What's the best way to improve your cold calling skills?

If you can’t get to the ultimate goal to talk to a decision maker/influencer, a good backup plan is to get name and contact info of an admin assistant for a key executive. That person might be able to assist getting in the calendar!

You always should attempt to qualify an prospect to avoid wasting their time as well as yours. Too many sales people miss the opportunity to discover if this prospect should be on your prospect call list and spend needless calls and emails to dead ends.

Before making any call you should be able to answer these simple questions: -Who am I calling? -Why am I calling? -How can we help? -What are the next steps? Now overcome your fear, anxiety, and self-doubt and get ready to have a quick conversation. You may not be able to help everybody, but your product/service will be perfect for some. It is your job to uncover opportunity. Good luck!

Consider doing this, - Spend time researching your prospect's pain points before the call. This enables you to tailor your pitch or decide whether the prospect is even qualified. - Start the call with a concise and engaging hook to grab their attention within the first few seconds. (first 7 seconds max) - Pay close attention to your prospect's responses. Active listening helps you adapt your pitch and address their specific needs. (This is why we 2 ears). - Anticipate common objections and prepare concise, persuasive responses to address them confidently during the call. (It's already taken care of). - Always end the call with clear next steps, such as sending information, following up, or meeting. (To avoid ghosting).

Do not qualify prospects on cold calls. Hard no! A cold call is naturally an interruption to your prospect's day-- use it to find another time or risk losing their interest all together! The best goals goals aren't all positive, like... - have 5 relevant convos today - make 100 dials - book 3 meetings they can be negative: - get told no 5 times today - get rejected 7 times - get "I'm all set w/ competitor X" b/c those "negative goal" are the most encouraging, motivating, and promote confidence. They help us detach from the outcome. So we can focus on the process. ????

DO NOT RESEARCH BEFORE COLD CALLS! consider this context… 8yrs of dialing over 125k people since 2015 for 3 B2B SaaS orgs ?? 96% of folks don't answer their phone, ever. Unused research is a waste of time. ?? It’s easy to get stuck in analysis paralysis! Without a way to research quickly, its a huge waste of time.. Its never a quick minute. ?? Reading their latest 10k is overkill. A relevant convo comes from understanding your typical persona and their business issues, not their financial filings. Look, this isn’t a “get out of jail free” card. Not a blanked “never do research” claim. Here's when research makes sense... ?? Small TAM (around ~2,500 accounts) ?? No typical persona/ICP profile ?? Target account list to work

The more you know, the more you sell. Knowledge is power but don't spend too much time here. Time is money and we already do not have enough time in each day. Be confident and courageous and go facilitate a conversation. Do not get caught up in analysis paralysis. Remember, the most successful salespeople take imperfect action.

The level of research you do will be dictated by the product you are selling. With time being your most important asset, you’ll have to factor in your pre-work against the potential ROI. You should have an ideal customer profile that you can -at the very least- ensure that a few years indicators line up. For example, maybe location, income and home ownership are three things you want to confirm before calling. By having a bar level, you can speak to pain points that similar groups have and what your team is doing to negate those. The most impactful calls have that base level of understanding while being respectful of others time.

Research is key. This is why we have influencers, champions, etc. internally at a prospective client. In medical sales we would say a “whole office sell” which means lining up all the players like a chess game and knowing how each person can support or block your close.

99% of people suck at cold calling bc they have been taught the wrong way. They'll kick the call off saying something like "Hi Rob, this is Stephen Thorpey with XYZ company & the reason I was calling..." *CLICK* The second you say some shit like that is the second your prospect goes into fight-or-flight. You're immediately labeled a "salesman" and will be shut down. Don't want to be hung up on like everyone else? Don't sound like everyone else. Instead, try something like: "Is this Rob? Yea, John, this is just Stephen Thorpey. I was wondering whether you could *umm* possible help me out for a sec..." ???? SOUND CONFUSING - they won't slam the phone. Everyone else was taught excitement. Sounding confused won't trigger resistance.

Some great tips from the book, "Smart Brevity". Make sure that your first sentence has the key information that you want this prospect to know that keeps him listening. Contrast the status quo with the potential with your product. State why it matters. Speak in plain, clear language, and use bullet points as you speak to emphasize key points.

[Use different talk tracks for different personas] 1) Opener Goal = Get their attention & a response 2) Permission Goal = Get permission to keep going. 3) Probing Question = Business Problem Goal = See if they have a business problem that you solve 4)Provocative Question = Valuable Solution Goal = See if your solution is a way they would consider solving their business problem 5) Ask for time Goal = Get time on their calendar Full script builder on my profile (free) -check it out!

“What’s the sweetest sound to someone’s ears?” Their own name. This was a lesson taught to me by when I started my training as a Tele-rep. We made many calls in a shift - leading off with someone’s first name grabs / PULLS the person into the conversation. And guess what.. when they confirm their name with a “Yes!”- you’ve started off on the right foot.

Scripts are a good starting point if they come from best practices and successful conversations. They need to be molded to the sales reps personal brand. Scripts that come from marketing, in a silo, are often wordy and cause the presenter to be so caught up in memorization that they cannot listen to the prospect because they are so worried about their delivery of “the next part.”

I practice developing vocal variation by mimicking different characters on TV shows. I find one of the most impactful changes in speaking is developing a variation in cadence which includes flexibility in when to pause which requires flexibility in breathing cadence.

Ah f*ck it… here it goes. That’s the mindset I had to develop to start seeing meaningful results on the phone. Being confident to make calls is learnable! Science proves this. Of my 4 favorite research-backed approaches, only 1 of them is practice! 1) visualization 2) micro-goal setting 3) confidence by doing more 4) confidence through practice When it comes to practice, perfect practice makes perfect. Make sure you're practicing the right habits, objections, responses, etc.

I like to email at least a day in advance before I call. It gives me a chance to verify receipt of the email and gives them something to reference while we talk.

The most successful teams consistently bounce between the performance zone and the learning zone. Role-playing is a great way to learn and be more confident. Foster an environment where teammates are willing to make mistakes through intentional practice and watch people grow and develop their skills.

People don’t like to role play ??. It’s the best way to get experience if you have fear. Your first and last calls of the day will be different and you find your voice and comfort with repeated practice.

Track how you sound. Track how you become more comfortable talking to other humans. Conversational, make it fun for them to talk to you. They are busy, they are in meetings all day. Make more calls. Have someone who is really good to bounce ideas off of. Best way to get better is to keep doing something over and over until you cant mess up.

Fastest way to know what works --> Measure every step of the call ?? [steal this] collect & crunch call funnel numbers ?? Dials: __ Connects: __ (XX% connect rate) Correct Connect: __ (XX% real connect rate) Allowed to pitch (attention): __ Relevant (interest): __ <track top objections> Bad Timing: __ Competitor: __ No Authority: __ Referral (desire): __ Meeting (desire): __ [Add this to the free script (in my profile) for a 1-2 punch]

I get shot down a lot! Staffing can be brutal. After 16 years in the industry I absolutely understand that. I just landed an account I persistently chased for 2 years! I was over the moon!! Hang in there is what I say.

The best way to stay positive is to fully detach from the outcomes. Not to care at all about what happens. Relinquish control. ??

I like imagining the prospect delightfully surprised to hear from me, like we're old friends. This comes through in my voice and I find my connect rate is much higher than reps who dread the prospect picking up the phone because they think they are interrupting them.

Lots of great advice in this thread. wThink of cold calling like panning for gold. You sift through a lot of pebbles looking for those specs of gold. The exciting thing is that they are there; you just have to keep going till you find them. Know that the more you sift, the more gold you find.

My best reps had amazing smiles and commanded presence in a room with their joy. Attitude and a positive mindset are key. There’s always something that can raise your vibe before a call. Dance and sing like no one’s watching ??.

Forget the "How are you today" stuff". The person on the other end doesn't care. They get dozens of calls a day. Get right to the point, "Hello John", introduce yourself and company name and get right to the point with a prepared sentence that is an attention getter or creates interest like, "I see your company ships hundreds of product SKUs so if you're looking for ways to significantly reduce your costs on DIM, I believe we can offer you a solution to do that and it requires zero capital investment. Do you have a few minutes to chat now or can we schedule a call tomorrow at 9 or 11 am CST? Always offer a set day and time and they are more likely to commit and get it on their calendar.

With so many resources available, it should be rare that you are doing cold calls. Between networking, referrals and lead generation options, do what you can to contact those that are warmed up a little. When that isn’t possible, remember that the people you are calling are simply trying to get through their day as well. Always be friendly, smile through the phone and keep it positive/professional. Each No you get will push you closer to a yes and a no today could turn into a yes tomorrow, don’t react adversely or burn bridges. Last note, compete with someone you know. I often do call blitz’s with colleagues from different organizations. Find ways to have fun while remembering you are getting paid to call people; that’s not half bad.

You can't only advance, but sustain cold calling for the long term unless you have a foundation and belief system for cold calling. It can be hard, rote, and dejecting. Unless you have a better core, you won't always find a way to get better and better, let alone stay in the profession.

In sales, no road to success starts without a pipeline. As a sales leader, I have had the opportunity to work with great salespeople who didn't succeed or had below average results all because there was no prospecting discipline. On the other hand, there have been mediocre salespeople, with very average skills, hit it out of the park. The difference again is prospecting discipline. Become great and embrace this part of your business and your probability of succeeding go up exponentially.

Great practices- Having worked both sides of the table, get to the point so we don't waste each other's time. Share something of value, that leaves me better off than before you saw me. It may be a relevant update about your product/service, an idea to help me do my job better, a referral, humor in good taste, remembering something worthwhile or a thoughtful insight. It does not have to be much if it forges further connection and trust.