From making the first contact to nurturing a lead, sales prospecting is a delicate art. The method your sales reps use to contact the leads affects your bottom line and customer relationships significantly.
After all, 43% of buyers think impression matters, and you get only one chance to make a memorable first sales impression. You must do it right, but how?
Two common outbound sales methods are calls and emails—and they both work wonders for sales outreach. However, each has pros and cons, and it’s your job to frame a strategy that balances these out.
You must determine which outreach channels your leads will respond to and approach your sales prospecting tactics accordingly. But for that, familiarizing your sales team with the differences between cold emailing and cold calling is essential.
That’s why we break down what cold calling and cold emailing are, comparing their sales outreach characteristics and benefits and how custom CRM software can help your sales team be effective in both.
Cold Calling vs. Cold Emailing for Sales Outreach
If done right, cold calling and cold email marketing can drive results. They can establish strong industry relationships, spread brand awareness, and get quality leads into the pipeline. The difference between them is in the volume, convenience, and directness.
|
Cold calling |
Cold emailing |
| Have to call prospects individually | Can send personalized email outreach in bulk |
| More expensive and time-consuming | Cost-effective and efficient |
| Adds an enhanced personal touch to your sales communication | Doesn’t offer any immediate response |
| Can feel intrusive | Leads can read the emails at their convenience |
| Need to schedule follow-ups according to the prospect’s availability | Can schedule action-based follow-up triggers through email integrations in the custom CRM software |
Now we know their major differences, let’s break it down further.
Pros of Cold Calling
Cold calls are more personal than sales email outreach. It lets you engage with a prospect directly and answer their queries in real time. Your sales reps can gauge the lead’s needs and adjust their conversation strategy accordingly.
Reports even show that, as phone calls are more personal, it’s still the “preferred communication channel” for 41% of the population. People prefer voice for interactions with 31% of financial services, 41% of insurance services, 33% of healthcare services, and 35% of retail services.
That’s why Pipeline CRM, a custom CRM software, recently enriched its dialer CRM integrations with business phone and communication platforms like JustCall, RingCentral, and AirCall. All you need to do is set up a cloud-based call center through one of the above tools, and you can make calls directly from your Pipeline CRM software.
Cons of Cold Calling
While cold calling offers a more direct and personalized approach to sales outreach, it can be quite intrusive. Frequent sales calls can annoy some leads. They may even get frustrated, and your lead nurturing efforts will go down the drain.
There is also a high chance of the call going poorly, and constant rejections may stress out your sales reps. For an extensive lead repository, cold calls are more expensive and less efficient than sales email outreach. Above all, perfecting the timing of your sales calls is also tricky. Missteps here can compromise your efforts and your company’s image.
Pros of Cold Emailing
Unlike cold calls, sales email templates are much more scalable and cost-efficient. With email drip campaigns, you can send several personalized emails across all your customer segments in the time it takes to make one cold call.
Emails are also more customizable. They give you enough time to analyze customer needs and tailor your email copy beforehand. You can attach attention-grabbing headlines and visuals to make it more appealing and shareable for the recipients.
Cold emails also eliminate the intrusiveness of sales calls since leads can open the emails at their convenience. They are easy to track, letting you keep constant tabs on their performance and adjust your sales outreach strategy accordingly.
Reports state that emails have been critical to the success of 87% of marketers. It also shows that sales/revenue growth has been one of the three KPIs in email marketing in 2023 at 41%.
Acknowledging the effectiveness of email outreach, Pipeline also offers CRM integrations with a popular email marketing tool, MailChimp. It lets you craft email messages with a built-in AI email assistant and set automated email campaigns to reach your leads in bulk and nurture them with regular communication.
Cons of Cold Emailing
The biggest downside of cold emailing is that they are easy to ignore. Your leads probably get hundreds of marketing emails weekly and may ignore yours. They can delete, unsubscribe, and even block your email communications.
How to Be Effective with Cold Calling
Does cold calling sound like a long shot? You can drive tangible sales results with these sales prospecting tips:
1. Know Your Prospects
Start by learning about your prospects:
- What are their needs and pain points?
- Which services or products of yours can solve their challenges accurately?
The key here is to offer something your lead truly cares about, overcoming the initial obtrusiveness of a sales call.
Use your custom CRM software to view patterns of successful deals and pinpoint their traits. Combine this data with your buyer persona and identify each lead’s unique characteristics.
2. Create a Strong First Impression
Your goal here is to let them know you understand their problem and have something valuable to offer. Your opening line can be a compliment, a question that makes them think, or even a fun fact about their interest.
Related: Explore 10 sales qualification questions recommended by sales experts to ask during sales outreach for better results.
3. Communicate What’s in It for Them
Don’t wait too long to get to the point. Share the services you offer and their benefits. Promptly address how your product can help overcome their unique challenges and simplify their life using simple and easy-to-understand language.
4. Notice Their Tone
The best part about cold calling is it lets you adjust your approach in real time. So, train your sales reps to pay attention to the prospect’s tone during conversations. If they sound bored, it may be time to change to an approach to match their mood.
5. Ask Questions and Don’t Be Pushy
After communicating your proposition, encourage questions from the prospect’s end. This gives you clarity on their thoughts and lets you frame the next line of conversation accordingly.
Don’t nag if the prospect seems reluctant or says no. Instead, ask for a follow-up call. If the answer is still no, thank them for their time and move on to the next lead. This shows you respect your customer’s wishes and elevates your brand image. They may even reach out to you if the requirement arises.
How to Be Effective with Cold Emailing
Here is how you can improve your cold email’s impact on your bottom line.
Related: Discover how to use AI in writing sales outreach emails.
1. Segment Your Prospect List
Emails have to reach the right people if you want results. For that, analyze your customer patterns and define buyer personas based on demographics, needs, and challenges. This helps categorize your leads accordingly and target every prospect with tailor-made email sequences.
2. Keep It Brief and Personalized
No one likes reading lengthy email copies, no matter how informational they are. So, keep it short and straightforward and add visuals to make it more engaging.
The subject line nudges the recipient to open the email, so make it click-worthy. Mention the lead’s first name or highlight some valuable information.
Address the prospect by their first name in the email copy. Ensure the content aligns with each customer segment’s interest.
We suggest offering tailored rewards to encourage clicks on the email’s CTA. This can be early access to your newly launched products, a welcome discount, or reward points.
3. Automate the Frequency
You can use your customer data to decide the optimum time and frequency for email outreach. Then, set up trigger-based and personalized email sequences and follow-ups using your CRM integrations. This will ensure that the right email reaches the right person at the right time.
4. Track KPIs and Adjust Strategy
Use your custom CRM software to monitor the performance of your email outreach. Here are some notable email outreach metrics you should track:
- Delivery rate
- Open rate
- Click-through rate
- Email conversions
Learn how to calculate these sales email marketing metrics in this guide.
We offer sales team management features with comprehensive performance reports you can use to benchmark your sales outreach and improve your approach accordingly.
Combine Cold Calls and Cold Emails in Custom CRM Software
Cold calling and cold emailing have their strengths and weaknesses. However, both can help you achieve an upward sales graph if you maximize their functions.
So, here’s a rundown of our sales prospecting tips:
- Ensure your cold calls and cold emails are personalized
- While cold calling, adjust your communication on the go according to the prospect’s tone
- Get to the point quickly
- Segment your prospect list according to buyer personas
- Offer tailored incentives to encourage conversions
- Set up email drip campaigns
- Track performance KPIs and tweak your strategy
Do you want a custom CRM software with both calling and emailing integrations? Look no further than Pipeline CRM.
You can save time with automated email outreach and track your sales calls with easy third-party integrations.
To get the best out of your cold calling and cold email marketing, sign up for a free trial today!
