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The Art of Connecting
More than ever before, sales are driven by connections.
With an overload of choices and information available to consumers, more of them are relying on their emotions and gut instincts to make purchasing decisions. In fact, when a customer feels connected to a brand they are 76% more likely to choose them over a competitor.
The Phone Call Returns As the Best Tool in Sales
Despite the proliferation of digital communication channels, the telephone remains one of the best tools for building relationships and trust, efficiently. The human touch of a phone call allows for authentic conversations and personalized interactions that can't always be achieved through emails or social media messages.
But connecting with prospects over the phone is an art. Many sales teams make phone prospecting mistakes that reduce their chances of making meaningful connections.
In this post, we'll discuss what outbound sales teams must do (and not do) to build more meaningful relationships over the phone. We’ll also highlight how power dialer software can positively impact this process, empowering your team to make stronger connections, in less time.
Let’s dive in.
The Core of PhoneBurner’s Mission
As highlighted by our mission statement, a commitment to meaningful conversations is central to the PhoneBurner brand:
“We help our clients achieve greater prosperity by empowering them to communicate with more people, build rapport, and have more meaningful conversations.”
While this might seem like table stakes for dialer software, as many in the industry have noted, many outreach platforms over-prioritize for speed at the expense of quality.
Since 2008, PhoneBurner has believed in keeping speed and quality in balance. We’re a proud pioneer of Responsible CommunicationsTM, and continue to lead the industry in our focus on driving meaningful conversations, at scale.
With that, here are the keys to strengthening connections on outbound prospecting calls.
1. Refine & Distribute Your Leads
Why It’s Important
It’s hard to connect with prospects using a spray and pray approach. It’s inauthentic, inefficient, and waters down your messaging. Using cold lead lists not only hampers your ability to make connections, it’s likely to hurt your answer rates and increase the risk of spam flags.
In today’s connection-driven landscape it’s critical to prioritize lead quality, focusing on prospects who align closely with your ideal customer profile (ICP). Furthermore, using filters to refine call lists ensures stronger focus, scripts that resonate, and sequences that nurture authentically.
Quick Tips
- Adapt your strategy to target specific segments of your audience.
- Regularly clean lists to remove outdated or irrelevant contacts.
- Leverage data analytics to identify patterns and refine your targeting strategy.
This not only saves time but also enhances the quality of your interactions, ultimately leading to better sales outcomes.
How PhoneBurner Helps
PhoneBurner offers powerful lead filtering and segmentation capabilities, allowing your team to target prospects with precision. From contact details to custom fields and tags, to previous call attempts and outcomes, every dial session can be laser-focused so answered calls are always on-target.
Additionally, PhoneBurner’s lead source tracking helps you validate and compare various lead sources to ensure quality and engagement.
2. Keep & Leverage Detailed Notes
Why It’s Important
It’s hard to deny the power of personalization in sales. Detailed contact records transform your outreach from generic to tailored, fostering deeper connections and driving better sales outcomes. They provide a comprehensive view of each prospect's history, preferences, and pain points, enabling personalized and meaningful interactions.
Before even picking up the phone, consider investing time into researching your prospects to get a better sense of a contact’s personality, position and priorities.
By maintaining detailed records throughout your sales cycle, you can:
- Reference past conversations.
- Follow up on specific needs.
- Demonstrate genuine interest in your prospects’ challenges.
This level of personalization builds trust, and endears customers to your brand.
How PhoneBurner Helps
Given the importance of personalization, PhoneBurner is designed to keep contact details organized and front and center during call outreach. Our built-in CRM gives you features like:
- Notes
- Call history
- Activity tags
- Custom fields
- SMS history
- And more
This information is at your teams’ fingertips as they power through call outreach, even before their contact answers the phone.
PhoneBurner’s “pause and preview” mode allows reps to engage in even more strategic outreach, initializing calls only after they’ve performed necessary research or data review. In this way, reps can deliver an even more personalized and high touch experience.
3. Prioritize Call Quality
Why It’s Important
When you’re fortunate enough to get someone on the line, the quality of the call is paramount. It’s hard to build trust and create a positive impression if the audio is sub-par, the voice of your chatty co-worker is audible, or there’s a barking dog or hammering in the background.
Consider the technology you use and how it helps you make the best impression possible when you engage with your leads live.
How PhoneBurner Helps
PhoneBurner invests in premium telecom to ensure a better call experience. By leveraging a Tier 1 carrier, our customers gain a strategic edge in sales outreach through superior call quality, reduced spam flag risk, and efficient routing.
Our softphone also features built-in AI powered noise reduction to remove disruptive noises that can dissolve trust, so calls are clear and professional.
4. Use a Single-Line Dialer
Why It’s Important
There are some notable drawbacks to multi-line dialing, but the telltale delay at the beginning of every answered call is particularly damaging from a connection standpoint. As Dan Claps of IFPG put it, “We didn’t like traditional auto dialers because of the delay; our candidates are executives, and they’re done after that.”
It’s hard to convey that you value someone when you call 5 numbers simultaneously and make them wait for an agent to come on the line after they answer (and drop the other calls). Make the right first impression with a single-line dialer.
How PhoneBurner Helps
PhoneBurner is a single-line power dialer engineered for efficiency. We always have been, and always will be. Getting contacts to answer the phone is challenging enough. When they do, they deserve a prepared agent, who knows who they are and is ready to talk the moment they say, “hello.”
5. Sell Ethically
Why It’s Important
This goes without saying, but in a world where buyers choose businesses whose values align with theirs, your approach means everything.
- Contact audiences who have consented to be contacted
- Don’t engage in call patterns that would be perceived as a nuisance
- Be respectful of your contacts and their time
- Listen more than you speak
- Be helpful rather than sell
- Maintain integrity, always
And make sure you work for a company whose mission you believe in. Your belief, enthusiasm, and confidence in the products and services you bring to the marketplace is the foundation for every connection you make with your customers.
How PhoneBurner Helps
This one is largely on you, dear reader. But rest easy knowing that PhoneBurner is packed with Trust & Safety features. Our dedicated Trust team provides you with the tools you need to navigate the evolving compliance landscape, so you can make calls with confidence.
Learn More: 7 Rules About Phone Sales Ethics on Prospecting Calls
6. Know Your Market
Why It’s Important
Your prospects are aware of your competition. Heck, they’re probably exploring a couple of them alongside your solution. That’s why it’s important to be an expert on your competitors too. Know your market. Know where you win. Know where you don’t. Most importantly, be honest and objective so your prospect sees you as a trusted resource, not a biased salesperson.
You can be magnanimous even when a competitor has the upper hand. If a customer tells you they like how user-friendly another option is, a smart response would be, “It’s true, I’ve heard how easy their product is to use. I admit ours is a little more complex, but most customers I talk to find it a worthwhile tradeoff for our added functionality. Let me ask you, is feature X or Y something you’d get value out of?”
How PhoneBurner Helps
PhoneBurner helps teams assess potential competitors and respond accordingly via dynamic scripts in the dial session window. We can also assist with post-call evaluation and follow-up. Do you send resources, such as case studies or competitor comparisons to help prospects explore your product alongside others? With SmartSender, you can track when prospects open and view these resources, so you can follow up at just the right time.
7. Follow-Up Efficiently & Appropriately
Why It’s Important
Depending on how you end a sales call, you’re likely to have some follow-up to attend to: setting the next call date, sending a thank you email or text, forwarding more information, updating your CRM, or making an introduction to someone on your team. Avoid embarrassment and lost opportunities by handling post-call follows up quickly and efficiently. It shows your prospect that you’re professional and that you care.
How PhoneBurner Helps
PhoneBurner streamlines post-call workflows to ensure that opportunities don’t fall through the cracks. Whether it's setting a follow-up date, updating CRM records, or sending personalized follow-up emails, PhoneBurner’s customizable disposition buttons automate an impressive array of post-call processes; all while dialing your next contact. You’re focused on live conversations, yet you have peace of mind that your prospects are being nurtured in a professional and timely manner.
8. Monitor Performance & Train Accordingly
Why It’s Important
Monitoring performance on outbound calls is crucial for optimizing your sales strategy and making stronger connections with prospects. By analyzing key metrics such as call answer rates, call duration, and conversion rates, you gain valuable insights into what tactics are working and where improvements are needed.
But data can only take you so far where quality of connections is concerned. Sales leaders should leverage call recordings, and live call monitoring/coaching tools to assess their team’s ability to build trust and loyalty in live situations. Training based on live call performance helps reps refine their techniques, tailor their messaging, and address specific challenges more effectively. Continuous monitoring and training foster a culture of growth and adaptability, ensuring that your outreach efforts are resonating with your target audience.
How PhoneBurner Helps
PhoneBurner gives admins a comprehensive set of reporting and live coaching tools so you can see what’s working, fix what’s broken, and optimize strategy for results. These include:
- Reporting and KPI analytics
- Live self-updating leaderboards
- Call recordings
- Live calls dashboard with call monitoring, whisper coaching, and barge
- Virtual sales floor integration
This comprehensive suite of features ensures that your team is constantly supported and guided, leading to more effective training, higher-quality interactions, and stronger connections with prospects.
Use the Right Technology & Techniques to Connect Effectively
Customers today don’t just care about what they buy. They care about who they buy from. That’s why it is so important to consider the experience your prospects have as they learn about your product and brand. When engaging in phone prospecting, your team’s success at building relationships hinges on several factors: who you contact, the software you use, your reps’ selling approach, and how you monitor and train your team.
By leveraging the insights and strategies outlined above, you can elevate your outbound calling game and drive meaningful connections that help you stand out from your competition. Remember, it's not just about making calls—it's about making genuine connections that add value to your prospective customers.
Ready to see what makes PhoneBurner the most human-centric dialing platform on the market? Get a demo or start your free trial today.
