What is an Outbound Call?

What is an outbound call?

An outbound call is any phone call from a business to an outside source. The most important outbound calls are the ones your sales reps make to your existing and prospective customers — often called cold calls.

Outbound calls vs. inbound calls

Outbound calling is one of the most effective ways to connect with customers and prospects. Most inbound calls are from customers who are interested in or have already purchased a product or service and are inquiring to:

ask for help
place an order
schedule an appointment
put in a compliment or complaint

Because inbound callers are intentionally phoning to speak with someone, depending on the type of call, it can be easier to mention current sales, upgrades, or upcoming promotions. Alternatively, making an outbound call to a potential prospect is more challenging as they aren’t typically expecting the call, may not have time to talk, or may avoid the call entirely and let it go to voicemail instead.

Related: Pricing Strategies

Types of outbound calls

A successful outbound calling strategy includes using words that convey your message quickly and succinctly to grab your prospect’s attention. Your first words can be crucial for making a great company impression. Here are some different types of outbound calls you may want to write scripts for:

Introductory

One of the most common reasons for cold calling is to introduce your company and schedule an appointment for a sales presentation or a demo of your product or service. This call can help pique your prospect’s interest by telling them how your offerings can benefit their business.

Referral

Friends and family, neighbours, and coworkers—referrals from previous customers are golden opportunities. And you don’t have to work quite as hard to gain trust since your prospects already know someone is happy with your product or service.

Promotional

Cold calling with limited-time offers or an extension on an existing special can speed up the sales process and move your prospect directly to the decision-making stage.

Gatekeeper

Gatekeepers typically answer phones at a business, such as a secretary, office manager, or receptionist, but they aren’t the company’s decision-makers. Your main goal is to have the gatekeeper forward your calls to the decision-maker or provide you with their contact information.

Discovery

Lead qualification tactics, such as discovery calls, can help evaluate the potential of your lead pool. Preliminary research and lead scoring can provide essential data in determining the likelihood of a lead converting into a sale. A discovery call can help grab the information right from the source.

Warm

Using a multichannel strategy, such as sending an email or reaching out through social media before making a phone call, can warm up a sales lead. Outbound calling regains attention, turning the cold call into a warm one.

Follow-up

After a successful sales pitch or demo where a prospect has expressed interest, a follow-up call can help move them through the sales journey and closer to making the purchase. Follow-up calls are also a way to check in after a sale to see if they’re satisfied or to send a thank you for their business.

Leaving a voicemail

On average, 80% of cold calls go to voicemail. Since you’ll often leave a message on your first calling attempt, knowing how to leave an effective voicemail message can entice a lead to call you back. Here’s an example:

Hi [Name],

‍This is [your name] from [your organization’s name].

‍I’m calling to [reason for calling]. I’d love to set a time next week to discuss how we’ve helped businesses just like yours to [benefit from using your product/service].

‍You can reach me at [your phone number]. I understand you’re busy, so I’ll follow up later if I don’t hear back from you.

‍I look forward to speaking with you. Have a great day! Bye.

How to create productive outbound calls

Leveraging the right outbound calling strategies can help avoid hang-ups and unproductive conversations. Below are some tips.

Training and resources

Training can prepare you to communicate effectively with prospects.

Study your company’s message, ideal buyer persona, and proven marketing tactics.
Work on mastering vital soft skills, such as communication, emotional intelligence, empathy, and persuasion.
Shadow a top-selling salesperson to learn their techniques or have them shadow you to offer constructive feedback.

Natural-sounding call scripts

Call scripts can help you cover all pertinent points without forgetting anything important. They also help maintain consistency between sales reps when there are similar offerings. These scripts typically work best when they sound natural and conversational rather than robotic and being read off a screen or paper.

Call flows

Call flows refer to inbound callers and how their call flows through different departments as the call progresses. For outbound calls, call flows can act as a troubleshooting method to point you to the right strategy when your prospect:

wants to downgrade instead of upgrade
is completely happy with their sales experience
wants to speak to a manager
wants to cancel instead of renewing

Role-playing sessions

Whether you’re a veteran sales or customer service rep or just starting in the field, practising different script and flow scenarios with your colleagues can be a great way to sharpen your skills. Regular role-playing sessions can help new team members learn up-to-date strategies by learning from more experienced outbound callers.

Call recordings

Analyzing your team’s call recordings can help you discover why some are successful and others aren’t. This data can help you develop new strategies to enhance call quality and overcome challenges. Sharing the recordings with your call reps and agents can help them learn from each other’s successes and failures.

Deploy the right software

It can be beneficial to equip your team with functional call centre software like VoIP (voice over IP) technology. This software enables teams to reach out to customers and prospects over their browsers without picking up a phone. VoIP systems can also integrate and automate call logs and other tasks to save time and money while creating efficiency and effectiveness. Features such as predictive dialling can automate outbound calls and screen out non-answers, busy signals, disconnected numbers, and voicemails, so your reps and agents are only on the phone when someone answers the call.

Start effective outbound calling

Below are some strategies to help you make better outbound calls.

Begin conversations with something positive: After introducing yourself, thank the prospect for answering your call and ask them how their day is going.

Avoid certain times of the day: Too early in the morning can catch your customer or prospect getting ready for or just arriving at work. Another time to avoid is during dinner hours.

Never bad-mouth competitors: When your customer or prospect hears you speak ill of competitors, they may automatically transfer those traits to you.

Use emotional intelligence: Features like nostalgia and sentimental attachments can be an excellent persuasion strategy for associating your brand.

Positive labelling: Telling your prospect or customer that they’re one of your best customers or that it’s a pleasure doing business with them can encourage them to live up to that reputation.

Try to sound conversational, helpful, and knowledgeable: Use your call scripts and call flows as reference only; memorizing them will help you sound more natural.

Simplify options: Offering too many choices can confuse your prospect, so stick with the features and benefits of how your product or service can solve their problems. Not overburdening them with information can help them decide faster and with more confidence.
Be confident but not pushy: If your customer tells you they don’t have time to talk, ask them if you can call them at a more convenient time rather than being pushy or forcing them to stay on the line. This strategy gives you a better chance of them paying attention to your offering.

What is an Outbound Call?