It’s a bright morning today. You decide to start your day with a pretty good target to call plenty of prospects. And the roller coaster ride begins. You listen to the phone ringing. The first prospect answers – but you don’t know how to take your prospect on the product or service journey and close the deal. You start talking about the weather and sports. Prospect gets bored, and there,  your lead goes away from you.

But you aren’t a quitter. You start calling to other prospects. Gradually, with experience – you come across the importance of icebreaking while cold calling. You begin digging about everything you can learn about ice breakers for your next calls. This would be the reason you might be here too. Without further ado, let’s get started – In this article, we will discuss which kind of good ice breakers you can use to ramp up the conversion with cold calling.

The first lesson learnt?

“Don’t bore your prospects, or you will lose them.”

List of Icebreakers:

1 Research is the key element.

For many sales representatives, there is one kryptonite. They don’t know how to break the ice and connect with prospects naturally. At this point, the very first element that can be useful is research.

Gather knowledge about the company and about the person you are calling. You can get details about the person’s designation and work from social media platforms as well. The more you know about the prospect and the company, the better the conversation will be.

But keep one thing in mind – don’t over research. If you plan to make 50 calls a day, then spending 1 hour in each prospect research will not help you. Even if you have done the research and the prospect does not attend the call, all your efforts will go in vain. Hence, do smart research.

Ask yourself:

1 What do you want to achieve through this call?

2 How your product or service is relevant to the prospect?

2 Make a Customer. Not a Sale.

If you continue to make calls with a robotic script and no emotions, you will not make it. When you are talking to prospects, make sure you build a relationship with them. Don’t just blabber about your products or services.

In case they are not interested in your offer, close the deal on a good note. Don’t be harsh. Please don’t waste your and their time. If you are looking for making customer and not just sale, keep the following three things in mind:

“Set yourself apart from others.”

-          Have a friendly conversation with prospects.

-          Be curious to know more about them, show interest in their talk.

-          Listen to them, and they will listen to you automatically. Provide a solution to their concerns.

3 Be a part of their Orbit

Before you start talking about their interest, thank them for picking up the call. Ask your prospects about their wellbeing. “How are you doing today?” it takes a few seconds to ask.

While communicating with prospects, how can you keep them interested? Talk to them about their industry, their interest, or achievement. Similar interests will keep them talking and listening. If you have any information regarding their achievement, compliment them.

How can you be a part of their orbit?

• Set google alert on your phone about relevant industry news. This information will help you while talking to prospects.
• Be active on LinkedIn (News - Alert). You can even connect with prospects over social media platforms.

“Learn from your mistakes and be a pundit in your skill.”

4 We Both are from the Same Planet

Similarity always increases the chances of building a relationship with your prospects faster. While talking to prospects, if you come across similarity with them like – same belonging city, same culture, similar hobbies, or any similar interest – it will take your conversation to the next level.

The prospect will have a feel of familiarity – which will lead them to have a conversation frankly. Once they are comfortable with you – you can ask them:

Which exact kind of service or product are they looking for?

How can you help them with your service or product?

“No Fixed Pickup lines will help you to Break the Ice.”

5 Back up your Conversation with a Story

People love storytelling. Try this sometime. Talk about your product or service story with prospects. It will create curiosity in them. You can also share a story of your experience with any client. You can tell them how you helped them to solve the problem with your product or service.

“If you have two more minutes, then let me share quickly one of the experiences I had with my client.”

The key here is to share your knowledge and story casually. You don’t want to bore them with a long talk.

6 How you Present Matters

Many competitors will be selling the same products or services in the market. What matters is who is selling it, and how is selling it?

The person who sells the product establishes a relationship with prospects. People don’t buy just for the sake of the product. Your product or service would be solving their problems. The relationship and trust you have with them also matter a lot.

“Hello, I am calling from XYZ company. I am here to tell you about one of our products….”

With this type of conversation, you will lose the prospect at Hello. So how you present matters the most.

Some tips to work on while using good ice breakers:

1 Leave mail to them before calling. Even in a call, you can ask them to schedule time for your call on their calendar.

2 Don’t wear a coat of professionalism all the time. Have a casual and friendly conversation with them. Your tone of voice matters too.

3 Don’t just rely on the script. The natural conversation will lead you to connect easily.

4 Handle rejections gracefully.

5 Use the local presence feature from your Auto Dialer for calling.

Marketers’ Pro-Tip: It’s not only to start a call in good manners with Icebreakers, you also need to smartly handle the objections with Rebuttals 

Final thought:

Ice-breaking is a process. It takes time. If you want to increase your sales conversion rate, you should work on the above ice breakers. Every prospect is different. So relying on a few ice breakers won’t help. Keep experimenting. Keep trying. Let us know if you have tried any ice breakers. Share your experience with us. Connect with our LeadsRain team to ramp up your conversion with the right ice breakers and right dialer service.

Author BIO:

Jay Thakkar is a backbone of LeadsRain, being a CEO and Co-founder, he has always proved to be the robust domain person. Being an integral part of the company he assures the uncluttered functionality of his products and services. With more than a decade of his experience, he precisely stands up with unparalleled competency for his clients and people.