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Cold calling is not dead. According to Rain Group’s report on top performance in sales prospecting, both buyers and sellers agree that cold calling is one of the most effective ways to generate sales initial sales conversations. This age old B2B technique is still thriving, and if you are not curating, updating, and effectively using your cold call lists, you’re missing out a lot of prospects.
However, just buying a cold call list and calling a bunch of numbers is not the way to go. You must track what you generate using the list. Cold calling metrics are used to accurately measure how your team is using cold call lists.
Cold calling metrics are just that — metrics used to measure certain aspects of the cold calling process. These metrics are KPIs that can tell you how well or how badly your campaign is going. You can use these performance indicators to understand where your team is performing well and what needs to be changed to get better results.
Of course, the number of deals closed is an important metric to measure. But that will only tell you how much revenue your team has made from cold calls. It won’t be able to direct you towards the areas that you can change to increase that output. Here are seven other cold calling metrics that you can measure to understand how your team is handling this form of outreach.
Remember that the exact metrics may differ from industry to industry and product to product; some KPIs are general and applicable across all industries.
The logic behind this is simple—the more prospects you call, the higher your chances of getting an appointment, showing a demo, and selling your product.
However, if your team calls many people but hangs up quickly, you can safely assume that your outreach endeavor is not going well.
Track the average call duration. And if the time is too low for your industry, you may have to review a few things. Check your prospect's place in your ICP or the sales pitch itself to refine your campaign.
Calling 500 numbers daily will only be beneficial if the calls connect to a human. Interactive voice response systems (IVR) are the norm- and utterly useless for cold outreach.
Keep tabs on your connect rate to check the accuracy of the data you use for cold calling.
Another way to check the accuracy of your data (and, by extension, cold calling) is to track the accuracy rate. Your sales team shouldn't be reaching random humans at your target company. They should be talking to the key decision-makers.
Tracking the call-to-appointment ratio will give you insights into how many calls generate leads. If this ratio is skewed, your prospects have no use for your product, or your sales process requires fine-tuning. Most times, it is some mixture of both.
While the call-to-appointment ratio gives you insights into the number of leads acquired, you also have to check the quality of those leads. Tracking the quality of leads will allow you to determine if you are targeting the right audience or need to revisit your ICP and contact lists.
Check if your ROI numbers are in the acceptable range. If you get negative returns from cold calling, it's time for some big changes.
Go through the sales team's report and determine the time of the day with the highest connect rate. The time with the highest connect rate is when people in your industry are most open to receiving cold calls.
In addition, you can check which day of the week has a higher connect rate and direct your sales team to focus on those days.
Measure the effectiveness of your team’s cold calls by using a cold calling metrics template. You can download the free template and start tracking immediately.
You will find all the above-mentioned metrics in a spreadsheet, ready to be used. Use this sheet to track your team’s weekly and monthly performance. Once you have all the data you need, you can analyze it directly, or convert it to charts.
Now that you have analyzed key performance indicators, did you find areas of improvement? Here’s how you can boost your cold calling metrics instantly:
Call volume is important. The more people your team calls, the more chances of demos, and deals. There could be multiple reasons as to why your team is not making enough calls. Check if they have enough data — do they have phone numbers to call? If you need high-quality, accurate data to prospect, try out ReachStream’s B2B data platform.
Are your SDRs spending more time updating multiple spreadsheets and CRMs? Take another look at your team’s workflow. Automate repetitive tasks, and leverage AI to give your SDRs the time to research prospects and cold call.
According to Cognism’s State of cold calling report, an average cold call lasts 83 seconds. The report goes on to quote multiple experts in the industry about the importance of your opening line. First impressions matter, and your sales pitch depends on it. If your SDRs are handing up too quickly, go back to their cold calling scripts, check their introductions, and tweak them as required.
Cognism’s report also talks about the most common rejections their team of SDRs have heard and suggests ways to deal with them. Research found that regular training sessions drastically improve sales performance. Train and upskill your SDRs to handle rejections and empower them to turn rejections into opportunities.
Connect and accuracy rates can be improved with higher-quality lead lists. Switch your data provider, verify and enrich data before the lists go to your sales team. You can try ReachStream for 95% accuracy and low cost per lead.
Revisit your ICP and refine your cold call list. If your call-to-appointment ratio is low, either your product does not solve the prospect’s problem, or the pitch needs to be revised. Record sales calls and revisit them to check what can be improved. You can also run role-playing games where SDRs pitch to particular personas.
Remember that you should not only look at the number of closed deals. In fact, you should use that number to formulate the conversion rate and include that in your KPIs.
Tracking the progress and using key performance indicators for your projects will show you what areas require special attention and what areas are doing well.
That said, the quality of your contact lists is one of the most significant factors affecting your metrics. Constantly update and verify your database for a better connect rate. Accurate and up-to-date data will also give you higher-quality leads and, as a result, better ROI.
You can get accurate B2B contact data from ReachStream. Access 20+ insights sourced and maintained in compliance with privacy regulations like GDPR, CCPA, ACMA, EDPS, and CAN-SPAM.
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You evaluate your cold calls using metrics like call volume, duration, accuracy, connect and conversion rate, call-to-appointment ratio, and ROI. You can also record the calls and return to them to access what went well and what did not.
The ideal closing rate for cold calls would be around 10%
You can improve your conversion rate in multiple ways, including increasing your connect rate by getting an accurate B2B database provider, refining your timing by understanding sales triggers, and upskilling your sales team for better cold calling techniques.
According to research, the best time to call cold leads is 10 am-12 am on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.
Some cold calling KPIs you can measure are call volume, call duration, connect rate, accuracy rate, call to appointment ratio, and ROI.
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