Cold-Call List Building in 3 Steps

There comes a time in every salesperson's tenure that they wake up to an inbox stuffed with exactly 0 inbound leads. Sound familiar?

Step 1: Don't panic. But Step 2: Read this helpful guide to developing the best list possible for doing outbound cold-calling. Building your own pipeline is the most reliable and consistent way for you hit quota, whether you are an SDR, BDR, or AE. These tips should help you go from sad about your lack of inbound, to dialing the right people today!

1. Focus: Efficiency and scale in outbound B2B cold-calling is really driven by technology, but the tech is basically useless if you are delivering 1 pitch (or value statement) to a scattered list of potential prospects. You need to be able to build multiple tailored pitches for multiple tailored lists. Industry, Title, Geography, Competition, Company Size. The more of these commonalities you can stack into a list, the more effective your messaging will be. It is that simple. You should be able to take a script structured like "Hey ______ I'm reaching out because I help other (People in their position at companies like theirs) accomplish these goals and solve these problems." Want to make sure your cold-call will fall flat? Call an entry-level IT guy and ask him about revenue targets and MQL's. You need to tailor your pitch to a specific audience and have a list build for each audience you sell to.
2. Size: I see the biggest mistakes that my clients make in this area. "Bigger is better!" really isn't true if you're doing outbound B2B cold-calling. Arguably the biggest mistake you can make is "ripping a huge list from Zoominfo or DiscoverOrg and just dialin'" You want a focused list that you get through at least twice a day. To see success going outbound, you need to be figuratively "tapping on your prospect's shoulder" multiple times a day, and ideally in multiple ways. Cold-calling will not reach 100% of your target market (*gasp*), cold-email and social media outreach is necessary if you're trying to build a true omnichannel outbound funnel. But remember, the fastest way to figure out if a prospect is a buyer is to ask them, in their ear, with your voice. Have more conversations! (don't ask them if they are going to buy, ask them if they are experiencing the problems you solve, just to clarify)
3. Consistency: We're talking about going outbound, to folks that you have never spoken to, and who have no clue who TF you are. If you're serious about getting in front of your prospects you need to be diligent in reaching out to a focused and right-sized list. Just like brushing your teeth, you need to do it every day. Think about your own life. So much is going on, travel, projects, changing availability. Good cold-callers call twice a day, once in the morning hours, and once before they leave for the day. Throw-in some email automation to back you up, and a little LinkedIn "liking" and adding, you're going to get someone's attention. But you need to do it EVERY DAY. In sales, we don't get paid to say "yeah I called and they didn't answer" we get paid to move pipeline. Yes, no, not me, and not now are the only acceptable answers for the prospects on your list to give you.

When I advise my clients on a true outbound campaign I advocate for leveraging the top tech tools on the market for gathering accurate data, organizing their outreach, and staying consistent with their efforts. The ideal tech stack here is: CRM > filled with leads you researched less than 1 month ago > connected to a cadencing or sequencing tool for email/task management > with a high-powered weapon set on top of the whole thing. If you're curious about what the weapon is, I use it with all of my clients and I have about 13-18 conversations with actual prospects a day in just a 2-hour window. Drop me a line if you need some advice on your outbound sales tech stack, or are looking for the best data sources around.

Now, get back to dialing! "Everyone wanna be a bodybuilder but no one wants to lift those heavy ass weights" -Ronnie Coleman. This applies to you, salesperson! You want big commission checks but you hide behind your keyboard, time to pick up the phone and have some selling conversations.

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