5 effective ways to keep prospects on calls

Cold calling is still alive and well, with many businesses using it to connect with leads, clients, and prospects. This shouldn’t be a surprise, since it’s one of the most effective marketing strategies available. However, knowing ways to keep prospects on calls is absolutely vital for the success of cold calling. Considering that it usually takes between 6-12 touches to get a prospect on the line, keeping them on the line is fairly important. And while you’ve probably gotten all sorts of advice for this, you have to wonder: what are the best techniques? How can you keep a prospect interested? Today, we hope to answer that for you, as we have put together a list of 5 effective ways to keep prospects on calls.

1. Do your research in order to build rapport

It makes sense that, in order to keep prospects on calls, you need to get them on the line first. And in order to do this successfully, you need to do some research. Sure, you could try dialing random numbers, but not everyone is going to be interested in your product or service. You are much more likely to get hung up on or get rejected if you do this.

Through social media, you can find people who are likely to be interested. If you’re selling a service to another company, you also want to make sure you’re contacting the right person. And if you’re struggling with finding them, consider ways to convert visitors to leads effectively. And remember, identifying the right person to contact is just the start. Keeping someone interested so they stay on the line is completely different, although doing research does make it much easier.

2. Try to match the way they talk

How you talk to someone can have a massive impact on how long they’re willing to stay on the phone with you. As such, matching the way someone speaks to you can keep them engaged and on the line with you. If they’re speaking quickly, then you should try to speak quickly as well. If the person you’re talking to likes to use industry jargon, don’t be afraid of using some yourself. Of course, you shouldn’t go too hard and copy them to a tee, as this can have the opposite effect. But, matching someone’s communication style is a good way to keep them engaged. Additionally, if you’re having trouble with turning leads into prospects, you should consider using lead engagement software to make it easier. All in all, matching someone’s style can be a tricky balance, but the technique is a great way to keep prospects engaged.

3. Don’t be afraid to use silence

A lot of salespeople are afraid of silence, feeling like every moment of dead air needs to be filled. However, if your prospect can’t get a single word in, they will get annoyed and hang up on you. So, silence is an excellent way to keep people on the line and engaged. If you give your prospect a chance to speak, they’re much more likely to feel heard and keep talking to you. Logically, you can’t just sit in silence and wait for the prospect to speak either. You will have to find a balance between letting your prospect speak and speaking yourself. As such, knowing how to fill awkward silences is a great way to find the correct balance. Remember, engaging conversations involve both participants, so don’t be afraid of using silence to keep your prospect engaged. It can be a difficult balance to find, but it’ll help significantly.

4. Be an active listener

Simply letting your prospect talk isn’t enough to keep them interested. In order to really keep them engaged, you need to be an active listener. Being an active listener means that you’re both listening to what they’re saying and trying to understand things from their perspective and being interested in the conversation. A good way to do this is to either paraphrase or repeat what they said, as it shows them that you were really listening. Additionally, make sure to ask relevant questions during the conversation. For example, if someone starts talking about their weekend and you ask them about their budget, it’ll be fairly obvious you weren’t really listening. Active listening can be a difficult skill to learn, but it’s one of the best ways to keep prospects on calls. This is mainly because active listening is one of the best ways to keep a conversation going.

5. Never put down your competition

One of the biggest and most common mistakes made by salespeople is talking badly about their competition. Talking bad about your competition makes you look unprofessional, and very quickly turns a prospect away. Additionally, it shows that you aren’t confident in your product, since you need to rely on making your competition look bad. So, focus instead on talking about your product and making it look good.

Remember, your goal should be keeping the prospect engaged and talking about your product, not your competition’s. And if you’re struggling with finding visitors and converting them to leads, consider visiting ConvertMore click-to-call software. After all, knowing how to keep prospects on call is only important if you can find prospects in the first place. And if you need some help with it, you can’t go wrong with using specialized software. You should use every advantage you can, after all.

In conclusion

Cold calling is an effective strategy for marketing your business, but only if you know how to keep your prospects engaged in the conversation. At the end of the day, leading an engaging conversation is a skill that needs to be learned, and this is often fairly difficult. However, certain techniques make it much easier to keep a prospect on the line and engaged. We hope this list of 5 effective ways to keep prospects on calls helps you keep your prospects engaged, and we wish you a wonderful rest of your day.