Cold calling : different personas

A B2B salesperson or B2B business founder can target a huge variety of decision-makers across very different industries: tech, the public sector, automotive, paper manufacturing, mass retail, and many more.

Cold-calling results can vary significantly depending on both the target audience and the product being sold.

Here is an overview of the main types of personas you may encounter when prospecting, along with the potential results and opportunities each one offers.

Because, of course, cold calling still works.

I. Enterprise Prospecting

Enterprise prospecting is particularly challenging. Decision-makers are very frequently contacted by phone and email.

As a general rule, the more a persona is targeted through cold calling, the harder they become to reach through cold calling.

With the most difficult targets, pickup rates can be extremely low (less than 10%). Even when someone answers, getting their attention can be a real challenge.

That said, it's still often possible to generate between 1 and 4 meetings per day through cold calling these prospects.

Here's an overview of the main enterprise-level personas.

A) Marketing Directors

This is a particularly difficult persona to reach because they're constantly being approached by providers selling all kinds of products and services related to paid search (SEA), SEO, content marketing, websites, analytics, market research, and much more.

You'll find Marketing Directors in large corporations, mid-sized companies and larger SMEs, but also in smaller SMEs and startups. It's a very diverse persona.

There are probably between 30,000 and 80,000 Marketing Directors, Heads of Marketing, Marketing VPs and CMOs in France.

In other words, it's a large market, which also makes this persona interesting for email and LinkedIn prospecting.

Indeed, the larger the market, the more interesting it becomes to approach it through multiple channels.

Sometimes, you can identify secondary personas who receive fewer sales approaches and may therefore be easier to reach through cold calling. Acquisition Managers (for SEA), SEO Managers, and similar roles are good examples.

Provided they're genuinely relevant to your product or service, this can be a very effective approach.

B) HR Directors

HR Directors are by far the hardest persona to reach through cold calling. I've rarely seen anything like it.

Without a parallel dialer, there's almost no point trying: only 1 in 15 HR Directors will answer their phone.

Depending on your product, you may be better off targeting QHSE Directors, HSE Managers, and similar roles. They can be easier to reach.

However, be careful not to target junior employees who aren't actual decision-makers.

C) Procurement Directors

Procurement Directors are mainly found in large corporations and in industries with significant purchasing volumes, complex supply chains, and large numbers of suppliers.

That makes sense!

You'll therefore mainly find them in larger SMEs (typically those with more than 200 employees), mid-sized companies and large corporations, particularly in manufacturing, services, banking, insurance, and similar sectors.

This makes them a relatively niche audience. There aren't that many of them, so multichannel prospecting is often less interesting.

In terms of cold calling, they're not necessarily the hardest persona to reach, but they're extremely busy. You need to be direct and get straight to the point!

See here for more information on prospecting Procurement Directors.

D) Technology Directors: CIOs / CTOs

There are huge numbers of CTOs, CISOs and CIOs across many different industries.

CIOs, particularly those responsible for IT infrastructure and information systems, are mainly found in larger organizations. CTOs, on the other hand, can be found in almost every tech company.

There are between 150,000 and 400,000 IT and technology decision-makers in France, making them an interesting audience for email and LinkedIn prospecting as well.

See here for more information on prospecting CTOs and CIOs.

There are plenty of other personas I haven't mentioned here, including Communications Directors, Media Directors, Sales Directors, Operations Directors, Data Directors, CSR Directors, Real Estate Directors, and many more.

The underlying principle is always pretty much the same.

II. Prospecting Small SMEs, Micro-Businesses and Independent Professionals

A) Small SMEs

Small SMEs (between 12 and 50 employees) are an extremely diverse market.

Some are startups, which can be just as difficult to prospect as large corporations.

Others are manufacturing companies, service businesses, and so on, which can be somewhat easier to approach, although not necessarily by much.

When prospecting small manufacturing SMEs, you'll often be speaking directly to the owner or CEO, because they may not have delegated many of the functions you're calling about.

For example, they might still handle sales or IT themselves.

Generally speaking, it's still perfectly reasonable to call the CEO directly when targeting micro-businesses and small SMEs.

Above that size, however, it becomes largely pointless: they'll usually redirect you to the relevant teams.

B) Micro-Businesses and Independent Professionals

These personas can sometimes be much easier to prospect. But not always!

Here's an interesting test you can run: call 10 people within your micro-business or small SME target audience. How many answer?

If more than 4 people pick up, your target audience is probably not heavily prospected through cold calling. This could make it possible to generate significantly more meetings with them.

However, there are exceptions. Here are a few I've come across:

• Doctors: They're obviously very busy, with extremely demanding schedules. Reaching them through cold calling can be very difficult.

• Lawyers: Pretty much the same situation.

• Some small agencies: These can also receive a lot of sales approaches.

• Restaurant owners: Obviously, don't call them during service hours. Outside those times, though, they're an interesting audience.

Apart from these exceptions (and I'm probably missing a few), small businesses and independent professionals are often easier to reach through cold calling.

In fact, if you see a cold-calling influencer generating huge numbers of meetings, there's a good chance they're targeting precisely these types of personas.

The downside is that these businesses aren't prospected as frequently for a reason: they don't necessarily have much budget.

You'll therefore encounter plenty of people who simply can't afford your service, regardless of how good your pitch is. And quite a few prospects may not be particularly serious either.

You may also experience more no-shows with these types of personas, particularly independent professionals and very small agencies.

Sometimes, the sweet spot for a particular product or service is to target micro-businesses once they've reached a certain employee count.

For example, companies with between 6 and 12 employees.

These kinds of precise targeting criteria can make a huge difference in prospecting, but they're difficult to implement using basic data enrichment tools.

See here how to manage your addressable market with Apollo.

Conclusion

Cold calling can generate between 1 and 4 meetings per day, even when targeting heavily prospected enterprise-level personas.

However, if you want to get closer to 3 or 4 meetings per day, it can be worth identifying smaller, more accessible sub-segments. Sometimes, you'll even find these within large enterprise accounts.

Just be careful not to target junior employees. You still need to reach people with actual decision-making authority.

With micro-businesses and independent professionals, you may sometimes be able to book significantly more meetings. However, these prospects don't necessarily have the budget to buy your service, so depending on your offer, prospecting them can sometimes be a waste of time.

If you'd like to outsource your B2B prospecting to an experienced professional, you can book a meeting below.