How to Warm up Cold Calls with LinkedIn

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They say that LinkedIn is the cure for the common cold call… that is true on many levels. However, there are still companies out there that demand that their team continue to make cold calls. A HUGE challenge is that it is increasingly difficult to get in touch with your buyer via unexpected/cold call.

Last year Hubspot posted the following cold call stats:

The average sales development rep makes 52 calls daily and it takes 18 calls to connect with a single buyer

Hmmm… 52 calls to connect with 2.88 professionals sounds like an awful lot of unnecessary work if you ask me. Warm lead generation shows an average 60% conversion… so 10 “warm calls” to connect with 6 buyers seems to make a whole lot more sense if you ask me!

When do “cold calls” make sense when it comes to productivity, client acquisition, and maximizing your bottom line?


Begin first to reach a buyer dramatically increases your odds of a response:

  • Less than 24% of sales emails are actually every opened
  • The first viable vendor to reach a decision maker and set the buying vision has an average 74% close ratio
  • 50% of buyers choose the vendor that responds first

    • Leads responded to within 5 minutes are 100X more likely to be qualified yet less than 25% of companies who receive a web lead respond by phone. Waiting just 10 minutes drops the likelihood of qualifying the lead 4X. Folks – pick up the phone and have a conversation when you receive a web lead. These are warm leads, which means a “warm call”.

    Best Practice: Have their LinkedIn Profile and LinkedIn Company Page available during the call. Look for warm touch points and integrate them into the conversation. This will also help provide insights into this warm lead, such as current company, the title of your contact (are they fact finding or are they decision makers? Are they a competitor?), common connection (can be used as reference points) company size & location, website, alumni, personal and professional interests, etc. Be genuinely interested in who they are and how you may be able to help them.

    Your Sales Team has a 56% greater chance to attain quota if you engage buyers before they contact a seller

    Thought leadership and top of mind status!

    This is where LinkedIn definitely comes in handy. Check out my blog, “Targeted Prospecting Through Engagement…” for a step-by-step process on how to purposefully engage on LinkedIn and Twitter.

    You are 4.2X more likely to get an appointment if you have a personal connection with a buyer.

    The information superhighway is at everyone’s fingertips. It’s time to evolve or dissolve. The buying process has changed because of our digitally enabled environment and it’s time for the sales process to catch up!

    Intros and Referrals are gold

  • B2B Buyers are 5X more likely to engage when introduced
  • 73% of executives prefer to work with sales professionals that have been referred by someone they know
  • 84% of B2B Decision Makers begin the buying process with a referral
  • Referral leads convert 30% better than leads generated from other marketing channels
  • Referred Customers have a 165 higher lifetime value

    • The Best Way to Get Referrals is to give them. The Second Best Way to Get Referrals is to ask for them! Fortunately, with LinkedIn’s help we no longer have to rely on our referral partners to introduce us based on who they think we should know, we know have the ability to change the conversation. Leveraging LinkedIn’s 1st degree connection search capabilities, we can come up with a list of people that each of our referral partners know that make sense for us to meet based on our own criteria , including our ideal client profile’s title, company size, location, and so much more.

    It is no longer about sales… it is about influencing your buyer. Take a minute and scroll down this infographic and you’ll see why. Evolve or dissolve. Choose to Take your Sales Team to the Next Level.

    Remember:

  • Be the first to give to your new business relationships
  • Always pay it forward
  • Network with purpose.

    • Good luck and good networking! Remember… It’s All About Leverage.