How To Start An Outbound Calling Campaign

Who is your target audience?

Anyone who’s ever worked in customer service knows that making outbound calls can be notoriously difficult. Not only do you have to contend with the usual issues of rejection and lack of interest, but you also have to find businesses that are actually interested in your product or service.

That’s why it’s important to target the right businesses for your outbound calling campaign. Start by researching the businesses in your area that are most likely to need your product or service.

Do you have a list of ideal clients? Who are the ideal people that you can call to sell your service to? How expensive is the product or service you are selling? Create a long list of ideal clients. Then, narrow down your list by considering factors such as size, industry, and budget.

FCC guidelines

The FCC is the governing body of outbound call campaigns. Follow their rules and you can play the game. Break the rules and you can be looking at some serious fines and penalties, and potentially jail time.

The Federal Communications Commission sets guidelines for telemarketers when it comes to cold calling. The most important rule is the do-not-call list. Telemarketers are not supposed to call people who have put their number on the do-not-call list. This is a national database that anyone can sign up for.

The second rule is that telemarketers can only call between the hours of 8 am and 9 pm. This is because no one wants to be woken up by a phone call from a stranger.

The third rule is that telemarketers must identify themselves at the beginning of the call. They must say who they are and why they are calling. This is so that you know you are not being scammed.

Finally, telemarketers must respect your wishes if you ask them to stop calling or to remove your number from their list. If they continue to call, you can file a complaint with the FCC.

The TCPA (Telephone Consumer Protection Act) is regulated by the FCC, and also limits autodialing and leaving prerecorded messages to wireless phones without consent. This can inhibit some calling structures, but there are ways to receive consent from potential customers. Click here to jump to receiving consent guidelines.

This is not the only governance that you need to be aware of. Most states also have limitations outside of the FCC. You can find out about specific state regulations here.  Some states require a special license for telemarketing. There are ways to circumvent this legally, and this is outlined here.

B2B or B2C?

Understanding your target audience is a main priority in determining how to structure your outbound calling campaign. Realistically, if you are a B2B business, and plan on having your marketing campaign be to business clients, it is much more viable to complete an outbound calling campaign.

As stated before, based on the FCC guidelines, it may be advantageous to know whether the person or business you are calling is on a landline or a wireless device.

On top of that, knowing if you are approaching businesses or individuals can determine what your scripts look like, how you approach conversation, and what methods you use to make outbound calls.

Are you selling? Or Just getting info?

If you are selling something, you may be entitled to more governance; however if you are doing a survey, approaching recurring clients for a review, getting market data or asking questions, you may have a bit more leeway when it comes to your calling campaign. Determine if these regulations apply to you on a federal level here.

Getting data

Alright, now you know what your target market is and how you will approach them. You also know a bit about the regulations that go along with it. Now, how in the world do you get the phone numbers you need to dial out? How are you planning on keeping and managing that data?

As a business owner or manager, it is really good to have metrics and systems in place to deal with these obstacles. Below, we outline how to get the data, give some resources on data processing, and show some examples of pre-set systems that you can use to give you the leg up against competitors.

Paid Data Providers

Web Scrapers

Develop a web scraper?

Another option, if you do not have the patience or want to learn how to scrape phone numbers, could be having a developer create one for you that is customized to your needs. You can find a cheap developer on Fiverr or Upwork to build you one and teach you how to use it if you have specific needs.

Maps, yelp, BBB

Some good places to start scraping data could be from Google Maps, Yelp, the BBB, and other listing sources that have long data sets with separate pages.

Collecting Your Own Data

This option works well if you know how to build a phone OPT-IN campaign on your website, paid ads, or social media. It can be one of the most effective ways to reach out to potential customers, receive feedback, and make upsells to recurring clients.

Data processing

You can use tools like MS Access, Google Sheets, or Excel to sort and filter data as well as clean it up to make it usable. For the time being, we will be referencing Excel as the primary tool in cleaning up data. Most small businesses do not need to use a larger database structure like access, and some can get away with just using Google Sheets. Excel does have more data processing features, and we have a few tutorials on using Excel for data processing in our resources tab.

If the data comes in as a .csv or .xls file, then it is ready to be processed in Excel, however if it is in a .pdf format, we will need to do a little prep work to get the data extracted. Luckily, as long as you have Excel, this is free. Some companies charge $500 for a PDF to Excel extraction, but you can learn to do it for free here.

Once your data is in Excel, you can start making changes to best suit your needs.

If your data is hidden in one cell behind useless characters, (for example 23rn##473-891-5882) and you just need the phone number, use the “text-to-columns” feature.Click here for a tutorial.

To sort data based on hierarchy, click here.

For a lesson on filtering data, click here.

If you still can’t figure it out, check out more of our lessons here.

People to call

OK, so now you have your data in a usable format and you need to decide who will be doing the calling. I would say this is completely dependent on the budget. Are you the one who is going to be calling? Will you have someone else doing it? Do you have the budget to hire a call center? These are all questions you need to answer before you make your first call. Below are a few ideas for deciding who should be doing the calling.

In house or outsourced

Cold callers can run anywhere from $10 per hour to over $100 per hour. They can be a hired in-house W2 employee or a 1099 overseas employee from FIVERR.You can hire one person, or start a call center. These options are all available to you and as the business owner, it is your choice to decide what will work for you.

A good example is if you have $500 per week for your campaign, a worker can work 40 hours per week at $10 per hour plus a commission structure based on the sales or leads they generate. After a period of time, the hourly pay can decrease and this sales person can be solely commissions if they are good.

It may be advantageous to hire on initially as a 1099 contractor, determine if the role is a good fit, then move into a salary position after the caller proves to generate sales.

Individual or sole proprietors

If you are an individual or sole proprietor, cold calling can be done for almost $0 if you have the right CRM and Outbound Dialer. As you grow, the cheap or free methods may not be suitable for more than one person.Most auto dialers cost around $50-$100 per month based on how you will be using them and how much experience with setup you have.

Scripts

Now we can get to the nitty gritty. Cold calling can be daunting, monotonous, and really no fun. And how do you know what to say? The answer is scripts. Not just something you Googled and found on the first web page for your industry.

The idea is to tailor your scripts to the customers you are calling. Make sure to introduce yourself and your company and specify a time frame to talk. Make sure to qualify the leads.

An example of the beginning of a cold calling script may be:

Good morning! This is {name} from {company}. We’re looking to help out some local businesses with their web presence. Would that be of any interest to you?

If you find that after 100 or so calls that the script was not effective, maybe it would be time to change it up.

CRM (Customer Relationship Management) Software

Any business owner will tell you that customer relations are important. After all, without customers, where would your business be? That’s why it’s crucial to find a CRM (customer relationship management) system that fits your businesses needs. 

But with so many CRMs on the market, how do you choose the right one? Well, that depends on a number of factors, including the size of your business, the nature of your customer base, and your budget. However, there are a few general tips that can help you narrow down your options. 

First, make sure that the CRM you choose is user-friendly and easy to learn. There’s no point in investing in a complex system that your employees will never use.

Second, look for a CRM that integrates with other software applications that your business uses. This will save you time and hassle in the long run.

Third, don’t be afraid to ask for recommendations from other businesses owners. Chances are, someone you know has already gone through the process of choosing a CRM and can offer valuable insights. By following these tips, you’ll be well on your way to finding the perfect CRM for your business.

Finally, take some time to try out different systems. The best way to find the perfect CRM for your business is to experiment and see what works best for you. With these tips in mind, you’re sure to find the perfect CRM for your company in no time.

Let’s look at a few editor’s choice options for CRM and cold calling integrations

Excel + Voice

Excel is a no-brainer if you are a sole proprietor or individual running a business. Excel is easy to use and learn, and Google Voice offers a free local or toll free number that links to your phone.

These options are practically free, and a necessity for any individual business. No, these options do not scale, but if you own a small business and want to start getting clients from cold calling so you can afford better software, then this combo is a win-win. Pro tip: copy and paste data from Excel into google sheets to create an easy copy and paste into google voice from your computer.

Agile + Twilio

Looking for a slightly more robust CRM? Agile CRM has a free option that is great for small businesses, allowing you to export excel data, annotate conversations, drop a prerecorded voicemail and more. This can be done by integrating with the software (that you may have never heard of) called Twillio. Twillio is a VOIP software that is a little complex to set up, so we have tutorial here on how to get started.

The pricing is super reasonable, at $5 per month per line plus $.001 per minute. There are a number of inbound and outbound integrations you can develop with Twillio, but it is possible just to integrate the API with Agile CRM. We have a tutorial here with the integrations to Agile CRM and Twilio and how to start your outbound campaign with both softwares.

These take a bit more time to set up, and a little more time to learn, but are scalable as your business grows and relatively easy to use compared to other software. These options are super cheap, but not free like the Excel and Voice option. If you plan on having multiple callers or scaling you outbound call systems, Agile CRM and Twilio can be a great option for you.

Other Paid Options

There are hundreds of paid CRM and voice dialing options that allow you to manage customers, some of which are industry specific. They allow you to track marketing metrics, sales funnel, hot and cold leads, record and relay voicemails, and much more.

Most major paid CRM’s integrate with a number of different solutions to get any job done that you need. If you contact some of these companies, or check out the free trials, you can expect them to try and upsell integrations or bigger monthly plans than you actually need.

Make sure you know you number of contacts and monthly/yearly budget to get a good idea of which software type you need. Check out our guide to top CRM’s for cold calling sales to get a nice market synopsis of multiple softwares.

Your Campaign

A well-run cold calling campaign can be a valuable tool for generating new leads and boosting sales. However, managing a campaign can be a daunting task. There are a few key things to keep in mind in order to make your campaign a success, and if you’re armed with the right metrics, you can make sure your campaign is as successful as possible.

First and foremost, you need to track the number of calls you make. This will give you an idea of how productive you are and whether you need to make more calls to reach your goals.

Additionally, you should keep track of the number of appointments or sales you generate from your calls. This will help you gauge your success rate and determine whether your campaign is effective.

Finally, don’t forget to track individual performance. Keep track of how many calls the individual makes per day and week, as well as your average call length and conversion rate. By monitoring these metrics, you can adjust your campaign accordingly and ensure that you’re making the most out of your cold calling efforts.

Split Testing

If you’re running a campaign, you want to make sure that your call scripts are effective. After all, it’s the campaign that’s going to get people to pick up the phone and call you. But how do you know if your call scripts are effective? The answer is: split testing.

Split testing is when you test two different versions of a campaign against each other to see which one performs better. For example, you could test a campaign with a script that’s witty against a campaign with a more serious tone. By split testing your call scripts, you can be sure that you’re using the most effective version.

When creating a split test, make sure the main premise of the script is the same, and only change as few things as possible from each script. If the initial scripts fail or do not meet the standards that you are hoping for, try a bigger revamp of one of the scripts to split test with the most effective one. By completing iterations of this process, you can develop a good script for the particular industry you are targeting.

Remember, sometimes a script that is working in one industry or area may not work in another. Sometimes it is your caller and not the script. Split testing is like a science experiment. There needs to be a control to compare to as well as enough data points to make a decision on viability.

Now, the amount of data points and what metrics you use could be based on industry standards (ask other people in your industry, blogs, etc) to determine what metrics will be working for you.

If you don’t have access to these metrics,, create an arbitrary metric and test as many data points as possible to determine if the metric is worthwhile. It’s like testing a hypothesis. Remember, cold calling is a relatively inexpensive method of lead generation as long as you are abiding by the law. Test, test, test, until you see what works.

Tactical Offers

When it comes to free offers, businesses have a lot of options. They can give away free samples, offer free shipping, or throw in a freebie with every purchase. But what’s the best way to use free offers to attract customers and boost sales? Why not offer these promotions over the phone to new or existing customers? Good news, you can!

One popular methodis of offer development is called the “loss leader.” This is where a business offers a product or service at a loss, counting on customers being attracted by the low price and then buying other, more profitable items as well. For example, a grocery store might sell a gallon of milk for $0.50 below cost, knowing that customers will also buy bread, eggs, and cereal while they’re there.

Another common tactic is to offer a free trial of a product or service. This can be an especially effective way to convert casual browsers into paying customers. For example, many online subscription services offer a free trial period before charging the full price. This allows potential subscribers to try out the service and see if it’s worth the money before committing to a long-term contract. For a more comprehensive look at types of offers a business can promote, check this out.

Conclusion

Outbound calling can be a great way to increase leads and sales, but it’s important to do it the right way. By following FCC guidelines, gathering data, and processing it appropriately, you can create the building blocks for a  successful outbound calling campaign that drives sales.

It can be daunting to think about making all those calls yourself, but luckily there are plenty of CRM and dialer tools that can help automate the process for you. Don’t forget to split  test your scripts until they’re perfect! By following the guidelines in this article and putting in the hard work, you’ll be well on your way to generating more leads and sales through cold calling.