, go well prepared into the conversation, know the names of your contacts and try to strike the right tone. In a conservative company, it is certainly not a good idea to use the informal you with HR managers, but in a start-up, this can look completely different again. If you can then also refer to current reports about the company, you convey a good feeling to your contacts and present yourself confidently and competently.
7. Don't get discouraged: Your conversation partners aren't interested in your offer? Don't let this discourage you! Many potential customers need multiple contacts with your company before a business relationship develops from it. So, keep the contact in your list and check back from time to time. Maybe something has changed in the wishes and challenges of your contacts by then, making your offer relevant.
8. Prepare your phone calls afterwards: Just as important as good preparation is careful follow-up of your phone calls. What have your customers said? Should you contact them again at a later date? Then set yourself a reminder. Is the contact person no longer in the company? Then update your data. Your prospects expect your offer in three days? Enter it right away so you don't forget it.

These tools support you in cold calling

Are you already itching to call your first potential customers? Be patient for a moment, because we have one more tip for you. With the appropriate Sales-Intelligence-Tool you can manage your contacts even better, record feedback from your contacts, set due dates and thus pursue your goals even better. To get you started quickly, we have put together the best sales tools on OMR Reviews for you. These include:

Gong

SalesViewer®

LinkedIn Sales Navigator

Lusha

Dealfront

Outreach

Apollo.io

databyte

Just stop by and click through the feedback from our users. You're sure to find the right tool for your sales division.

Soon to be a successful salesperson

Even though B2B cold calling is regarded as the crowning discipline in sales, you can quickly become successful in it. Get to know your target group, address them at the places and times that suit them, and clearly show your potential customers the added value. If you use the right tool to support you in organising your work and data, you'll quickly achieve sales success. This way, you'll become the ultimate salesperson.